October 30, 2014
Media critic, Anita Sarkeesian, was recently forced to cancel a presentation addressing sexism and violence against women in video games after an oh-so-brave, anonymous student sent an email vowing to make the engagement at Utah State University the “deadliest school shooting in American history.”
Apparently the disgruntled “student” failed to realize he was unwittingly making Ms. Sarkeesian’s point for her, namely, that there is a real problem with video games featuring sexist and violent themes against women (and against real women who speak out against this). Nevertheless, because Utah allows concealed weapons just about everywhere, including university campuses, the police said they could not prevent firearms from being present at Sarkeesian’s talk and would not even try. No rational person blames Ms. Sarkeesian for gracefully declining to make herself a target, but the Utah death threat is only the tip of this iceberg.
In today’s link, student affairs professional, Kathryn Magura, talks about why universities (and the public at large) need to take #GamerGate seriously, and why sexism and misogyny need to be confronted wherever they are found, electronically or otherwise.
Read more on the Student Affairs Women Talk Tech blog.
A related article about the #GamerGate controversy can be found here on the gamer website, Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
