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Anita Sarkeesian Calls For A “Feminist Army” To Combat The Harassment Of Women Online
Speaking at XOXO Festival, the Feminist Frequency creator revealed the most radical thing you can do to help support women online.
Hint: It’s incredibly simple. posted on Sept. 15, 2014, at 11:58 a.m.
1.
Speaking to the crowd at XOXO Festival, Feminist Frequency’s Anita Sarkeesian revealed that “one of the most radical things you can do” to help women who have been harassed is to “actually believe women when they talk about their experiences.”
2.
Her talk marked her first public appearance since she was driven out her home, when very graphic threats were made against her and her family. Sarkeesian had her own security at XOXO due to further threats she had received.
In doing so, her audience was given a small but shocking view into the type of harassment she’s experienced in response to her Kickstarter-funded webseries “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games”.
The series is part of Sarakeesian’s non-profit, educational webshow “Feminist Frequency”, and explores the “five common and recurring stereotypes of female characters in video games.”
Sarkeesian is
no stranger to online harassment
but as she explained during her XOXO Festival talk, “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games” has sparked a furious (if not violent) reaction in the gaming community.
6.
Sarkeesian examined the root of her harassment in her talk, as well as the conspiracy theories around her, explaining
that “Falsehoods about me are initially pushed by detractors who use them to post to 4Chan and Reddit to rally more people to the cause.”
7.
“It’s bouncing from Twitter to Tumblr to Facebook to YouTube and back again. Once the cascade reaches a critical mass, it no longer matters what the facts are. It becomes a viral meme.”
And, if you’re ever had the stomach to read what these nobleman have to say about Sarkeesian –
their response to her talk
on Reddit is a perfect example of this.
10.
But, the audience at XOXO Festival, were nothing but supportive and celebratory of Sarkeesian’s words, and her request to simply “listen and believe” women like her.
I'm a gamer and I like what she's doing. Gaming is slowly but surely leaving the exclusive domain of the hard-core fans. I'm sad about this but it's still happening. Her comparisons aren't perfect but they're a great look at how a person external to gaming may look at certain aspects of how women are treated. Doesn't make the opinion invalid, in my opinion. Means I get a different perspective to add to my own.
i am a bit unsure that we should always trust someone just because of their gender. politics alone show that women are as untrustworthy as men in many circumstances. then there is the women who lie about rape. maybe if you are proven to be lying then you should get the same sentence as if the perpetrator was found guilty? im not talking about a he said, she said but the instances where a woman has completely fabricated a story. to me this is doing untold damage to the women who have been raped. yet i cant even find one instance where a woman has even been charged for it.
this isnt to detract from the article but i do think its wise to look at evidence and not just put all your trust in 1 gender, race, sexuality etc.
Trainee barrister jailed for lying about rape -
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jun/26/trainee-barrister-jailed-false-rape-claims. Took me about two secons to google. But honestly, incidents of women maliciously lying about being raped are extremely rare - so many people seem to think that if a man is cleared of rape that means that the woman was automatically lying, when of course things are much more complicated than that. Bringing this issue up is baiting and serves only to automatically assume that victims are lying - do you fight against people lying about being robbed with the same vigor? Feminists don't trust people just for the gender - we're well aware that some women are awful in their own right, and that many women use the same tools of sexism and racism that men do. People don't follow Sarkeesian just because she is a woman, they follow her because they agree with what she's saying. I don't always fully agree with her, and there are valid criticisms to be made of her work. But your post is pretty baiting and detracting from the article.
I agree with the idea that fake rape claims are disgusting but a recent poll of baseless accusations of crime through the police seemed to indicate that fake rape threats are made no less frequently that false accusations of theft, racism, assault etc. It's not really a woman thing so much as a human thing.
You know who gets falsely accused? Women get falsely accused of lying. Why are you so obsessed with something so rare? And you're not fooling anyone with your "Not to detract...." That is EXACTLY what you are doing and it's not accidental.
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