I love Anita's work. As I become more engaged in the feminist community her work is playing a big part of illuminating what issues are important and informs what I say when I try to speak up for women and feminism.
As a transwoman putting herself out there to speak for women and feminism, I wonder when the misogyny and others calling me a "man" is going to start (not that I'm even close to Internet relevant). But I also think that as a transwoman I have a useful perspective due to being on both sides. The perspective I think is useful in this discussion is, rape.
In my male life, I knew rape was a bad thing. These gamers who want rape and violence against sexualized women to persist in video games probably know that too but, I and they know it at a academic level. They don't have practical experience from what it's like to suffer under the very real threat of rape everyday.
"Don't get yourself raped in the parking ramp!" Said a female coworker to me the other day. While discussing things with other women, tips on how to stay safe comes up in the conversation on occasion, like how to walk with your keys in your hand like Wolverine's claws. And there's the personal experiences. My very first days being out in public I had a male stranger define the word rape for me personally through his speech and advances toward me. None of those aforementioned things happened in my old life.
The effects of rape and violence against women does not affect these guys personally and that I think that they are not personally affected plays a part in their resistance to changing the situation in gaming. Not to mention that through their intense speech attacking women or feminists, some sometimes demonstrate their inclination to be violent against women without remorse, nor do they show signs that they've paused to consider they may be doing something wrong. They are doing the same behavior as a video game character kicking a woman and as a woman, I naturally identify with the female position. As a guy, I think I identified with the what-the-heck-should-I-do observer.
Anita calls out things that would be great to have a civil discussion about. That she and other feminists are instead attacked by some shows that the problems she brings up are very real, even if they don't manifest the same way that they do in video games.
