Outrage over Microsoft r#pe joke at E3 gaming event | Online Video Games Reviews & News | News.com.au

Outrage over Microsoft rape joke at E3 gaming event | Online Video Games Reviews & News | News.com.au

Outrage over Microsoft rape joke at E3 gaming event

• By Claire Porter Technology editor
• news.com.au
• June 12, 2013 11:14AM

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Gamers are outraged over a rape joke made during an Xbox presentation.

MICROSOFT has come under scrutiny for making a rape joke during its Xbox One event at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, otherwise known as "E3". 

During a demonstration of video game "Killer Instinct" yesterday a male video game producer was matched against a woman - who struggled to play the game.

First he told her that she "played like a girl", perpetuating the stereotype that girls aren't "proper" gamers.

"I can't even block correctly and you're too fast," she replied.

"Here we go, just let it happen. It'll be over soon," he said.

Microsoft apologised and Microsoft Studios corporate vice president Phil Spencer released a statement in which he claimed that the banter between the two was unplanned.

"Yesterday, during the Xbox E3 briefing, one of our employees made an off the cuff and inappropriate comment while demoing 'Killer Instinct' with another employee," he said. "This comment was offensive and we apologise. At Microsoft, being open and respectful with others is central to our code of conduct and our values. Bullying and harassment of any kind is not condoned and is taken very seriously. We remain committed to make gaming fun for everyone, and in that effort, we must lead by example."

People immediately took to Twitter to air their disgust.
"Even if it was unintentional, Microsoft should've realised they shouldn't make a rape joke in an environment already toxic with misogyny," user @stillgray tweeted.
"Wow. This is really gross. Male overpowering a female in a game, so of course, rape joke. Good one, Msoft," @Vahn16 tweeted.
"Another tech event, another rape joke," tweeted user @wpsocialreader.
Atlantic journalist, Rebecca Greenfield wrote in a post that "This, basically, is what institutionalised misogyny looks like."
Journalist John Teti wrote on the Gameological Society blog that Microsoft was in part responsible for the sexism that plagues the gaming industry.
"Microsoft's default mode is to address a demographic caricature who was born in a marketeer's binder," he said. "That caricature, as far as I can tell, begins with a 20-something white male who only loves to shoot at things, except he also thinks magic knights are cool, just not as cool as the shooting ..."
Teti said the creepy implications of the rape joke was made more vivid by the fact that the person it was made about was the only female to grace the stage of Xbox presentation at that point.
"The guy made a bad joke. It happens, and I'm not about to crucify him for it," he wrote. "It's hard for me to blame him much at all, really. Microsoft created an environment where the perceived audience is a theoretical mass of pure mindless testosterone. Are we really supposed to be surprised when a bit of misogynist alienation ensues?"
This is the second rape debacle in as many years at E3. Last year gamers were disturbed by a cuty-scene in video game Tomb Raider where players were required to save Lara Croft from being sexually assaulted.
Though 47 per cent of gamers are female, according to a report by the Entertainment Software Association, sexism in the gaming industry has long been a problem.
Gaming journalist, Alanah Pearce revealed in April that her experience with sexism made her contemplate quitting her job.
Comments about her clothes and her appearance were common. So were horrible name calling.
"People would comment disrespectfully about my choice of clothing, but if I complained, they'd call me a bitch or ask if I was 'on my period'," she wrote.
"I've seriously reconsidered my career choices over comments like these because, honestly, if I was getting comments like this in any other workplace, I'd leave."
At the same time that gamers were criticising Microsoft's bad taste joke, another girl gamer, Anita Sarkeesian was being called all manner of horrible names simply for making an observation about the lack of female representation in games.
The host of "Feminist Frequency" blog tweeted that Microsoft revealed "exactly zero games" featuring a female lead character.
For this she was called "retarded" and "bitchy" and much worse things.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/gaming/outrage-over-microsoft-rape-joke-at-e3-gaming-event/story-e6frfrt9-1226662462228#ixzz2W0dbz0zd

Marriage is SLAVERY! - Elliot Hulse says NO, stick with it and grow ....

nb: His response to negative comments on his facebook:

"Next, to the immature comments regarding my wife. I fully expected some negative feedback, and I am not surprised. When a man exposes those whom he holds closest to his heart to the world there is always a critical backlash. Had my wife looked like the so many plastic women with enhanced breasts, make-up, and long bleach-blond hair... the comments would be about wanting to rape her. These people have no values and get-off by asserting what little self-esteem they might have via social media commenting.

Finally, if you have been following me for some time you know that my values are VERY different than 99% of peoples. Colleen embodies everything that I believe is feminine and sexual. She supports her eccentric, enterprising husband in all his endeavors without being as fearful and insecure as most women are.

She has given fully natural birth to all four of our children AT HOME with just me, our midwife and other children in the room. She has breastfed all 4 our children for at least 2 years each. Her breasts are not meant for entertainment, or to fit some bull**** mold of what a woman's body should look like... and neither she nor I are interested in changing her body through surgical means for ANYONE.

I show you my wife, because to see HER is to see ME even better. If you feel more positive about who I am and my ability to serve you with this woman by my side, then I'm glad to have you here. If you feel poorly about me, then this is fine also... I have never been one to adjust WHO I am to appease anyone and I make no apologies. If this makes you uncomfortable then I wish you luck and perhaps you might be a "better man" than me someday. God ****ing Bless You!"

Stephen Fry angers feminists by claiming women do not enjoy sex - Telegraph

Stephen Fry angers feminists by claiming women do not enjoy sex - Telegraph

Stephen Fry has enraged feminists with a bizarre outburst in which he claimed that women are incapable of enjoying sex.

Stephen Fry has declared that women do not enjoy sex Photo: Brian Rasic/ Rex Features

By Heidi Blake

2:38PM GMT 31 Oct 2010

213 Comments

The openly homosexual broadcaster said it was clear that women had no interest in sex from the fact that they do not go out seeking casual encounters in graveyards or on Hampstead Heath.

He claimed that women only go to bed with men “because sex is the price they are willing to pay for a relationship”.

Fry’s remarks have been branded “rubbish” and "madness" by feminists who have questioned his qualifications for making pronouncements on female sexuality.

The 53-year-old, who hosts the popular quiz show QI on BBC1, launched the bizarre tirade in an interview published in the November issue of Attitude magazine.

He said: "If women liked sex as much as men, there would be straight cruising areas in the way there are gay cruising areas. Women would go and hang around in churchyards thinking: 'God, I've got to get my f------- rocks off', or they'd go to Hampstead Heath and meet strangers to shag behind a bush.

“It doesn't happen. Why? Because the only women you can have sex with like that wish to be paid for it."

He continued: "I feel sorry for straight men. The only reason women will have sex with them is that sex is the price they are willing to pay for a relationship with a man, which is what they want.
“Of course, a lot of women will deny this and say, 'Oh no, but I love sex, I love it!' But do they go around having it the way that gay men do?"

Germaine Greer, the eminent feminist author and academic, said Fry’s remarks were “gratuitous” and accused the broadcaster of having “delusions of grandeur”.

She said: “Stephen Fry is clearly under a delusion that he is an authority on female sexuality. Well, if he thinks that women are not interested in genital encounters with total strangers then he is absolutely right. But to conclude that we are therefore uninterested in sex is madness.

“It is true that men have an interest in a kind of sex which women find infinitely depressing, and it’s true that women really don’t want to hang around toilets hoping that someone will come along and play with their bits. That is not what passion is about for us and we would be placing ourselves in mortal danger if it was.

“Women have an idea of passion which men like Stephen can’t even begin to imagine. What women yearn for is intimacy. The fact that for women sex is an integral part of closeness doesn’t mean we are any less interested in it.’

Rosie Boycott, the feminist journalist, also denounced Fry’s outburst as “rubbish”.

She said: “Women are just as capable as men are of enjoying sex. We don't go cruising or cottaging on Hampstead Heath because we don't need to.”

Paul Flynn, the journalist who interviewed Fry, said: "I thought it was quite an odd generalisation to make at the time, but he delivered it with certainty and it was clearly something he'd thought about."
Fry also used his interview to disclose details of the “extraordinary underworld” of cottaging – anonymous sex between homosexual men in public lavatories - with which he was “slightly obsessed” in his youth.

Fry responded angrily to criticism over his comments on the microblogging website Twitter last night.
He tweeted to his 1,910,676 followers: "So some f------- paper misquotes a humorous interview I gave, which itself misquoted me and now I'm the Antichrist. I give up."

Moments later, he sent a second message saying: "Bye bye," prompting fears among his followers that he intends to leave Twitter in protest against the outcry.