I saw one of Anita Sarkeesian's videos in my recommended and I said "fuck it" and gave it a good faith watch. I may not agree with, or understand every single point, but I remember that she got DEMONIZED for making this. I was told that she hated men, that she wanted all these sexist roles inverted to be in women's favor, and that she was some authoritarian fun police (ironically said by the ringleaders of the satanic panic).
She said some things, and people thought some of what she said was wrong. Even I did. For example, she mentioned Betty from Rugrats as an example of a "straw feminist", but she was portrayed in a sympathetic light and was not meant to imply "feminism bad". Yes, she's androgynous and she's a lesbian, but she's handled pretty well as a character. I'd hardly consider Tracer a straw feminist (I would at least assume she considers herself one since she found Mondatta "an inspiration growing up).
I know that this was just ONE video, but from the information I have, it seems like this whole thing was blown WAY out of proportion. So what gives? Why Anita in particular? Also, how did this whole gamergate thing grow into being rightoid woodstock?
this. any grievances with "ethics in videogame journalism" or indie game development where added later. i spent way too much time on 4chan in the late 00s / early 10s and the culture that later led to gamergate was already fully developed back then, it already was exactly the same chud shit that's still around today.
these people do not care about legitimate reasons to get worked up about anything. all they care about is their seething, uncontrollable hatred of anything that's not a white cishet reactionary man. they'll latch onto any opportunity to act upon that hatred and all rationalizations for this are applied after their outburst of rage as needed.