< Sept 18: This is an old post that seemed relevant to me again. Enjoy. >
This may or may not be a satire.
I am pissed off. No, I’m sickened. No, I’m the embodiment of righteous fury and I’m ready to kill. Sexism in the gaming/tech/electronic industry has gotten so out of hand that merely writing articles isn’t good enough. We need action! And by action, I mean PUMP–ACTION shotguns, which we will use to kill every male who is remotely involved in the worldwide criminal conspiracy to oppress women’s rights and alienate them from being able to participate in society the same as men. Pick a side, reader!
We hereby answer the rally cry of Rock, Paper, Shotgun and their “Misogyny, Sexism, And Why RPS Isn’t Shutting Up” mission statement. We are inspired by veteran game journalist John Walker’s passionate, brave volley of nuclear truth aimed at sexism (and also aimed at indifference — which is just as bad as sexism!). John Walker exposes the “insidious” and “pervasive” nature of modern sexism by looking at a whopping two examples of mistreatment in gaming/tech/electronic culture today. That may not seem like a lot, but when you’ve got examples as good as his you only need two. Let’s look at these examples and remind ourselves what is at stake, and why the whole world needs to rise up in a unilateral assault:
Women are being forced at gunpoint to participate degrading short films “about videogames”
On April 4th, 2013 (a date Walker felt compelled to mention, so we will too,) video publishing giant Machinima.com put up a video featuring two unwitting females being tortured. I’m not kidding, that’s all the video was about. These women were electrocuted, physical traumatized, and humiliated for the twisted enjoyment of the male patriarchy, being forced to strip down to almost nothing and play Rock Band while a creepy narrator salivates over it all. (Machinima is well known for exploiting a loophole in Internet Law where anything is legally acceptable if you pretend to make it about games. We need to reform that, so write to your Senator after you’ve finished reading this article.) The video was begrudgingly taken down by Machinima after a wave of holy wrath was directed at them, purportedly for “copyright infringement”. Yeah right, Machinima.com, we know you love torturing women, and we know you only took it down because you want to save face and keep your reputation for being a shining beacon of wholesome entertainment! You’ve been exposed and we will never forget it!
These women were not fully grown, responsible adults who auditioned for and subsequently performed in an artistic film created and distributed under the protection of the First Amendment (of the United State’s Bill of Rights, which is part of the Constitution). Or at least that’s what I assume, because otherwise who gives a shit? No, they must have been forced at gunpoint to do it. I’m not ashamed to say, I am crying as I write this, because nobody deserves to be treated like that. Women, on behalf of all men, I apologize. Gladly I would sacrifice my life upon the Altar of Political Correctness in order to atone for the sins of the male institution known as Machinima.com, who represents all men in the same way that IGN and Brazzers do — but alas, I’m afraid this would not fix the problem.
As John Walker puts it, “this is an industry in which such a video can be conceived, scripted, filmed, edited and produced, then uploaded, without anyone effectively challenging it.” What industry is he referring to? You know, the INDUSTRY. We obviously need to destroy this industry, so if anyone reading this knows what exactly he’s talking about, send me a message at this special e-mail address. If only somebody had “effectively challenged” that video before it hit the web, thousands of innocent unsuspecting viewers would have been spared the horror of witnessing such an atrocity. Rest In Peace, Internet Innocence.
This wouldn’t be such a problem if it weren’t for another sad fact: Whatever the Internet makes, the Internet makes you watch. It’s a popular misconception that people are free to do what they want in their free time. The truth is, the Internet is actually something everybody is forced to pay attention to, and the sites you visit on the Internet are also not voluntary. We’ve all experienced our browsers randomly sending us to sexist webpages and YouTube videos, right? It happens all the time. I tried phoning Google about this, but my calls have not been returned. (This means they are Part Of The Problem too, because remember: inaction is guilt.)
Machinima.com (and by proxy, everybody who doesn’t care about the things they produce) is worthy of death. Their deliberate ongoing campaign of misogyny cannot be tolerated. Sure they took down the video after complaints, but it’s not as if “Machinima has over 5000 partners worldwide[45] who are contracted to produce video content under the Machinima brand.[6]” and not as if that figure is taken from their Wikipedia page. Nope, it’s all part of a plan, and it reflects a deep and troubling phenomenon that pervades the entire “industry”. And even if that was how Machinima.com happened to work, it’s not as if curating and removing offensive videos submitted by those thousands of independent contributors would reflect any sense of social responsibility or conscience.
Actually the same could be said for YouTube itself. Did you know that YouTube is actually administered by one guy who personally approves every video? His name is Daniel Youtube, and he hand-picks every video and comment that can be published, which means that we should be furious when username hitler-was-a-good-guy comments on a funny cat video saying “NiggersniggersniggersniggersIhateniggersandJews”. Why would you do such a thing, Daniel Youtube? Don’t you realize that even if this comment is flagged and removed, you’re still guilty for publishing it in the first place. We need to get super fucking angry about this, and make Mission Statements on our gaming websites.