#french radblr

[normalfem]

As long as some men use physical force to subjugate women, all men need not. The knowledge that some men do suffices to threaten all women.

Marilyn French: The War Against Women

[gachafem]

!!! ATTENTION ALL WOMEN AND GIRLS IN FRANCE !!!

I do not know French, so if anyone wishes to translate this post, please do so! French women and girls need to know about a high profile CONVICTED rapist and sex trafficker in their area that was involved in one of the biggest sex crime scandals in South Korea.

original post / message original en français

Jung Jooyoung, a convicted rapist and sex trafficker, has been seen in Lyon, France, and plans to open a Korean restaurant in the area.

He is known as one of the main perpetrator of Burning Sun. If you want to learn more about Burning Sun please watch this video! But if you want a TL;DR, Burning Sun was a scandal in South Korea where numerous male South Korean celebrities forced women into prostitution, raped them, and shared videos of their rape on porn sites and group chats.

Unfortunately, all of the men (including Joonyoung) have been released and allowed to live normal lives without having to register as sex offenders. That being said, French women on Twitter have found the whereabouts of one of the main perpetrators.

He is currently in Lyon, France, but he tells Lyon that his name is June and that he's from Boston. He also tells women that we is a writer and composer with prospects of opening his own Korean restaurant

The most updated picture of him is below:

Please let women in the Lyon area known of this sex pest in their area. And do not give his future restaurant endeavors any attention.

Thank you for your time, if you wish to translate this post PLEASE do so! You do not need to ask me, just do it of you want to!

[sickofthis666]

Hey quick question, how the fuck am I supposed to rely on the french justice system, let alone take it seriously, when a husband condemmed today for domestic violence in my town only got 15 months of prison even though he:

1. Has already been violent before

2. Has already been condamned for domestic violence before and only got 15 months then

3. Has been violent again despite a legal interdiction to approach his wife

4. Resisted arrest

Isnt 15 months ridiculously short for domestic violence? And who the fuck apply the same sentence to a recidivist, specially a violent one?

You know what usually happens to women when their violent husband is freed from jail after a short sentence?? He fucking kills her, that's what!

[hard--headed--woman]

I briefly talked about it with someone here and it made me think so much that I had to make a post about it - why don't misandrist men get as much hate as misandrist women ?

They are men who think men are horrible and say it. Yet they do not receive the same amount of hate as a feminist saying "I hate men".

There's an example that I find interesting and that I thought I'd share : some decades ago, a very famous leftist french singer, Renaud, made a song that quickly became very popular and loved. It's called "Miss Maggie" and it basically says that men are trash and that women are superior. The thing is, absolutely everyone praises him for it and loves that song. I guess there are some conservatives and incels who hate it, but the vast majority of the country, men and women, loves it ; people say Renaud is amazing and a genius for writing it and that the song is wonderful. Here is a link if you want to listen to it :

(He also criticizes Margaret Tatcher in that song but I won't talk about it in this post because it's not the point).

Here are some lyrics (with the english translation) just so you understand what I'm talking about :

(Bourgeois women or whores

Who are often the very same

Normal women, stars or uglies

Females of all kinds, I love you

Even to the worst moron

I dedicate these few verses

Born of my disgust for men

And their warrior morality

Because no woman on the planet

Will ever be more stupid than her brother

Nor prouder nor more dishonest)

(Woman I love you because

When sport becomes war

There are no chicks, or very few

In the hordes of fans

Crazy fanatics

Drunk on hate and beer

Defying the morons in blue

Insulting the bastards in green)

(The atomic bomb

Didn't come from a female brain

And no woman has on her hands

The blood of Native Americans.

Palestinians and Armenians

Testify from their graves

That genocides are a male thing

Like SS, bullfighters

In this fucking humanity

Murderers are all brothers

Not a woman to compete)

(Woman I love you, above all, at last

For your weakness and for your eyes

When a man's only strength

Is his gun or his cock

And when the last hour comes

Hell will be full of morons

Playing soccer or war

Playing who pisses the farthest)

Everyone loves that song and Renaud didn't receive any hate for writing it. Now imagine if a woman had written it? Just imagine the amount of hate a female singer would receive if she wrote a song like this. That could ruin her carreer and I am not exaggerating.

Renaud is also known for saying other misandrist things. I remember watching an interview with him, in which he's said that "Women are always there to heal wounds, repair damage, get things done... Unfortunately, there are still too few of them in important positions where they can participate in decision-making", "The oldest form of discrimination is discrimination against women. They are the first group we decided to hate and oppress", "Politicians and religions don't want to let women be more than virgins or whores. They don't want to let them be human beings, women, fulfilled people, with a personality, who work...", "It's not long since women have had the right to vote in France. And what's more, when I see women voting for a man, it gives me the same feeling as if I saw a crocodile going to a leather shop of its own free will...".

And in the comments, absolutely everyone was praising him, calling him a king, an angel and what not. No one to call him names or to tell him horrible things. No one to act as if he's said the craziest thing ever, no one to act as if he committed a crime. Sure some people disagree and insult women, but there is not a lot of hatred against him. Again, a woman would have received a lot of hate if she had said things like that. Just read what men have to say about Delphine Seyrig criticizing the patriarchy and the "indifference of men".

The point of that post isn’t to say that Renaud is The Feminist Ally, that he's perfect and one of the good guys or whatever. I just want to point out that a man criticizing men, saying he hates them, calling out their behaviour (and even saying women are superior!) will never receive the same amount of hate as a woman barely saying "I hate men" or ever way "nicer" things. Sounds like everyone knows why we hate men and even agrees with us deep inside, and just hate when women speak up about it. Sounds like they don't have a problem with misandry but with women 🤷🏽‍♀️

[radykalny-feminizm]

Olympe de Gouges (7 May 1748 – 3 November 1793) was a French playwright and political activist. She is best known for her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen.

This declaration was a response to Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which granted freedom and rights to men only, excluding women. She's the first person in history who openly demanded voting rights for women. Her views were seen as controversial and led to her eventual arrest and execution by guillotine in 1793.

Olympe is one of many female martyrs who sacrificed their lives fighting for women's rights.

Don't let us forget about this great heroine on the anniversary of her death.

[wild-wombytch]

Oh well, today is male entitlement day, it seems. Sure, get surgeries and take the place of natural women and reap the money out of it. (I can confirm that France 3 Region is a legit information website btw)

Beauty contests should die anyway, since they're the most basic patriarchy in action, but yeah, now males will make women even more insecure...

I swear today's Reddit scrolling makes me want to peak another time.

ETA :

Roughly (not a good translator) : "Last year, the student decided to sign in the official contest of Haute-Vienne. [As to] boost her self confidence, make her family proud and to prove the people who mocked her wrong...there are many reasons."

Quote : <<I wanted to be able to tell myself that I am a young woman. I can be pretty, desired, be liked>>

Quote 2 : <<Among all the [economical?] partners, some people aren't accepting, Lara says. At the end of the day, it's good to force things. To show that a trans woman can be miss or dauphine. Because during the contest, some parents complain to the president. Thankfully, the committee defended me. I heard someone say "Ah, but that's a man" and I wanted to tell him "yeah and the man is first dauphine". We need to stop with taboos and nastiness. We need to teach values of tolerance and acceptance>>

This make me sick. This male self-id as a man right there and say we need to force things and force women to accept that else they're intolerant. Male thinking 101.

ETA 2 : Oh and btw, laser hair removal is at least partially refunded *by society/health care* in France. Too bad for the real females contestants who have to pay their own shaving I guess (you know, because natural body hair is too gross for patriarchy to handle as part of straight beauty standards)

[menalez]

i love that theres a side of radblr where they all speak in chinese and are separatists,, like theyre a significant portion of women on here but we often dont notice them bc they write in their language and spread the posts among each other and its great to see. makes me wonder if there’s korean radblr or arabic radblr or farsi radblr or or or…

[femouvre]

males are genuinely beasts

[shoppinghauer]

The rape of the doctor in india made a lot of radblr racist i hope the crime of that piece of shit french guy makes then francophobic

[lesblizzard-ultradyke]

ok here's the thing first time I talked to that orbiter I was confused when he was like yeah actually you don't know your fucking history because gay also meant a shit ton of a bad shit before being used to refer to homosexuality.

I think I kind of have it settled in my head now but I am kind of confused why I never saw anyone on radblr say this. I literally beg someone to talk with me about this.

according to wikipedia

In English, the word's primary meaning was "joyful", "carefree", "bright and showy", and the word was very commonly used with this meaning in speech and literature. For example, the optimistic 1890s are still often referred to as the Gay Nineties. The title of the 1938 French ballet Gaîté Parisienne ("Parisian Gaiety"), which became the 1941 Warner Brothers movie, The Gay Parisian,[10] also illustrates this connotation.

this part I heard from people a lot ig, it's somewhat a common knowledge that gay means happy.

The word may have started to acquire associations of immorality as early as the 14th century, but had certainly acquired them by the 17th.[2] By the late 17th century, it had acquired the specific meaning of "addicted to pleasures and dissipations",[11] an extension of its primary meaning of "carefree" implying "uninhibited by moral constraints". A gay woman was a prostitute, a gay man a womanizer, and a gay house a brothel.

this was what confused me! I literally never heard about it and maybe shame on me but I also never saw anyone talk about it on radblr. like. doesn't anyone else find it interesting how "gay" changed from meaning "carefree" as in "happy" and "free" to "carefree" as in "uninhibited by moral constraints" or "immoral"? actually I don't even think it changed it's meaning just got a whole other while still having this "carefree" one.

The use of gay to mean "homosexual" was often an extension of its application to prostitution: a gay boy was a young man or boy serving male clients.[14] Similarly, a gay cat was a young male apprenticed to an older hobo and commonly exchanging sex and other services for protection and tutelage.[2] The application to homosexuality was also an extension of the word's sexualized connotation of "carefree and uninhibited", which implied a willingness to disregard conventional or respectable sexual mores. Such usage, documented as early as the 1920s, was likely present before the 20th century,[2] although it was initially more commonly used to imply heterosexually unconstrained lifestyles, as in the once-common phrase "gay Lothario",[15] or in the title of the book and film The Gay Falcon (1941), which concerns a womanizing detective whose first name is "Gay".

so it wasn't that gay was a specific word for insulting homosexuality as I thought at first but just a word that was used to shame on all of the "sexual deviancy" which could literally mean both homosexuality and pedophilia. so it's not like "gay" meant "sexual deviancy" or "homosexuality" or "pedophilia" but was used to describe those. the same way "freak" doesn't mean homosexual just because people call homosexuals freaks. maybe it's not even something that hard to understand but it really took me time to fully realise that.

Bringing Up Baby (1938) was the first film to use the word gay in an apparent reference to homosexuality. In a scene in which Cary Grant's character's clothes have been sent to the cleaners, he is forced to wear a woman's feather-trimmed robe. When another character asks about his robe, he responds, "Because I just went gay all of a sudden!" Since this was a mainstream film at a time, when the use of the word to refer to cross-dressing (and, by extension, homosexuality) would still be unfamiliar to most film-goers, the line can also be interpreted to mean, "I just decided to do something frivolous."[19]

also I don't understand why they call this line here a reference to homosexuality when it refers to cross-dressing and has nothing to do with homosexuality??

By the mid-20th century, gay was well established in reference to hedonistic and uninhibited lifestyles[11] and its antonym straight, which had long had connotations of seriousness, respectability, and conventionality, had now acquired specific connotations of heterosexuality.

I used to not like using "straight" to heteros because it reminded me a lot about the russian word we usually use for heteros which is literally "natural" and I really hate that word because it implies that something is not natural with gays, but then I started using it because literally everyone here is using it and I kind of thought maybe it's not like that in english but this part of the page makes me think it's actually way too similar to how it is in russian.

and then homosexual people decided to use the word "gay" in its positive meaning to describe themselves. and I think this is the answer I was looking for? the problem with "queer" is that it started as "strange" and it is being "reclaimed" as "strange" or "positive strange" or "unique" or "unusual" rather than homosexuality just being seen as normal and usual.

so when people started calling themselves gay they called themselves happy and free and joyful and when people started calling themselves queer they called themselves strange and different.

idk!!! maybe it is all so painfully obvious that no one sees a reason to talk about it but it's so interesting to me can someone please please please talk about it I also have only one source in the face of wikipedia because all those other sites I find all are "queeryqueer.com" and copy-paste from wikipedia mostly.

[joannerowling]

re: ask about people "reclaiming", homophobic slurs that are not from their language.

It's very true. and it's coming equally bad from both sides. On one hand, people of non-english upbringing, who never lived in the environment and neve were submerged in the culture, where those slurs originated from, have literally no business reclaiming them. It's just ignorant and disrespectful. If some western trans gay boy began call himself a pidor/pidorás (really violent slur for gay man in many slavic languages) since he is gay so it's okay to reclaim this quirky slavic word for gay ppl, i would go feral. I don't understand, why doesn't it work the other way. It so easy to think for a moment and understand that it's not your word to reclaim.

But on the other hand, english-speaking LGBTQ+ community has desensitised q slur so much, that for a foreigner, who is constantly in these online spaces, it's doesn't seem like it's a slur at all. A lot of new labels and genders and orientations are now including the slur, so maybe it okay to use. That's why im constantly stumbling upon people from my native online spaces, who call themselves queerplatonic or queergender or something like that. (the f slur hasn't reached us so far and i hope never will). I can totally see how someone just picked a label because it became so common in the US/Canada/UK, and the opposite opinions are drowned out by the louder crowds or labeled terfy.

I will say, to play devil's advocate here a little only for the sake of rounding the argument: language doesn't evolve spontaneously, and occasionally slurs can go from "slurs" to "no longer slurs" through cultural change. For example, in French, we have the word "con", which initially meant vagina and would have been used as a misogynistic insult (basically the same as "cunt", i believe the two are etymologically close). However today "con" has evolved to be used exclusively for men with a relatively large range in meaning (going from "dickhead" to "idiot"; sometimes it's applied in a genderless way, kind of teasingly - as in "t'es con" to mean "you're a bit of a dummie" or "you just made a bad joke/excessive one". It's all in the tone and context). Most, oh i'd really say 90% of French people at this point, have no idea what "con" used to mean. I've had that conversation with a French radfem once who said she refused to use it because of the original meaning, and my question to her was, what matters when identifying an insult, the word itself or the intent? It's an open one.

Perhaps this is what people hope will happen to "queer", though i don't think it's a good parallel with "con" - it could be if "queer" was used to design some completely different group or thing than homosexuals. You could argue it's already kind of happening though, many more people than you'd suspect have started recognising that "queer" and "gay" are different things (mostly because "queer" associations and media have completely stopped putting forth the fight for same-sex rights). I've seen that sentiment on radblr, "they can call themselves queer all they like but don't include me in it", as well as the firmer "queer is insulting period, and heteros don't get to reclaim a slur that was never thrown at them". Since it's not my language i'm not gonna pick one position over the other, but i guess both exist for equally good reasons.

(Like you i also noticed "faggot" is much less subjected to that. People seem a little more aware of that one and less willing to "reclaim it" or approriate it, outside of the worst of trans identified women. Why that is i don't know. Maybe because it's perceived as being more exclusively used for gay men, and violence against gay men is more well-known in general?)

Another thing your second paragraph highlights is something we don't talk about a lot i think: that for how culturally diverse "queer" spaces claim to be, they are fairly homogenous and singularly minded beneath the surface. Especially outside of native English speaking countries, because the kind of people who can speak English fluently enough to access these topics have specific backgrounds (it's very visible in France because people are generally not good at English here). This is why you can find several active LGBTQIA+ groups in Paris or some big cities and will struggle to find even one in much less prestigious unis.

[tirfpikachu]

heyy wassup i'm lay :]

♡ 27yo

♡ soft butch dyke

♡ detrans tirf

♡ electriccenturies is my gf >///<

♡ crazy bunny lady (3 buns)

♡ wheelchair user & autistic

♡ french, living in ontario (gta)

(lmk if you're nearby! owo)

♡ feel free to send DMs/asks!

(i get a lot of them tho so pls be patient <3)

♡ if you use the r slur or c slur block me & die

♡ btw if i sound stupid i'm probably high ✌👅

my goofy youtube channel is @/pikatirf !! i'm still working on it but new vids that are actually edited will be up soon ^_^

follow my sideblog @pokegyns and send asks with your controversial opinions about both radblr and/or mainstream leftblr! if you DM me on this current blog i will also consider publishing a thinkpiece of yours! so long as the kings, queens and jesters in my tirf server see enough nuance in your words. a poll shall be made. if anything, i can rb your piece and boost it so you get more eyeballs on your nuance!

my radfem views are a work in progress. i'm learning everyday.

my general views as of 2024, in typical tra speak:

> cis/bio women are uniquely oppressed for their sex/agab, and for not identifying out of womanhood. outside of typically not facing transphobia, which is something they should keep in mind, they still may face more misogyny than some trans people in their day-to-day life and living as female makes you marginalized. it isn't a simple oppressor/oppressed dynamic.

> transmasc ppl are oppressed for being afab, and doubly so if they pass as women. they still don't have the unique cis/bio woman experience of 100% identifying as a woman AND being afab and should be respectful to cis/bio women & transfems. if they generally pass as male, they may be sheltered from some interpersonal misogyny. they still deserve to have a voice on female issues, and often have a longer history of misogyny than transfems.

> transfem ppl are oppressed for the fetishization of their transitioned bodies and the stigma against it, and face conditional misogyny that turns into homophobia/sexism (aka transmisogyny) if their sex/agab is found out. they have many unique struggles, but also have male privilege by being shielded from certain types of misogyny like those related to periods, pregnancy/abortions, medical misogyny, female genital mutilation, female generational trauma, and historically having had male rights that female/afab people didn't have like driving, owning bank accounts, owning a house, divorcing, travelling, forced marriage, forced impregnation, etc. these are a form of male privilege that transfem people need to acknowledge. they still have their own unique issues that afab people will never fully understand.

> currently writing a book about how to potentially bridge the gap between the radfem community and the trans community, and how some trans people are actually becoming radfem allies or even radfems! i'm still in the drafting stage, but i'm passionate about it.

CW: misgendering & outright transphobia in some posts i reblog!!

this is a research blog, i will be reblogging from various sources to find writing material and just generally know what issues radfems have against some trans folks and the concept of gender as a whole. i believe in knowing thy enemy, in building bridges, and in respectful discourse. some radfems use male/female instead of amab/afab, and misgender based on sex/agab, make negative generalizations, and mock looks. it can be disrespectful. but if they makes good points on their post, i will reblog. i don't believe in "omg op is xyz" bc it just creates echochambers. that's not how real activism works, you need to actually interact w the other group, especially if both groups are oppressed. feel free not to follow, and i'm open to polite debates

i try to gather as much good info about radfem & trans issues as i can even if i don't agree with all of it, so if you're trans pls be safe! i eventually want to make a blog without transphobic posts in it but as of now i'm still writing my book and i want to learn more. be careful!!

(psst… i'm also a wheelchair dyke barely surviving on disability aid, with bills, debt, and bunnies to feed! i do writing commissions and take in donations. my post about that is here thank youuu)

i'm a detransitioned butch lesbian who still loves the trans community dearly, and while their struggles and traumas are very real to me, i do believe that cis women also have unique generational worldwide traumas and experiences that trans people can never understand and have often mocked and downplayed; afab-specific misogyny is a unique form of oppression. a cis woman is hated for her birth sex since day 1 and still identifies as 100% a woman, or honestly it might not even feel like an identity, but simply being born with a body type and not feeling dysphoric enough to change it. if trans women are uniquely oppressed for identifying as women, and transmascs are oppressed for their bodies, then cis/bio women are also uniquely oppressed and deserve to have their voices heard too.

imo, transmisogyny and afab/female misogyny are two different issues, despite obvious overlaps, with unique experiences that the other camp just cannot understand. the afab misogyny experienced by both transmasc people and cis women is unique, and they need a voice too. even if sometimes transfems are mistaken for us they still do not fully understand our oppression, and vice-versa. each side, cis women and trans people, needs to consistently show up for the other and be good allies. and they need to listen to detrans ppl too.

i want to know where things went wrong. i'm looking for instances of misogyny and lesbophobia against afab women, and other ills within the trans community that only radfems seem to call out consistently. i also want to find detrans community.

posts about my trans history will be put under "my journey" or "detrans tag" -- i was on testosterone for a good while and got extremely close to top surgery, which thankfully i cancelled. i still go by a gender neutral-ish nickname, and i'm more on the masc side, but i've finally come to terms with being a female person.

[rad-translations]

“We’re used to death threats” 6 years after GamerGate, nothing has changed

(It’s impossible for me to continue playing Valorant. To be provoked, harassed, insulted as soon as people hear my voice, all of this because I’m a woman, is unacceptable. I won’t accept undergoing this constantly, and having to signal people constantly. I’m sickened.)

If for some years now, awareness of the bullying that women suffer from in all parts of society has been increasing, everyday changes appear to be barely noticeable.

The world of video games is one glaring example. Or how, behind the grand speeches, the life of female gamers hasn’t changed — maybe even got worse since GamerGate, an event that has triggered the first large-scale wave of online harassment against women.

In partnership with the YESSS podcast, Numerama investigated  the sexism in the community of male and female gamers, with a saddening but certain report: since 2014 and GamerGate, nothing has changed. What we gathered from the dozens and dozens of testimonies that we collected, is that the daily life of women gamers is punctuated by these microaggressions. Tweet after tweet, insult after insult, from sexist comments to targeted bullying, these are individual actions that, when added up, create an incredibly violent wave of online harassment. A wave that swallow them again, day after day.

“Gamergate had set the tone”

“GamerGate had set the tone in regards to sexism, and this changed things” assesses Julie, who mostly plays on League of Legends. “When they discover that you are a girl, it’s rampage” adds Leiden, a World of Warcraft player: “As soon as you’re a girl, you’re gonna eat shit. There are comments like “You don’t know how to play (...)”, it’s a very common behavior on WoW…” Kash, who also plays MMORPG, laments that “toxic comments became the norm”. One example: during a session, the presence of three female players triggered a collective cackling from the members of her guild, who said that “the disabled quota has arrived”. “I told them that we were fed up with these kind of remarks, that is was not normal. They responded by saying it was just humor. (...) That’s really a bummer, because when the game launched, this didn’t exist, we were a community. I wasn’t judged based on my sex.”. “Playing as a woman, it’s a hassle” confirms Lisa*, tiredly “There is always some pig there to tell you to “go back to the kitchen””. Laughter always follows.

She however assesses that GamerGate did not launch online bullying. Gamers are known to vehemently defend their passion: “In 2005, a wave of online harassment had been launched against the very controversial Jack Thompson, an american lawyer who declared that shootings in the USA were the result of the violence of video games” Brad Glasgow, a journalist who then published a study on GamerGate, reminds us, now asked by Numerama. Some gamers at the time sent death threats to his home, or even developed games in which the objective was to hit the lawyer… What GamerGate changed, is adding a sexist aspect to online bullying, focusing hate and attacks on multiple women.

Between journalistic integrity and harassment

On August 16th 2014, Eron Gjoni, a 24 years old programmer, published on his blog “thezoepost”, a 9000-words vitriolic announcement, describing in detail how his now ex-girlfriend, Zoe Quinn, had cheated on him. The story could have ended there. But here is the deal: Zoe Quinn is an indie video game developer, and the man she cheated on him with is a journalist specialized in gaming-related press. That was everything gamers and the Internet needed to ignite: this man is writing for a journal which recently published a highly positive review of Zoe Quinn’s new game, Depression Quest. Between blogs, subreddits and 4chan, the GamerGate movement was born.

“They wanted to be able to continue playing with half-naked female characters without anyone saying something about it”

What did gamers really want? They would say that they were fighting for “more ethics in videogame reporting, less cronyism between developers and magazines” Brad Glasgow, who conducted a study on this subject, explains.  “The gamergaters who I interviewed had the impression that the industry was pushing on them more censored, family-friendly games. They wanted to be able to continue playing with half-naked female characters without anyone saying something about it, and without being considered misogynists”. The GamerGate contributors were for a long time believed to be cliché young gamers, however Brad Glasgow’s study show that the median age was 30 years old, very different from the often depicted carefree youngsters. All the people targeted by the supporters of this movement were women. The victims and numerous reporters commented afterwards that GamerGate was never about claiming anything, but simply a way to express their hate and disdain towards Zoe Quinn. Zoe Quinn, as well as the video game creator Brianna Wu and blogger Anita Sarkeesian received so many rape, torture and death threats that they were forced to move out out of their homes, fearing for their lives. In the United States, this event was huge, so much that the New York Times described it  as “the beginning on alt-right hegemony on the Internet”, and even as a culture war. In France, despite being covered by the media, it didn’t have such an impact outside of the affected community. The problem however, doesn’t only exist on the other side of the Atlantic. The blogger Marlard was talking, since 2013, about a "sick community", soaked in sexism, fetishizing Lara Croft’s new design, and, in the famous 18-25 forum on jeuxvideo.com, misogyny was already the rule. She was actually one of the first to receive numerous waves of online harassment for daring to point out the sexism in the world of video games.

A masculine universe

Why talk again about Gamergate today? Because six years later, despite the problem being under the spotlight and having media coverage, female gamers still suffer. Video games seem to stay a masculine universe, a space where the famous rule 30 of the Internet “on the Internet, there are no women”  could be a reality. It’s nevertheless false: according to a IFOP study published in 2018, women play as much video games as men do.The Internet and Twitch are full of casual and professional gamers, like Kayane, Trinity, Little Big Whale, Zulzorander, Marie Palot…. But, inescapably, the presence of women in online games startles, surprises, annoys. 

“Being misogynistic is trendy”

To insult women and social justice warriors (nickname given to anti-discrimination  activists by their opponents) is still seen today as a way to make your audience  laugh, to gain a place inside the boy’s club, sometimes even to become famous. French streamer Jean Massiet admits it: “Being misogynistic is trendy”.

(I’ve been streaming for 5 years and there is an absolute constant: being misogynistic is trendy, make your chat laugh by playing the rebel. To be feminist is to oppose retaliations and gatekeeping. Conformism really isn’t where most people think.)

The “young boy” trick to conceal your voice

One of the main problems encountered by female players online, is “vocal”, the act of talking with other members of the team to coordinate certain attacks during a game. In this moment, it’s impossible to hide behind the neutral usernames of characters typically associated with male players: “As soon as people hear that I’m a girl, it’s over. Many women don’t want to communicate because of it” reveals Lisa. “You really feel a difference in behavior when comparing the before and after.”

Julie, another player, explains that the “after” is often synonymous with saucy flirting. “Immediately, dudes will come talk to you in private, ask for pictures and lewd requests…” To avoid this, almost all the female players that we interviewed explained to us that they use the “young boy” trick: passing as a young male player whose voice has not dropped yet, to justify their high-pitched tone. Lying to stay undisturbed is a common strategy. Some even prefer playing with the account of their male partners, thus avoiding unrequited comments.

The #MeToo aftermath is even worse

But it’s not always sufficient. Kate laments that “The #MeToo movement created a mistrust”, revealing a violent rejection of the liberation of feminine and feminist voices. “It has become a PMU* (“PMU” or “Pari Mutuel Urbain” is a bar/gambling place chain. Nowadays it is synonymous for many people with armchair psychology, politics and chauvinist behaviors) Everytime you want to point out to players that they are making sexist comments, it’s always the same reaction “you can’t say anything nowadays”, ‘feminazi”....” Far from letting those concerned question themselves, it seems that the #MeToo movement has reinforced their aggravation, which then leads them to be even more defensive or to conduct gratuitous attacks, especially on Discord, a chat/vocal platform often used by players to communicate with each other. 

“The memes are more aggressive, everyone jeers at feminists… There is some sort of frustration towards feminist awareness, a very violent reaction. It is even sometimes almost incel behavior,” explains Kash, referencing the men's rights activists movement of "involuntary celibates". “You won’t make friends talking about feminism” Nat’ali, streamer, confirms to us.

 “#MeToo has revealed the privileges that men have, and they didn’t like seeing it”

She isn’t the only one who saw the situation getting worse after Gamergate and #MeToo. “Since I started playing in 2007, I truly saw the atmosphere deteriorate” Kash told us. “I saw more bullshit these last two years than in the ten years prior, "I now see things that dudes never dared to do before. The whole community got worse”. Lisa also observed  the explosion of sexism after #MeToo. “It’s really then that I started hiding the fact that I was a woman. #Metoo has revealed the privileges that men have, and they didn't like seeing it. Don’t touch cis white hetero men, or you will get branded a fucking feminist, a whore, a feminazi.” Lisa reached the point of “not wanting to play anymore, too toxic. Gets on my nerves too quickly.” There is, too, a fear of underperforming: “I’m scared to play certain FPS (First Person Shooter, like Call of Duty) because I’m no very good at them, and I don’t want to help the belief that “girls sucks at video games” to persist” laments Nat’ali.

The liability of professional streamers

In the eyes of Julie, part of the problem resides in the fact that the gamer community is growing rapidly. “There are more and more gamers, and the newcomers are usually very young and very sexist. Even if some people change and gain understanding regarding this problem, they will be drowned by comments by teens that have no reflexion on sexism”.“ In addition to the jeuxvideo.com 18-25 forum, numerous streamers and professional players are accused of perpetuating sexism. As Numerama showed in a study made in April 2019, members of the Solary team, a french esport structure, have encouraged online harassment against several women, and have contributed in spreading sexist insults (a woman receiving compliments from a stranger, not responding to them and “calling them out on social media” is in their eyes a “whore”)

“It’s an environment in which men pat each other on the back”*

(Translator’s note: a more literal translation would be “men forgive each other” but the underlying idea in this sentence was that they allow themselves to forgive each other’s faults without actually hearing the people targeted.)

Sardoche, a League of Legends streamer and Twitch partner (video creators able to monetize their videos) has also been known for years for his very violent remarks against female players, that he calls “shitty little virgins” or “huge whores”. In addition to being aware about inciting his followers to harass, he often mocks feminist activists on twitter, and his followers always join the party. “The problem is that he is followed by a lot of boys that want to imitate him” Nat’ali tell us.

“Trolling feminists, best thing to do in the morning. Thanks to @MrKryorys for archiving these kinds of clips” Yet Sardoche is not called out, and can still enjoy the free publicity made by numerous other streamers, promoting him and condoning his unacceptable speeches. At the start of June however, the streamer announced that he was now suffering from online harassment on his Twitch lives, coming mostly from 18-25 users. These behaviors have no influence on the mentioned players’ and streamers’ careers. “They still don’t understand that they are participating to the trivialization of hatred against women” Nat’ali angrily adds “Sardoche is now co-hosting PopCorn, one of the most viewed programs on Twitch. It’s an environment in which men pat each other on the back.”

“One girl per team, no more”

This impunity is reinforced by the erasure of female players, firstly because some are reluctant to present themselves as women in online games, and secondly, because the professional environment is not giving them a platform. We call that “the quota effect”. “Those who want to become professional know that there is only one “girl” slot per team”. complains Nat’ali. This infamous “quota woman” reminds us of the “Lara Croft effect” a overused argument often put forward when criticism against the lack of female characters in video games arise: You got it wrong, look over here, there is one woman.

“At the beginning of big web TV, 7 or 8 years ago, there was a of of competition between female players. No sisterhood whatsoever, girls were awful with each other because they knew there wouldn’t be a spot for everyone” Nat’ali, who had seen the problem herself, continues.

Once hired, these female streamers still have a lot to face. A friend of Nat’ali told her last year that her team forced her to wear a mini-skirt during a marketing campaign. According to Leiden “People still see their female players as sexy props, instead of focusing on their playing skills”.

The ambience is now healthier, and “there is a real solidarity on Twitch between us, we talk a lot. With #MeToo, we understand that we needed to help each other. These topics have the spotlight, we feel more comfortable talking about them. Dudes still behave the same, but the relationship between female players changed. This is the big victory of #MeToo.”   

“Streamers need to question themselves”

Should we see this whole problem as unsolvable? For Aurélie, “in practice men are not yet supportives. The knowledge is here, we know that “sexism is bad” But if you point out that a comment is sexist, they will immediately jump and respond that no, it’s just humor”. There are many hard to unlearn habits,” Lisa remarks: “It’s the patriarchal structure: nice guys sometimes have awful reactions. It’s rooted inside of them, they don’t even realize what they’re doing.” For all of the interviewees, the education of men regarding these problems is the solution. Kash affirms: “This men-only community create a unease. Streamers need to be the example. They need to question themselves, and they shouldn’t hesitate to take clear stances regarding this.” Still, it would be easier if these stances were the norm, and taking them was not a risk.

“When you keep talking to them about it, our male friends realize the problem” Lisa happily notices. One of Kash’s friends, with whom she’s been playing for years, has evolved a lot despite starting as “mostly uninterested in the sexism problem in games”. After our interview, she decided to talk to him about her experience, and he listened to her testimony. “Last week, during a raid in which I didn’t introduce myself, a player made a sexist remark about the body of a woman. My friend told me he felt uncomfortable and talked to the guild leader about it. Nothing happened, the player wasn’t sanctioned, but I’ve known my gamer friend for 11 years and it was the first time he reacted like that. So I’m hopeful!”

Aurore Gayte for Numerama 

*names have been changed This article was created in partnership with the YESSS podcast. .Their latest creation, "Warriors and Games" is available here. Every month, the YESSS team gathers testimonies of women who triumphed against sexism: those who responded, who corrected, who snapped and resisted. YESSS is a podcast for warriors, positive and decidedlyfeminist. It is conceived and hosted by Margaïd Quioc, Elsa Miské et Anaïs Bourdet, produced by the Popkast label in Marseille.

[sickofthis666]

The french government having the fucking Audacity of complaining about France's low birth rate when the medical care for women before, during and after birth, has been heavily deteriorating for the past 20 years??

How the fuck can it be more dangerous for me to give birth in 2024 than it was for my mom in the late 90s/early 2000s!? Why the fuck are we going backwards!?

How the fuck can we be one of the wealthiest country on the planet and yet have among the highest infant mortality in Europe!? Are we a fucking joke??

[hard--headed--woman]

happy new year radfems/rad-leaning/gender critical feminists! you're all smart and brave and cool as fuck and i'm proud to be one of you <3 hope 2024 brings you a lot of good things, keep being amazing!

(i consider this day my birthday's eve. i'm gonna be 20 tomorrow :)))

[radykalny-feminizm]

Sohane Benziane (1984 – October 4, 2002) was a French girl of Algerian ancestry who was killed at the age of 17.

On October 4, 2002 in Vitry-sur-Seine, Val-de-Marne, Île-de-France, 17-year-old Sohane Benziane was burned alive in front of her friends in a cellar by her former boyfriend, a local caid (gang leader), after being tortured and raped.

Her case is one of many examples of brutal violence by muslim immigrants against non-muslim/non-hijabi women in France that keeps escalating to this day.

Never forget her name - Sohane Benziane