More provocations by former philosopher Christina Hoff Sommers. She obviously does them to provoke, because she knows it teases, so I’m being very kind and generous to her by calling attention to them. Or, if you prefer, I’m taking her bait like a damn fool. Whichever. But I just keep being fascinated by the trashiness of it all.
There are two sides, she says.
Christina H. Sommers @CHSommers · 21 minutes ago
Why is Wash Post taking sides rather than offering readers honest account of both sides of #Gamergate? @caitlindeweyhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/10/14/the-only-guide-to-gamergate-you-will-ever-need-to-read/ …
Little evidence that video games cause harm. But overexposure to hardline feminism appears to cause personal & social harm. Studies needed.
Nanananana, feminism is a big poopyhead.
It’s an odd way for an intelligent woman to make a living, relentlessly attacking feminism. Lots of women have done it in the past, but it seems odd nevertheless.
Jessica Valenti wrote about that glorious history last July.
As for all those rights won by so many feminists on behalf of so many more American women, the sad truth is that they fought other women every step of the way. Indeed, we live in a country with a long history of anti-feminist women: Before we had women like Christina Hoff Sommers and Katie Roiphe arguing that feminism was hurting men and that date rape wasn’t real, respectively, women were leaders in in the anti-suffrage movement of the early 1900s. And it was a woman – Phyllis Schlafly – who led the charge against the Equal Rights Amendment in the ’70s. Schreiber points out that some of the debates against the ERA were about “masculinity run amok”: “Phyllis Schlafly said if we were are treated as equals, then men will shirk their responsibilities,” she notes.
Remind me: Who are the man-haters again?
Between the last presidential election and the next one, between the feminist social media explosion and even Beyoncé coming out in our corner, right now is one of the most exciting times for feminism in decades. Yet here we have female anti-feminists – emboldened by Sarah Palin’s faux-feminist movement – raining on our progress parade. And it is especially irritating given that they’re using their gender as part of their organizing strategy. “It’s an identity politics angle that they criticize but often invoke,” Schreiber says.
Women stopping the progress of other women – especially those who don’t have the power and prestige to work for DC think-tanks or pen anti-feminist books – stings much more than when men do it.
Irritates, rather than stings – but maybe that’s just me.
But she’s right! Two sides, thusly:
Side 1: “Video games need to be more inclusive of women players, and stop treating female characters as either victims or eye candy.”
Side 2: “Nuh, uhhh! no, No, NO, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Waaah! waaah! waaaaaaah!”
Yeah, I don’t really understand this. The only thing I can think of is that it’s a result of Conservative xenophobia. They are so wracked by fear that they simply can’t tolerate the possibility of change. It reminds me of my sister and sushi – she is so certain she won’t like it that she refuses to even try one mouthful.
What is it with these anti-feminist females? What’s in it for them? Let’s see, the reason I claim to be a feminist, of course , is I’m hoping to get laid. I wonder if…..oh maybe not.
Really, I am very curious about their process, their motivations, how they choose that path. I can’t even speculate on that one.
Come to think of it, I can’t recall seeing a woman’s story of having come out of that place. Does it happen?
I was thinking about why these are so anti-feminist and unable to look at nuances of different arguments. They seem to have a very black and white view of the world and think there only 2 sides to an issue. All I can think of is that people are afraid of change and will cling to the status quo
Ah, so we’ve reached the #TeachTheControversy stage already. Excellent!
Translation: pay me some more money, AEI, and I’ll get right on that! Satisfactory conclusions guaranteed!
Quite a philosopher.
No, wait, I meant to say “not as good a philosopher as Sam Harris.” And I mean that in the most belittling way possible.
@ 3 ludicrous
Well there’s a certain status to be attained, isn’t there? Hoff Sommers is beloved of anti-feminists. The gamergate crowd call her “Based Mom”. (Which, for those of us not down with the kids, translates roughly as ‘non-conformist, iconoclast Mom’.)
That’s what an honest account of both sides looks like, Ms. Sommers. It looks like sane, sensible feminists on one side and repulsive raving, ranting loonies on the other. Because reality not only has a well known liberal bias, it has a feminist bias.
She’s provoking and teasing, but she’s also framing for the out-of-touch fools like Dawkins and the Fox News crowd who don’t quite know what the deal is with all these videogames and women talking out of turn, but by gum they don’t like it.
As for the rest of us, we’re actually familiar with real gamers and what they’re like. Why, I could not have been more shocked, shocked! I tell you to be called a ‘nappy headed n—I’ll leave you to figure the rest—in GTA online based on my character’s appearance. Must have been by a couple of false flagging SJWs.
As @nexxylove tweeted:
When CHS called gamers the most welcoming in a previous tweet, she was probably talking about being called http://fatuglyorslutty.com. It’s how gamers welcome each other. And ask if each other is down for a cream pie. Happens to male gamers all the time.
ludicrous @3:
Ooo, that brings back memories. If I may re-quote past-me…
@Silentbob, 7
Non-comformist iconoclast?! Huh?
Oh, right, because feminism rules the world now, thus opposition to it is non-conformism, rather than the most simplistic conservatism. I forget about our dominance sometimes… it usually happens when I look at the facts.
@Anthony K, 9
I honestly think most of that pretence is just for the sake of male gamers – no man would identify as a woman, you see (even though every woman online is a GIRL – guy in real life) and so they would have no experience of the way that women are treated unless they’d engaged in it themselves. Being ignorant of the unique form of bullshit that gets thrown at female-identified players, they’d simply assume that it’s nothing more than the usual ranting about how Obama going to usher in the era of the lizard men ruling openly and start the apocalypse (ESD zone chat – try it some time! :D) and that women are just too sensitive to handle that.
Unfortunately for their united front of ignorance, some XY types prefer to play female characters and so, although even then there’s the common assumption that everyone playing is male, have to deal with a steady stream of misogynist bullshit. Thankfully I’m no longer playing EVE and don’t have an ingame mail that receives images anymore (seriously guys, my own is enough for me to look at, I don’t need to see yours as well) but there’s still the steady objectification* and the condescension**. So, in defiance of the whole MM part of MMO’s, I mostly play solo, and I can completely understand why women who get enough of that shit in meatspace play male characters to avoid it entirely.
* I’ve had a surprising number of comments along the lines of “nice tits” considering that they’re just a bunch of pixels that are usually completely covered by platemail or a starfleet uniform. But even ignoring the fact that they’re not even real, why would I need to know that you liked them? Use your internal monologue, guys.
** Because I totally need you to explain that aiming gives me +33% damage, of course I need you to give me a million monies – because I couldn’t possibly make that myself in 20 minutes. Yes, I absolutely need to be told how to optimise my power levels on this ship that is tearing down shields like paper, making the enemy fire on one another almost constantly, and soaking up all incoming damage without even taking a dent in its shields unless I take a critical, and, yes, I realise that not all of my weapons can fire at once – it’s that way for a reason – because dps matters more than effectiveness, amirite? Bah.
Welp, looks like it’s time once again to link to Ian’s series on System Justification Theory. Turns out there is a lot of research on how and why people on the lower side of a societal hierarchy will justify that setup. This is a 6-part (!) series about how that all works, and it was quite an eye-opener when I read it.
It makes me sad that Ian is no longer blogging here, but he still posts over on crommunist.com so there’s that.
Looking at the comments here, I am rethinking my ideas about why some men and women are misogynists. It is all about being able to look down on others so one feels better about oneself. We all do this, of course. But you have to be introspective to challenge this view, this defense mechanism. Most people are not introspective. It takes practice. It takes a certain amount of maturity to imagine what it is like for the other person and how that person might feel.
Seconding Johnny Vector (#13) here – Ian’s series on System Justification is very much worth reading, and explains a great deal that I’d previously found mystifying. For my money, it’s the probably best thing that’s ever been posted on FTB (and that’s very high praise indeed).
Yes, it seems to be that the appropriate response to this is to shakes one’s head and roll one’s eyes rather than to go all ballistic.
Hoff et al want ballistic. It’s necessary for them to continue. When the response is “well what do you expect from a right-winger?” it undercuts them. I would expect more-egregious lashing out on their part to try to get a deeper emotional response.
Cool, calm disapproval…that’s the ticket.
@3 ludicrous
What’s in it for the anti-feminists? Um…there’s money…and money…some money…and a little bit of money.
It’s Hoff Sommer’s job.
For the others, let’s face it…they want to get on the gravy train.
And, of course, sucking up to the powerful so you can be included in the circles of the elite is also a pretty big inducement.
But first and foremost — follow the money.
@moarscienceplz, 1
I’d say even that is an overstatement. Side 1 is actually just “Side 1: “Video games aren’t as inclusive of women players as they could be, and treat female characters as either (specifically sexualised) victims or eye candy.” (I base that on Anita Sarkeesian’s videos, which (as I view them at least) are far more “This is how it is” than “This is how it is AND THAT IS WRONG AND MUST CHANGE NOW!!!1!1!”. It’s instructive that all you have to do to make people uncomfortable enough to get a nasty is point this stuff out. They know she’s right.)
Well thank you Johnny and Dunc,
At first glance looks very interesting. Maybe there is a lesson here, instead of smearing my wisdom all over and being told to shut up and die, I ask a few questions and get rewarded with what appears to be a very useful reference. I might try that approach again sometime.
I would bet that Sommers can’t even spell “tits or gtfo”.
Sommers. The more I hear from this woman, the less surprised I am that she’s been appointed Official Feminist of the Manly Atheist Leadership Establishment Society.
Thanks for the link and the second, Johnny Vector and Dunc. I’d read one of those posts, but not the series.
Glad people like Ian’s posts. And re-reading mine above, I see I come off as kind of snooty. Sorry about that; it wasn’t how I meant it. I more or less agree with Dunc that it’s one of the best things I’ve seen on FtB, though there are many many articles that fit that description. For me, what I like about it is that it was something I had no idea about, clearly described by an excellent writer. I learned a lot reading it, and it changed how I think about people. I like things that do that.