Last month, adult performer Cytherea and her family were victims of a home invasion. According to police reports, a group of five men broke into Cytherea’s home in Las Vegas, held her family at gunpoint, and proceeded to rob and sexually assault Cytherea. She was raped four times by three of the assailants. You probably haven’t heard about it.
So why is this important? Why should you care? Why are we — a video game new coverage site — writing about this?
Because this is a real issue, one that was actually tied into the whole Gamergate controversy when fellow adult performer Mercedes Carrera posted a video in which she vented out of frustration and anger over “the injustice and inequity of modern faux feminists who ignore real sex workers while worrying about digital ones.” Throughout the emotional 11-minute video, Carrera brings up such topics as Gamergate and the idea that the women involved — Anita Sarkeesian, Brianna Wu — are merely “faux victims” utilizing the world “for their own personal and profit aims.”
“What really bothers me, and this is my rant, what really f**king bothers me is that for the last two months I have sat by Gamergate and I have watched false, faux victims utilize the world for their own personal and profit aims, claiming victimhood over emails and over comments on Twitter,” Carrera begins. “And here you have a woman who’s a real victim of a real rape and a real assault, and those same women who claim that they care about women’s rights have done nothing. They have done jack-f**king sh*t.”
Carrera goes on to reveal that she actually tweeted Sarkeesian, perhaps looking for some sort of help or way to bring the story to national attention, and received no response. “You know what makes me mad? And this is why I’m pissed off at modern feminists. They claim to care about women, but when there are actual women in need what do they do? F**king radio silence. They don’t give a sh*t about anybody but themselves,” she continues.
“Anita Sarkeesian has made hundreds of thousands of dollars peddling her bullsh*t, faux video, socially damaging crap,” Carrera says. “And it has been damaging for gender relations, and it has been damaging for women, and I don’t even want to hear about her victimhood because Cytherea, she’s a real victim. A real victim of a random rape and assault.”
Now look, I’m not in the business of slamming Anita Sarkeesian. I would never belittle any sort of threats she received because the one time you ignore it is when something similar to Cytherea’s tragedy can happen. While Carrera may have a case that women in power like Sarkeesian should do more to help real-life victims and less the digital ones, that’s not really for me to judge. That’s for Sarkeesian to decide.
I do, however, find it interesting how Carrera points out the hypocrisy in today’s media coverage.
“Here you have a women that was actually brutally raped in her home by repeat offenders and nobody said sh*t about it,” Carrera says in her video. “We’ve talked about ethics in journalism and Gamergate and everyone said ‘That’s bullsh*t, that’s a cover for the abusive women,’ and you know what I say? F**k you. Because right now, mainstream media is not covering Cytherea. They’re not. They’ve created this straw man, bullsh*t ad hominem belief system that’s ‘Oh, it’s men in gaming. It’s all the male gamers that are the misogynists and the damaging people in society.’”
Carrera argues that instead of focusing on more important societal issues, like gaps in the prison system, the media is looking at “a group of benign people who enjoy gaming as a hobby and paint and smear, and make them the horrible, horrible abusers of women.”
As we’ve pointed out in the past, because “Gamergate” started as a mere hashtag on Twitter, it’s pretty much open for anyone’s use. Pro-GG supporters claim that the movement is about ethics in journalism. Mainstream media — ABC, Gawker, NBC, Comedy Central, and just about every other major outlet — would have you believe it’s an excuse for misogyny. It’s a way for hateful, sexist pigs to harass women for speaking their mind. For what it’s worth, we’ve seen documented cases of both sides of the controversy spew hateful, sexist, racist remarks.
Actually defining Gamergate isn’t the point in all of this. It’s to, instead, bring light to the truth that the media’s coverage has been piss poor. I’m not saying ignore Sarkeesian’s claims — I’ve seen the threats, she’s made them public. But why isn’t the mainstream media covering all of these stories? Why are companies like ABC and Gawker so focused on a select, handful of women when there’s so many others experiencing horrific events?
“Cytherea. Christy Mack. There are tons of women that I can name off the top of my head, and this is what feminism should be about. Feminism should be about supporting those women and supporting women that have faced real abuse and real hardship,” Carrera adds.
“These women who are making a ton of f**king money peddling their victimhood haven’t given any of it back. They can’t even deliver their DVDs on schedule. And you’re going to tell me that they’re the victims of society, and we have a media that enables this? There’s something seriously wrong, seriously wrong.
“I am so tired of the hypocrisy. And I’m so tired of having to defend a group of really benign, kind people from this corrupt media structure that they’ve created to profiteer off of faux victimhood. They don’t want to look at real victimhood because it’s ugly, and it’s scary, and it’s horrible, and it’s unpredictable. So let’s instead focus on emails and tweets. I really think that so much of it has to do with these people who are peddling their faux victimhood have no idea what it’s like to be in actual hardship.”
Again, I’m not trying to belittle what Anita Sarkeesian or Brianna Wu have faced. I’m simply asking for fair coverage. For everybody — Sarkeensian, Wu, all women who have been victims of harassment. And I’m also looking for fair coverage on the other side of things.
Do you know how I heard about Cytherea’s story? Not from the mainstream media, which should be bringing attention to this sort of horrific event, but through Kotaku in Action, which I would defend is where most of the legit Gamergate supporters — the ones who really call for journalistic integrity — reside. For a bunch of people who seemingly only exist to oppress women, I find it rather odd that they would be the ones sharing this otherwise hidden story. And presumably with their help, the charity to help Cytherea get back on her feet has been met.
You know why the mainstream media is so quick to paint divided lines on the topic? Because it sparks controversy. They’d rather post clickbait articles than actually report legit news. They try to create controversy. How else can you explain this?
You can chat with Matt on Twitter, @Matt_GZ.
