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> I lead a development studio that makes games. Sometimes, I write about issues in the games industry that relate to the equality of women. My reward is that I
by cheez 12y ago
> I lead a development studio that makes games. Sometimes, I write about issues in the games industry that relate to the equality of women. My reward is that I regularly have men threatening to rape and commit acts of violence against me.
My suspicion is that she is not threatened because she leads a development studio, but because she is a writer. She's not asking for it, but she is making herself a public figure and they are usually targets of such behaviour.
I'd hope that the women I work with aren't regularly getting rape threats from my co-workers...
> I’ve personally never heard of a man in the games industry getting rape threats for having an opinion.
Because men are not women, and women are not men, it goes a little something like this: rape is an act of power (not sexual satisfaction). The threat of rape is the threat of asserting power over someone else. When these lowlifes are offended by a woman, they respond with the animal instinct of threatening to overpower them and rape is the closely available tool. None of them would actually ever have the guts to rape, I'm sure.
When men have contrarian opinions, rape is not threatened, but a whole chain of events occurs, the purpose of which is to remove as much power as possible from that man.
Consider famous causes that you know of where men who are not independently wealthy and have voiced opinions that are controversial to some. What happened to them? They were fired, demoted, jailed, investigated etc. The PyCon case some time back comes to mind.
Consider famous cases of women who did the same. What happened to them? Threats of rape. The same woman involved in the PyCon case, I'll bet, received rape threats. Additionally, she did get fired because she was a public spokesperson for her company.
These threats are about asserting power over dissenting viewpoints in a bid to make yours dominant. You perhaps won't outright hear of a man getting threatened with rape, except maybe in prison or during a competitive game, but you will definitely hear of men being hurt in different ways for having opinions that make people uncomfortable.
- eli 12y agoI get what you're saying... but I think you're getting downvoted because it's dangerously close to victim-blaming. No matter what they wrote, nobody ever deserves graphic threats of rape and murder. And, c'mon, by your definition pretty much anyone with an internet presence and an opinion is a public figure, and therefore a "target." I don't think that's a helpful way to approach the problem.
- cheez 12y agoIn the area of competitive sports, it is pretty common to receive death threats for athletes who do not perform well. I'm not saying it's right. It's not. I'm saying that the reader needs to tease apart the two.
- eli 12y agoTease what apart?
- cheez 12y agoAn anonymous woman in tech is not the same as a woman publicly writing about her perspective on women in tech. Change "woman in tech" to something like support for/against gay marriage. I may have my own opinion, but once I voice it, I'm a target.
- eli 12y agoI don't think I agree with your premise, but even if I did... what's the point you're trying to make? That women would be safer if they never voice an opinion?
- cheez 12y agoNope. I'm saying no one is free from this sort of behaviour when they put themselves in the public eye. Look at sports-related tweets after a big loss.
- sp332 12y agoShe's not threatened because she's a writer, she's threatened because some people in the community are abusive and law enforcement hasn't stepped up and done its job.
- cheez 12y agoShe's a target of the threats because she's a public writer. It's not good and obviously it's not her fault, but sometimes it feels like a woman-in-tech's workday must go something like this according to the articles I see: 7am: coffee 8am: get to work 9am: rape threat from coworker #1 10am: standup meeting 11am: death threat from coworker #2
- sp332 12y agoThose abusers will target any woman they can find. If a woman is not getting abuse from some of them it's only because they haven't found her yet.
- cheez 12y agoThat is correct. Abusers, whether male or female, will find their target.
- enraged_camel 12y agoThat's not quite true. Women are much more likely to receive threats because they are more vulnerable. Just like bullies pick on those they perceive to be weak, abusers target those they perceive to be easy targets.
- cheez 12y agoStats or GTFO.
- mperd 12y agoNot everything in life can be apprehended through stats, and sometimes we should be able to simply acknowledge the fact that others are having a hard time because of the way we're shaping our society. But anyways, here's something that's been posted earlier : "In 2006, researchers from the University of Maryland set up a bunch of fake online accounts and then dispatched them into chat rooms. Accounts with feminine usernames incurred an average of 100 sexually explicit or threatening messages a day. Masculine names received 3.7." http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/women-arent-welcome-internet-72170/ http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/women-ar... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060731153456.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060731153456.ht... PS: feel free to dismiss these numbers.
- lucretian 12y ago> You perhaps won't outright hear of a man getting threatened with rape, except maybe in prison or during a competitive game, but you will definitely hear of men being hurt in different ways for having opinions that make people uncomfortable. it's rather bizarre that you managed to transform this story into something about men when the article is pretty clearly about the uniquely violent verbal abuse women are subject to in the tech sector.
- cheez 12y agoReally? Because the article literally says: > I’ve personally never heard of a man in the games industry getting rape threats for having an opinion.
- legulere 12y agoObviously you get more threads if you're a writer or even a journalist. Journalists get pretty extreme hate mail all the time. But that's not what this article is about. It's about how it is different from what men get and about how it is more than what men get. You won't get the same reaction from writing a blog post as a man as what's described in this article.
- georgiapeach 12y ago> It's about how it is different from what men get and about how it is more than what men get. It's about that, but it doesn't prove that. Not at all. Not one bit. Four anecdotes aren't proof of anything. Come back with stats.