Never has my live-tweeting of games/books/movies I've been experiencing in real time been described so sinisterly.
Here's my actual tweet. "I mentioned Boyfriend Dungeon / Sword Dungeon yesterday and Kissmate has done a deep dive into the first few hours. Verdict: Not very good on ace and aro representation, and it feels unsafe on those issues despite being advertised as inclusive on those points."
I have the article author blocked, so I'm mildly annoyed for someone to be openly admitting that they're reading me around a block. Blocks are boundaries. I should be allowed to have those.
Oh, and then there's this further down. I was plainly talking about how the game was *advertised* as aro/ace friendly, and my opinion on that claim as an asexual person. "...regarding Mardoll's claims that Boyfriend Dungeon is 'unsafe' because it fails to conform to his idea of good aromantic and asexual representation, a story does not become dangerous when it isn't exactly what any given segment of its audience wants or expects. To claim otherwise is to enter the realm of converative-leaning publications like The Independent, which just this May published an article stating that seeing adults in fetish gear in public is a violation of consent."
This feels like describing ace/aro people (and myself in particular) as demanding that the game be ace/aro friendly out of a sense of entitlement, rather than me reporting my thoughts on the game's presentation of itself as ace/aro friendly.
And of course I love being compared to queerphobic conservatives wanting to ban fetish gear after I spent all of Pride month getting harassed by conservatives because I was *defending* kink at pride. Cool. Very responsible use of analogy.
I, a trans artist in Texas who already had a pretty full plate of problems this week, am going to be harassed over this article which purports to protect artists from online harassment. There was NO reason for the author to include me in this article.
The article isn't about the ace/aro rep in the game. It just quotes me out of context and sets me up as an Angry Entitled Ace expecting a Romance Game to be ace/aro friendly, with no context that it was *advertised* as such.
Ace and aro people already face so much harassment online for (supposedly) being mouthy entitled shits who demand everything cater to us. The fact that I was reporting on actual advertisement is so crucial to the context, and completely left out.
So I'm going to get to face a ton of harassment because a queer author who I have blocked decided to include me in her article about *harassing creators* when I did no such thing. I didn't @ the makers of the game. I repeatedly said I thought their hearts were in the right place.
I tried, as best I could, to merely report on the claims as I experienced them in order to save people a non-refundable $20 on Switch if it wasn't their thing or indeed would be downright unsafe *for them*.
Implying that I deemed the game dangerous because I said it was "unsafe" on certain specific issues is such a broad mischaracterization of my position as an artist. Art can be "unsafe" for certain people, or on certain topics, without being "dangerous" overall.
The author of this piece is Gretchen Felker-Martin ( @scumbelievable ) and I would like to politely ask
@Gawker to remove references to me from her article. I do not believe I am germane to this topic.
Regarding blocks: Twitter's help center says that blocks are intended to "Blocking...[restricts] specific accounts from contacting them, seeing their Tweets, and following them". Note: "Seeing their tweets."
We all know that someone can evade a block by logging out and/or logging in as another (non-blocked) account, but per Twitter's word, that's not supposed to happen.
Publicly proving that my boundaries are unenforceable and that Twitter will do nothing is not appropriate.
I am going to walk away from this now, but I need someone to explain why it's bad for the internet to harass a small game dev studio but it's okay for the internet to harass a single trans author living in Texas.
I really do not think it is overreacting to complain about being mischaracterized as a censorious conservative because I live-tweeted my kissmate's experiences as he played a game. Especially when, again, I repeatedly said I thought the game devs meant well and tried hard.
I don't understand how any of us are going to be able to write about our experiences with book, movies, games, etc. when doing so means that weeks later you may be mischaracterized in an article that juxtaposes you with queerphobes trying to ban trans people from Pride.
Oh. I didn't even notice this but Jeanne is right: the other "critic" quoted in the piece isn't named but is just "one user". I'm the only named critic in the article. Everyone else is anonymized.
I'm apparently the only one who is singled out and named, effectively making me the name and face of the problem.
This is not neutral after GamerGate. Throwing an ace nonbinary trans man to the wolves because I live-tweeted a game my spouse was playing is- I do not really have the words for how inappropriate this is.
I do not have natural immunity from harassment just because I have some twitter followers. We know this from GamerGate. "But you're twitter famous" isn't a reason for someone to evade a block and mischaracterize my positions in an article about mobbing devs and voice actors.
I live-tweeted a game, shared my opinions, and praised the developers and the game itself several times in the process. How does that translate to leading a harassment mob? How am I responsible for any of this?
I am at a loss for how I "lead a harassment mob" whilst praising a game, calling on people to leave the developers alone, and talking in nuance about how I think they tried something really admirable and just didn't quite stick the landing.
This is why the Gawker piece is irresponsible and smears me; people aren't going to read my "multiple extensive threads" and instead are just going to assume that the mischaracterization of me as an Angry Ace blasting the game as 'dangerous' is accurate.
...and now I've been accused of harassing the article author because I'm not supposed to say anything if someone mischaracterizes my words in a massive worldwide publication that millions of people read.
And what is really frustrating is that I absolutely knew this would happen; someone would take my 30,000 followers as a reason why I'm not allowed to say anything in my defense even as I'm misquoted to an audience of millions.
I can no longer say anything in public because if I criticize a person or a game someone *else* might decide to harass someone and that's my fault even as I routinely and loudly decry harassment on this platform.
I am tired of this.
I am going to be harassed offline because I supposedly led a harassment mob against a small game dev, and while harassment is bad (obviously!) harassing me offline is good (obviously!) and we will never examine why trans people keep being chased off this platform.