We’re In This. How the Hell Do We Get Out Of This?
Okay. My six years of life in Utah taught me that if you expect the worst from Utah, then subtract 17.5%, you’ll never be disappointed in the place. But sadly this isn’t a problem we can dismiss by saying, “Forget it, Jake, it’s Salt Lake City.”
It may seem strange that what started as a trivial (and ginned-up) dispute about ethics in video game reviews has become a global online misogynypalooza, but of such strangeness is history made. This is where we are, and our collective hatred and fear of women and their desire for equal rights is what’s been exposed.
I won’t say that we can’t deny the issue. As Bill O’Reilly demonstrated on The Daily Show last night, the extraordinary capacity of human beings to deny issues is a defining characteristic of the species. Better to say we can’t allow ourselves to deny it. Because it is here, and it will stay, weighing upon us until we decide to address it intelligently.
How do we do that? Well…I advised Richard Dawkins to listen to the woman, so let’s listen to the woman.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZAxwsg9J9Q]
The only thing I’d add is that her ordeal, and that of women like her, remind me of what happened to Elijah Parish Lovejoy, an abolitionist newspaper editor who suffered years of harassment and threats for publishing his views. For all our sakes, I hope Anita’s story has a happier ending. But I think her goal is the right one to have, and that we will get there.
//storify.com/snowdenlit/this-is-happening.js?header=false[<a href=”//storify.com/snowdenlit/this-is-happening” target=”_blank”>View the story “This Is Happening” on Storify</a>]