Of Death threats and Dickwolves

But, see, that Courtney Stanton post is precisely the kind of attitude that escalated this in the first place. She accuses the original dickwolves strip of perpetuating rape culture without explaining how it does so (personally, I'm still pretty convinced it doesn't), and she writes "misunderstanding" in scare quotes, seemingly implying that she doesn't believe that there has actually been a misunderstanding on the part of the PA guys, in spite of the fact that nobody explained rape culture or trigger warnings to them in the first place, so it would be reasonable to assume that a misunderstanding had occurred.

I'd like to follow up by saying that even their responses are a lot less rude than most people are making them out. True, they were insensitive, but so is the entire comic. It is actually kind of a thing they have going.

The second comic they made in response even addressed the issue pretty starkly from their perspective, despite it being so incredibly sarcastic: they stated in certain terms that if their comic caused anyone to rape anyone else, they definitely didn't approve of it, and wanted them to stop.

The shirts, the twitter replies, they were insensitive. But to say they were rude is like saying comedians offend people just to make them upset, and that's missing the point of that type of comedy and the lessons to be learned in that kind of humor.

I will concede that once the issue really started getting out of hand, that the lack of scruples certainly started crossing some lines, but Gabe relented later on the site that one of the main reasons he consented to pulling the shirt from PAX was because PAX was supposed to be a very mainstream gaming event. I agree that their snarky attitude didn't help to disarm the entire situation, but in many ways, I feel that this kind of behavior on their part is exactly what I read Penny Arcade for.

Comedy in the vein of Lenny Bruce has always seemed far more plausible to me than acting Victorian about traumatizing issues, especially if the individuals in the audience are supposed to be savvy, with some semblance of intelligence. I'd hate to label anything as "the intellectual's webcomic," but if you take any time at all to read the news posts, it should be clear that the comic isn't written for the ignorant and the close minded, or to revel in bigotry and falsehood.

While I hope that anyone with traumatic experiences related to rape weren't too affected by the comic, I also feel that there is real importance in portals of discussion where we can all try and see the humor, or the intelligence, or other merits in some strange, alien, and even frightening concepts. If there are people who cannot handle it without being strongly affected, then the solution is to make it less accessible to those kinds of people, and it should have been strongly apparent to anyone who has kept up with Penny Arcade that this is the kind of comic they are making.

If you can't handle it, then don't read it; there have been more than enough warnings. And they've already said more than a few times that the kinds of people who support rape or who make serious, scary death threats are not the kind of people they will put up with. If anyone is still taking the comic that way, it is not the creators' fault.

After all, it was this same snarky and flagrantly offensive attitude that provoked Jack Thompson into accusing them of being the kind of hate mongering, violence loving freak children he assumed every gamer to be, but it was their levelheaded responses that allowed them prove to the general public that he was as crazy as anyone involved in gaming knew him to be.

Once again, I'm not claiming that we have every right to go around saying things that will physically affect people in horrible, hurtful ways. I mean to say that there should be a place to go for saying these kinds of things without infringing on people who have legitimate reasons to be sensitive, and considering the strips, the attitude, and culture they cultivated around their site and their comic, that specific venue was obviously supposed to be one of them.

Just bringing this topic up again due to a recent article providing an overview of the whole mess. I'd say it raises some pretty valid points, though I think it assumes a little too much knowledge by Krahulik and Holkins of the activities of their (massive) fanbase.

That was a bit of a problem I had with some of the early views mentioned on the thread, the idea that Krahulik and Holkins have full control of the actions of their fans. I’m sure what they say carries a lot of weight, but holding them responsible for actions that are almost purely the decisions of people who merely like their product is a bit much.

Full responsibility is indeed too much. But on the other hand, it's pretty clear they could have done more to stop it than fanning the flames like a bunch of trolls for months on end.

I'm glad that from what I've read this wasn't a huge issue at PAX East (although Gabe drawing a vagina wolf was really, really, really stupid. Seriously dude, if you're unwilling to learn why you were acting like an ass for half a year take a hint from your own damn newspost and let it die).

edited 17th Mar '11 4:59:01 PM by TrapperZoid