Feminist Frequency: Harassment, Misogyny and Silencing on YouTube

[Hexen]

Anita from Feminist Frequency is doing a kickstarter about sexism in video games of course there is a onslaught of these recent events.

http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/06/harassment-misogyny-and-silencing-on-youtube/

I guess it's the best evidence that youtube is a cesspool breeding ground for nazis/fascists and also male supremacists.

Also one of the comments below asked a very good question:


When did blatant racism come back into fashion?I've been wondering about the increasing racism/sexism on youtube which I've been wondering if this has anything to do with fascism being more appealing during economic crisis more than socialism hence we have history repeating itself (the same way Hitler got into power)? This has been a disturbing development lately...

Anyway does anybody here support this project? I think it's fine way to address the sexism in video games hopefully game developers will take notice if it's made.

[Hexen]

Hmmm...no responses eh? Well anyway does anyone here support the project?

[Book O'Dead]

Most excellent stuff!

[jake williams]

I've been wondering about the increasing racism/sexism on youtube which I've been wondering if this has anything to do with fascism being more appealing during economic crisis more than socialism hence we have history repeating itself (the same way Hitler got into power)? This has been a disturbing development lately...
I don't see it being particularly correlated. That sort of racism and sexism existed in parts of the internet well before the current crisis. I think it's more about this sort of contrarion conservatism where it's cool to be a psychotic sexist or racist because political incorrectness is rebellion against the liberal (wo)Man.

[Quail]

Those comments are pretty disgusting, but I wouldn't have expected anything else from youtube. I think the way that men and women are portrayed in the media (including video games) is very important. Having women as weak, useless characters reinforces the idea that women are weak. Overly sexualised female characters reinforces the idea that women are sex objects. Macho male characters is also problematic because it reinforces the idea that that's how men should be and behave. I'd like to hope that most people would be more receptive to the idea of examining how gender roles are portrayed in video games, and that the youtube video just attracted (unfunny) trolls, but I don't know.

[Lynx]

Anonymity is the problem, not Youtube per se.

[#FF0000]

Yeah. Dumb babies will use anonimity to say dumb things they wouldn't say out loud.

(I also don't think one needs $6,000 for this kind of project but that isn't even an issue)

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

Anonymity is the problem, not Youtube per se.

This. It gives people the 'courage' to make the kind of shitty statements they wouldn't dare make in a public forum where their name was known or they were physically visible / recognised.

[Agent Ducky]

This. It gives people the 'courage' to make the kind of shitty statements they wouldn't dare make in a public forum where their name was known or they were physically visible / recognised.

Yeah. I was having a wonderful discussion on YouTube about America's vs. Russia's nuclear arsenals (he seemed to think that I was arguing that America has the most nukes in the world out of nationalism...?) and he called me a bunch of homophobic slurs. After which I told him I was female. And then, I got this gem:



the only thing a woman shoud see in her life is the kitchen the bed and the back of my hand BIOCH do u know why womans feet are so smal so they can fit under the kitchen counter. snif snif do u smell anything no i dont so get cooking BBBBBBBBBBBBBIIIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHH
why is a motor cycle better than a woman you dont have to ask to ride them mmmaaallleee dddooommmiiinnnaaannnccceee
What the actual fuck?
And they think this is "trolling" and funny? .... Doesn't make sense to me.

[revolt]

the people that bother to comment on race, gender, sex, lgbt, etc. issues on youtube are generally people who care a lot about their despicable opinions. someone who is eager to degrade homosexuals is more likely to leave a comment than someone who is fine with homosexuality.

[¿Que?]

Yeah, this story has been blowin' up all over reddit, and the response has been similar to youtube. I got into a discussion with someone about this on reddit.

To be perfectly clear, I in no way condone the reposes she is getting from the trolls. These are generally butthurt, neckbeards, basement dwellers and the like, who's frustration with getting laid generally is expressed as misogyny and a general attitude of male victimization.

They generally point to the criminal injustice system, the army, custody disputes and other similar barriers to all out male domination to create a fantasy of the oppressed male. Make no mistake. I have no doubt men are oppressed. But it's not by women and it's not because they're men. It's usually because they're black, or poor, or gay or ability challenged etc etc.

Today, someone posted this little gem and it made it to the front page:
http://i.imgur.com/IFbwZ.png

Besides the fact that I wasn't able to find a single feminist group actually stating on record that they supported Bank's conviction or stated support for the accuser, and in spite of the fact that I posted a question asking specifically which feminist groups officially supported the accuser, which received as of now 10 upvotes but no responses, besides all that, it actually points to a rather serious problem with Feminist Frequency. That is if the author was actually a radical or revolutionary or actually concerned with inequality and social justice in general, as opposed to just a woman trying to advance her career through bourgeois feminism, then this could be easily countered by pointing to the racist criminal justice system, in which blacks are generally convicted at higher rates, and in which blacks are disproportionately falsely accused of rape (see here (http://www.examiner.com/article/why-false-rape-convictions-are-a-racial-justice-issue)).

That's the problem with feminist frequency. It is simply tired old, non-class based, non-race based, non-anything based feminism. It's just feminist critique, something I don't find particularly useful or valuable outside of a general context of combating inequality. I challenged people on a different thread to show where the vblogger actually talks about these things, and I got some pretty angry responses, but nobody could come up with anything. She claims in her About page that she discusses race, class, sexuality, ability AND gender in pop culture, but she doesn't. She only discusses gender.

Don't get me wrong, gender issues are important, and this fault of her work in no way justifies the ignorant and pathetic responses from youtube, reddit, 4chan and the rest. However, bourgeois feminism, what I am basically calling feminist analysis that does not even attempt at tackling the bigger questions about inequality in general, that is feminism that treats gender as an object on its own, that doesn't explore intersections of race, class etc is to me, useless and not worth my time.

tl:dr her work is bad, the response was worse though.

[Hexen]

Today, someone posted this little gem and it made it to the front page:
http://i.imgur.com/IFbwZ.png

Besides the fact that I wasn't able to find a single feminist group actually stating on record that they supported Bank's conviction or stated support for the accuser, and in spite of the fact that I posted a question asking specifically which feminist groups officially supported the accuser, which received as of now 10 upvotes but no responses, besides all that, it actually points to a rather serious problem with Feminist Frequency. That is if the author was actually a radical or revolutionary or actually concerned with inequality and social justice in general, as opposed to just a woman trying to advance her career through bourgeois feminism, then this could be easily countered by pointing to the racist criminal justice system, in which blacks are generally convicted at higher rates, and in which blacks are disproportionately falsely accused of rape (see here (http://www.examiner.com/article/why-false-rape-convictions-are-a-racial-justice-issue)).

people on a different thread to show where the vblogger actually talks about these things, and I got some pretty angry responses, but nobody could come up with anything. She claims in her About page that she discusses race, class, sexuality, ability AND gender in pop culture, but she doesn't. She only discusses gender.

Don't get me wrong, gender issues are important, and this fault of her work in no way justifies the ignorant and pathetic responses from youtube, reddit, 4chan and the rest. However, bourgeois feminism, what I am basically calling feminist analysis that does not even attempt at tackling the bigger questions about inequality in general, that is feminism that treats gender as an object on its own, that doesn't explore intersections of race, class etc is to me, useless and not worth my time.

tl:dr her work is bad, the response was worse though.

Well what site (well the origin of that picture you posted) are you talking about exactly and do you have a link?

[¿Que?]

Well what site are you talking about exactly and do you have a link?

I got it from reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/va2xg/yeah_if_this_doesnt_scream_wtf_i_dont_know_what/

If you search hard enough, you should be able to find my comment, although I'm not going to tell you my username.

Don't expect anything reassuring in those comments though, that site is slightly less disgusting than 4chan.

As for Feminist Frequency, my critique is my critique. You don't have to buy into it. It's just my opinion, and it's likely poorly timed while all this other shit is going on. Still, it'd be nice if people could come up with reasonable, well though of critiques as opposed to reactionary, knee jerk sexism, and sometimes you have to lead by example.

[Hexen]

As for Feminist Frequency, my critique is my critique. You don't have to buy into it. It's just my opinion, and it's likely poorly timed while all this other shit is going on. Still, it'd be nice if people could come up with reasonable, well though of critiques as opposed to reactionary, knee jerk sexism, and sometimes you have to lead by example.

I think you may have a point that I do notice that she only focuses on gender related issues while dodging class analysis which points to the bigger picture of the main source of where sexism comes from our society which is also main source where racism/classism/etc comes from which is capitalism since the entire system is built for & by wealthy white (christian) males while everyone else (women and other 'minorities') are their exploitative classes.

[¿Que?]

I think you may have a point that I do notice that she only focuses on gender related issues while dodging the bigger picture of the main cause of the sexism in our society which is the same cause of racism/classism/etc which is capitalism which is a system designed for wealthy white males while everyone else (women and other 'minorities') are their exploitative classes.
Maybe in this new series she's fundraising for, she might, who knows?

[Hiero]

Isn't that part of the problem with the hegomonic culture? Isn't part of its purpose is to reproduce acceptance of the capitalist system through masking systems of domination and expliotation such as class?

Alot of the cultural artefacts that she analysis purposefully lack class, or misrecgonises class as something else. The easily read catergory is gender. I think feminist frequency engaes the content thoroughly. The lack of class analysis is a result of the lack of class content in most of the content she chooses to analysis. But that is the purpose of post-modern culture, to deny class existence. So it is hard to talk about class when class is absent or misrecgonized. There is other material she could analysis, but her focus is hegonomic material that aims to reproduce subjugation.

I would be more critical if she was dealing with real people and not just cultural content. That is the criticism of cultural theory, I think it is usefull if it is analysised in the context of its role in reproducing acceptance of subjugation, whether it is a Marxist idea of false consciousnes or ideology, or Focauldian idea of power or Bourdieun idea of doxa.

[Invader Zim]

Of course, the reason these boys say this shit is because they are trying to get a reaction by being as offensive as possible. Whether they actually believe it or not is an entirely different issue.

Of course, online gaming is just as bad. You only have to play a game online for a vew minutes and you can almiost guarantee that you will be called a 'fag', 'pussy', '*****', '****' or some other crass and discriminatory insult. And if you complain you will likely be met with more of the same and informed that you have 'butthurt', 'sand in your vagina' or something similar. Again, these kids are trolling and wouldn't, I imagine for the most part, even dream of doing it face to face without the mask of anaonymity provided by the internet.

To return to the issue of the comments regarding the video, some of the comments were clearly a poor attempt at satire, while others were positively ouzing vindictive spite. The unfortunate thing is that these horrible comments overshadow some of the constructive critiques being made.