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GamerGate’s Pathology in Less Than 140 Characters

By Chris Hall
November 5, 2014
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This is essentially what you’re saying if you’re a GamerGate supporter:

Tweet by @Hello_Tailor: "Should women be allowed to create and play video games without fear of being murdered in real life? Let's hear both sides of the story."Hello Tailor nails it beautifully. Even if we steelman1  Gamergate up the wazoo and accept that it’s really about ethics in journalism, the reality is that in the end, they’ve accomplished nothing more than inflict terrorism and fear.

There’s also a meta-statement to this tweet: A lot of people took it for the real thing. That’s not an indication that people are stupid, but it is a perfect demonstration of how severely out of control Gamergate has gotten. If you’ve been keeping track, it’s not that hard to believe that the ‘gaters would say something like this.

Sometime, there just aren’t two sides. We’re taught to believe otherwise, but sometimes staying neutral and acting like both sides are worthy of equal consideration is the same as teaming up with the bad guys.


  1. Steelmanning is the opposite of strawmanning an argument; instead of addressing the weakest form of your opponent’s argument, you argue against the best possible form of their argument. To my knowledge, the term was coined by Chana Messinger. In Gamergate’s case, of course, in order to steelman you have to dive straight into the realm of fantasy. ↩

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Filed Under: Featured, Feminism, Gaming Tagged With: feminism, gamergate, gender

George Will, Take Note: “There is No Survivor Privilege, Only Survivors”

By Chris Hall
June 16, 2014
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There's something about George Will that just screams "asshole," even when he's not saying anything.

There’s something about George Will that just screams “asshole,” even when he’s not saying anything.

I learned to loathe George Will very early in my political consciousness. That means sometime back when Reagan was president. It’s not that he’s more contemptible than all the other conservatives, but my dislike for him is unique in its quality, if not necessarily its quantity. His entire image, his entire career, is based on projecting a certain patrician condescension that makes my skin itch. In some ways he’s more a true conservative than any of the neo-Fascists that dominate right-wing commentary these days, like John Derbyshire, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Glenn Beck. He truly is a conservative in his longing to return to the old days; his writing drips with a barely-concealed loathing for the working classes and brown people, and I can easily imagine that he looks back nostalgically for the times of child labor. Given a TARDIS, I imagine that he would immediately zip back to London, circa 1820, and establish himself as an industrial baron of some kind, perhaps investing in a plantation in Jamaica or something. He’s not the kind that I can imagine ever getting his own hands dirty with slave-owning or labor exploitation. Will is much more the kind who likes to enjoy quiet, dignified luxury while allowing other people to spill blood for him.

I could go on for pages and pages about my pet loathing for George F. Will, and it might even be entertaining before it ultimately became tedious. But the point is this: his recent column about rape, where he posited that being a rape victim is what all the cool girls want, just kind of cranked my loathing up to 12. It was already at 11, so he practically shattered the meter with this one.

Rape is mostly an abstract evil to me: I know and have known many people who have been raped, but it’s not something that I’ve had to experience myself. Even with my friends, it’s been something that happened to them in the past, not something I went through with them. But at least I can see it as an evil; Will treats it as a fashion statement.

Dr. Jen Gunter: Occupy Healthcare

Dr. Jen Gunter: Occupy Healthcare

Rape is a much more concrete evil to women like Dr. Jen Gunter, an OB/GYN who wrote an open letter responding to Will in today’s Talking Points Memo. It’s not an abstraction to her: She talks, very clearly and explicitly about her own rape and its consequences:

I was specifically moved to write to you because the rape scenario that you describe somewhat incredulously is not unfamiliar to me. Not because I’ve heard it in many different iterations (I have sadly done many rape kits), but because it was not unlike my own rape. The lead up was slightly different, but I too was raped by someone I knew and did not emerge with any obvious physical evidence that a crime had been committed. I tried to push him away, I said “No!” and “Get off” multiple times,” but he was much stronger and suddenly I found my hands pinned behind my back and a forearm crushing my neck and for a few minutes I found it hard to breathe. I was 22, far from home, scared, and shocked and so at some point I just stopped kicking and let him finish. Sound familiar? For several weeks I didn’t even think about it as a rape because that was easier than admitting the truth. Again, sound familiar?

[…]

You labor under the fear (as some men do) that there is an epidemic of false rape. That good young men will go to jail for consent withdrawn after the fact. And while false accusations likely do happen (the Duke Lacrosse case is a recent, well-known example) these are the exception and not the rule and each time a male with a platform spouts off about a false epidemic of rape it only makes it harder for women who have been violated to come forward.

And your confusion about the under reporting statistics? First a woman has to get over her fear of her assailant and the shame imparted by society and then she has to deal with the police. There are no Special Victims Units like you see on T.V. protectively shepherding women through the process of facing assailants. And if fear and shame and being disbelieved by law enforcement were not enough of a deterrent think about having your pubic hair combed for your rapist’s DNA while you are dripping with his ejaculate. And you have the gall to wonder why some women might not immediately (if ever) report a rape? I am a 47 year-old financially and professionally secure woman in a stable, loving relationship and it took 25 years and your jackass column to get me to speak up about my rape. How easy do you think it is for a scared 20 year-old to call 911 or walk into a police station and say, “I was just raped?”

The last line, which is the title of this post, is the perfect response to Will and all the people who think like him. Surviving isn’t a privilege, it isn’t a fashion statement; it’s a right, the first and last one that any person has. If you look at Will’s record, though, it’s one that he’s long been unwilling to grant to those who are less privileged than he.

-30-

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Filed Under: Etc., Featured Tagged With: conservatives, gender, George Will, Jen Gunter, Politics, rape, rape culture

Isn’t “Neckbeard” Just a Way to Shame Fat Men?

By Chris Hall
June 13, 2014
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NSID 2010 – Day 9 by Johnathan Nightingale

 

I’ve always hated the term “Neckbeard,” because it seems like a really quick and cheap way of saying “fat, nerdy guy” in a way that’s acceptable to people who would otherwise be against body or status shaming. It is definitely not something that you use to describe a thin, popular guy with lots of money. It’s definitely a shortcut to mocking a guy for being fat, a little socially inept, and lacking a high-status career, but not saying so

Fortunately, I’m not the only person who’s had that thought. Here’s what Ozy Frantz has to say on their Tumblr:

I was totally talking about like “neckbeards” earlier and how mad I am about attributing misogyny solely to low-status men and, like, usually men coded fat, ugly, and mentally and emotionally disabled but I think my true rejection isn’t the things I’ve stated that are wrong with the idea, although I think those are wrong too it is that, over the course of my life, the men who have harassed me, bullied me, done sexualized things to me without my consent, or directed misogyny at me have usually been Pretty and Popular and Well-Liked sorts who went to parties on weekends

It’s a little stream-of-consciousness, and the editor in me wants to scream “OMIGOD! WHERE ARE THE COMMAS?!?!” But my personal neuroses about grammar and stuff aside, the sentiment is one that I fully embrace.

Let me tell you  sometime how much the term “fedora” as a shortcut for “misogynist douchebag” pisses me off. I like fedoras. (Besides, the ones that get constantly maligned are more properly called Trilbys.)

[image-credits]
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Filed Under: Body Image, Featured Tagged With: fat, gender, neckbeard, nerd culture

What Kind of Person Goes to a Sex Worker?

By Chris Hall
October 10, 2013
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Kitty Stryker

Kitty Stryker

Kitty Stryker answers this question today in a very lovely and touching article at Slixa, based on her experiences taking clients in London. It doesn’t actually tie in with the common stereotype:

Working with TLC Trust in London, I found myself encountering a very different sort of client than the media-projected stereotype. I was a companion for an autistic man whose sister wanted to help him learn how to navigate flirting and dating with hands on experience. Just coming to my space was difficult for another person who had social anxiety. I had more than one female lover who sought me out for erotic massage so they could relearn how to be touched intimately and communicate triggers after sexual assault experiences. Sometimes the people I met wanted to snuggle and cry in my arms about the restrictions they felt about their faith, or their struggle with expectations of gender roles, or relationships they had lost. I hadn’t fully realized how being a switchboard operator with psychology experience gave me training on how to be a better provider!

[Read more…]

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Filed Under: Gender, Sex and Gender, Sex Work Tagged With: gender, masculinity, prostitution, Sex Work, sex-education, slixa

Lolita, Darth Vader, and Hugo Schwyzer

By Chris Hall
April 13, 2011
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Darth Vader and Glenn Beck: It's their job to be villains.

When you watch Darth Vader blow up the planet of Alderaan in Star Wars, or telepathically strangle an incompetent flunkie in one of the sequels, it may be brutal, but it’s not really upsetting. That’s what Vader is there for; it’s his job to be a professional villain and spread bloodshed, pain, and misery throughout the galaxy. In a strange way, it’s comforting to see him relish his latest act of torture, murder, or genocide; it reassures you that the world is exactly the way you expect it to be.

The Darth Vaders of gender politics are people like Maggie Gallagher, Glenn Beck, Andrew Schlafly, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter, and their various hanger-ons . While I think that the world would be a better place without their hidebound misogyny and homophobia, I understand it. It’s their job to be assholes, and so when Beck spouts off his latest conspiracy theory about how the gays are going to shove their homo thing down his throat, I nod and take it in stride. The world is normal.

It’s when feminists, or anyone else that I think should be on the side of the angels, start weaving reactionary assumptions about gender that I wig out. The world is not as it should be. It’s as though I walked into a theater that’s showing another version of Star Wars, the one that Lucas keeps stored in his basement along with the last existing print of the Star Wars Holiday Special. In this version, Vader is still blowing up planets, but Luke and Leia spend their spare time downing beers with Imperial Stormtroopers and torturing kittens.

[Read more…]

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Filed Under: Feminism, Sex and Gender Tagged With: feminism, gender, lolita, sexuality

Call For Submissions: Men Speak Out

By Chris Hall
May 31, 2006
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Untitled document

I got this in my e-mail box recently, from a friend of my girlfriend. I'm still ruminating over whether I have anything that I could contribute, especially since my approach to feminism tends to be that of the loyal opposition. I emphasize loyal.  Anyway, whether I wind up contributing or not, I thought it looked like a worthy enough venture to promote for anyone else who might be interested.

 CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Men Speak Out: ProFeminist Views on Gender, Sex and Power
Deadline: September 15, 2006

How can we better understand and imagine new possibilities for men and feminism?

Are you a guy who hates sexism? Do you call yourself a feminist? Have you spent hours over coffee (or beer) thinking about issues of gender, power, race, class, and sexuality? Are you involved with social justice activism? If so, then you have stories to tell and I'd like to hear what you have to say.
[Read more…]

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Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: feminism, gender, men, Writing, writing-markets

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