Comments on: Harassment, silencing, and gaming communities

By: InaneNina or Vilje

InaneNina or Vilje — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:24:18 +0000

While what IMReader above me writes probably is true, that you can’t use forum “fights” under defamation of characer, has that as technique been used quite often. This isn’t not just a female problem of course, but one can’t completely ignore the attitude (as described in this blog and this thread) against women making it easier to try such techniques and creating a rather impossible sitation for solving situations together (together as men AND women).

-V for Vilje the Vile

By: InaneNina or Vilje

InaneNina or Vilje — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:17:39 +0000

Hi Tekanji. I like what you write, alot, along with http://rachel-edidin.livejournal.com/71433.html
The last months has it been many small and big incidents on a gaming forum and it has been many arguments like those Rachel-Edidin points out with lots of irony. The same with the things you mention in this thread and other threads.

I am rather sturdy in this topic, but I must say that it does get to me, very hard, when I notice how friends ends up feeling after some of guys are through with them on the forums. At that point do I get angry, but at the same time do I notice that it IS tempting to just be quiet to avoid what is now a real and intimate feeling of loathing. Much of the loathing is from frustration, I understand that, but much of it also seems to come from a deep distrust in all things feminine/female/feministic and the thought that women should also feel the need to equally promote thoughts, sites and ideas as an alternative to the mainstream (read: male) masculine thoughts, sites and ideas.

You mentioned http://blog.shrub.com/archives/tekanji/2008-02-06_693 and Kotaku, but honestly, after reading much of that, do I wonder if it isn’t rather common all over.

Fortunately is the moderators on forums.ageofconan.com trying hard to do good and help promoting everyone’s good ideas. I imagine that they also can feel somewhat unprepared (without me actually being told that) on some hostility and use of techniques that you mention in this blog.

I don’t think all the “hostiles!” are even aware of how it intimidates, hurts, corners, or angers, when you and/or friends get those things used against us. I really doubt they even know the emotional and conflicting intellectual source of their ways when they act like that.

Shrub and other sites like this has helped alot on my own motivation, just as it has made me understand that this isn’t such a rare problem. That it isn’t rare doesn’t really make it better, but more intimidating and hostile. Well, thanks

-V for Vilje the Vile

By: Official Shrub.com Blog » Blog Archive » Crecente fights the boy’s club of gaming… ORLY?

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:43:15 +0000

[...] job to moderate both the posts by other editors and the comments by readers) and the fact that he thinks it’s appropriate to refuse removal of a dirty picture, posted without permission, at th…. Really, it doesn’t take very much to earn a place on my “misogynist shit list”, [...]

By: IMReader

IMReader — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 08:48:10 +0000

I don’t really know about all this. Don’t get me wrong, I consider the people that objectify women on the internet uncultured boobs. However, criticism of internet culture won’t get any change accomplished.

Really, the only way for that to happen is for more women to get involved in internet communities and to make their presence obvious. This might prompt some male members of these communities into holding their tongues. As I see it, the problem is rooted in the fact that the internet is a predominantly male “culture.” Often the issue is that males are the vast majority of members in a community, and it just opens the door for testosterone-induced stupidity. I really do hope this happens, because it’s apparent that most internet communities are very male-heavy.

On another note, I don’t think “flaming” someone in online posts can really fall under defamation of character. That’s just ridiculous.

Steve P
imreader70@gmail.com

By: Official Shrub.com Blog » Blog Archive » Dealing with harassment isn't that easy

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 01:45:33 +0000

[...] the general chat channels. Jade Reporting has a Harassment category for a reason, blog posts like Harassment, silencing, and gaming communities didn’t happen without the contribution of many gamers who happened to be male, and studies [...]

By: 79soul » Blog Archive » What Can We Do About Video Games…

79soul » Blog Archive » What Can We Do About Video Games… — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:44:17 +0000

[...] that a lot of gamers are particularly hostile towards criticism of gaming, even from fellow gamers. Women and feminists are made unwelcome in many gaming circles, and concerns about sexism and racism in games go unheard, ignored, or [...]

By: Feministe » What Do We Do About Video Games?

Feministe » What Do We Do About Video Games? — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:57:36 +0000

By: Official Shrub.com Blog » Blog Archive » Policing women through violence [Women and Violence, Part 7]

Sat, 26 May 2007 03:13:12 +0000

[...] Women can be punished for things besides being ‘unfeminine,’ of course - as tekanji points out, men harass women for speaking up about gender issues, or just for being female. The ultimate result is the silencing or suppression of women, because we get afraid, frustrated, or just plain angry. [...]

By: 13th Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction & Fantasy Fans « Words From The Center, Words From The Edge

Thu, 03 May 2007 15:15:21 +0000

[...] - tekanji over at Official Shrug.com blog has a post about Harassment, silencing and gaming communities the methods used and where such things can lead: The editorial content on these sites are â€œofficialâ€ which, especially when weâ€™re talking about sites with a certain amount of popularity, gives them more weight than a personal blog or a comment in the post. What this means that, when women read these sites â€” and if youâ€™re a woman interested in gaming you will come across them, most likely long before you find any woman-positive sites â€” you are shown time and time again that your perspective and your opinions are not only lesser than that of menâ€™s apparently pressing need to drool over boobies, but that if you speak out against it (and even if you donâ€™t) you set yourself up to be an object of ridicule â€” and who is going to be taken more seriously, the bloggers at these popular sites (many of whom have some sort of journalistic training behind them) or you and your personal site? [...]

By: Official Shrub.com Blog » Blog Archive » Discursive patterns regarding sexual violence [Women and Violence, Part 3]

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:21:28 +0000

[...] That lesser-degree discursive shift is the precursor to things like the current mistreatment of Kathy Sierra, whose account of being viciously harassed and stalked is being minimized and dismissed, while Sierra herself is accused of overreacting and being unreliable. Because, much as I hate to admit it, the people who are engaging in the discrediting of Sierra’s story are not excessively ignorant or hateful people. They simply fail to examine how they are buying into the same violence-excusing, victim-blaming discourse that allows for such rampant victimization of women to be disregarded, and their voices to be silenced. The ones who are crying foul over this treatment of Sierra are feminist bloggers, who are most familiar with this insidious discourse and its effects. [...]