This post will NOT cover everything that took place in GamerGate. That simply isn't possible here. GamerGate wasn't one drama, it was many small and large events that unfolded and built upon each other over a period of years, and took place in every part of the internet at once. My aim here is to lay out the key figures, and give a general understanding of what happened and why. There are resources linked throughout the post which can expand on events I mentioned, but there are many more that I left out.
Come with me as we explore the dark corridors of the internet that gave birth to the modern alt-right. I'm going to try and keep this gaming related, because this isn't a political discussion board, but references to greater political movements are unavoidable.
Be warned, this post contains basically every ism and phobia that you could possible imagine. Tread with care.
Also, when I refer to 'gamers' with a lowercase G, I just mean normal gamers as a whole. When I say 'Gamers', I mean Gamergate supporters.
#Anita Sarkeesian - Sexism in Gaming
This shitstorm began in 2013, though its roots trace back far earlier, and while it would come to suck in thousands of pundits, politicians and thinkers from around the world, it began with one woman: Anita Sarkeesian.
Anita is a Canadian-American media critic. She started her Youtube Channel Feminist Frequency in 2009, analysing portrayals of women in pop culture. In 2011 she worked with feminist magazine Bitch to create a series of videos titled 'Tropes vs Women', which examined the damaging cliches and stereotypes against women in film and tv. It did pretty well, but she was still a small voice in a small circle. The natural next step was to talk about games, and that's what she did in 2012. 'Tropes vs Women in Video Games' criticised the sexualisation of women in games, the way they are treated as helpless damsels in distress, or given to the player as a reward. As Sarkeesian herself points out in her first episode:
>"It's both possible and necessary to simultaneously enjoy media, while also being critical of its problematic or pernicious aspects'.
The videos were pretty even handed, and never really took the 'rabid angry feminist' tone that people ha
... keep reading on reddit ➡Some women get access to birth control no problem, and that's really cool.
But I understand that getting the correct access to birth control is often more complicated than it should be, and that some of the obstacles are even political. Or it's still somehow based on somebody's opinion in a non-medical sense which shouldn't matter. That is, legitimate healthcare based upon others' opinions. It's mind blowing to me.
Something related that strikes me, is that where estrogen and progestin have other applications where contraception is more of a side effect than the goal, it's still mostly called "birth control", and for that fact it still ends up being controversial and difficult for women to get access to it.
So I wonder, am I the only one who thinks it would be a great help to re-label the "birth control" pill as something else, and start a shift in the perception so that it's just a normal medicine, that just happens to be effective at contraception, perhaps even, only at 'certain doses'?
(I mean, there are plenty of other medicines that have side effects that are either abortifacient, inhibit fertility, or which are so damaging to embryos and fetuses that becoming pregnant while taking them is specifically contraindicated -- yet these medicines are not divisive because their most commonly regarded indications are for something other than women's fertility. Essentially, it's acceptable to affect women's fertility negatively when it can be viewed as secondary or as just getting in the way. Which is, maybe, its own other issue.)
Anyway, it seems to me that so many of the obstacles to women's access to the pill are as similarly small-minded as that. And small minds do assign too much value to labels. The concepts behind labels can be too much for a lot of people to bother with. I think this should be accounted for.
So I'm thinking, with that in mind, what are some nicknames we could push upon the estrogen and progestin pills instead, that could make them a notch or two less controversial?
'Uterine regulators', perhaps? Bland enough to leave people wishing to involve themselves less in your personal business instead of rudely involving themselves more. Or, what about Period Pills.
"Mine we're so bad I ended up going to the doctor and just getting some Period Pills. But it's like, I'm not planning on having a kid for a while, anyway. I've got to focus on my degree." "Completely understandable!"
Idk, am I crazy?
So I'll add, that admittedly I'm
... keep reading on reddit ➡
Some time ago I saw an article that mentioned Marilyn Monroe's birth time might have not been at 9:30, as was indicated on the birth certificate, but actually later that same morning. I can't find any information related to that anymore. Did anyone here ever hear/read any of this?
