3 ms·

If "pro-gg" cares about ethics in journalism, doesn't that mean that "anti-gg" denies that journalism has poor ethics? What does mysoginy and sexism have to do

by iopq 12y ago

If "pro-gg" cares about ethics in journalism, doesn't that mean that "anti-gg" denies that journalism has poor ethics? What does mysoginy and sexism have to do with ethics in video games?

scrollaway 12y ago
You're starting to understand why this conflict is pointless. Disclaimer: I work for Curse, a gaming media company which has had no involvement in the subject. What follows is obviously my own opinion and recollection of events, not of my company. TLDR: The conflict has its roots in conflicts of interest centering around a certain female indie game developer who had a relationship with a journalist at Kotaku. From there, the debate split between reasonable people talking about journalistic ethics and ... less reasonable people having disgusting reactions like you'd get in any heated debate on the internet (especially in a fairly younger demographic). Several gaming news sites involved in the accusations started focusing on the mysoginy part in order to save face and the original issue of journalistic ethics was replaced by a debate on sexism in video games, the lack of female characters etc etc (a debate which, by the way, we regularly have in the gaming community). So no, anti-gg doesn't specifically care about journalism ethics. There is a massive misunderstanding in what "gamergate" actually is and if only this pathetic debate moved to a platform which ACTUALLY ALLOWS DISCUSSION FFS, it'd fairly quickly be cleared up with the noise filtered out. This is why I recommend those who actually care about the actual issues to distance themselves from this disaster.
jmillikin 12y ago
The anti-GG side claims that no reasonable person would expect journalism about video games to be ethical or free of corruption. Therefore, the "true" purpose of GamerGate must be something more sinister. On misogyny: 1. Many of the gaming journalists GamerGate have specifically called out as unethical (Nathan Grayson, Ian Miles Cheong, Shanley Kane, Arthur Chu) are public advocates of identity feminism. 2. Gamer culture, in general, leans more toward equality feminism. Many of the gamer bloggers doing the calling out (Georgina Young, Jennie Bharaj, Angela Night) are public advocates of equality feminism. Christina Hoff Sommers, the founder of equity feminism (a related branch), has issued several pro-gamer videos. 3. Identity feminists consider equality feminism and equity feminism to be reactionary, misogynist, anti-feminist movements. With these factors combined, you get a category 5 internet shitstorm. Wealthy white men are writing newspaper articles denouncing women as misogynists, because those women wrote blog posts calling out the journalists as corrupt.
- tomp 12y ago
  Thanks for this - I've never heard about the different "branches" of feminism before, it's going to be an interesting read! Edit: actually, could you help me get any more info (or the definition) on "identity feminism" and the difference between it and "equality feminism"?
  - theorique 12y ago
    The wiki article is a reasonable starting point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equity_and_gender_feminism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equity_and_gender_feminism

by iopq 12y ago

If "pro-gg" cares about ethics in journalism, doesn't that mean that "anti-gg" denies that journalism has poor ethics? What does mysoginy and sexism have to do with ethics in video games?

scrollaway 12y ago

You're starting to understand why this conflict is pointless. Disclaimer: I work for Curse, a gaming media company which has had no involvement in the subject. What follows is obviously my own opinion and recollection of events, not of my company. TLDR: The conflict has its roots in conflicts of interest centering around a certain female indie game developer who had a relationship with a journalist at Kotaku. From there, the debate split between reasonable people talking about journalistic ethics and ... less reasonable people having disgusting reactions like you'd get in any heated debate on the internet (especially in a fairly younger demographic). Several gaming news sites involved in the accusations started focusing on the mysoginy part in order to save face and the original issue of journalistic ethics was replaced by a debate on sexism in video games, the lack of female characters etc etc (a debate which, by the way, we regularly have in the gaming community). So no, anti-gg doesn't specifically care about journalism ethics. There is a massive misunderstanding in what "gamergate" actually is and if only this pathetic debate moved to a platform which ACTUALLY ALLOWS DISCUSSION FFS, it'd fairly quickly be cleared up with the noise filtered out. This is why I recommend those who actually care about the actual issues to distance themselves from this disaster.

jmillikin 12y ago

The anti-GG side claims that no reasonable person would expect journalism about video games to be ethical or free of corruption. Therefore, the "true" purpose of GamerGate must be something more sinister. On misogyny: 1. Many of the gaming journalists GamerGate have specifically called out as unethical (Nathan Grayson, Ian Miles Cheong, Shanley Kane, Arthur Chu) are public advocates of identity feminism. 2. Gamer culture, in general, leans more toward equality feminism. Many of the gamer bloggers doing the calling out (Georgina Young, Jennie Bharaj, Angela Night) are public advocates of equality feminism. Christina Hoff Sommers, the founder of equity feminism (a related branch), has issued several pro-gamer videos. 3. Identity feminists consider equality feminism and equity feminism to be reactionary, misogynist, anti-feminist movements. With these factors combined, you get a category 5 internet shitstorm. Wealthy white men are writing newspaper articles denouncing women as misogynists, because those women wrote blog posts calling out the journalists as corrupt.

tomp 12y ago
Thanks for this - I've never heard about the different "branches" of feminism before, it's going to be an interesting read! Edit: actually, could you help me get any more info (or the definition) on "identity feminism" and the difference between it and "equality feminism"?
- theorique 12y ago
  The wiki article is a reasonable starting point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equity_and_gender_feminism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equity_and_gender_feminism