It should have been a pleasant weekend full of grilling, football and quietly mourning the demise of the American labor union. And it probably was for you, unless you happen to be a female video game journalist.
There aren’t many corners of the Internet deeper and darker than those that house the people with strong feelings about video games, so the more niche news usually doesn’t bubble up to the surface. That was the case until this weekend, when #Gamergate made Twitter’s trending page alongside gifs celebrating the return of college football and creeps posting links to a mass of leaked celebrity nude pictures.
In case you aren’t a denizen of one of those deep reaches of the Internet, Gamergate is a controversy cooked up over the last month or so by a group of the video gaming community based around a few feminist games journalists, notably Anita Sarkeesian, who hosts the vlog “Feminist Frequency,” in which she points out the male-dominated nature of video games and the industry behind them.
It’s hard to define exactly what the controversy here is, because it’s largely a one-sided issue. So far, the main events in the saga have been “ex-boyfriend of video games journalist exposes that she may have cheated on him” and “men on Twitter call said journalist a slut.”
The Twitter proponents of Gamergate, about half of whom seem to use preteen anime girls for avatars, say they are fighting for honesty and impartiality in journalism, but mostly appear to be upset that some uppity woman is daring to comment on what has historically been a male-dominated medium.
Sarkeesian has done good work pointing out the way in which women are largely ignored in video games. When they are represented, women are generally treated either as sex objects or totally without agency.
This is a problem across all media, but Sarkeesian and other feminist games journalists’ work is especially important because video games have an audience even more male-dominated than movies or TV.
The Gamergate reaction points to not only a widespread misunderstanding of the distinction between journalism and criticism (here’s a hint: if you’re reading a blog or there’s a big “Opinion” on the top of the page, the work may not be totally impartial), but a disturbing tendency to disguise anti-feminist rhetoric as cultural criticism.
Phrases like “social justice warrior,” “gamer hater” and even just the word “feminist” have become buzzwords among gamers on Twitter. When synonyms for people fighting for equality become bad words, you have to question what that group really stands for.
It came to a head this weekend when threats of death and sexual assault against Sarkeesian and her family forced her to leave her home and stay with friends. All because she’s a woman, and the things she says about video games on her website make people mad.
The Internet has opened up dialogue about equality in media by allowing people who have not been traditionally employed by the media to have a voice. It’s ironic that one of the newest, most high-tech forms of media seems the most skeptical to have its criticism brought into the 21st century.
Gordon Brillon is a 21-year-old mass communication senior from Lincoln, R.I. You can reach him on Twitter @TDR_GBrillon.