These are the sorts of issues that make one wish anonymity online was impossible or always traceable. The cowardice that lives in people is astounding. For those muttering the free speech line: freedom of speech ≠ freedom of consequences.
No skin thick enough: The daily harassment of women in the game industry
41–50 of 375 posts
Re: No skin thick enough: The daily harassment of women in the game industry
#42I would argue that men don't get rape threats because most men don't see rape as a realistic threat to themselves. Instead, we have our masculinity, loyalty, abilities, work ethic, and/or integrity attacked, because those are the things that cut us to the core. I'm not saying that women don't care about those things, I'm just saying that when someone is trying to be a dick they're going to go after the lowest hanging…
There is a nontrivial difference between the modes of attack you note that work better on men and those that work better on women to achieve a psychological impact. The difference is significant--for women, the difference is a matter of (literally) being physically assaulted or even killed. Men face that kind of threat far less from attacks against our masculinity, loyalty, etc. The article notes this. Women shouldn'…
I should make it clear that I'm in no way saying the two are equivalent. I'm only commenting on why men don't get rape threats (or don't take them seriously on the odd occasion when we do). Many of us have gotten empty threats of violence so many times (between high school, bars, random scumbags on the street) that we don't take it seriously unless someone is actually getting up in our face ready to swing.
Re: No skin thick enough: The daily harassment of women in the game industry
#43This is the sort of journalism I would expect to find on Jezebel, rather than Polygon. Filled with us vs. them mentality: no man can understand, men all think this, men always tell us that. Men never deal with harassment, death threats, or rape threats. Well, here's a little variation on Hitchens' Razor: what can be proven with anecdotal evidence can be dismissed with anecdotal evidence. http://www.edge-online.com/fe…
Not all men, eh? Don’t be so sensitive, grow a thicker skin!
Is it really so hard for you to believe that you can’t understand – at least not completely – the situation someone is in? I would never be so arrogant as to believe that I, as someone who is straight, understand how it is to grow up gay, for example.
Re: No skin thick enough: The daily harassment of women in the game industry
#44> Myth: Everyone in the games industry experiences harassment. Women are just too sensitive about it.
This is not a myth. The difference is for whatever reason, the men being harassed (due to race, sexual orientation, etc...) don't have the courage that women have to come forward.
The video game industry is by and large dominated by adults who never grew up in more ways than one, though the larger the company the less this is an issue (though still a problem) due to the existence of HR and legal departments.
Re: No skin thick enough: The daily harassment of women in the game industry
#45I would argue that men don't get rape threats because most men don't see rape as a realistic threat to themselves. Instead, we have our masculinity, loyalty, abilities, work ethic, and/or integrity attacked, because those are the things that cut us to the core. I'm not saying that women don't care about those things, I'm just saying that when someone is trying to be a dick they're going to go after the lowest hanging…
Do male video game employees have people texting them death threats with their home address too?
Re: No skin thick enough: The daily harassment of women in the game industry
#46This is the sort of journalism I would expect to find on Jezebel, rather than Polygon. Filled with us vs. them mentality: no man can understand, men all think this, men always tell us that. Men never deal with harassment, death threats, or rape threats. Well, here's a little variation on Hitchens' Razor: what can be proven with anecdotal evidence can be dismissed with anecdotal evidence. http://www.edge-online.com/fe…
Pretend for the moment we're in some crazy mirror world where women are frequently mistreated, in ways that many well-meaning men don't see. In this world, it makes sense for a woman to lecture those well-meaning men about empathy - to ask them not to tell women what to feel - because they're just missing some basic information.
Re: No skin thick enough: The daily harassment of women in the game industry
#47It's depressing that the first few top level comments here have been deleted due to their ridiculous content, people presumably read the article then decided to post things like "its banter, get over it. Men deal with it all the time". Just shows how deep the problem goes I guess.
> "its banter, get over it. Men deal with it all the time". Just shows how deep the problem goes I guess. Why, isn't it true? I mean, if one's going to argue one is much worse than the other, then some citation is needed. Empirically, men don't (usually) get rape threats. But they do get death threats. And they don't usually get sexual comments on their looks. But they do get comments that they're "fat", "dorky", "id…
> "Women are the niggers of gender," the email said. "If you killed yourself, I wouldn’t even fuck the corpse."
That's the first line of the article. That's banter? That's equivalent to being "fat" or "dorky"?
Re: No skin thick enough: The daily harassment of women in the game industry
#48I read articles like this, and I think to myself, "Damn, I'm glad I'm not one of those guys." Then every time I see a photo of Marissa Mayer, I think, "Damn, she's hot." And then I hate myself for making that my first thought instead of something more equal like, "Damn, she's accomplished and brilliant" like I do when I see a photo of Robert Downey Jr or Idris Elba or Benedict Cumberbatch. But no, if it's a woman, my…
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Re: No skin thick enough: The daily harassment of women in the game industry
#49[deleted]
FTA: > "Women are the niggers of gender," the email said. "If you killed yourself, I wouldn’t even fuck the corpse." You're ok with that? We should just expect the target of that email to "get over it?" No.
In this case, actually, yes, you should just get over that. It's not a threat, it's an insult, designed to elicit an emotional response. The only thing you can do to take away that power is get past the emotions and move past it.
That doesn't mean I support harassing women, it means I understand that there is no particular right to not be given offense.
Threats are a different ballgame. There is no excuse for threatening anyone. That, however, is not a threat. It's just a shitty person, likely a very young shitty person, saying a shitty thing.
Re: No skin thick enough: The daily harassment of women in the game industry
#50I'd say that internet could use a whole lot more killfiles, hellbanning, spam filters trained not only against commercial messages, whitelisting. The only reason that default is to allow for communication is that it's easier to implement. In the old times only kings could afford decent cutlery. Nowadays every peasent can. When I try to communicate with Obama today I won't succeed. Maybe in not so distant future if someone would want to communicate with me he will have to prove that he has something I'm interested in hearing. And another rape threat is rarely interesting.