The Colbert Report: Gamergate with Anita Sarkeesian

1. Gamergate dishes out death threats. Significant numbers of white, heterosexual males are in revolt as women enter the online gaming space in record numbers. Calling these men trolls is an understatement — say women gamers, led by media critic and Feminist Frequency creator Anita Sarkeesian.

Case in point is this october 23, 2014 post about an invitation to Sarkeesian to speak at the University of Utah.

I was invited to speak at Utah State University on Wednesday October 15th, 2014 about women’s representations in video games. Sadly, the university received a series of emails threatening to commit “the deadliest school shooting in American history” if I was allowed to speak on campus. When USU and Utah police refused to screen attendees for firearms, citing the state’s concealed carry laws, I was forced to cancel the event. Below is a round up of media interviews I have done recently speaking about the threats in Utah, the epidemic of gendered harassment online, and the larger problem of sexism within the games industry as a whole.

Believe Women’s Stores; They Can Be Astonishing When Exercising Our Rights

Let me say that I’m pretty clueless on this one, not being a gamer. The closest I’ve come to death threats was being stalked and in police protection for a year because I participated in a televised panel in the 1970s where I was asked if I supported the Rose vs Wade decision. I said ‘yes’ with perhaps one more sentence about the famous Supreme Court Decision.

The following week a box was left on my doorstep containing the rope my stalker would use to hang me. This box was followed by one containing a bleeding decapitated animal with a large butcher knife — the same one he would use to stab me. The third box I took directly to the very supportive police lieutenant without opening it.

The night my stalker — now wearing a Halloween mask — flew across the windshield of my car as I back it out of a parking lot, my nightmare ended. I floored my accelerator and drove away, with him rolling off the hood.

Unlike those who accuse Anita Sarkeesian of making up the death threats for self-promotion, I know how zealous one’s opponents can be when the topic is feminism and women’s rights. Watch this:

Anita Sarkessian, Feminist Frequency speech at Portland’s XOXO Festival

The Deniers

As for the opposing forces, Breitbart London’s Milo Yiannopoulos writes in Feminist Bullies Tearing The Video Game Industry Apart:

The journalists who cover games and gamers are subject to similar peculiarities and challenges, which perhaps explains widespread frustration from players that every blog out there seems more concerned with policing misogyny and “transphobia” than reviewing the latest game releases. As a result, gaming sites and their readers have drifted apart in recent years. Journalists have sided with activists to pen soporific op-eds about the need for “equality” in video games, while the people who actually play games just want to know if the latest instalment is good value for money.

Sweden, comprising a constellation that also includes Finland, Norway, Denmark and The Netherlands, leads the world in pursuing equality for women on every front. With great results, I will say. Sweden’s research and development government agency Vinnova, has commissioned a $37,000 US study to examine the prevalence of sexism in video games.