Only a few journalists in the national media, such as Slates David Auerbach, have acknowledged that serious harassment, including threats and doxxing—posting a persons private information online—have happened on both sides of GamerGate. Meanwhile, uncorroborated claims by Sarkeesian and Wu that the threats against them are connected to GamerGate have been uncritically repeated. In fact, there are persistent rumors, backed up with screenshots and chat room records, that at least some of the harassment and threats come from trolls who go after both sides to stir things up, because thats what trolls do. To some extent, journalists have been reluctant to look into these claims because they dont want to be targeted, but blaming the threats on GamerGate is also a convenient narrative. Meanwhile, GamerGaters efforts to stop and report harassment have been only rarely acknowledged. (When GamerGate members claimed to have found the man who had sent threats to Sarkeesian, anti-GamerGate blogger David Futrelle responded by accusing them of harboring some of Sarkeesians harassers in their midst—citing as his example a netizen known as thunderf00t, who has done little more than to engage in sharp criticism of Sarkeesians work.)... With few exceptions, GamerGate has been portrayed as a group of aggrieved white straight males who dont want women, gays, and minorities on their turf—even though female, gay, transgender, and minority gamers are among the movements most passionate supporters. Pro-GamerGate pundit/scholar Christina Hoff Sommers has been dismissed by detractors as a right-wing faux feminist (in fact, Sommers is a moderate, pro-choice registered Democrat). But the movement has also received at least partial sympathy from self-identified liberal feminists such as New York comedian/writer Sara Benincasa and Canadian journalist Liana Kerzner. Kerzner has had her conflicts with GamerGate but has lately found herself closer to the pro camp, partly because of what she sees as unfair media coverage. reason/archives/2014/11/01/misandry-in-the-gamergate-controversy
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 20:00:01 +0000
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