Misogyny aka Why we can't have an honest conversation

Misogyny is dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women, this is important to remember because this word has been through around like a Frisbee at Burning Man ( they do that right? throw Frisbees?) and word has pretty much lost all meaning. Why am I talking about misogyny? For the past month #gamergate has been trending on twitter and with it came the cries of misogyny and harassment which at this point have become standard tactics to stifle opposition and that is precisely why it is a problem; it eliminates any chance of an honest debate between not only the two sides but between men and women altogether. 

Gamergate, as a movement not the hashtag that was coined by Adam Baldwin, was born out of the demands of gamers for more ethical journalism from video game journalists and overall better treatment of gamers; but this isn't the story most of you are going to hear, in fact I am fairly certain by this point if you have heard of Gamergate you probably view is as a movement that wants to harass women game developers and keep gaming as a boy's club...which is exactly the gaming media and other news outlets have been reporting. In our current society, any criticism of women from anyone (including other women) is seen as misogyny, as if to say that the only reason anyone would disagree with a woman is due to her sex and not the nature of her argument or character. This is seen clearly from the opposition of Gamergate, they almost constantly deny that Gamergate is anything but a bunch of white, heterosexual, cisgendered males wanting to silence the voices of women and continue being "whiny piss babies" any time there is legitimate criticism of a female figure in gaming. It has gotten to the point where people on websites are being banned for talking about Gamergate, having their accounts suspended on Twitter ( Like Thunderf00t) and even doxxing people and almost costing someone their job...all this and more simply because one side has labelled the opposition a hate group without ever speaking to them. I also find it pretty alarming that even women, ya know the group that gamers supposedly hate, get dismissed just as easily by those who claim to be fighting for women by saying that they either have internalized misogyny or are really just white guys pretending to be women, all just to further their belief that it's all just a bunch of misogynists working together to attack women. Christina Hoff Sommers, a scholar and noted feminist, has recently joined the discussion and was shortly attacked by the anti-GamerGate/SJW crowd for her video about sexism in gaming ( I assume it was due to her presenting a fair and balanced portrayal of gamers and committing the sin of actually talking to gamers) with yet again cries of misogyny and how she is an antifeminists (which my default makes you a misogynist because why not?). 

Doesn't just happen to women online

 Gaming journalists and even some devs are going to extreme lengths to paint every criticism of women in gaming as misogyny and that is simply not true. Yes, of course there are people online that will attack women and be hateful and they are truly awful people, but they attack everyone..they are trolls and their favorite place is the entire internet. There's also an interesting study about how men receive more hate online than women (small sample size but still an interesting study) but this is getting kind of long and I'd like to wrap this up. When you cry misogyny when it's really just criticism, you are actively hindering any chance of any real understanding. You are saying that your opinion is the only one that matters and that everyone else disagrees with you because they hate women. That is intellectually dishonest and is nothing more than a tactic used by those who have no real argument and must rely on pathos to get any support. You are making yourself and other women look like weak creatures who cannot handle anyone being not nice to them and cannot stand up for themselves. Be better than this. Again, I am not saying that women do not get harassed ( because that would be idiotic to believe that) or that you have to accept harassment, all I am saying is that you need to know that legit criticism is not misogyny nor harassment and treated them as such doesn't lead to anywhere good.

P.S. To all the people who still believe Gamergate is about misogyny and harassment, I'd like to tell you that us misogynists help fund a group ( The Fine Young Capitalists) make a videogame that was pitched by a woman in an effort to get more women into gaming...because we are actually diverse and want our games to be as such. 

P.P.S Kotaku sucks