User:Rhoark/sandbox/SalterMasculinity

Developer Zoe Quinn's name has been indelibly linked with a defamatory article written by her ex-boyfriend, Eron Gjoni. Gjoni falsely inferred that Quinn attained her place in the video game industry through sexual favors. Some number of video game players, threatened by the influence of women in the industry, reacted by forming a semi-coordinated harassment campaign. Starting in late 2014 through all of 2015, the topic of Gamergate dominated social media and game industry discussions, drawing mainstream media attention. Although the harassment has subsided, those it targeted are still affected by a necessary state of hyper-vigilance. The public importance of online abuse is illustrated by Gamergate's subsequent absorbance into the alt-right political movement.

Association of technology with masculine traits is typical in Western society. Women were prevalent in early computer work of the 1940's because of wartime labor shortage, but also because it was seen as a kind of clerical work whose intellectual demands were underestimated. The connotations of the programming field became increasingly masculinized in the 1960's, and by 1970 the programming workforce was one-quarter female. The association of computers with masculinity increased with technology's rising macro-economic significance during the 1980's. Femininity was presented in opposing contrast to computer technology throughout advertising, pop culture, and video games. Female involvement in computer industry and enrollment in computer science courses fell in the latter half of the decade.

New forms of masculine gender expression formed around computer technology. "Geek masculinity" denotes a form of masculine self-identification predicated on the assumption that men are more technically competent than women. A desire to maintain gender exclusivity is evident in domineering behavior seen in arcades of the 1980's as well as in post-millennial online griefing. Although sometimes seen as weaker or subordinate to more traditional masculinity, geek masculinity has been influential in the structure of online communities and their potential for abuse. Geek masculinity claims technology as an alternate pathway to masculine expression available to intelligent but socially awkward boys and men. Contrasted with traditional masculinity, geek masculinity displaces athletic ability with technical skill as a basis for self-esteem and social capital. It embodies a contradiction, in that geek masculinity stands in resistance to hegemonic masculinity while also wielding social power via technology. Interest in computers has however lost social stigma in proportion to its growing recognition as a route to wealth in the 1990's.

Masculine normative expectations of individualism and competitiveness have informed not only geek culture but also the design of its products, such as social media platforms. A lack of moderation creates an environment that is unfriendly, particularly for women. The validity of technology as a basis for gender expression has been eroded by the influence of mobile phones and social media in raising female technical literacy. Some have reacted to this trend by using threats and insults against women or minorities to maintain geek control of online spaces. To this end, they have formed alliances with non-geek reactionary anti-feminists.

The catalyst for the Gamergate controversy was an August 2014 blog post by Eron Gjoni accusing Zoe Quinn of infidelity and falsely implying she had gained status in the game industry through sexual favors. Moderators removed links to this blog from forums at Something Awful and Penny Arcade, where Gjoni originally posted it, before it found a more receptive audience at 4chan. 4chan is a "major online hub" for geek masculinity. Gjoni was aware than many 4chan users were already hostile towards Quinn. 4chan had been a source of harassment directed at Quinn since the 2013 release of Depression Quest, though Quinn identified another site - Wizardchan - as the origin of some abusive messages. These included sexually harassing phone calls and rape threats. Gjoni actively participated in 4chan discussions about the harassment Quinn received.

The short duration in which any single message remains visible on 4chan contributes to disinhibition in its users. This in turn gives rise to frequent pranks and abuse, which is regarded as normal within the platform. Freedom of speech is given such primacy in the ethos of 4chan that obscenity as well as racial and sexual epithets are commonplace. Off-putting speech serves a function of discouraging outsiders to chan culture from browsing the forums; however, expressions of prejudice begun with ironic intent can merge into actual harassment like that seen in connection with Gamergate.

Hostility towards Quinn was motivated by gamers' defensiveness about criticism of sexism in the gaming medium or community. Gamers perceived women and progressives as conspiring with journalists in order to politicize games or destroy gamer culture. Gjoni's allegations against Quinn fed this narrative. A number of 4chan users conducted harassment towards Quinn and other women with the intent to punish them for this perceived agenda against gamers. On August 27, 2014 actor Adam Baldwin coined the hashtag #GamerGate in a tweet linking to a YouTube video slandering Quinn. The -gate suffix alluded to the Watergate scandal, implying the uncovering of a conspiracy. Baldwin claimed video games were being used as a tool of political indoctrination. Tens of thousands of gamers used the hashtag to focus harassment on a few individuals in the name of "ethics in video game journalism." The alleged ethical lapses relied at times on convoluted logic. They were at times correct that journalists had financial conflicts of interest, though alleged romantic liasons garnered much more attention.

Within #GamerGate social media activity, examples could be found of criminal activity including SWATting and threats of rape or murder. These caused Quinn to leave her home and also affected developers and journalists critical of Gamergate. In September 24, Gamergate discussion was banned from 4chan, an unusual measure given its highly permissive forums. Users migrated to the even less-regulated 8chan, where harassment continued to be organized. Another hub of Gamergate activity is the subreddit KotakuInAction. Activity organized there tends towards political boycotts and letter-writing campaigns rather than harassment, though there is some overlap of users with 8chan. Large volumes of hostile replies impeded any effective communication about Gamergate via Twitter. The design of Twitter brings strangers into contact more frequently than some other social media platforms that curate messages by family connections or interest groups. This leads to more confrontation between people holding diametrically opposing views, and the line between opposition and abuse can be hard to define.

As the controversy evolved, it became a vehicle for financial gain and media exposure for some individuals such as Milo Yiannopolous and Phil Mason. Eron Gjoni crowdfunded over $50,000 to legally contest Quinn's restraining order against him. Social media and crowdfunding sites that host such individuals also profit from this income, raising questions about their responsibility to police such activity. In part through the actions of Yiannopolous and his former employer Steve Bannon, the rhetoric of geek masculinity has become a significant component of the alt-right political movement that contributed to the election of Donald Trump.

The role of social media in the Gamergate controversy can be understood in terms of Herbert Marcuse's theory of technological rationality. Within that framework, harassment is explained as a consequence of the fundamental rationales of those platforms. Gamer subculture promotes masculine aggressiveness, and this tendency is further encouraged by marketing. Users of social media platforms like Twitter who subscribe to a techno-rational world-view see the platform's content as debate among competing ideas, not as targeted persecution of those with whom they disagree, regardless of the actual impact on those individuals. This appeared to be the perspective of Twitter's management, who have expressed an idealistic alignment with freedom of speech, but also have financial motivation to avoid expenditures on site moderation. Marcuse's theories contravene claims that social media can be neutral content carriers after the fashion of a public utility, inasmuch as their design is founded on masculinist assumptions.

The extent of harassment against Quinn and Sarkeesian are known only because of their efforts to document and publicize incidents through social media and mainstream journalists. Zoe Quinn and Randi Harper founded organizations to provide advice and assistance to targets of harassment. Sarkeesian was named one of Time Magazine's most influential people of 2015. These events demonstrate that domination of online spaces by technological rationality is not inevitable, and it is possible to advance opposing viewpoints within the existing paradigm.

Gjoni publishing a defamatory article about Quinn can be construed as an act of domestic violence. The article on its own, however, may have had little impact if not animated by greater trends of geek masculinity. Masculine domination of online spaces does not arise through conscious design and coordinated action, but rather isolated expressions of gender identity. Geek hostility towards women is displaced frustration with capitalist alienation, stoked by techno-fetishism and advertising. Online communications platforms embody capitalist gender relations wherein people are treated as instrumental means to some end. Platforms that enable peer users to intervene in harassment could curtail abuse.