"You Should Be Raped"

(Author’s Note: I composed this a while before GamerGate started up; this post does not specifically address the GG issue)

Sometimes when you read something and then read the comments on that something, you’ll see things like “I’m ashamed of my gender” or “I apologize for my fellow men/women”. So I’m going to tell you up front that I am not ashamed of being male. I also will not apologize for other men. Apologizing for them is a feel-good measure that relieves one of having to actually take on any responsibility for telling other people to stop being defective human beings.

What am I talking about? I think you know. . .

The internet is running ever more rampant with misogyny. Comment sections, message boards, Twitter, etc. Now, it’s not like misogyny is a new thing (in fact, it’s one of the oldest things). But it’s reaching stupid levels even outside of institutionalized expressions. On the “plus” side, it is both men and women doing it. So I guess that’s something?

It is something actually; sad.

Criticizing the portrayal of women in a video game or RPG is not something a decent person threatens or wishes rape or death over. In fact, there isn’t much of anything that a decent person would threaten those things over. Yet we’re seeing stunning numbers of such threats and wishes all over the internet. And while it appears to be about things, the real cause is a simple one; because the speaker is a female expressing her opinion.

Seriously, go look into it. Almost every case it because a woman expressed an opinion about something, be it gaming, feminism, government, TV shows or whatnot. It’s a sad statement on our world in general (your research will inform you that this is not just an American thing).

A lot of it is done by those donning the cover of “Men’s Rights Activists” or MRAs. Of course, the only activism most of them are engaging in is insulting and threatening women on the internet. Most of the men who are actually involved in activism for men’s right are too busy activisting. This is good, since there are a lot of issues involving men that need to be addressed in the world. But the MRAs are not the ones addressing them.

But an awful lot of it doesn’t come from self-proclaimed MRAs. No, it comes from people who are simply hateful, defective human beings. Some of them can be educated, but an awful lot of them cannot be educated, and more importantly, refuse to be educated.  They’ve crafted entire identities around hating women and could not stand to have those shattered.

I read some of the things these used colostomy bags say to women, and I assume most don’t actually act like this around the women they actually know and interact with, and I also assume that their mothers, sisters, and daughters feel shame and sadness when they discover what wastes of semen their sons , brothers, and fathers turned out to be.

But this isn’t limited to men, no, not by a long shot. One of the things the MRA movement is banking on is the support and participation of women. And there are women who support them. Because self-hatred and ignorance ignore gender lines. It’s not like slut-shaming and the like by women against women is a new thing. No, hateful sexism can be found across the gender spectrum.

And that’s pretty fucking sad.

It’s a pretty big problem, and it might seem like there isn’t much you can do. I mean you can do what I do when I’m bored, and confront these people who express this vile hatred online. Do I think they are going to learn anything or suddenly see the light? Oh lawdy no I do not. But then, the point of confronting someone online is almost never to change that person’s opinion. It’s more to maybe get the people who are just reading to think about things in a different light even if only for a short time. In my case, it’s also to insult them because history has taught us that you can shame evil into the shadows and weaken it.

And make no mistake; some of these people are evil. Banal evil, but evil nonetheless.

No, what most of us can do to deal with the problem is not put up with it when we encounter it in person. Hanging out with a buddy and they say something stupid and hateful? Call them on the right there. It can possibly cost you some friends and acquaintances, but consider; do you want people like that as friends? I don’t. Don’t apologize or make excuses for your friend. You stop and tell them why that behavior is unacceptable and why they are ignorant for espousing it.

The Klan was once a prominent and powerful organization. Society shamed them into the shadows and broke their power. We can do the same to the weasel bastards who think “I hope you get raped” is an appropriate response to. . . well, anything.

We need to cut this down sooner rather than later so we can step up to fixing problems that exist in society for both women and men as a team.