Videogaming
expert and world-renowned historian, Anita Sarkeesian, was subjected
to an onslaught of vicious online abuse from some of the most evil
men in history.
This is
according to Feminist Frequency – the internet-based organisation
founded and run by Sarkeesian.
The
website, which analyses the portrayal of women in popular culture,
claims that during early March, 2016, Sarkeesian became the target of
an orchestrated campaign of harassment, waged primarily over the
social media platform Twitter. Her tormentors have been identified as
the gunfighter and bandit, Henry McCarty (aka Billy the Kid),
the pirate, Edward Teach (better known as Blackbeard) and Grigori
Yefimovich Rasputin, described in a song by Boney M as “Russia's
greatest love machine.”
The
harassment is thought to be a response to Sarkeesian's plan to
abandon a long delayed and drawn-out series of short films, exploring
sexist tropes in videogaming, and to instead focus on a new set of
videos that will spotlight successful women who were sidelined by
history. Feminist Frequency is currently in the process of raising
$200,000 from public donations to ensure that these new films meet
the high production standards of the website's previous output.
A
spokeshistorian for the site told MODE5:
“What
Anita endured went beyond mere trolling. These are wicked men, afraid
that our films, which celibrate the achievements of strong successful
women in history, will undermine and diminish their own notoriety.
They are prepared to go to any lengths to silence us.
“In one
tweet Blackbeard threatened to slice Anita from bow to stern with his
hooked hand! Billy the Kid made a veiled threat regarding who would
be quicker on the draw, perpetuating the trope of the white male lone
gunman. Rasputin sent a series of tweets in Russian that we were
unable to understand, but can assume, from his gender, were abusive.
“We
request that our supporters donate to our fundraiser as a matter of
urgency so that we can meet, or better still, exceed our target of
$200,000. We believe that if can raise this sum of money these
violent and unpleasant trolls will be shamed into silence.”
The
spokeshistorian added:
“The way
things are going at the moment, it can only be a matter of time
before Hitler, Professor Moriaty and Darth Vader send us similar
threatening messages.”
At the
time of going to press none of the accused men could be reached for
comment.
A
spokesperson for the FBI said: “Given that Blackbeard, Billy The
Kid, and Rasputin died violently in 1718, 1881, and 1916,
respectively, we do not consider these threats to be credible.”
Historians are dead and don't have to be your audience anymore.
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