Tonight I watched a video from The Escapist by Dan and Chris called, “Is Anita Sarkeesian Wrong?"

I certainly have some thoughts about it, which I will outline in a play-by-play form.

0:35: The men offer their disclaimer; they don’t hate Anita as a person and believe hate is not okay, but disagreement is okay. Cool, I’m with them. I’m all ears.

1:00: Here they explain who she is, and mention her Kickstarter. They point out she initially asked for $6,000 but received over $160,000.

"Welp, I already know where this video is going,” my gut responds.

Surely enough one points out, “And it’s not because people saw the potential of this project.” Here they begin addressing the neverending and embarrassing usage of the White Knight trope wherein people who are supportive of feminists in game culture are suspected of only doing so to separate themselves from the bad guys who harass said feminists. Essentially these men are stating that Anita didn’t receive her funding because people wanted her project to succeed or saw potential in it, but because they were too afraid of being labelled as bad people and felt bad for her.

For starters, Dan and Chris – this is a personal attack. Merely 30 seconds ago you said you weren’t going to make this personal, yet you’re questioning why people gave her money to support herself and research during her project. I’d love to know how this information supports whether or not her videos are “wrong.”

2:00: Oh I see we’re still questioning how a woman got so much money and what she is doing with that money. Outstanding criticism, you two.

3:00: Victim blaming? Really? Victim blaming. This is what you’re going to go for now?

[insert heavy sigh]

Okay, the play-by-play stops here.

I did watch the whole video, and unfortunately I watched it a couple of times for the purpose of this post. It seems as though at one point there are some coherent criticisms against Anita Sarkeesian’s work that I’ve heard from other game critics, but honestly this video is pure garbage. They assume that Anita only received her money because of her harassment, and then didn’t do anything with the money, and then start blaming her for receiving the harassment in the first place.

Then, these two have the audacity to actually say that people who have criticized Anita always get labelled as being sexist, and so she’s protected and can’t be touched.

First, people frequently criticize Anita’s work without being labelled as sexist. The reason they don’t get labelled as sexist is because they don’t take cheap shots at her and instead focus on the content she produces. I’ve read many criticisms about how her work isn’t substantial enough and merely claims “this trope is sexist,” however the response to that is understanding that she is creating a web series to act as a 101 on gender inequality for people not realizing they are perpetuating sexist standards, which brings me to my SECOND point:

You two are beingsexist, and need women like her to give you these basic building blocks. You questioned the validity of a woman’s finances (because how could women possibly be financially successful unless they’ve somehow tricked the status quo), and then blame her for “people getting mad.” People getting mad? People send her death and rape threats and stalk her family. That is not people getting mad, that is people performing illegal and horrifying behaviour because they hate women. End of story.

There is indeed no definitive right answer to a useless and time-wasting question like whether or not someone is “wrong.” There are, however, wrong ways to have these discussions. You can discuss someone’s work without petty criticisms simulating a Reddit and 4Chan thread, and have it result in a meaningful and helpful discussion about the culture we consume.

You two clearly missed that memo.