Author Topic: #gamergate megathread  (Read 139168 times)

lmao, feminism is a set of principles, not a person who goes around and punches misogynists or whatever you're imagining

answer the question instead of deflecting

answer the question instead of deflecting
i'm saying your question is structured loving poorly, stop being arrogant
feminism itself doesn't "do" things
come up with a better question, stop being standoffish, and maybe you'll get an answer

i'm saying your question is structured loving poorly, stop being arrogant
feminism itself doesn't "do" things
come up with a better question, stop being standoffish, and maybe you'll get an answer

all you're doing is playing semantics
you know exactly what I mean; you're just being intentionally difficult

i'm saying your question is structured loving poorly, stop being arrogant
feminism itself doesn't "do" things
come up with a better question, stop being standoffish, and maybe you'll get an answer

speaking of arrogance lol


Hehe

Oh hey it's Daedalus, the great oppressor who thinks voiceless parts of California remain part of the state.

all you're doing is playing semantics
you know exactly what I mean; you're just being intentionally difficult
no, he's making a pretty important distinction that has to be understood before continuing: feminism isn't a group, it's an idea. what it "does" isn't really important, because all it is is what it stands for and what that means in the context of the modern world. its effects are consequential.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2015, 12:36:54 PM by otto-san »

no, he's making a pretty important distinction that has to be understood before continuing: feminism isn't a group, it's an idea. what it "does" isn't really important, because all it is is what it stands for and what that means in the context of the modern world. its effects are consequential.
this
all you're doing is playing semantics
you know exactly what I mean; you're just being intentionally difficult
i'm not "playing" semantics, semantics are important. i have no idea what you're asking, it's like me asking "what has liberalism done recently" which is an equally broken and vague question. there are PEOPLE who support feminist ideologies (of which there are many subsets - consider the idiots who think eating foreign food is cultural appropriation, etc) and they fight for many, many different things. economic gains? legal gains? influence on public image? you don't have to be defensive, just ask a directed question. i love a good debate, but it's a two-way street when it comes to presenting content thoroughly.
speaking of arrogance lol
i'm responding appropriately to someone who can't possibly consider that maybe the question they asked is the problem, and not other people.
i deflected nothing, i deliberately structured a response against the way he's asking what he's trying to ask (which, by the way, i still have no idea of) to which he responded with something that placed 100% fault on me

if you're honestly fighting the principles of feminism at this point, you're either misled or an angry, angry person. anita sarkeesian is a loving idiot for the most part - please don't misconstrue my support for feminism as support for her aggressive campaign to nitpick content in vidja games. however, the principles that lie behind what she's saying are valid, and millions of white male gamers need to step back for a second and really consider the fact that american culture devalues women/POC constantly.

[img]http://static.fjcdn.com/large/pictures/22/96/229660_5371731.jpg[/img]
Hehe
"people are critically brown townyzing popular media for harmful messages? damn it"
edgy netkids abound

Oh hey it's Daedalus, the great oppressor who thinks voiceless parts of California remain part of the state.
ehh you're gonna have to elaborate on that, of course they do

Not sure what is going on in this thread.

Personally don't like feminism because egalitarianism seems far better. It's based on the concept that everybody is equal, which goes with my theory that everybody (including me and you) is a forgetin' idiot. Feminism on the otherhand seems like it's only trying to apply itself to women's rights (aka special snowflake syndrome).

Why can't we just have one big movement towards one forgetin' goal as opposed to 20 different movements filled with hundreds and thousands of idiots all trying to topple over each other in order to make their movement seem more important than the others?

Another thing; I'd rather have a thousand tribal, loveist writers with the freedom to express their opinions and an audience who can choose to play or not, over having 2 writers who are strictly making games with the express purpose of being equal to everybody, meeting diversity targets and are not allowed to express their own opinions and biases through their own produced content.

Freedom of Speech is what gives these movements their power. That freedom of speech needs to be reflected back by allowing the authors to be authors.

however, the principles that lie behind what she's saying are valid, and millions of white male gamers need to step back for a second and really consider the fact that american culture devalues women/POC constantly.
I disagree with her and her opinions. I cannot see how American/Western culture is "devaluing" women or people of colour. I think that's the stupidest comment made in this entire thread.

I disagree with her and her opinions. I cannot see how American/Western culture is "devaluing" women or people of colour. I think that's the stupidest comment made in this entire thread.
then you probably lack perspective on police brutality, violence against women, the wage gap, the list goes on. thankfully, it used to be a hell of a lot easier to be a white male in contrast to the rest of the human population, but there's still a lot of work to do.

Personally don't like feminism because egalitarianism seems far better. It's based on the concept that everybody is equal, which goes with my theory that everybody (including me and you) is a forgetin' idiot. Feminism on the otherhand seems like it's only trying to apply itself to women's rights (aka special snowflake syndrome).
of course feminism is only trying to apply itself to women's rights, men have it absurdly easy. it's amazing to me that a community of gamers doesn't recognize this, when the gaming community is an absolute stuffHOLE for women. egalitarian is an eventual goal, but the deeply ingrained attitude against women in this country prevents it from being practical in the immediate future.

look, let me level with you. i know you're an intelligent person, and unfortunately, that's why we're having this debate. to understand why feminism is important, one has to imagine the world through the eyes of an idiot. like it or not, that's about 75% of this country. the concepts that women are subordinates and that men are the stronger ones, women exist for the pleasure of men (e.g., those loving facebook posts where there's a picture of long painted nails and the text reads "Women, this is not attractive to guys."), women should live at home and tend to children, etc, are still deeply and powerfully ingrained in most men in america. i'm not even touching on racial issues, but it's incredibly similar.

Another thing; I'd rather have a thousand tribal, loveist writers with the freedom to express their opinions and an audience who can choose to play or not, over having 2 writers who are strictly making games with the express purpose of being equal to everybody, meeting diversity targets and are not allowed to express their own opinions and biases through their own produced content.
that's a false dichotomy - also, racism and loveism in media are loving poisonous. just one tiny example is the subtle psychological effects of misogynistic advertising, in which malleable, stupid americans are exposed to anti-woman ideals and are willing to believe them. remember what i said about considering this from a stupid person's perspective? you don't agree with my point because you can't possibly imagine being affected by the media around you, but most people are, and that's a fact. and seriously, that's a logically fallacious setup; false dichotomies don't provide anything in rational debate.

"muh first amendment" isn't a good way to justify damaging messages being conveyed to those who aren't malleable enough to recognize them
« Last Edit: June 13, 2015, 07:06:03 AM by Daedalus »

In case it wasn't already know, this is coming from the view of an Australian so I have an outsiders perspective on everything here.

then you probably lack perspective on police brutality, violence against women, the wage gap, the list goes on.
Police Brutality seems, at least from my view, to be more of an issue of police not adhering to standards rather than just race/love.

Men are assaulted just the same as women. It doesn't matter if it's more common for either love; the fact that it happens is the issue. In Australia it's mostly fuelled by drunk behaviour which is why there have been giant changes in order to try and change things.

I wouldn't say the wage gap is specifically American, and I'd assume that all over the world people are paid less than others based on all kinds of meaningless qualities outside of love and race. Again, I'd argue this is to do with a lack of specific standardised pay rates.

men have it absurdly easy.
That's such a broad sweeping statement that I absolutely detest. I know females and males to be living lives of varying successes, and each has faced many different issues in their lifetimes. Maybe a long time ago it was that simple, but in the modern age there are so many other factors to take into account.

My friend brought up an interesting debate to my female game design teacher once. To paraphrase; "Do you think women have it easier in a club scenario, as it's generally the males who are expected to do the work in order to meet potential dates?" The correct answer is of course "It's equally difficult for both lovees depending on the specific context they're in."

Context is everything. "Men have it easier" doesn't cut it any more".

when the gaming community is an absolute stuffHOLE for women.
I won't disagree that there are definite areas that are male-orientated and loveist. I will disagree that it's a total stuffhole.

I have more female gaming friends than male gaming friends. I've asked them on multiple occasions for their thoughts; most of them don't think anything of it because the real community are those who are focused on the games themselves. They also don't seem to have a problem with games portrayals of women, although they do seem to agree that they would enjoy more games with properly developed female characters. I personally think it's irrelevant so long as the gameplay and story-writing is crafted well, but whatever floats everybody's boat.

but the deeply ingrained attitude against women in this country prevents it from being practical in the immediate future.
I can't seem to see it from across the shore.

the concepts that women are subordinates and that men are the stronger ones, women exist for the pleasure of men (e.g., those loving facebook posts where there's a picture of long painted nails and the text reads "Women, this is not attractive to guys."), women should live at home and tend to children, etc, are still deeply and powerfully ingrained in most men in america. i'm not even touching on racial issues, but it's incredibly similar.
I'm generally okay with rampant stereotyping as I believe that's human nature (human minds prefer to simplify things to basic, common traits as that's how our ancestors were able to quickly identify prey from predator without being killed in the process). It is of course toxic, but it requires the education system to change these preconceptions, and the education system is forgeted world-wide.

I'm not sure it's as many people's minds as you make it out to be, though. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. It doesn't seem to be reflected in the buying habits or the discussions that I commonly witness.

that's a false dichotomy
I was creating an example to serve a specific point. In the end, the example is irrelevant so long as the point is understood; I will always value the freedom of speech over any other kind of freedom, since the freedom of speech is what allows people to understand and overcome these issues in the first place. A look at Plato's The Cave will point out exactly what I mean.

also, racism and loveism in media are loving poisonous.
So is drinking 1L bottles of coke or smoking every day. The fact is that the loudest voices tend to be the most damaging ones and not everybody is taught to ignore or challenge them.

The problem is that the rise of social media is causing even more opinions to be thrown around, and it's confusing and angering people (frustration is a common human behaviour tactic in order to escape situations that could over-stress us). Media Outlets are trying to make sensationalist propaganda (for lack of a better description) and content creators are becoming more "edgy" so they stand out further. "Any attention is good attention" has become the common catch-phrase.

just one tiny example is the subtle psychological effects of misogynistic advertising, in which malleable, stupid americans are exposed to anti-woman ideals and are willing to believe them.
I completely disagree with the existence of such "subtle advertising". Nobody is out there saying "Let's create ads that will brainwash Americans into putting women down! Muhahaha!" What is actually happening is that common people are creating content based of their view of the world, and it so happens that the way they present their information happens to include what may be transcribed as "misogynistic" if you're actually looking for misogynistic meaning.

remember what i said about considering this from a stupid person's perspective? you don't agree with my point because you can't possibly imagine being affected by the media around you, but most people are, and that's a fact.
I have done media studies, and one of my big submitted papers was on the rise of advertising the cigarette and feminism. I'm well aware of how humans interpret the things they sense around them.

and seriously, that's a logically fallacious setup; false dichotomies don't provide anything in rational debate.
If the point is delivered, then the form that it arrived in should hardly matter. In the words of Marshal McLuhan; "The medium is the message."

"muh first amendment" isn't a good way to justify damaging messages being conveyed to those who aren't malleable enough to recognize them
I don't care if it's a "constitutional" right or not. What I care about is that people are not bound and gagged to a single perspective. Our greatest scientific and ideological discoveries exist because different perspectives clashed. We need the bad to balance the good and to allow for the best to rise up.

People pick up and also miss a lot of things in their daily lives. Most people will live and die without accomplishing anything of much value, and their challenges in their life will be trivial and silly in the long run, such as not being able to go to a party because a fax machine broke down. I don't expect most people to be prepared to see life in the way I, you or anybody else here sees it. What I do expect is that they have the ability to be unconstrained in how they explore their world, so that if they have the power to leave the cave, they will.

Police Brutality seems, at least from my view, to be more of an issue of police not adhering to standards rather than just race/love.
it's definitely about race, there's a reason you don't see black officers shooting black unarmed teenagers
Men are assaulted just the same as women. It doesn't matter if it's more common for either love; the fact that it happens is the issue.
ooh nope nope nope nope nope this is so bad dude i'm sorry. it's INCREDIBLY important that it happens so much more commonly to women.
I wouldn't say the wage gap is specifically American, and I'd assume that all over the world people are paid less than others based on all kinds of meaningless qualities outside of love and race. Again, I'd argue this is to do with a lack of specific standardised pay rates.
i don't know if this is how it goes in australia, but big american corporations (with VERY few exceptions) are some of the most trashy collections of human beings in the world. for instance, disabled/handicapped workers for walmart (i believe it was walmart; correct me if i'm wrong) are sometimes paid less than 5% of minimum wage because of legal loopholes. many employers simply pay women less and then make up stuffty excuses for it

requoting everything is exhausting, so i hope you don't mind if i bulletpoint - it should match up with your points enough to be understandable

- men do have it remarkably easier on the whole. this is another perspective issue i'd ask you to consider; your personal experience does not apply to the world as a whole. "men have it easier" applies much more than marginally, enough for it to be valid.

- women receive rape threats and horrendously misogynistic comments in most online gaming communities (i'm referring mostly to in-game chats and stuff), along with being incessantly special interestized. like you said, i don't mind games with stuffty portrayals of women to exist, but it's so hilariously saturated that nothing else shines through. also, the main problem with games that portray women misogynistically is that they often completely lack self-awareness, as if presenting an actually misogynistic view rather than satire.

- if you don't see the way that most men in this country view women, then that's your issue. ignorance is bliss? i don't mean to be rude, but it's rampant, dude. that rhymed, i'm so sorry

- like i said, the deeply ingrained attitudes are outside of your personal world, and outside of mine as well. my point is that you need to stop presenting your personal experience as what is actually commonly true around the world. any statistician will tell you that a sample size of 1 out of 7 billion is astronomically bad practice.

- doesn't matter if it's an example; your example is logically fallacious, and it doesn't stand in the debate. it's funny you should bring up the cave, because my entire point is that perspective and having a greater understanding of the world is important

- i actually completely agree with you here! i'll criticize feminist sensationalism any day, don't worry

- my point isn't that content creators are deliberately trying to be malicious, it's that they ARE being malicious. perhaps inadvertently. it's not really an issue of how you construe it, when car ads feature a scantily clad woman standing next to it just to make the ad "loveier." before you make the point that men are also loveualized in media, that's true, but it again comes back to the fact that women are used FAR more often than men, and are often used in far more loveualized pieces in comparison.

- good, i'm jealous you had the opportunity to take a class in media studies! i'm going from a completely broke high school to Stanford next year, so you can imagine how i'm excited to take advantage of resources. the point is, you should see what i'm saying here based upon your exposure to how stuffty advertising can be

- you made an invalid point through a fallacy, though. i agree that it doesn't matter what form it arrived in, but the message itself is flawed.

- feminism doesn't promote only being able to have one opinion - why do you think i called an entire group of feminists idiots earlier? it's a multi-faceted ideology; confusing and frustrating at times, i'll agree/admit, but definitely not what you think it is.

on a final note i share your resentment for the state of education globally, finland's doing pretty well comparatively but we're forgeted overall

I should be going to sleep but I think I might drop the mic once more before I head on down.

it's definitely about race, there's a reason you don't see black officers shooting black unarmed teenagers
That seems more like coincidence based on the few popularised shootings than scientific fact.

ooh nope nope nope nope nope this is so bad dude i'm sorry. it's INCREDIBLY important that it happens so much more commonly to women.
The way you said this sounded both extremely sarcastic (as if you were coming from my perspective) and ignorant.

Do you think I enjoy walking down the street late at night, having to weasel my way out of a fight because I couldn't stop myself from giggling at something I was listening to while looking at two guys walking past me?

Violence against anybody is a problem. To say that we should only care about it happening to one love over another love is extremely rude.

i don't know if this is how it goes in australia, but big american corporations (with VERY few exceptions) are some of the most trashy collections of human beings in the world. for instance, disabled/handicapped workers for walmart (i believe it was walmart; correct me if i'm wrong) are sometimes paid less than 5% of minimum wage because of legal loopholes. many employers simply pay women less and then make up stuffty excuses for it
I knew of jokes about that issue, but I haven't looked into it at all. All I can say is that it seems to be more of an issue about Walmart (and commercial business in general) trying to find any loophole possibly to pay the least amount of money necessary. It's bullstuff, but it's not discriminatory.

men do have it remarkably easier on the whole. this is another perspective issue i'd ask you to consider; your personal experience does not apply to the world as a whole. "men have it easier" applies much more than marginally, enough for it to be valid.
I honestly disagree and I see no evidence to support either way outside of personal experiences. All I know is that everybody I know is doing better off than I am, and that the females I know seem to have the most work, best pay and/or the highest levels of experience.

-
women receive rape threats and horrendously misogynistic comments in most online gaming communities (i'm referring mostly to in-game chats and stuff)
Everybody receives the darkest, most despicable comments during certain gaming encounters. This is because gaming can be a stressful activity and many people find it within their rights to use hyperbole to express their anger and frustration. Nobody should have to be exposed to that.

I've received a lot of death threats and awful insults while playing online video games. Are you saying that because I'm male I'm supposed to be okay with it? Isn't that the same kind of stereotyping that you're trying to say harms the perspectives of females?

along with being incessantly special interestized. like you said, i don't mind games with stuffty portrayals of women to exist, but it's so hilariously saturated that nothing else shines through.
Characters such as Kreia, Chell, Alice, Alma, Faith, Jade and many more are beloved female gaming superstars who are all non-loveualised (or done so in disturbing, unappealing ways for a specific purpose) and star is massive video game franchises. This idea that all females in gaming have giant boobs and breast-only armour is a ridiculous notion that doesn't hold up to the reality. It's simply websites like Kotaku/Polygon looking for something to complain about so they can get more clicks and sponsorship.

also, the main problem with games that portray women misogynistically is that they often completely lack self-awareness, as if presenting an actually misogynistic view rather than satire.
On the contrast, I would believe that most games that hyper-loveualise characters (or allow them to be hyper-loveualised in the case of character creators) are extremely self-aware and they push the boundaries far beyond to make them seem ridiculous.

I did a study a long time ago (thanks to some stuff I saw in philosophy/psychology classes) about how humans commonly accentuate and exaggerate the body. As it turns out, there is actual scientific evidence to support the fact that humans (and many species of animal) seem to prefer exaggeration (for reasons I've forgotten). One good example to look at is the Kritios Boy statue; it is the closest humans ever came to replicating the exact proportions and texture of a human body, and people hated it. The statues that came next which had slightly (to overly) exaggerated body parts were adored and loved.

if you don't see the way that most men in this country view women, then that's your issue. ignorance is bliss?
Or maybe I've just done what most people should do and I've just "moved on". By not acknowledging the issue (except through the medium of humour), I'm trying to let the issues slip by, so that I and the people around me don't have to deal with these views that you seem to think are plaguing the world.

like i said, the deeply ingrained attitudes are outside of your personal world, and outside of mine as well. my point is that you need to stop presenting your personal experience as what is actually commonly true around the world. any statistician will tell you that a sample size of 1 out of 7 billion is astronomically bad practice.
There's simply no accurate and far-reaching statistics that allow us to see the scientific truth of the matter. What I have is my perspective, and I haven't been proven wrong yet. You may see things differently, but until I witness what you're saying in my life, I simply cannot believe in its existence.

doesn't matter if it's an example; your example is logically fallacious, and it doesn't stand in the debate.
The greatest difference between Australia and America is that Australia relies heavily on context, whereas America weirdly gives weight to what people specifically say. Debate is about transferral of meaning. Words are tools to transfer meaning, but people who put too much weight onto the words themselves, rather than the meaning behind them are always at risk of missing out on the reality of the situation.

In other words, don't take things too literally.

it's funny you should bring up the cave, because my entire point is that perspective and having a greater understanding of the world is important
You seem to fail to understand that my perspective is wide. I would argue that you are using a very narrow view of the world because you're relying on facts and data that I believe have been generated from someone else that you are mindlessly spouting, whereas the things I'm saying are opinions and thoughts I've generated from my own personal observations and conclusions I've made based on my experiences as well as things I've been taught and learnt.

my point isn't that content creators are deliberately trying to be malicious, it's that they ARE being malicious. perhaps inadvertently.
I'm well aware that's your point. My point is that "malicious" is a subjective term in this case and there's no way to prove it is malicious without hard evidence to support that what people are seeing is influencing their behaviour in negative ways, which I don't see any for.

it's not really an issue of how you construe it, when car ads feature a scantily clad woman standing next to it just to make the ad "loveier."
That has far less to do with loveualising women and far more with them trying to understand what makes people interested in content. It's just like those stupid perfume ads that show vague images of cloth and glass, or fast food commercials that show burgers which are too good to be true. It's not a problem with loveism, it's a problem with hyperbole in order to overcome a human's natural boredom/frustration defences so they can sell you goods.

Just look at how they butcher the American version of Kitchen Nightmares with the loud music and frequent jump cuts. You may argue and rant and rave that's it's not the same concept, but it really is. Marketing is about defeating our nature, in essence. If you want to complain about marketing, then complain about its use of hyperbole, but don't ever try to make the loveualisation argument out like it's an entirely different issue.

before you make the point that men are also loveualized in media
I honestly never planned on it.

but it again comes back to the fact that women are used FAR more often than men, and are often used in far more loveualized pieces in comparison.
Again, this seems more stereotypical and based on a lot of false evidence. You may not even realise what loveualisation is, or how men can be portrayed in such a position. It's not as simple as "take your shirt off and we'll fix up your flaws in Photoshop". The truth is that marketing will exploit whatever it can in order to successfully convey the message it wants. That's the real issue.

feminism doesn't promote only being able to have one opinion - why do you think i called an entire group of feminists idiots earlier? it's a multi-faceted ideology; confusing and frustrating at times, i'll agree/admit, but definitely not what you think it is.
I never said I thought that it did. What I said is that it seems outdated in comparison to the idea of true egalitarianism. Surely if we want a goal to work towards, we should aim high and knock out all the birds with a single stone?

if you're not willing to admit (or don't see) that atrocities/discrimination are/is committed far more often against women, that's a fundamental difference that won't be resolved over a few posts on the BL forums.

re: the sarcasm thing, i genuinely was not being sarcastic, and wasn't trying to be rude, but my entire argument is structured around the fact that it happens more commonly to women

re: walmart, if you don't see how that's discriminatory, i have nothing further to say because i'm not going to be able to convince you

re: rape/other threats in video games, there's a pattern that has to be acknowledged when it happens far more often to women. in fact, this entire issue comes down to the fact that there is a pattern of women being overall treated like stuff in generalized comparison to men. i would NEVER dismiss your personal experiences with violence, and i'm sorry that's ever happened to you. i will stuff on ANYONE who thinks it's okay to be cruel just for the sake of it. from a global/political perspective, though, i hope you recognize that most men are able to dismiss threats because they profit from the overall attitude of western culture.

i'll leave you with a quote that i like. i hope you've gathered by now that i'm not a particularly spiteful or angry person, and i value objective debate, so the attitude of the quote isn't something that i'd use against you here, but the content is still important.

“My response to the ‘I am not a feminist’ internet phenomenon…
First of all, it’s clear you don’t know what feminism is. But I’m not going to explain it to you. You can google it. To quote an old friend, ‘I’m not the feminist babysitter.’
But here is what I think you should know.
You’re insulting every woman who was forcibly restrained in a jail cell with a feeding tube down her throat for your right to vote, less than 100 years ago.
You’re degrading every woman who has accessed a rape crCIA centre, which wouldn’t exist without the feminist movement.
You’re undermining every woman who fought to make marital rape a crime (it was legal until 1993).
You’re spitting on the legacy of every woman who fought for women to be allowed to own property (1848). For the abolition of slavery and the rise of the labor union. For the right to divorce. For women to be allowed to have access to birth control (Comstock laws). For middle and upper class women to be allowed to work outside the home (poor women have always worked outside the home). To make domestic violence a crime in the US (It is very much legal in many parts of the world). To make workplace loveual harassment a crime.
In short, you know not what you speak of. You reap the rewards of these women’s sacrifices every day of your life. When you grin with your cutsey sign about how you’re not a feminist, you ignorantly spit on the sacred struggle of the past 200 years. You bite the hand that has fed you freedom, safety, and a voice.”