GamerGate Gets One Right

Here’s an image produced by some GamerGate supporter which I saw because it was tweeted by the SJWIlluminati Twitter account.

image

For the most part, this image reflects the same sort of desire to defend the status quo and the (perhaps willful) misunderstanding of the nature of critique that has long fueled GamerGate.

I am so tired of the conflation of critique with censorship, represented here by the bullet point that reads: 

There are people who hold positions of power in the media who think that the video games industry needs a version of the Hayes Movie Production Code under their control to further regulate speech in video games.

No, there really aren’t. There are just people who are engaging with games seriously, treating them as if, like film and literature and television, games matter and contribute to our culture in meaningful ways. To engage with the meanings and values and representations in games is not to call for censorship, but it is to believe that games mean something, that they both reflect and shape our culture, and that better, more diverse representations in games can contribute to a more equitable society.

Some on the GamerGate side like to argue that they are not influenced by media in any way whatsoever, and that as a result, it doesn’t matter what the content of games or films or television is. But people are influenced by media. And when I see things like Rush Limbaugh railing against the notion of Idris Elba playing James Bond, it seems to me that those who fight against a media landscape that is not quite so dominated by stories about white men do so not because they think these issues don’t matter, but because they know they do matter. They know that a culture in which, for instance, transgender people are more commonly and more humanely represented in film, television, and games, would be a culture in which transgender people are more likely to be seen and understood and treated as human beings deserving the same respect and compassion and empathy as anyone else. They know that a culture in which women of color are as likely to be the heroes of stories as white men, a world in which “white male” is no longer seen as some sort of default setting for humanity, would be a culture in which whiteness and maleness would be at least a little bit less privileged in relation to other races and genders. That’s what people are fighting against: the threat to the cultural status quo that puts a premium on whiteness and maleness. 

But as I looked over this image, I was shocked to find that, amidst the ignorance and silliness, almost as if by accident, the creator did stumble into one true thing he has learned from “those who oppose #GamerGate.”

“You cannot be a feminist unless you hold to a specific list of political positions." 

Yep. This is totally true. You, in fact, cannot be a feminist unless you hold to a specific list of political positions. That doesn’t mean that all feminists agree about everything. But there are certain principles that are core to what feminism is, and if you don’t feel invested in those principles, you are not a feminist. And in fact the reluctance to acknowledge this is, I think, something of a crisis facing feminism itself right now. 

As bell hooks says here at around the 58:10 mark:

…some people are more feminist than others… This is something that’s been on my mind lately and it’s been disturbing me is that, if feminism is all things to all people, then what is it? How do we locate it as a radical political movement in our lives?… We do have to be clear about, what are the boundaries? What is the line that you cross that you can in fact say, ‘I’m a feminist.’ My students will say, 'Well, I’m anti-abortion but I’m a feminist.’ And I’ll say, 'But that is impossible.’ You can say 'I would never choose to have an abortion because I don’t support that for myself.’ But there is no one who is genuinely a feminist who doesn’t support reproductive rights for women… I don’t try to get someone to choose my values about abortion but I do feel that part of the essence of feminism is that women have control over women’s bodies, that women have reproductive rights, all women, and so you can’t want to take that away from somebody and then brag about how feminist you are.

So yes, there actually are some political beliefs that are at the essence of feminism. Feminism is not something you get to claim for yourself if you don’t acknowledge that we live in a patriarchal society and want to see the systems in our culture that perpetuate patriarchy dismantled.

Congratulations, GamerGate! I’ll give you this one!