In the wake of Intel’s unfortunate and (I believe) misguided decision to withdraw their advertising from Gamasutra, I’ve seen some amount of bile aimed at The Verge for their headline: “Intel buckles to anti-feminist campaign by pulling ads from gaming site.” This has prompted no small number of people in my twitterfeed to erupt in anger. “Do you really that #gamergate is anti-feminist?” many gamergaters have ranted.

Well, of course it is.



“But we have lots of women on our side!” Yeah, sure. They may be there for reasons that are good (press corruption, whatever). They may be there for reasons that they think are good. They may well not be feminists. They may be completely misled. But if they are there because they think it helps feminism in any way, or feminism in games, they are very, very wrong.

One of the cornerstones of #gamergate is the attempt to bully the gaming press into no longer covering feminist issues. They claim to be anti-ideology. They’re not. They are just against an ideology that is different than their own. One of those ideologies that is under attack is feminism, because they think it will somehow hurt the games they love. Trust me, it won’t. But the fact is that many voices are so opposed to feminism that they believe that the press should be assailed for even LINKING it.

If you support free speech, and you think this is remotely okay, you’re wrong.

One of the most commonly attacked targets of #gamergate is Anita Sarkeesian, and anyone in the press who dares to point out her point of view without immediately repudiating it. Whether or not you agree with Sarkeesian on everything (and I don’t, and I’d love to have a lengthy debate with her someday, if I ever thought it could be done without turning into a class 5 shitnado for both of us), she is one of the leading feminist voices in gaming.

Incidentally, the fact that Anita’s harassment were a core part of the initial shitstorm, and her views continue to get shit on is a huge part of the reason why critics of the cause hold fast to the idea that #gamergate is the poisonous fruit of the harassment tree. Seriously. I know game devs who poke their heads up like groundhogs onto Twitter, say, “Oh, gamergate is still bothering Anita”, and go back to ignoring it. Keeping kicking Anita and her views keeps the ugly roots of #gamergate from fading from view.

Christina Sommers, one of Gamergate’s largest self-made celebrities, is virulently anti-feminist. She calls herself a feminist, but in order to do that, she had to invent a new kind of feminism, ‘equity feminist’ (shorthand version: legal equality only), and her actual philosophy can best be described as “boys will be boys”. She actively scoffs at true modern feminist concerns, including improving pay equity, reducing sexual assaults, reducing female harassment online, and increasing upward mobility for women. Whether or not you agree with her, there is no doubt that she has made bashing feminism a career, and trolling feminists an art form. Also, she’s discovered that she no longer needs to use logic to get an audience.

the US the organized women’s movement is doing more harm than good domestically. Its been taken over by aggrieved eccentrics. – CHSommers

Milo Yiannopoulos, their favorite reporter, is also virulently anti-feminist. And he’s also made a tidy little career that seems to focus on that. His first article about gamergate was “Lying, Greedy, Promiscuous Feminist Crusaders are Tearing the Video Game Industry Apart.” (A title that was apparently too contentious even for Breitbart since it’s been since shortened – but it’s still there in the URL). Here he is bashing the #HeForShe campaign. Seriously, he really likes bashing feminists.

If only feminists put this much effort into their cooking — Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero) October 2, 2014

And he REALLY likes bashing the traitorous men who support them.

Some men will do literally anything to get laid. Witness the outpouring of support among sexually-frustrated dickless wonders for #HeForShe, an attempt by the United Nations to get men on board with feminism. — Milo

So sure. I happen to think that #GamerGate in its current incarnation is anti-feminist. But that’s only because I look at its heroes. It’s because I look at its villains. It’s because I look at the type of dialogue they want to shut down completely, McCarthy-style.

And this really hurts gamergate. It hurts the part of gamergate that could do good. There ARE parts of gaming journalism that need cleaning up. The sideshow into the hardcore opposition of SJW causes is just stupid. Do you know how hard it is to convince people who know nothing about the conflict that “Social Justice Warrior” is supposed to be an epithet?

At the end of the day, feminism is really about the crazy idea that women are people too. And many devs and publishers are not going to happily engage with a cause that is so obviously perceived as being against equity and diversity. The AAA publishers who actually have all the power in this equation are not going to side openly with an organization that is seen as anti-diversity. And the anti-feminist/anti-SJW slant is just that.

GamerGate likes to say they’re pro-diversity. Anita Sarkeesian’s message is not about censorship. It’s not calling for the end of games as we know it. It’s about thinking about how to make our games more inclusive and welcoming. THAT is diversity. Developers feel so strongly about this that we gave her the 2014 GDC Ambassador’s Award for her role in helping the industry do just that. Even if her own faith in her beliefs sometimes go beyond mine or many more moderate feminists, a cause that shuts it down cannot credibly claim that mantle for themselves.

[Anita Sarkeesian] loves videogames. She’s so passionate about them that she feels they’re worth fighting for. — Neil Druckmann, Creative Director and Writer of Last of us

GamerGate likes to say they’re against ideology. Shutting down a point of view is, in fact, an ideology in its own right – its reactionary conservatism. And even though there are aspects of feminism, particularly advanced 3rd wave feminism, that I don’t necessarily agree with, they should be allowed and welcomed to speak. Game designers are more than capable of listening to such people, challenging those people, and choosing whether to incorporate that feedback or ignore it altogether.

As long as GamerGate targets and censures those who would speak to this cause, and those websites who dare to give them a voice, then yes, I will call them anti-feminist.