I would argue that men don't get rape threats because most men don't see rape as a realistic threat to themselves.
Instead, we have our masculinity, loyalty, abilities, work ethic, and/or integrity attacked, because those are the things that cut us to the core.
I'm not saying that women don't care about those things, I'm just saying that when someone is trying to be a dick they're going to go after the lowest hanging fruit.
Of course, I think we all need to keep working to end this kind of harassment. We all know it exists, and most of us guys disapprove of it, but few of us are taking the extra step of saying "that's not ok, dude" when it happens.
In the meantime, I've had some pretty hurtful/maddening stuff directed at me in the past by a group of people online, and I learned that you either take the Phil Fish route and flame out, or you have to find some way to distance yourself emotionally from the bullshit or ignore it. It's fucked up, but you have to protect your sanity until the problem is fixed (which it might never be).
Edit: Unrelated to the topic, but it's interesting how this comment got a large number of upvotes before the downvote brigade started trickling in. I'm not anti-feminist here, folks. Just trying to elaborate on the discussion and hopefully learn some things.
I do see women’s femininity (or lack of masculinity, actually!), loyalty, especially abilities, work ethic and/or integrity attacked all the time. I don’t really understand why you are under the impression that doesn’t happen to women. The objectification and threats of (sexual) violence happen in addition to that.
Again, you seem to argue that there is some kind of balance in harassment and both men and women receive the same amount. That is not true at all.
All things being equal (content, credentials of speaker, etc), a woman speaking tends to get more attention than a male. People are naturally more attracted to the feminine than the masculine.
Exuding feminine energy draws people in. This expression may or may not be conscious. It's at least partially conscious though. It often works to that person's advantage to look good.
People are going to react to this feminine energy who also has something to say. I understand that it's not fair to emphasize the feminine, however we are driven more by emotions than by rational thought (even "rational" thought tends to be driven by emotion).
Another angle is harassment toward men does happen and is simply not talked about, laughed off, and downplayed. It's not useful to keep score and categorize who harassment happens to. If you are a victim of harassment, does it matter that you fall within a majority or minority of the demographics?
Someone calling you a pencil dick doesn't cut you. Its just words, not grounded in anything the speaker knows about you. What's scary about rape threats is that it points out an uncomfortable truth: the 95th percentile women is about as strong in the upper body as the 5th percentile man. The guy making the rape threat knows that and so does the target. Its backed by reality in a way most comments directed at men aren't.
It's also backed up by a culture that tells women they're responsible for their own assault/rape/harassment, so defying these threats means you're also defying the people who say it's your own fault, go somewhere else, you're asking for it, etc.
I follow a few twitter accounts of a few prominent game devs (both male and female), and I've noticed that the more attention (i.e., followers) they have, the more regularly you can expect to see threats and insults as a reply to practically anything they say. I think the same kind of people that would troll a male dev by calling him a 'fag' would probably be the same kind that would issue a rape threat to a female dev, and probably think there is nothing wrong with either.
On an related note, if I do ever make games, I won't have a public twitter account, facebook account, or personal blog. Something about the nature of that industry just brings out the worst in people.
There is a nontrivial difference between the modes of attack you note that work better on men and those that work better on women to achieve a psychological impact. The difference is significant--for women, the difference is a matter of (literally) being physically assaulted or even killed. Men face that kind of threat far less from attacks against our masculinity, loyalty, etc.
The article notes this. Women shouldn't be expected to distance themselves from a very real threat of physical violence, which men simply don't face to anything close to the same degree.
>The article notes this. Women shouldn't be expected to distance themselves from a very real threat of physical violence, which men simply don't face to anything close to the same degree.
Mean deal with threats of physical violence all the time. Including actual attacks, which is far more common between men. They just don't deal with rape threats/attacks.
What the hell kind of environment are you in where you get threats of physical violence "all the time"?
I've NEVER been threatened with any sort of violence in a professional or educational context. I've never witnessed threats of violence in my work environment. I might be just lucky to have always worked at awesome places (I am), but even when executives or other engineers were angry, I never saw any kind of threats made which would have made me worry about my physical safety.
The internet is different, in that there are some people that just want to spew filth everywhere, but even then it sure seems like women get more directed at them.
As a man, I definitely feel like I face both fewer attacks, and lesser degrees of attacks, online and offline, than a woman would. If your professional environment includes threats to your personal safety (or others), it's not a "professional" environment, and you should make an exit a priority to somewhere that treats you with respect.
If you see people making threats that you feel are actual threats, call the police. If you feel they're joking, tell them that it's not funny, and in shamefully poor taste.
>What the hell kind of environment are you in where you get threats of physical violence "all the time"?
The internet? Try writing a post / column on any political topic (even game or music criticism) and see what happens.
(TFA too, mentioned comments/threats from end users and such mostly over the internet -- not threats made to her in her workplace).
Still even at the physical workplace, men are more prone to resort to a "fist fight" kind of situation and physical violence between them. Including the rare, but orders of magnitude more often than with women, example of men going postal and shooting up the place.
Then there's being bullied at school and the neighborhood. And the usual threats from enraged drivers, drunkards at some bar, etc -- which also end up in violence sometimes.
And in Europe at least, you have to also count the all too common violence between men at soccer matches and other popular sports.
Not really. Most of my male friends, including myself, have been assaulted (beaten-up) before turning 21 - some in broad daylight, in the city centre, or with people around them. Most, if not all, of the assailants weren't punished (or even reported - it's obvious the police can't really do anything about it).
I don't have any similar statistics about my female friends. If they were raped, many would probably not share that fact as willingly as my male friends did. Still, I wishfully believe that not all of them have been raped/assaulted.
We are specifically discussing the games industry, which has a much higher than average rate of bullshit that gets hurled at the devs from across the internet. There are links scattered all over this discussion thread that show that.
If the argument is that women receive more than men on average and that the threats include sexual violence (which it rarely does against men), I won't argue that.
I should make it clear that I'm in no way saying the two are equivalent. I'm only commenting on why men don't get rape threats (or don't take them seriously on the odd occasion when we do). Many of us have gotten empty threats of violence so many times (between high school, bars, random scumbags on the street) that we don't take it seriously unless someone is actually getting up in our face ready to swing.
"Sometimes, things get worse than just angry emails and tweets – one developer said that the threats that made him lose sleep were the ones that involved his children. Sometimes people start saying that they know a developer’s home address. Bowling says that he started receiving suspicious packages – never a good sign in the modern era."
Instead, we have our masculinity, loyalty, abilities, work ethic, and/or integrity attacked, because those are the things that cut us to the core.
I'm not saying that women don't care about those things, I'm just saying that when someone is trying to be a dick they're going to go after the lowest hanging fruit.
Of course, I think we all need to keep working to end this kind of harassment. We all know it exists, and most of us guys disapprove of it, but few of us are taking the extra step of saying "that's not ok, dude" when it happens.
In the meantime, I've had some pretty hurtful/maddening stuff directed at me in the past by a group of people online, and I learned that you either take the Phil Fish route and flame out, or you have to find some way to distance yourself emotionally from the bullshit or ignore it. It's fucked up, but you have to protect your sanity until the problem is fixed (which it might never be).
Edit: Unrelated to the topic, but it's interesting how this comment got a large number of upvotes before the downvote brigade started trickling in. I'm not anti-feminist here, folks. Just trying to elaborate on the discussion and hopefully learn some things.