By Leilani Catala
Leaks of personal information, false accusations of conspiracy and nepotism, and threats of brutal sexual assault are only a few examples of the types of messages and comments that women like Anita Sarkeesian and Zoë Quinn could expect to receive on a daily basis at the height of the Gamergate controversy. Popular social media and discussion sites such as Reddit, 4chan, and Twitter were littered with hateful comments from individuals brimming with contempt and too much time on their hands. Though the Gamergate controversy began in 2014, the women who were the initial targets of the movement continue to endure barrages of misogynistic and hateful harassment today. Further analysis into the reasons behind the lack of critical coverage of such occurrences begins to raise questions about the way we view gamers as a group, and why the ways they are depicted in media are reductive, false, and downright dangerous.
If you are unfamiliar with the Gamergate movement, at this point it would be reasonable to assume that Sarkeesian and Quinn have done some incredibly harmful things to warrant such intense and personal backlash from so many people. Unfortunately, this could not be further from the truth. Because Gamergate was and is not a centralized movement and does not have any official members, statements, or values as an organization, it can be hard to piece together why the people who follow this movement have been, and are, so upset, but the key events that sparked the movement in the first place are clearly definable. Anita Sarkeesian was targeted due to her critiques of popular video games through a feminist lens on her YouTube series, “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games” where she explains the portrayal of women in games and elucidates instances and broader themes of misogyny in many popular video games. Zoe Quinn, a female game developer, received backlash after her ex-boyfriend revealed in a blog post that she had an affair with someone who wrote a positive review of a game she developed, and went on to win an award for. Instigators railed against Sarkeesian for “making video games about social justice” and accused Quinn of sexual bribery, claiming that we need to “maintain ethics in journalism.” Despite the emphasis on ethics, most of the messages that these people were spreading in online forums contained sex and gender based discrimination, along with significant antisemitism towards Anita Sarkeesian, who is a Jewish woman. The fact that what these online agitators were truly mad about had little to do with actual issues of bribery and ethics should be painfully clear, but what remains uncertain are the reasons why the media refused or was unable to accurately and critically cover such dangerous behavior within the movement.
The stereotypical depiction of avid gamers in mainstream media, television shows, and movies is overwhelmingly that of white, male, heterosexual teenagers and young adults, and while attitudes about video games themselves have shifted over the years, it is also a common stereotype that gamers are usually lonely, lazy, geeky or any combination of the previous. It is this portrayal of what gamers are that has permeated our culture and shaped normative ideas about gaming, even if they are wildly off base and factually incorrect, since stereotypes don’t operate on the basis of empirical evidence. It is the view of gamers as lonely that makes us sympathetic to their disdain for women; it is their fanaticism around the games they love that fool us into giving them credit for criticism where none is due; and most importantly, it is the idea that their social ineptitude or assumed physical weakness makes them harmless or any less of a threat. The acceptance of these ideas minimizes our concern surrounding targeted harassment and verbal abuse online.
Ensuring all sides of an argument are adequately addressed is an important part of critical thinking and proper analysis, however, it does not necessitate we permit vitriolic hate speech or give a platform to perspectives rooted in discriminatory beliefs without examination or criticism. Gamergate did not necessarily go completely ignored, but the media outlets that did cover it clearly believed both sides of the aisle were operating in good faith, and therefore arguments from both sides were ‘equally’ considered. In a piece about the mainstream media’s treatment of the Gamergate scandal, writer Jon Evans expounds on the idea of major news outlets and journalists forgoing authentic and critical coverage to avoid isolating people or groups who might take offense from such scrutiny. He writes, “Arguments about purported ‘grievance politics,’ or ‘the decline of America sanctioned by the elites,’ or a manufactured, fictional ‘immigration crisis,’ all continue to be treated by the media as legitimate grievances, and/or good-faith disputes, rather than a thin pretext for bald-faced racism and xenophobia” (Evans). What Evans is conveying is that if we want the goal of journalism to be truth-seeking, we must investigate the motives behind the rhetoric and actions of agitating groups. By obfuscating their true agenda and focusing their messaging on seemingly innocuous if not actually populist ideas, members of the political right are able to infiltrate popular media and splinter the legitimacy of their opposition with what is essentially political impunity. The truth is not always neutral, and despite journalists’ desire to maintain fairness across the aisle by not scrutinizing ideas before platforming them, they are compromising their own integrity while handing power and influence to a force not fully understood.
We excuse the behavior of these people because we assume that someone could only be so infuriated with good reason. However, without proper investigation into the actual ideas these people promote, we have no chance of ever standing up to actual injustices and being capable of critical thought on our own. The real reason people were so upset at Sarkeesian was because she was bringing up issues about games being sexist, which many people misconstrued as Anita calling anyone who likes said games, sexist. As explained in a series of videos about Gamergate by YouTuber InnuendoStudios, people were upset that Anita had voiced concern about harmful ideas pushed by the video games they valued and enjoyed, prompting them to react on their initial feelings without taking time to reflect on her criticisms or even actually disprove them. The level of their outrage and the manufactured victimhood they felt when faced with a viewpoint they could not immediately comprehend should not have had such an impressive impact on the way that their harassment and hate was perceived and portrayed.
Of course, it is more convenient to ignore these online harassers—as long as you aren’t being targeted yourself, you have nothing to worry about. But the only effects we’ve seen after six years of pretending that Gamergate wasn’t as bad as some independent and progressive journalists made it out to be is an emboldened population of people who are now more skilled in online harassment, a new wave of right wing propagandists whose fear-mongering rhetoric is reaching more mainstream audiences, and the normalization of personal online attacks against anyone who might have an opinion outside of the United States’ relatively right-leaning Overton window. Many female video game streamers on Twitch have talked about the extensive stalking and harassment they have received online simply for providing people with entertainment, exemplifying that a man doesn’t need physical stature or strength in order to harm and threaten the safety of women. Both men and women are harassed on Twitch, but the majority of people who are routinely stalked, threatened, and harassed are women. It speaks to the omnipresent sexism in the United States that allows these injustices to occur, and misogynistic behavior to be written off and minimized when it comes from a certain type of person or group.
Misogyny is weaved into the ways we are socialized in this country, and the way the disparagement and abuse of women is depicted in the media exemplifies this fact as starkly as ever. You might be wondering what more can be done to protect people who just want to make content on Twitch or who want to share opinions that might ruffle some feathers, and the truth is we have to develop more democratic institutions of media and we must incentivize journalism that seeks truth, rather than amplifies platitudes that divide people and impart unwarranted fear. Violent cycles of abuse should be taken seriously and reported on as such, despite whether or not it is the most financially safe or optically savvy choice. We need to remember the truth is not always neutral, comforting, or easily detectable, but the only way to make things better is to seek it out even when we are afraid of what realizations we may come to.
RhetComp 