It is by all means free speech, and should remain perfectly legal in every regard. I'm simply arguing, along with people like Anita Sarkeesian, that it should be beneath our contempt and understood as detrimental to a world in which we treat women as human beings - human beings who are every bit as human as men.
It should be unappealing to everyone. The people championing GamerGate have this perception that a less patriarchal video game industry - a less patriarchal world - would somehow be lacking or less pleasing to them. I don't understand this in any way whatsoever. Awareness about issues, whether those issues are tropes or the blatant objectification of women, have never made me enjoy something less.
I'm done dancing around the issue about GamerGate, and I'm calling a spade a spade. GamerGate was founded on misogyny, it promulgates misogyny, it reinforces misogyny, and it is synonymous with misogyny.
|