Sexual harassment during Cross Assault

[Thorin]

Today, I:

1. Learned about an event called Cross Assault (Street Fighter vs Tekken, gamers compete for $25,000)
2. Learned that these gamers play as teams and have coaches to help them play better
3. Learned that one of the gamer coaches (Aris Bakhtanians) was sexually harassing a woman (Miranda Pakozdi) playing for the other team
4. Re-affirmed my belief that it's not about what you say, but when you say it

Doctor Nerdlove has a well-written blog post on the matter: http://www.doctornerdlove.com/2012/02/nerds-male-privilege-3-cross-assault-sexual-harrassment/all/1/

I tell my kids that I know they're going to swear and that swear words aren't necessarily bad - it's who hears them that matters.  If three fourteen-year-old boys are sitting at home playing a game and saying @%&# and @%&# a lot, that's not a problem.  If their grandma, who is offended by said words, is in the room, then it is a problem.  If grandma doesn't care, then it goes back to being not a problem.  But once someone says, "Please don't say that, it offends me", they better know to filter their choice of words when that person is around.

I also expect my kids to say sorry without getting defensive - Aris Bakhtanians' apology sounded a lot more like, "Sorry, but that's the way it is", instead of, "Sorry, I was being an asshat and won't be an asshat around you anymore".  Honestly, this Aris fella sounds to be defending himself much the way Paul Christoforo defended himself - by deflecting the guilt onto situations and other people.

[Darren Dirt]

I also expect my kids to say sorry without getting defensive - Aris Bakhtanians' apology sounded a lot more like, "Sorry, but that's the way it is", instead of, "Sorry, I was being an asshat and won't be an asshat around you anymore".  Honestly, this Aris fella sounds to be defending himself much the way Paul Christoforo defended himself - by deflecting the guilt onto situations and other people.

who?


ah, right... http://kotaku.com/paul-christoforo/

It?s 13 minutes of some profoundly uncomfortable @%&#. And this is on day one.

lulz.

[Thorin]

Yeah, we also had a Paul Christoforo thread on our forums (http://forums.righteouswrath.com/index.php/topic,8339.0.html), so I figured I didn't need to explain who he was.

[Tom]

Wow. That aris (hehe, he has a chicks name! ) is a @%&#ing douche.

[Mr. Analog]

The sad thing is that SO MANY people have just plain forgotten how to be civil to each other. That's why I rarely play multi-player XBox anything and have disabled mic/audio.

What's worse is the sense of entitlement that comes back from some of these @%&#ers, I ask you to be quiet for a moment and they explode into rage. I mean if I asked you to stop stepping on my feet you wouldn't think about it, but god help me if I ask you to stop swearing every second word...

What this guy needs is a good spanking (administered via Buick)

[Thorin]

The Penny Arcade guys talk about perma-muting anyone they encounter on a public server so they don't even have to _start_ listening to the @%&# that gets said on there.

Mind you, if I'm on a game and start ribbing you about your play, that's a far cry from me taking the camera streaming the matching and training it on some woman's boobs.  Which is _one_ of the things this asshat did.

[Mr. Analog]

Meh, both things are forms of abuse.

It's sort of like Friday night Team Fortress 2 is AWESOME lots of fun to be had, great people. But Saturday morning TF2 is just a cesspit...