SFM Vol 4 No 6

The Mercury Wilson’s School’s sixth-form newspaper Volume 4, Issue 6, February 2015 GAMERGATE: THE NEW EXTREMISM? BY L...

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The Mercury Wilson’s School’s sixth-form newspaper

Volume 4, Issue 6, February 2015

GAMERGATE: THE NEW EXTREMISM? BY LEWIS HARRINGTON The gamergate movement is a supposed consumer revolt against questionable ethics in gaming journalism. Its opponents accuse it of savagely harassing women in the gaming industry, an attempt to prevent video games evolving into a more mature art-form and the video game industry from accepting female developers and journalists. The movement began with the accusation by developer Zoe Quinn of infidelity to secure better reviews for her game, Depression Quest, in a blog post written by her ex, Eron Gjoni. This launched a wave of abuse on Twitter and the doxxing (the publishing of personal information across the internet) of Quinn throughout the month of August. In late August, feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian released ‘Women as Background Decoration Part 2’, and was subject to similarly severe levels of harassment. This highlights an important issue in tackling Gamergate: defenders of the movement hang on minor truths to justify the harassment. Sarkeesian was rightly criticised for her methods in the video, including using footage uploaded by others to YouTube without their permission. However, the level of abuse she received dwarfs this issue. Throughout the rest of 2014 the list of people harassed and doxxed has grown. In September, developer Brianna Wu committed the supposedly heinous crime of making a Twitter account mocking the

Gamergate mobs, and received death threats and misogynistic abuse, along with doxxing. The situation is so bad that a tool has been developed to automatically block Gamergate supporters on Twitter – of course, the creator of this tool was also threatened and doxxed. This harassment is still occurring: a recent example is that of Jace Connors, who on January 30 uploaded a video in which he claims that Wu shot at his mum’s car whilst he was “street racing” en route to Wu’s home to confront her. The video talks about Connor as a “#Gamergate Vigilante”, and flashes the phrase “Operation: Wu-Pocalypse” onto the screen in bright blue word-art. It seems an amateurish parody of the ‘loser’ stereotype of gamers. However, Wu cannot pass this off as harmless trolling – her life is being threatened by a mentally unstable individual who knows where she lives and apparently was close to physically confronting her.

The core problem with tackling the Gamergate movement is that, unlike conventional extremist movements, there is no clear leadership. The abusers act under anonymity, which makes it difficult to evaluate the number of people attacking these women, let alone identify a definite hierarchy. This anonymity leads to the insistence from supporters of Gamergate that the movement is about the issue of ethics in gaming journalism. Their moderate supporters are only concerned with defending their own image, rather than attempting to alter the movement to be less cruel. Gamergate is an abhorrent harassment campaign, and a disturbing picture of what modern extremist protest could become. This article has not been about ethics in gaming journalism, and neither was Gamergate.

Gamergate is heavily sexist. While a number of men have been harassed alongside women, the harassment of women includes rape threats and misogynistic terms of abuse, and the movement started with so-called “slut-shaming”. Gamergate has driven a number of women out of the industry for fear of receiving the same kind of abuse that Quinn and others did. Furthermore, the movement has not received as much condemnation in the mainstream media as it should have.

Want to write for the Mercury? Budding journalists, or those just passionate about a subject, are always needed. Anyone interested in writing, be it a front page spread, or a back page sports column, should contact the editors at: [email protected] [email protected]

Sixth Form Mercury, February 2015

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Contents

EDITORS’ LETTER This week’s issue welcomes a new contributor in Jack Nicholls, with his opinion piece on the motivations behind the Crimea crisis. And on that note, we wanted to remind our readers that we are always looking for new writers, whatever you wish to write about. We also have our trusty regular contributors in Linden and Charlie, in a slightly Oscars-themed issue that also sees Max Cobain’s views on the recent Oscar nominations. There is also a non-fiction article from Lewis Harrington, who investigates the ‘Gamergate’ controversy.

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Gamergate: The New Extremism?

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Style Icon: Jamie Hince

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Charlie’s Cartoon

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Ukraine – What’s in it for Russia?

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‘And the Oscar for the Best White Man Goes to…’

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Max Cobain and Kyle MacNeill

STYLE ICON: JAMIE HINCE BY LINDEN HOGARTH When married to an international supermodel, namely Kate Moss, standing out as a style icon is tough. Nevertheless, The Kills frontman, Jamie Hince, manages just fine.

change one’s scarves frequently enough. Whilst a pair of Chelsea boots are a must, Hince commonly mixes up his outfit, layering vests, open shirts, necklaces, and a well fitted blazer for a smarter look.

A true rock star, Hince possesses an unwavering obsession with shades, lives in leather biker jackets, and is probably verging on beating the record of the oldest guy to still look good in skinny jeans (watch out John Cooper Clarke).

Hince is undoubtedly a man who likes to look cool, and with a collection of over 30 leather jackets, I’m sure he won’t have any trouble.

Yet, far from an aged worn-out rocker who looks like he’s spent the last 20 years in a bath, Hince maintains a flair that never seems to fade, perhaps due to his holy mantra that one can never

CHARLIE STEWART

Sixth Form Mercury, February 2015

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UKRAINE – WHAT’S IN IT FOR RUSSIA? BY JACK NICHOLLS The war in the Ukraine has been all over the front pages for over a year now, and Russia’s controversial involvement has sparked much debate and considerable international acrimony. Vladimir Putin’s actions have resulted in foreign economic sanctions, which in turn have had a dramatic impact upon his nation’s economy. The rouble has been put under immense pressure in 2014, dropping by 41% against the dollar and by 34% against the Euro. In addition, Inflation rose to 11.4% at the end of December. Russia is, predictably, isolated, so why on earth did Putin involve her in the first place? Apart from the annexation of Crimea, which was legitimised by a somewhat dubious referendum result on 16 March last year, Russia has gained only one ally, in the form of the Ukrainian separatist movement, which the former claims is not supplied from Moscow. This would appear to be a fallacy, as video and photographic evidence seems to show Russian tanks and troops moving across the Ukrainian border have appeared all over the world. The fighting seemed to have died down a few months ago, and with a ceasefire in September the war had ostensibly finished for good. But the reappearance of Russian forces in the Ukraine in November - and the subsequent Western sanctions - reo-

pened the freshly-closed wounds.

her bombers over British airspace, amongst other such instances, does suggest that an old Russia is awake.

Not only did Russia elusively decide to ‘wait’, but she declared that “the West is yet again displaying a comMaybe, as Gorbachev recently said, plete lack of interest” in resolving the there is a new Cold War. conflict. Interesting words. Cold war nationalism is undoubtedly manifesting itself in Russian foreign policy. Yet Putin has apparently alienated “all but a handful of hardliners” from his inner circle because of his pursuit of conflict in the Ukraine. According to ‘Kremlin insiders’, Western economic sanctions have driven a wedge between Putin and his oligarch supporters, who stand to lose billions of dollars of their own It seems that Russia seeks territorial wealth as a result. expansion, especially when one considers the seizure of the Crimea. We Neither money nor nationalist sentimust remember that this is not the ment satisfactorily explain Russian first time that Russia has become actions. Rather, it is Putin who should embroiled in fighting near her borreceive careful examination. ders. In 2009 tensions flared and large-scale fighting broke out with Putin loves propaganda; the myriad Georgia; relations have been rather photos of him riding a horse, whilst tense ever since. desperately searching for a new shirt, to contain those ‘raging biceps’, are The annexation of the Crimea was, evidence enough. and to an extent still is, seen by the Perhaps, then, we shouldn’t bring West as the reason why Russia involved herself in the war. The Crilogic into this. Perhaps Russian inmea, like Georgia, is an ex-Soviet ter- volvement in the Ukraine is down to ritory. So perhaps Putin is trying to the deranged mind-set of an old appease old Soviet supporters by re- demagogue, rather than the imperial asserting Russian influence over the ambition of a nation. old eastern bloc. This would seem to be the case, and the appearance of

Sixth Form Mercury, February 2015

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‘AND THE OSCAR FOR THE BEST WHITE MAN GOES TO…’ BY MAX COBAIN In the last 85 years of the Academy Awards, nominated producers were 98% white, writers were 98% white, actors were 88% white, actresses were 88% white and directors were 99% male. These are statistics swayed by the institutional prejudices that existed decades ago, right? Wrong. This year’s awards suggest otherwise. The 2015 Academy Awards, or Oscars, are the ‘whitest’ in 19 years, as well as snubbing one of the best female directors of the year. Of the 20 acting nominations, there was not a single black person, or a single woman nominated for directing. This is just chance, though, surely? It just so happens that the best 20 actors were white and the best directors were men.

the Iraq war, and Cooper’s performance as For Selma to pick up a nomination as one a morally conflicted hero. of 2014’s eight best films, and yet, by Oscar Nominations, to have nothing in particular So if it was not for Oyelowo’s performance going for it other than Best Original Song, that the film got its Best Picture nominapoints to a damaging reluctance to nomition, then it must be for the film's female nate black or female figures in the film roles. industry. Carmen Ejogo is fantastic as Coretta Scott King, Oyelowo’s on-screen, long- suffering wife, making her own sacrifices as she supports her husband’s civil rights struggle. Oh, it can’t be that either, as she lost out for a nomination for Best Supporting Actress to Meryl Streep, picking up her nineteenth nomination as a fairy-tale witch in Into the Woods, a role that I doubt anyone other than her, with her on-going Academy love affair, would have received a nomination for.

If not acting, then directing? Wrong again. Ava DuVernay, (shown on set with David Oyelowo, below) missed out on becoming It’s difficult to combat this argument due the first black woman to receive a directing to film criticism, or any criticism for that nomination. Morten Tyldum’s job directing matter, being such a subjective matter. But The Imitation Game, where yet another having seen every acting and directing white man fights a foreign evil, was nominated film, the overlooking of the deemed superior. various stars of Martin Luther King biopic Selma is a travesty. Selma was nominated for the Best Picture category, but its lead, the incredible David Oyelowo as King, lost out to the slightly above average Bradley Cooper in the borderline xenophobic American Sniper Clint Eastwood’s latest Republican propaganda piece, the tale of a Navy SEAL suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, after killing over a hundred Iraqis. (Odd then that the real-life soldier the film is based on claimed: “I hated the damn savages … I couldn’t give a flying **** about the Iraqis” rather undermining the film’s simplified good versus evil portrayal of

A Los Angeles Times survey of the 6,028 people who make up the Academy voting base, found it to be 94% white, 76% male, and with an average of 63 years old. It is clear some radical reform of this voting pool is needed to avoid the continuation of an ageing white male hegemony in the awards that are handed out. Not only does it result in great films like Selma missing out; it also allows films outdated in both their craft and their politics, such as American Sniper, into the spotlight. Films of this calibre (if you’ll pardon the pun) have no place at the forefront of the film industry, speaking both as a lover of film, but also as someone worried about the dangerous political message of Islamophobia it presents - and the message of tolerance that is being overlooked in Selma.