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Feminism's Only Real Demand of Game Devs Is That They Kiss The Ring #GamerGate

I recently learned that an upcoming expansion for the game TowerFall is going to introduce a brand new character(1) based on "pop culture critic"(2), Anita Sarkeesian. If you don't know, TowerFall is a game where players fight each other to the death using arrows. It's actually a really fun(3) game. That's why I was surprised to hear that the creator of TowerFall had apparently added this new character to the game to "honor" Anita. If there's anyone who wouldn't appreciate such a cool tribute, it would be Anita "literally everything is misogyny"(4) Sarkeesian.



So, out of curiosity, I went to Twitter after hearing of this expansion to see if Anita had said anything about it, and, sure enough, she had. She tweeted about the expansion and the character, letting all of her followers know how "awesome" she thought this was(5). She just had to... Wait... She said it was awesome? That can't be right. Is this the same Anita Sarkeesian? Could the TowerFall character be based on a different Anita Sarkeesian who also doesn't know that hoop earrings and plaid shirts make you look completely stupid? That seems unlikely.



But if this is the same Anita Sarkeesian who thinks that she needs body guards everywhere she goes because less than 1% of the tweets she gets are mean to her(6), then I'm confused. Because THAT Anita Sarkeesian recently shared her 8 simple rules for making a stupid(feminist) video game(7), and the 8th rule was that games should just avoid depicting violence against female characters altogether. Yes, apparently Anita thinks that Tomb Raider would be better if the enemies just stood there and looked at Lara Croft as she walked by them. Well, actually, not even looked at her, because that would be the male gaze. So I guess she just wants the enemies to stand there blind folded while Lara walks passed them.



Regardless of what she wants, what she doesn't want is violence depicted against women. PERIOD. So you would think that she would be even more against a game that that allowed players to harm not just any woman, but a woman based on her own likeness. And you would be right. When someone made a game called 'Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian,' in which the player does just that, Anita and her supporters were outraged, and worked to have the game removed from Newgrounds(8).



Granted, the violence in the 'Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian' game was a lot more graphic than the violence in TowerFall, but Anita has never made any distinction between the depiction of graphic violence and non-graphic violence. In fact, Josh McIntosh, who is the head writer for Anita's thoughts and opinions(9), recently criticized Super Smash Bros. for, according to him, teaching people to solve conflicts with violence(10). The violence depicted in Smash Bros. is no more graphic than the violence depicted in TowerFall. In fact, I would argue that the violence depicted in TowerFall is more graphic, because the players actually kill each other in that game. In Smash Bros., they only knock each other out.



So what is it about TowerFall that earns it a pass from Anita and her supporters? Why is it okay for that game to not just depict violence against women, but to depict violence against Anita Sarkeesian(or, at least a character based on her)? What's the difference?



The only difference that I'm able to find is not with the game, but rather with the game's creator. TowerFall's creator, Matt Thorson, is a feminist who has praised Anita Sarkeesian, and the official TowerFall Tumblr blog called Sarkeesian's work "an inspiration to the TowerFall team."(11) That's literally the only distinction that I was able to find, and the only reason I can conceive of as to why it's "awesome" when Matt Thorson depicts violence against women, even ones meant to resemble Anita Sarkeesian, in his game, but "problematic" when other developers do the exact same thing in their games.



At this point, I'm convinced that feminists have absolutely no principles whatsoever. Any standards that they claim to have are just ex post facto excuses that they come up with to condemn those who denounce feminism, or praise those who embrace it. That's really all that it comes down to. Much like how, in Christianity, all you really need to do to get into Heaven is accept Jesus Christ as your savior, in feminism, all you really need to do to not be ostracized and vilified as a horrible misogynist is accept feminism as your savior.



You're probably thinking, "But Joseph, people like Christina Hoff Sommers call themselves feminist and they aren't accepted and embraced by people like Anita Sarkeesian." Yes, but that's because Christina Hoff Sommers' brand of feminism doesn't adhere to the key tenets of the brand that Anita follows; namely that all entertainment exists to make people hate women, that The Patriarchy did 9/11, that going 20 minutes without saying there's a rape culture is a form of rape, and that scientists who wear shirts feminists don't like may as well be Jeffrey Dahmer. In fact, they're worse than Dahmer, because Dahmer only killed men.



No, Mrs. Sommers' brand of feminism is more like the Mormon church of feminism. The other branches of feminism don't consider hers to be real feminism. Which is ironic, considering that, if you accept that the definition of "feminism" as simply the belief in equality of the genders, hers is the only real feminism.



I'm pretty sure that, were I a game developer, I could make a game that was identical to TowerFall, and feminists like Anita Sarkeesian would bend over backwards to find reasons why my game was sexist. Not because of anything to do with the game itself, but because I think that Anita is a doofus and that feminism is for gaywads. I don't kiss the ring of feminism. Beyonce, on the other hand, can go out and perform while dressed exactly like all the video game characters feminists claim to despise, and still be praised by feminists. Why? Because she kisses the ring. She calls herself a feminist and is willing to embrace the tenets, like that The Patriarchy is stopping girls from being successful in life by calling them "bossy."



If anyone from Rockstar Games happens to read this, here's what you should do if you want feminists off your back. Just say that you're feminists, that you agree that there's a problem with gaming culture being a 'boys' club,' that you think Anita Sarkeesian's work is really important to the future of gaming, and then maybe block a few #GamerGate supporters on Twitter. That's literally ALL you have to do. Then you can go right back to making games where the player gets to fuck some hooker before running her over, and feminists will suddenly not give a shit anymore. In fact, you can make GTA6 all about fucking and killing hookers. That can be the entire game. You can even make one of the hookers appearance be based on Anita Sarkeesian, as a way of "honoring" her for what a huge inspiration she was to your game, and no one will complain. In fact, they'll say that it's "awesome." Feminists will say that it's the best GTA ever. They'll petition for Targets in Australia to sell EXTRA copies. All because you were willing to kiss the ring. That's all they want. Is for you to swallow your pride and integrity, and submit to and legitimize their bullshit.



It's not all that different from when the mob goes around collecting a cut from all the businesses in a neighborhood. As long as the business owners pay up, they won't give them any problems. If they don't pay up, they break their legs. Feminists want developers to pay up in the form of lip service. They want developers to tell people that the boogeymen feminists want them to be afraid of are in fact real, and that feminists are the only ones who can make the boogeymen go away. That way people will keep giving money to feminists. As long as developers are willing to do that, they can make any kind of games they want, and feminists won't care. They have no principles.



In fact, Bill Cosby, if you're reading this, try saying that you're a feminist. Try saying that you think The Patriarchy is holding women down in this country, and that you want to ban bossy, and manspreading, and that you think throwing like a girl is a good thing. You might be surprised. Feminists might actually come to your defense and help you get your career back.



SOURCES



1.) TowerFall adds new character based on Anita Sarkeesian. http://www.vg247.com/2015/02/10/towerfall-to-play-tribute-to-anita-sarkeesian/



2.) 10 Bad Arguments from Pop Culture Critic apologists http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1skhn9v



3.) Josh McIntosh deciphers coded gaming lingo to discover that "fun" secretly means "violence." http://i.imgur.com/H8Vtp4Q.jpg



4.) Anita explains why Legos are sexist. http://youtu.be/CrmRxGLn0Bk



5.) Anita thinks it's "awesome" that someone made a game where you can kill a character based on her. http://i.imgur.com/rZyKmpD.jpg



6.) Hardly anyone harasses Anita. http://i.imgur.com/jMJgfLj.png



7.) Anita comes up with a bunch of arbitrary rules she think developers should follow just because. http://i.imgur.com/hBN94nJ.jpg



8.) 'Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian' game removed from Newgrounds. http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/598591



9.) McIntosh writes for Anita. http://i.imgur.com/NmxAIsL.jpg



10.) McIntosh says something stupid; surprises no one. http://i.imgur.com/NRODb82.jpg



11.) Anita's work inspired TowerFall, a game that lets you murder a woman designed to look like Anita. http://towerfall.tumblr.com/post/110562144181/alternate-archers



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