I’ll spare you the overly nerdy details about the current “gamergate” controversy.
I’ll sum it up quickly by saying that it started as a somewhat legitimate conversation about journalistic ethics involved in the video game industry.
It then devolved, as many things still do, into a free-for-all of misogyny and anti-female death threats over the internet by wrongly entitled males with grudges and time to register them anonymously.
You can Google “gamergate” if you would like. Describing the controversy in detail would require a lot more words than I have available for this space.
Rest assured that whatever legitimate conversation was stirred by discussion of whether or not video games have a “pay-to-play” system for positive coverage turned very quickly into, in essence, “I’m going to kill you, bitch.”
That’s not a direct quote as far as I know, but that’s very much in the spirit of what the discourse has become.
Which leads me to my overall point here. When reading about this whole situation, I was reminded of something — dudes kinda suck.
We live in a world not that far removed from laws, or lack thereof, that essentially encouraged violence against women.
According to womensafe.net, “In 1800 BC, the Code of Hammurabi decreed that a wife was subservient to her husband and that he could inflict punishment on any member of his household for any transgression,” and “recently as 1977, the California Penal Code stated that wives charging husbands with criminal assault and battery must suffer more injuries than commonly needed for charges of battery.”
In the 1990s, conservative commentator “Doctor” Laura Schlessinger published several best-selling books titled “The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands” and “Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives.”
These are just small pictures of a millennia which seemed to have a common thread — screwing over women.
Even today, there are societies which require that women don’t vote, don’t drive and in some cases, dress head-to-toe in all black dress, covering their every feature underneath the desert sun.
And once Hillary Clinton’s candidacy is final for the US Presidency in 2016 – get ready for the wave of questions about her “readiness” for the job. All code for is she “man” enough for the job.
While some of these examples may seem extreme, I can attest that misogyny runs deep in the heart of the male — American or otherwise.
In my 20s, I was not what I would consider to be a good man. Partly because of peer pressure and partly due to my own messed up concepts of masculinity.
I did not act right with several of the women in my life. I know how easy it is to fall into a cycle of masculine overcompensation when really I was very insecure. I thought that since women weren’t “into me” (ugh, I was an idiot) I could only react by being an aggressive, needy jerk.
Fortunately enough, I grew out of that. Over many years, I grew to realize that women are very much the equal, and in a lot of ways, the superior to men.
I realized that without a woman, I would not be here. That to insult women in anyway was to insult humanity itself.
I heeded 2Pac’s words when he warned against a “race of babies that will hate the ladies that make the babies.”
And here we are with “gamergate.”
The lady-hatin’ babies of the world, sending death anonymously across the internet. Stealing women’s private, nude photographs as if women have no right to be sexual in private.
The Muslim countries of the world that deny women even the most basic of freedoms. Societies that encourage the killing of women who act in defiance of their husbands.
Well, as Max Ehrmann said in his 1927 prose poem “Desiderata,” “And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.”
Damn right. Women are slowly taking over the world. Hillary Clinton very well could be the next President of the United States. There are more women CEO’s of companies than ever before.
Personally, I work at a company with many females in management. My wife is a boss who works hard and is very much the breadwinner of the family.
I’m not ashamed of that either. She deserves her success and I’m proud and in awe of her.
There’s even an all-female Ghostbusters sequel in production. How cool is that?
And while “gamergate” has once again exposed the festering boil of anti-female sentiment that stains much of the world’s masculine character, it’s more than likely the death throes of perishing petulant children. A whimper end signifying the big bang of the female revolution.
You got to hand it to the ladies. Over a millennia they’ve spawned generations of people who’ve sought to keep them down.
Yet they’ve persisted.
And as 2Pac said, “since we all came from a woman, got our name from a woman and our game from a woman,” it’s time to pay women their proper respect.
And ladies — keep ya head up.
