Anita Sarkeesian was forced to leave her home and stay with friends after she recieved an outpouring of violent threats over Twitter.
Sarkeesian is a a media critic and the creator of Feminist Frequency, a video web series that explores how women are portrayed in pop culture.
Lately she's been digging into the appallingly sexist world of video games. She just posted a video that showed how many video games treat woman as sexual playthings and "the perpetual victims of male violence,"as the video is described.
Whenever someone (particularly a woman) criticizes the way women are portrayed or treated in the gaming industry, that person is almost certainly guaranteed to be subjected to threats of violence.
We've heard a lot of horrifying stories like this with Sarkeesian's among the worst. After the video was posted she tweeted:
Some very scary threats have just been made against me and my family. Contacting authorities now.
— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) August 27, 2014Then tweeted she was leaving her home:
I’m safe. Authorities have been notified. Staying with friends tonight. I’m not giving up. But this harassment of women in tech must stop!
— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) August 27, 2014Today she added:
In my work I witness so many women being harassed. I know how hard it is to watch & how helpless it can feel. Thank you all for your support
— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) August 27, 2014And here's the most horrifying part. She also shared the specific list of threats being tweeted at her (warning: it's very graphic). They are so appalling that we won't run them on Business Insider. What we will say is that a person threatened to rape, mutilate, and "drink her blood."
She also shared an anonymous message from someone who emailed her via her website, calling her obscene names.
All because she's pointing out that the video game industry is poorly representing half the population (a half who likes to buy video games).
As The Journal reported, this stuff was so bad, famed Hollywood writer, director and producer Joss Whedon came to her defense on Twitter for both the documentary series and the scary tweets. (His credits include "The Avengers,""Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and "Toy Story.")
Watch the @femfreq#TropesvsWomen vids. Even if u think u get it, the sheer tonnage makes misogyny seem newly appalling.
— Joss Whedon (@josswhedon) August 27, 2014I watched a bunch of women get sliced up in video games and now I'm watching it on my twitter feed. @femfreq is just truth-telling. Deal.
— Joss Whedon (@josswhedon) August 27, 2014The situation is going viral on Twitter right now.
This isn't the first time. In 2013, GameSpot’s Carolyn Petit wrote a mostly glowing review of "Grand Theft Auto V," but threw in one critique that the game glorified "male sexuality while demeaning women." The comments exploded attacking Petit. A petition was even signed by tens of thousands to get her fired.
Female game programmers also took to Twitter last year to share stories of harassment in a string called #1reasonwhy.
And another person was subjected to similar threats by speaking out against harassment as a woman who organizes conferences events where people wear costumes (known as Cosplay).
Video games are supposed to be fun (and they are). But as Sarkeesian said: This kind of thing has just got to stop.
We reached out to Twitter and Sarkeesian for comment and will update when we hear back.
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