I answered that in my previous posts. But tl:dr because this handful of adult men gamers (and it really is a tiny amount) are behaving like little boys in their sexism and puerile attitude to women. Further more while in this case no harm has been done. Women gamers, developers and in the gaming press have been harassed and suffered at the hands sexist gamers in recent years (I know several such women personally). So taking extra time to let everyone know you stand with the victims not the attackers seems worthwhile.
So that’s why we (or I) mock them. We want them to know where we stand , but really Patrick Soderlund explained the default industry position pretty well (his quotes are above).
Rickh’s point of view (he can correct me if I am wrong) is that we are too quick on the trigger to raise issues of gender in every game, further he puts artistic intent above social issues and thinks labeling of people (as I just did) over these issues is done too quickly. I hope I have represented his views correctly.
That answer the question? Its a perfectly fair one to ask.
What makes we the game journalist confident that we the games journalist won’t be labeled by the wider world with the label that we the games journalist invented and loosed into the wider world?
I’d say that’s a fair characterization, I’m strongly in favor of letting the creator create. I’d rather see an artistic vision achieved rather than compromised by the heckler’s veto. If it doesn’t resonate with the public, that’s one of the risks taken in the creative process.
As far as labeling/ name calling, it’s all too common to seek to delegitimize others by slapping a pejorative label on them rather than addressing the substance. It’s the way people behave when they think there is no way for someone to disagree with them, or to decline to comply with their demands, without being evil, stupid, or mentally ill. That was the thesis of a P&R thread this week (no links, maintaining the quarantine).
That and I have a general distaste for people who seek to elevate themselves by casting aspersions on others.
Didn’t he already admit to lying about this or was that the other one? Or maybe that was just a term he pretended not to know so he could school someone later on it.
Does anybody wish to allay the fears of us games journalists, who are concerned that our own invented labels, such as ‘man-baby’, might be used against us, by the wider world?
Fuck, I’m going to agree with you. But yeah, the biggest failure of current identity politics is that every mistreatment is equally wrong and worthy of the same vicious scorn. It’s really not, and we’re not going to educate anyone that way.
That headline isn’t doing anyone any favors.
