I get death threats … for writing about the death threats sent to Anita Sarkeesian
A scene from my inbox
So how much do some angry gamebros hate Anita Sarkeesian? Enough to send me death threats … for writing about the death threats sent to Anita Sarkeesian.
Shortly after my post on the threats against Sarkeesian went up on Thursday, I got these messages sent to me as anonymous “asks” on Tumblr. These were all in succession, in this order; I’m pasting each one individually instead of the whole bunch at once so you can read them in the order in which I got them. [TRIGGER WARNING: Violent threats; I'm putting them past the jump.]
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There is a certain irony in that last comment, whether or not it came from the guy (and I’m pretty damn sure it was a guy) who sent all the threats that immediately preceded it. It’s pretty clear to me that Sarkeesian has no need to fake anything; obviously her haters aren’t exactly shy about sending death threats to people they don’t like.
And if this is what my inbox looks like for merely writing about Sarkeesian, I can only imagine what her inbox looks like. I suspect she gets threats like these all the time; the reason she called the police about several of the threats she got this week is that the threateners posted her personal information as well.
In the interest of full disclosure: Here and here are screenshots of these messages as they appeared in my Tumblr inbox; I’ve blurred out the personal information of the people sending me cat pics.
Needless to say, I’ve turned off anonymous asks on my Tumblr blogs.
Google+
Posted on August 30, 2014, in advocacy of violence, antifeminism, bullying, confused cats against feminism, doubling down, doxing, entitled babies, evil women, harassment, hypocrisy, internet tough guy, irony alert, men who should not ever be with women ever, misogyny, no games for girls, no girls allowed, sarkeesian!, threats and tagged anita sarkeesian, anti-feminism, antifeminism, confused cats against feminism, death threats, feminism, harassment, misogyny, Sarkeesian, threats, tumblr, Violent threats. Bookmark the permalink. 168 Comments.
InsanityBytes22, we all know by now that you hate men and feel entitled to their protection by virtue of your womanhood. Your posts on gender roles on your blog made that abundantly clear. You don’t need to work any harder to prove it, so could you please lay off David?
I’ve alerted David to the calls to moderate or ban ib22, just FYI.
Oh for the love of all the gods, twice over (at least).
Once for the assholes who think writing about someone receiving death threats means they should send some. And once for IB22.
Because fuck you. No, really, go fuck yourself, just indulge in your mental mastrubation somewhere else. But I’m masochistically curious, just what do you define rape as? And what definition has made everything rape? When’s rape a rape by your definition? I need to know to judge whether you’re an asshole, or grade a prime asshole.
Ugh, what a bunch of assholes. Sorry you’re getting so much hate, David.
David, sorry for all that you have to put up with from assholes like this, and thanks for continuing to do the blog in spite of it all.
IB, feel free to take your crusade to define just what threats and what rapes are “real” elsewhere. Bye.
Fuck you very much, interwebs trolls, for defiling one of my favourite games by using it for your idiotic trolling.
There’s another TF2 quote I’d use towards them and this clusterfuck of abuse:
You’re like a car crash in slow motion. It’s like I’m watchin’ ya fly out a windshield.
And FTR this looks more like a troll than a legit threat, but THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT. Just as we couldn’t tell the difference between Elliott Rodger and the asshole misogynists who use the exact same rhetoric without killing people, the kind of ass that would say this shit in a mocking “See? He’s playing the victim and all I did was throw some game quotes at him!” kinda way looks pretty much the same as the kind of violent fuckwit who’d act out on those threats right up until the point that they get off the keyboard and do something.
In other words, it’s the “poison M&M analogy” all over again – sure, most of the trolls who post this shit may be harmless, but how willing should we be to take that chance when all it takes is one douche with a violent streak to prove you wrong?
Sigh… all this negativity surrounding the games industry is REALLY making me depressed. Would you guys like me to tell you about a game I’m playing that’s making me happy?
How about we have a thread for gaming recommendations? That way, we could get all the recommendations in one place instead of spread across what threads are active at the time?
Why don’t we just turn this into that thread for gaming recommendations? Or do you want a separate one, pallygirl?
Well, I didn’t read your comment very carefully, sorry.
Keep up the good fight David. I agree with Anita, we will Win.
Ohhhh, but censorship! Only a true fascist would make it harder for us to publicly threaten you without consequence! Coward!
I know this is off topic, but kitties are never really off-topic; My kitty (the one in my gravatar) has been acting weird the last week or so and is currently at the vet. She has a fever, but beyond that we don’t know what’s wrong. So if you guys could send some internet hugs it would be much appreciated. I’m really worried about her.
I can’t say I’m going to cry about IB22. In the main she is boring, and her entire paradigm seems to be the old-school, toxic conflict-minimalization: intent on hushing up victims of abuse, and not very worried about stopping the abuse.
@childrenofthebroccoli
Oh, wow, I’m sorry to hear that. :( I hope she gets better!
All the love to you and your kitty COTB.
Sorry to see the death threats, David. I wish there were a kind of algorythmic switch that malignant posters could trip with their violent language, and poof, their faces/identities would be revealed. Aside from that fantasy, I noticed what I think you’ve written about before– that is that the death-dealer isn’t interested in your backdoor, whereas he would be when threatening a woman. Must be concerned about his reputation as a umm… Mensch.
@childrenofthebroccoli: all the internet hugs you could want. I almost mistyped that as jugs, but if you want jugs of hugs, or jugs of anything in combination with the hugs, just specify. :)
Hugs for kitty. Hope she gets back to her usual hijinks soon!
Hugs for David, for dealing with this.
Hugs, hugs for everyone!
(Except death threatens, IB, and Woody. No hugs for you.)
Hugs for you and sick kitty!
Hugs and best wishes for your kitty, CotB!
Hugs for David. I hope you and your kitties are safe!
@childrenofthebroccoli:
Hugs to you and your kitty friend. I hope your kitty friend gets better soon.
Sending kittie hugs. Am also looking into cold fusion as a way to send these asshats into their actual own world.
Thanks for the hugs everyone, they’re much appreciated. Penny’s in the back getting her blood drawn right now, but I’ll provide updates when I know more.
Hmm, video games. I just put in my pre-order for Pokemon Omega Ruby (finally getting our gen 3 remake!), and I’ve been playing a lot of World of Warcraft lately. I’ve also been playing the Donkey Kong Country series on my Wii virtual console, and they hold up surprisingly well given how old they are. I love that they never went the Damsel in Distress route, even though the plot basically boils down to “bad guy stole something you care about, go get it back”; in the first game, it was Donkey’s banana stash, and in the second and third Donkey himself gets kidnapped and his friends (Dixie and Diddy in 2, Dixie and Kiddy in 3) have to go save him.
childrenofthebroccoli: all the hugs for you and your kitty.
David: Sorry about the threats, and thank you for banning that tedious, evil, and stupid Insatiybytes.
“Not so tough are ya? Are Ya?!” I know that death threats are no laughing matter, but I can’t help picturing this… guy(?) as Scrappy Doo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG8dgN6x2EA
Despite the abhorrence of those messages, I did still notice a distinct lack of rape threats. Must be nice to be immune from those.
childrenofthebroccoli, sorry your kitty’s not feeling well, hopefully the vets can figure out what’s going on!
Video games: I’ve been playing LA Noire. Frankly, though I really like the game’s version of 1940s LA, the crime-solving is sort of boring. I need to do a few more missions before I open up free roam. Maybe that’ll be more fun. I like just driving around in big open worlds, and am a little bored with GTA V, even though its open world is giant and amazing.
Goodbye, Inanity, I hope the door hit your ass on your way out. May a life full legos to step on be ahead of you!
childrenofthebroccoli, hugs to you and hugs to your kitty. Good vibes, too.
So is IB banned now, or what?
She has this moralizing-aunty tone I think is totes insufferable. Bless her heart I pray for her & etc.
IB doesn’t get that being a good woman doesn’t protect you from anything. You can still do everything “right” and get raped. You can not drink and not go out on after ten and it can happen. The first time I was sexually harassed was at my part-time job. I was sixteen and the line cook fondled me. Did I deserve it, for… being the hostess at the restaurant?
She thinks that the only women who ever get raped did something to deserve it; it’s shit Christian theology. Read the book of Job, IB!
– Caroline.
World of Warcraft has a great open world, and enough stuff to do that if you get bored with one thing, there’s always something else to do. Even when you’re leveling you have multiple zones for your level range, so for instance if you’re bored of the jungle you can head up to the swamps instead.
Internet hugs to childrenofthebroccoli and your kitty!
My kitty caught some kind of bug a few years back. She became totally listless and stayed that way for a few days, so I took her to the vet. The blood tests were inconclusive, but she got put on antibiotic pills and got better. Hopefully it’s something simple like that!
More cute, for the puppy-lovers:
@karalora; that’s basically how Penny’s been acting; she’s usually really curious and affectionate, but the last few days she’s been spending the entire day hiding under my sister’s bed and barely even coming out to eat or use the litter box. She still put up a fight when we tried to put her in her carrier, though, which I took as a good sign.
A few years ago my cat started to behave strangely, fever, inactive, etc. Turned out she had a bladder infection due to feline urinary tract disease (I think? I think that’s what it’s called). She has to eat a special and expensive food, but is all better now.
These “threats” (well the threat parts of it) are all quotes from the video game team fortress 2. Which is kinda the sweetest and most cartoony “shoot em up” game ever made.
God damn it.
Nequam: That was pretty much my reaction, too. :|
Anyway… this game I’ve been playing… it’s a mobile game, which you can get for most smartphones. Its called Guns Girl Z. The plot takes place in an all-girls school, in which a zombie apocalypse occurs. You play as a cute anime girl, and using all kinds of guns and melee weapons, you have to fight your way out past your zombified friends and classmates in an 2D-style beat-em-up style game. And along the way you unlock more weapons and outfits that enable stat bonuses. I’ve been enjoying it very much. It’s fairly mindless entertainment, and I enjoy playing a cute anime girl stabbing, shooting, and killing other zombified anime girls. Oh, yeah… and it’s free too, so you know…
Article’s more than a bit triggery, but pertinent, and possibly good to read if you are a fellow survivor, or know a survivor of violence:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/camelswithhammers/2013/07/vulnerability-victim-blaming-and-the-just-world-fallacy/
From the blogpost:
Grothe has been and continues to be a colossal ass. Wild horses could not drag me to TAM.
wait… did you say you played GTAV? You better not let Anita find out… just saying, its not exactly a game she… approves of.
The point, reptile0009 has missed it…
The whole bit about “fake” death threats reminds me of the exchange between Christopher Lloyd and Eileen Brennan in *Clue*:
Professor Plum: What are you afraid of, a fate worse than death?
Mrs Peacock: No, just death; isn’t that enough?
@gillyrosebee
How?
Lee: I suppose it’s possible that Randi doesn’t know about and wouldn’t agree with Grothe’s stand. (I’m thinking here of when the Jane Goodall Foundation got all huffy over a Far Side cartoon where an ape grooming another ape finds a blonde hair and says “Have you been hanging out with that Jane Goodall tramp?”– only to reverse positions when Goodall herself said “Actually, I though it was funny!”)
Even implausible death threats are creepy…
Someone once called my job and said they planted a bomb in my car…a very drunk person, my car’s behind a 7-foot high security fence with floodlights bright enough to read a book by, and in plain view of the desk where I mostly sit at to watch the camera feed and open access gates.
I thought about all this and was like…”no fucking way someone could have done that.”
…I still took a deep breath when I turned the key in the ignition…
Anyway, David, very little chance it’s serious, but document it. Sympathies extended.
If nothing else? if you do not have security cameras at your abode please to freaking get a security cam system right the hell now, what you need to be concerned about is anyone lurking around outside.
Said lurker would probably be a totally unrelated burglar casing your residence anyway…so not to worry… :p
Nequam: Hopefully not…you’d think one of the more respected rationalist organizations would be more sympathetic.
@reptile0009: Sarkeesiam points out, repeatedly, in her videos that liking problematic stuff doesn’t make you a bad person. I, personally, love a ton of movies, books, and games that I recognize as having misogynistic elements; the Princess Bride, the Dresden Files, Sly Cooper, God of War, the list goes on. If I limited myself to things with no problematic elements, I would be playing nothing but Tetris and be reading only the backs of cereal boxes. It’s ok to like GTA as long as you acknowledge that it contains sexist themes, and don’t harass people when they point that out.
Okay, okay, whatever… whatever. I’m not gonna argue with you guys… really wouldn’t do no good.
Oh gawd, Inanity got sent back to the turnip farm, and I missed it? Damn.
And yeah, how about that anonymous guy. His tough posturing (and his “not so tough now, are ya” bluster) seems a little…ironic, considering that he’s hiding behind the Internets.
Willfully misinterpreting the things Anita Sarkeesian is saying seems to be a mainstay of all her critics. It’s like they don’t even hear what she’s saying. Ever. About anything. I bet they do just as well with reading comprehension.
This is balls. Death threats are balls, IB22 is balls, and this mockery of cultural criticism is balls. I’m so tired of all these balls in my face.
Maybe it’s just me, but that sentence is waterworks. Kitties and hate shouldn’t mix.
I’m sorry to hear about the threats David.
@childrenofthebroccoli I do hope your kitty gets better soon.
Kitty update: she turned out to be dehydrated ( no surprise, she was barely leaving her hiding spot) and slightly anemic, so they gave her a bunch of subcutaneous fluids and a round of antibiotics, and we just need to make sure she takes her pills and stays inside while they do more tests on her blood. We’re just waiting on paperwork and then we’ll take her home.
cotb- Yay! I’m glad kitty is doing better and that you have a diagnosis.
Goat Simulator amuses me to no end. There’s nothing better than being a goat, headbutting groups of people protesting penis shaped food. Or gas tanks. With gas tanks, the resulting explosion sends you flying through the air.
theladyzombie- ever since I’ve heard of Goat Simulator, I’ve been dying to play it. I was in tears when I saw the trailers it was so funny.
@blahlistic
I’m convinced the just world fallacy is why some women blame victims. There’s a certain self-righteous attitude they have that stands out.
@childrenofthebroccoli
Best wishes for you and your kitty!
Kratos’ manpain issues make Batman look tame.
Catching up:
David, all the internet hugs with extra kitties. I’m thinking of you.
Good riddance to inanitybutt.
Phoenicians, that was All The Win. Please to accept one solid-gold interwebz. (I’m afraid it’s Australian gold but you’ll just have to put up with that.)
childrenofthebroccoli, glad it’s looking up for your kitty!
Let’s see, games: I used to play Tetris and Welltris but can’t seem to find the latter these days. Now it’s just Freecell or Stack The Cats.
Goat Simulator sounds hilarious, though …
@redpoppy sometimes I have to pause it because I get to laughing so hard.
theladyzombie- Ha! Now I really have to get it. I enjoy humorous games.
No, it wouldn’t do ‘any’ good.
The key, the central fact in the whole endeavor, is that you can look at and judge and critique the works, and still appreciate them despite their flaws. As someone pointed out up thread, all works created by human beings are flawed because we are flawed. Still, eyes wide open is better.
The point is that in judging the works, Sarkeesian is judging the works, NOT necessarily the makers or the people who play them and like them. I feel pretty confident (because she’s said as much) that you could walk right up to her and say that, despite the problematic aspects, you still enjoy playing GTA, and you would be astounded to find that her head does not in fact split open to reveal an acid spitting gorgon to flay you alive. If you decided to approach her like a human being. you might even find that she will admit to you that she herself enjoys some problematic stuff, because we all do, only some of us are honest about it, while others get butthurt and spew rage and bile in order to pretend that things they like are not, in fact, perfect.
@insanitybytes22:
So the professionals just blindly believe everything the threat receivers tell them, and don’t do any investigation of their own?
Re: games? OMG I have had to block all access to Doge2048, and Housemate has done me the favor of locking my Civ4 disks in his safe!
You know, about the subject of “real” death threats…
We are all aware that no one will go through with the vast majority of death threats. But how about bomb threats, something quite similar. Compare the amount of times that someone threatened to bomb a school vs. the times that someone actually bombed a school. Most won’t go through with it, but whenever it happens, everything in the school shuts down for the authorities to investigate, for everyone’s safety. They don’t say “Well, it’s not a REAL bomb threat…”
And on the subject of games, I haven’t been playing new games for a while, mainly because I’m waiting to have enough money to get a new hard drive (it turns out that 1 TB is not enough for games when you’re like me) but as people have said, Goat Simulator is amazing. Although I’ve been trying to get this one mod where your goat is Shrek working, but it always crashes when I try to turn it on..
my guess is that 90ish% of the whiners never even watched Anitas videos, just [insert some angry youtuber here]‘s rebuttals