heronqueenblues:

I just read through the majority of the comments highlighted in this article about the harassment Anita Sarkeesian has received for her plans to make a webseries about sexism in videogames.

I just

don’t understand why people feel so threatened by her

and be aware, that’s how they feel. they feel insulted and hurt (even if they’d never, in a million years, say that they felt that way) by the implication that there’s sexism in gaming

there are men (and women) around the world who feel threatened by the very idea that sexism still exists in any form

the fact that non-white, male, straight, cisgendered viewpoints are beginning to be expressed and discussed in public is so utterly threatening to some people that they will say absolutely vile things to someone they don’t even know on the internet to attempt to scare them or hurt them and stop them from expressing their viewpoints.

these are people who think “oppression” means having to listen to the ideas of others who are different from them, people who think “oppression” means that they aren’t the 100% dominant voice of the culture

it makes me so furious even though I know people feel this way, I’ve experienced it, I see it nearly every day of my life and still it shocks me that people can be so indecent to other people.

It’s not cool, it’s not subversive, it’s not edgy to belittle and harass and insult and hurt people who are being oppressed. You are supporting the dominant cultural paradigm. You are being the least subversive person possible. Telling women to get in the kitchen or yelling racial slurs or calling lgbt people faggots isn’t edgy, it’s a continuation of the exact same hateful, oppressive attitudes that our culture is finally, depressingly slowly trying to change. It’s not edgy; it’s been the norm for centuries, if not millennia. You’re creating strawmen to justify your anger at people who want to be as privileged as you. You’re using it to hide your fear that one day you’ll no longer be the single dominant force in the western world.

You want to be different and new and modern and progressive and truly subversive and edgy? Support the voices of the oppressed. Upset the culture by helping black people have a voice outside stereotypes, by helping women get their viewpoints across without being turned into objects, by helping gay people earn their rights and by helping trans people tell their stories. Help native americans finally be heard, help disabled people get role models on television that aren’t defined by their disability, help everyone have an equal voice and tell the stories that are important to them. Listen to people who disagree with you and listen to people who are different from you. THAT is new, THAT is different, THAT is subversive and truly revolutionary.

it’s cowardly and it’s childish and it’s pathetic to hide as you spew hatred from the ditch you dug yourself into. if you had real arguments, you wouldn’t try to harass and hurt and scare people who disagree with you; you’d just present your argument, calmly. if there’s something there, you wouldn’t need vitriol to get it across, to make anyone pay attention to you.

be a decent fucking human being how about.