Yes, we have to talk about GamerGate.

Listen, I don't like this anymore than you do. I really don't want to always be that guy that writes these soapbox sermons every time people on the internet do something significantly fucked up, but guess what? When a gamer journalist has to literally move out of her residence because she mentioned that people were doing something fucked up on the internet, we need to talk, guys.

In the interest of context, I'll start with the two things that are none of our business:

First, two indie developers had a fairly nasty breakup that resulted in the guy, Eron Gjoni, creating a blog for the express purpose of airing out their dirty laundry. Picture the first ten minutes of The Social Network except 40% more male privilege and none of Aaron Sorkin's wit, charm or signs of being a remotely decent human. 

The second thing is that one of the things to come out in the wash of the aforementioned nasty breakup is that allegedly, the ex-girlfriend, Zoe Quinn was sleeping with a game journalist. The rub here is that, in most cases, this would be considered a conflict of interest. Neither of these things are any of our business because a). there is no empirical evidence to imply that said journalist gave any special treatment to Quinn as a result of their fling/affair/whateverwhogivesashit, making it Not A Conflict Of Interest and b). because PEOPLE BREAKING UP ISN'T ANY OF OUR FUCKING BUSINESS.

Now, here's the part that kinda IS our business:

Eron Gjoni's whole whinefest (and this is probably when he should have realized he was headed down a bad path) was adopted by none other than 4Chan, the central hub for all Chaotic Evil on the internet who proceed to call all parties to task. And by "call all parties to task", what I really mean is "they proceeded to specifically slut shame Zoe Quinn for seducing game journalists with her evil vagina magic" and also slut shaming Anita Sarkeesian for saying something about the whole Zoe Quinn thing, but actually had nothing to do with the whole Zoe Quinn thing but was still completely true. So, now, Anita Sarkeesian has to move out of her fucking house because people have found out where she lives, Kotaku has forbidden their journalists from donating to indie developers (don't ask because I don't know either) and gamers are at war with game journalists and basically, this is why we can't have nice things.

Why is this our business, you ask? I'll get to that in a second.

The central issue at the heart of all this is the issue that the Dudebro Community (4Chan, MRAs, Reddit, this prick, etc.) is doing their damnedest to convince you isn't happening, the one we need to talk about: misogyny in nerd culture.

There's two tell tale ways you know misogyny is happening:

1). 4Chan Is Actively Trying to Convince You It's Not Happening- In case I didn't make it clear before, when 4Chan agrees with you, that's probably the moment when you need to give serious thought to the possibility that you're dead wrong on whatever issue you've spoken out about. Seriously, they've gone so far as to say that Zoe Quinn is fabricating death threats against her to jumpstart some war on men. And now, they're lobbying for sympathy for nobody believing them just because they have a history of being unapologetically evil. Here's the trick, though: It MIGHT actually work is 4Chan wasn't actually unapologetically evil. I mean, seriously, if something evil happened on the internet or, really, even in the real world, there's a good chance its origins can be traced to 4Chan. So, their swearing to the Old Gods and The New that "it's totally not like that this time" is like walking in on Michael Myers with a bloody butcher knife standing over a dead white woman and him saying, "Look, I know what it looks like, but..."

2). No Men Are Actually Being Called to Account- None. Gamergate caught the attention of Joss Whedon and he's been quite vocal about the fact that this is why gamers can't have nice things and that this circus needs to stop posthaste. Last I checked, I didn't see anyone threatening him or his family, flaming his Twitter account or swearing a plague o' both his houses. Allegedly, this is about accountability in game journalism, but the actual game journalist who carried on an affair with Zoe Quinn isn't receiving a fifth of the shit Zoe Quinn is fielding. If this were politics and John McCain had pictures of himself at a bar doing shots with Wolf Blitzer, Old Blitz would probably be out of a job or, even worse, exiled to Headline News. The task of staying objective as a journalist is ON THE JOURNALIST and if 4Chan felt that strongly about transparency and truthiness and objective game reviews that, for the most part, aren't objective anyway, they'd be dragging the Kotaku guy out back to the woodshed even worse than they are with Quinn. But they're not. If this wasn't about misogyny, 4Chan would be making Joss Whedon furthering the "strawman" agenda. But they're not. Why? Because one of the symptoms of misogyny is an exclusive and irrational fear of women's evil vagina magic. Ask Aisha Tyler.

The reason we're talking about all of this is not to throw all of Nerd Community or even all gamers under the bus. The point of this is that if you like something, odds are you want to be able to be into it openly. I am, admittedly only a passive gamer. I only own a Nintendo 3DS and a shit ton of games that I usually only play on the bus or on my vacation time. But I love being able to talk about it and network with other gamers and hear their passion about gaming just like I do with comics. Shit like this....makes me not want to have my name associated with gaming. Because it makes it seem like gamers are sociopathic shut-ins that doggedly fuck with anyone who has anything resembling a dissenting opinion on the way things are or could be. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.

The point: Get Off Your Ass And Speak Up. A lady had to move out of her fucking house because people that you might know and play Call of Duty with didn't know how to take constructive criticism. That doesn't kick you in the nuts a little bit? I'll spare you the "great power/great responsibility" speech this time, but for fuck's sake, guys....get passionate about this shit. 

Because simply sipping your tea from afar, saying #NotAllGamers isn't enough anymore. It's not just the fact that, by claiming you're not involved and walking away, it looks like you don't actually care and are just trying to glorify yourself and selfishly maintain your own good name. Because in our turning a blind eye and ignoring the trolls, hoping they'll just go away, the trolls have, in fact, gained strength. Therefore, we are somewhat to blame. Speak up. We're all grown. Nobody's going to spank you. I promise. It's easy. Watch:

"Come on, man. That's a little insensitive."

"Listen, I'm just going to come out and say it, but that's misogynist bullshit."

"It's like this: If you're going to be sexist, racist or homophobic, just don't read this blog. I'll get along just fine without your clicks."

See? Easy. Now, YOU try.

That One Time Legend of Korra Got a Little....Awkward.

So, I recently wrote an article for Black Nerd Problems defending Avatar: Legend of Korra which receives as much shade as it does praise. The first few episodes of Book Three premiered yesterday before even the dvd did. And, without giving anything away, it looked very impressive, improving on minor issues in the past two seasons. In fact, it caused me to go back and take a closer look at Book Two for one issue in particular. And then something occurred to me.

SN: I'm breaking my spoiler protocol to tell you that if you haven't seen Book Two...which aired almost a year ago, there are spoilers after the jump.

Women and Comics According to Middle Aged White Men.....

The Television Critic's Association press tour wrapped with a panel discussion featuring Todd McFarlane, Gerry Conway, Len Wein and Michael Kantor, who directed the upcoming documentary, Superheroes: The Never Ending Battle. Eventually, the roundtable turned into a criticism among the creators as to why mainstream superheroes are (and continue to be), on a majority, white men. Alyssa Rosenberg wrote an excellent, more detailed report for ThinkProgress on the points made by the panel, but NPR's Linda Holmes summarized them best via Twitter.

1). "Hey, nobody is in your way saying you can't."

-Here, we have a double edged sword. On one side, yes, the burden of leading the charge for progress IS on the undervalued demographic. After all, a lot of history's great achievements are the result of mainstream doors being shut in the faces of ambitious upstarts. Independent comics as well as web comics are feasible avenues that make user created material more feasible all the time. "Be the change you want to see in the world" and all that.

However, on the other hand, this is ultimately a lazy school of thought on the panel's part and a dismissive way of presenting it to consumers of a medium that, having it's own growing film/television genre to think about, should be a little more concerned about opening its doors to potential readers. That should really sound more like "Nobody is saying you can't. In fact, you should. I'd love to see that shit." This really came across of the comic industry's equivalent of  "Send us your demo tape, kid. I'm sure my agent will get to it or something."


2). "You can't because it would be like a medieval comic about female knights."

-Oh, please. First of all, I'm pretty sure Paul Cornell's Demon Knights series featured a transgender incarnation of Shining Knight.

Second, I'm pretty sure this is a female knight handing a male knight his ass on one of the most popular shows on television. Still an implausible sell?


Third, it's FICTION. That's the entire point of fiction. You can make the world whatever you want it to be. There is a comic book about a second civil war turning New York City into a nigh-uninhabitable No Man's Land and the thought of a female knight (aside from Joan of Arc) in medieval times in unfeasible to you? Again, I say: Oh, please.

3). "Readers wouldn't read it so don't blame creators."

-Despite what people may think of them now, these are artists. Furthermore, they are, almost by definition, nerds. Ideally, one of the great ideas about nerd culture is the thought of fellow nerds making good. Someone else who loves this comics as much as you do is out there living the dream. I've always assumed this is a big part of what people like about Kevin Smith. Now, imagine a nerd, someone you perceive to be like you in a fashion, making good and then telling you that the medium you love isn't representing you in its art because people don't give a shit about you or telling your story. We expect that from "suits"....not creators.

4). "You can't make the point of a superhero some kind of political message."

-I repeat: Oh, please.

Finally, to top off the tomfuckery, the panel went on to make a point of emphasizing that comics don't lead in society, that they follow and reflect it. Rosenberg flatly stated "That seems like an unambitious position," and ended it there which, by the way, is probably (ironically) the most heroic thing that happened here in this room of superhero creators. This is probably the most indefensible, disappointing thing to happen all year in comics thus far and that's saying a lot considering 2013 has given us Justice League of America, Age of Ultron and The Following. The middle aged white men on this panel would have you believe that comics have evolved to cater to an older, more testorerone filled audience because they're consumers, first and foremost and it's true that a lot of them have. From this rather outdated notion of what comics "have to be" comes the idea that women in comics are just some kind of novelty to serve as pleasing the old male eye. Even if the market for comics were populated solely by old men sitting at home, still clamoring for cartoon boobs like they were when they were twelve years old (which it isn't...not exclusively, anyway), that doesn't mean this is the only way it has to be. And it shouldn't be the writer/artist/creator's primary goal to enforce that. The marketing execs determine that which, in turn, trickles down to the editor-in-chief and then, eventually, to the talent. The job of artists in any art form is to say something and even with capitalism's tyrannical head looming over mainstream media, respect and admiration will come to any artist who even tries to represent the people, man or woman, who are willing to listen.