What critics of GamerGate get wrong | FACTUAL FEMINIST — Transcript

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1. 0:00If you’ve been following the news, you’ve probably seen alarming stories about an army
2. 0:04of angry and vicious video gamers marching under a banner called GamerGate. According
3. 0:10to these reports, this mob will stop at nothing to defend its  heteronormative privilege.
4. 0:15Well, is this an accurate picture of GamerGate? I’ll consider the evidence next on the Factual Feminist.
5. 0:27#Gamergate is a Twitter hashtag and it attracts
6. 0:30gamers from all over the world, males & females, liberals & conservatives, black & white, straight,
7. 0:35gay and trans.  Some gamers identify with the hashtag because they believe there is
8. 0:39too much corruption in gaming. Others are weary of cultural critics who evaluate video
9. 0:44games through prism of gender politics. Now, I discovered GamerGate when I was working
10. 0:49on my recent video about sexism in games. In that video, I pointed out that the evidence
11. 0:55does not support the claim that video games cause violence or misogyny. I mean, gaming
12. 1:01has surged since the early 1990s, but youth crime has plummeted, and millennials who were
13. 1:06born and raised in video game nation, they are far less sexist, homophobic, bigoted than
14. 1:12older generations. Now, I deplore the fact that some feminist
15. 1:16critics and game developers have been threatened. In the earlier video, I pointed out that gamers
16. 1:22were being blamed for issuing death threats, even though no one knows who sent them. Well,
17. 1:28since that video, I have learned that several people inside GamerGate—including 2 women—have
18. 1:32received death threats too. Many in the media are treating Gamergate as a simple damsel
19. 1:37in distress story. Well damsels are in distress, but they are on both sides of the controversy.
20. 1:45Gamergaters were amazed and grateful for my defense of their hobby because for years they
21. 1:49have been disparaged as nerds, shut-ins and proto-school shooters. Now critics have added
22. 1:55misogynist and death threateners to the mix. Writers at popular game websites like Kotaku
23. 2:01and Polygon, they did a good job defending video games from the false charge that they foster
24. 2:06violence. But when gender activists came along accusing games of creating misogyny, these
25. 2:12journalists eagerly jumped on the bandwagon. And they were not happy with my video. Colin
26. 2:19Campbell, senior reporter at Polygon, for example, called me a “reactionary” and
27. 2:24suggested my indifference to sexism in videos was an “irresponsible abrogation of our shared
28. 2:29humanity.” I don’t doubt Mr. Campbell’s sincerity.
29. 2:33Many games do depict horrific violence and mistreatment of women. But remember there
30. 2:39is vastly more violence and mistreatment of men. Now, there are horrible scenes in video
31. 2:45games like Grand Theft Auto and these upset me. But I also cringe at the violence in television
32. 2:50shows like Breaking Bad and The Sopranos. I mean I’d rather play a games with themes
33. 2:54from Downtown Abbey or the Umbrellas of Cherbourg. But my g ame and film preferences cannot be
34. 3:04generalized and certainly can’t be a basis for condemning others. I mean, behavior should
35. 3:09be guided by Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative; that the rules of the imagination
36. 3:15are more permissive. Would-be game reformers need to connect the games they criticize to
37. 3:21negative world consequences. They need to show, not dogmatically assume, that video
38. 3:26games make people sexist. The burden of proof rests with them.  And intuitions that a certain
39. 3:32game or book or film, comic book, song, that these are psychologically damaging and socially
40. 3:39corrosive. This is rarely borne out in reality. Now, critics might respond that we should
41. 3:44be unforgiving of sexist tropes even if we can’t prove that games cause misogyny. But
42. 3:50what counts as sexism is unsettled—even among feminists.
43. 3:54Consider the newly released video game Bayonetta 2. Bayonetta is a powerful, charismatic female
44. 3:59protagonist created by a Japanese female game developer. She is a wildly popular video heroine,
45. 4:07and some feminists have embraced her as an exemplar of Girl Power. But the feminist critic,
46. 4:12Anita Sarkeesian, disagrees. She has called the game “pernicious” and she faults its
47. 4:18“shameless sexism and use of the male gaze.”  “Everything about Bayonetta’s design,”
48. 4:24says Sarkeesian, “is created specifically for the sexual pleasure of straight male gamers.”
49. 4:29Those were her words. Now, her critique relies on a 1975 feminist theory about the “male
50. 4:35gaze” and how it objectifies and demeans women. But 'Gaze Theory' has evolved since 1975.
51. 4:42It turns out that spectators might be able to gaze at a woman’s beauty and also identify
52. 4:48with her on a human level. Now, men are the main market for competitive
53. 4:53action games, and many men—not all them, but many—do like images of beautiful, sexy
54. 4:59women. Why shame them for this? Now, traditionally women, gays, trans people, they have been
55. 5:06policed and humiliated for their sexuality. That is wrong. Today, at least in certain
56. 5:14feminist circles, it’s open season on the sexual preferences of straight males. That’s
57. 5:19also wrong. Now, when GamerGaters protest the politicization
58. 5:24of gaming journalism, they are not fighting progress or thwarting feminism. Most of them
59. 5:28are probably supporters of mainstream equality feminism. They are pushing back on a hardline,
60. 5:36puritanical gender politics that for some reason many of their critics are imposing
61. 5:41on them. Well, take it from Based Mom: GamerGate, overall, is
62. 5:46a voice for moderation in today's fevered debates over sex and gender. And those gamers,
63. 5:52they’re not going away any time soon. I mean, once they enter a battle, they like
64. 5:56to win. And they know how to slay a dragon. What do you think about the GamerGate Debate?
65. 6:03Do you agree that the media has given a misleading account. Let me know in the comments section.
66. 6:08And if you appreciate this series please show your support by subscribing. And also, follow
67. 6:13me on Twitter. Thank you for watching the Factual Feminist.