[Trigger Warnings for discussions of rape and transphobia throughout].
Yesterday brought something of a storm on social media, with Penny Arcade’s Mike Krahulik at the center, having unleashed the furore by making a couple of transphobic comments on Twitter. The Border House Blog has an excellent summary on the events, but for the sake of completeness, I’ll reiterate:
Folk on the web had noticed that there was a synopsis for a dubious-looking panel on the upcoming PAX Australia titled “Why So Serious”?, which, as one might expect, basically boiled down to people saying, “stop taking games so seriously!” to anyone who voiced any concerns with regards to the game industry’s less-than-stellar track record when it came to bigotry. Complaints were made, and the panel slightly altered their synopsis.
It didn’t make it much better. So folk contacted Mike Krahulik about the event, and from there, things escalated to the extent that Mike posted the following tweets.
(Screenshots courtesy of the Borderhouse Blog.)
And, following that, Mike posted an email discussion between himself and Sophie Prell, a trans* woman who formerly contributed to the Penny Arcade Report; the discussion can be found here.
In a statement for GayGamer.Net, Mike described the event thus:
This morning when I got up my email and tweets were all about a panel at PAX Aus. We will have a panel that will discuss if all this social justice stuff is good for the games industry. We don’t make the panels they are submitted by the community and we try and let pretty much anyone have a space to talk.
So this morning I was told I was a bigot and I was giving a stage to bigots. I said no one has to go to the panel but then I was told I was cis gendered garbage and I should die.
so.
at this point I should have stepped away from the computer and played with my kids but I didn’t. I went on the offensive and I made things worse.
I don’t dislike or fear anyone based on what they are or what they think they are. I try and be friendly to everyone I meet in person.
I honestly don’t think I am wired right for this fame stuff. I like to draw cartoons and play games that’s really all. I can’t be what all these millions of people want me to be. I’m not a role model, I didn’t even fucking go to college. I have beliefs that lots of people will hate. I have opinions that not all our fans will like. If I was just some normal dude it wouldn’t matter but the things I do and say are placed in another category. I need to be aware of that responsibility. When I feel attacked I attack back like I did as a kid. I can be an incredible asshole when I want to be. It’s like my super power. I’m very good at being mean. That’s been good for making funny comics but it’s not good when it hurts people who are already marginalized.
To be fair, I hate tons of people. But it’s never because of their sexual orientation or their gender situation or anything superficial like that. I honest to god don’t give a shit about that stuff. I only hate people because of the way they act.
So, back up, what’s the big deal here?
(You can read the rest of the article at its original home on GayGamer.net!
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