Be Excellent To Each Other

The Year is 2017.

HR 6721 "The Hillary/Bliss Catcalling Harassment Prevention Act" has just taken effect.

It's your average day at the office. I'm toiling away at work, enjoying a pumpkin spice latte my female clerk retrieved for me this morning, and wondering what frivolous actions I will take with my 30% extra salary this weekend.

I notice my coworker, Annabelle, walking over to the water-cooler. She had recently changed her hairstyle and had it done up in a fashion that had taken quite some time. As she pressed the button down, the spout on the cooler only sputtered, the tank had become empty. She looked down nervously at the spare untapped water tank on floor. It tipped the scales at over 50lbs, too heavy for someone of her small stature to hoist onto the cooler. It was at this point, my oppression senses began tingling.

I saw her predicament from my desk and called over "Annabelle, let me help?" A resounding gasp echoed throughout the cubicles of the offices and people rolled their swivel chairs in a semi-circle around the two of us to witness the display of patriarchy firsthand.

Before deftly reaching down and grabbing the new water tank I say to Annabelle, who is frozen in place, "Your new hair looks great, by the way". A single tear, peaks from her eye. Other female co-workers pass out from the emotional downpour of the oppression. Those who hadn't feinted started feverishly dialing the authorities.
I snatch the tank and place it on top of the cooler. As soon as the tank clicks into place, the windows in the office shatter. Laser sights become fixated on my head and chest and a SWAT team bursts through the doors. I get down on my knees and place my hands behind my head, smirking uncontrollably. Annabelle, still frozen, mutters

"T-t-thank you, Mactoni..." before she can finish, I cut her off " No, nooo.." and right before the swat team placed the black bag over my head.

"It was my privilege."

SJW is an attempt to turn it into an insult the fact that someone thinks games shouldn't be sexist/racist/homophobic/etc.

It's not even that we worry we're going to be raped every time we step outside the front door; it's the fact you know you're going to have to put up with uninvited shit from people just because you have tits. Maybe they think they're being nice and you should be grateful for the comments but the moment you acknowledge them is the moment it could escalate into something else - not rape necessarily, which I think would be a rare escalation from daytime street harassment like that - but still comments or actions you don't want.

Anecdotally, I have been groped by complete and utter strangers probably around 6-10 times. I have been groped by men I know well enough to say hello to easily twice that amount. I have been sexually assaulted twice and one of those times was by a random stranger. I have been called beautiful, told I have beautiful eyes, have a beautiful neck; I've had people try to kiss me and more before calling me a fucking ugly slag because I rebuffed their advances. I've had people tell me I have nice tits or a nice arse, been called a milf, had men shout "shows us yer tits", had random cars full of boys beep and shout when I've been out walking. Been called ugly or a fat bitch/slag/slut just for walking past. What I have learned from all of this, is that unless you are in immediate fear of for your safety, you ignore it, you keep your head down and keep on walking. The second I have ever engaged anyone, the more uncomfortable it gets and a lot of the time, you just get abuse for it. And you know what? I just wanted to go to Boots to buy hand cream, or have a walk because I'm feeling unfit, or have a night out with my friends.

Now I'm not a girly girl; I'm not beautiful or even above average attractiveness, and I'm 32 years old. I'm 6' tall so taller than most of the male population, I'm not a waif I'm not dainty yet men still do all of that. Regardless of what time of day it is. Regardless of what you wear. I see gorgeous, slim, petite girls walking around by themselves or in small groups and I wonder how much shit they have to put up with.

When I'm out walking around, day or night, I'm looking to avoid going near groups of more than 3 men and trying not to make eye contact with anyone, especially men.

Can I ask, did you report any of these incidents to the police? It's sexual assault for even the most basic grope.

how seriously do you think they're going to take a woman who reports being catcalled, or having their arse pinched, etc?

It's a cultural issue that needs addressing. I'd tell everyone to make those calls and force the police to record it as reportable crime. It's one of those statistics they'll eventually have to get off their arses to tackle. Meanwhile there's a basic educational need - teaching people not to be leery pricks, and the punishment for those that haven't learn the lesson which feeds back into more active policing.

Putting the onus on the victim is completely unfair.

Sorry - if not the victim then who is supposed to report the crime?

The point is that the decision to report should be that of the victim, not you or anyone else.

Why are we talking about rape in a thread about ethics in games journalism?

And indeed it is, but I'm talking about strategies that are aimed at ultimately reducing the instances of assault that we're discussing. If nobody is reporting the crime, society will try to pretend no problem exists because nobody can even point to statistics.

Can I ask, did you report any of these incidents to the police?

I'd tell everyone to make those calls and force the police to record it as reportable crime.

I'm out.

...they're both examples of unnecessary pressure aimed at the victim, when it's the perpetrator of these sorts of crimes that should be targeted.

An actual human being wrote this:



Rest of it makes it abundantly clear this is not a spoof or parody.

But how are you going to catch the perpetrator if the victim doesn't report the crime (presuming there are no witnesses, of course)?

But how are you going to catch the perpetrator if the victim doesn't report the crime (presuming there are no witnesses, of course)?

Not all victims want to "hide" (a better word escapes me at the second) - those who want to step forward and report the crime will still do so irrelevant of how much pressure you apply to those who don't want to. Pushing victims towards reporting because you think that it's part of a "strategy" to reduce this kind of crime completely disrespects and re-traumatises those who've already been through an ordeal.

I quite agree, but there's no way to get at the perpetrator in that case.

Absolutely - which was what I was rather clumsily getting at by referring to "these sorts of crimes". Apols for dodgy wording, vaguely attempting to work

I'm in the kitchen making sandwiches.

As far as feminism goes, trying to address inequality by focussing on the needs of one sex doesn't strike me as the way to do it. If you're alleging to be a proponent of equality for both sexes than by definition you can't call yourself a feminist. Egalitarian is the best word, but who uses that as often? Men who try to fight for equal rights are labelled pejoratively as 'MRAs' in much the same way that GamerGate has been labelled as basic misogynists so as to make any support for any sentiments therein utterly toxic to its members.

I'd happily sign up to something that could demonstrate an actual desire for completely impartial equality applied to both sexes, acknowledging that what can be considered equal is often debatable and needn't break down into factionalism at the first sign of disagreement. I don't actually think humans are capable of this though, sadly.

MRAs are different in that they (and in all these cases obviously there are outliers etc) are campaigning AGAINST equal rights for women. The motive is one of trying to maintain a privileged position.

I thought Gamergate was about "Cash for Reviews". No, "Ads for Cash". No, "Cash for Stars". No ,"Stars for Cash". No, "Ads for Stars". "Percentages for money"? "Percent for Revenue"? "Revenue for U"? "Games for Claims"?

No...can someone come up with something like "Cash for Honours" but is catchy. And then attribute it to me. Kaithxbi.

Feminists are called that because they are looking to improve female rights to be equal to those of men, both in law and in society. Men already have these rights. That's not to disrespect men or to try to remove any rights they have, unless they are incompatible with an equal rights society.

What rights are being fought for here?

Positive discrimination is condescending and actually imo does more harm than good to improve women condition.

Not enough women in Politics? So what? Man are more interested in it.
Not enough women in IT and programming? Also, see above.

Is there anyone complaining that there aren't enough men biologists and elementary teachers?

Discrimination on sex is illegal, so you fix attitudes by educating the young and waiting for those with an archaic mindset to die off.

I don't think we really need 50% of females in all jobs everywhere in some kind of 'positive discrimination' quota, unless you're also going to start aggressively fighting the corner for 50% of all bin collectors to be female also. Funny how people demand equity except when it's for something shitty that we're typically happy for mostly males to do. Best person for the job in all instances, whether that's 90% female or 90% male.

If there's a problem with aspirations, that's education again. You don't need to be a housewife, but there are no legal impediments now to doing whatever the heck you like. We need to be satisfied that we have equality of opportunity, and what people then choose to do is entirely up to them.

That reminds me, I should really update my sewing blog.

Not enough women in Politics? So what? Man are more interested in it.
Not enough women in IT and programming? Also, see above.

Why SJW is the worst insult ever: http://www.josephscrimshaw.com/2014/10/ ... sult-ever/

Shockingly sexist and outdated views here, RuySan, for shame. Girls are just as interested in science, politics, tech and gaming. Just that the opportunities are limited growing up due to being taught that 'gender normalcy' is a real thing (chemistry kits for boys, princess dresses for girls etc). Also some industries such as tech treat women so badly that women end up leaving their careers because it's too stressful to have to prove themselves all the time in ways men don't.

The notion that men and women are somehow fundamentally different species a la 'Men are from Mars...' needs to stop now. We are basically the same. Men shouldn't be ridiculed for liking ballet or drinking cocktails instead of beer (but they are); they should be able to show emotion whenever they want (poor mental health among men due to our macho culture is another thing entirely). Women should be able to work in traditional male industries without constantly having to prove themselves that they know about computers. We have a long way to go, and it's comments like yours which are stopping society getting to where it needs to get to.

Jeeezzz, calm down man. You know nothing about me, and yet it didn't stopped you from name calling.

No, we are not basically the same. Not at all one bit. My wife is an academic in a chemistry related field, and she'll tell me constantly all the strange difference scientists are discovering everyday between genders. Be it do to hormones, genes, or just biochemistry. I think it's just ignorance to assume that every difference is due to social conditioning.

But surely it's also ignorance to say that it's all just chemistry, unless you have the evidence?

Feel free to link me to multiple peer reviewed studies and meta-studies where it shows that women are clinically less interested in politics, if you can.

He'd have to link to at least zero of them to debunk the data you provided!

He made the claims - the burden of proof is on him.

What? No he didn't - you claimed it was social.

Not enough women in Politics? So what? Man are more interested in it.