In the endless madness of consumerism and the Internet, the crowdfunding service Kickstarter allowed a book project titled “Above the Game” to use and receive money through their service, to the total of $16,000 dollars. An unofficial sequel/competitor to “The Game” by Neil Strauss of Pickup Artistry fame, this book hilariously tries to educate men in how to antagonize, harass, and even in some cases, assault women in an attempt to receive sex by inserting the proper inputs. Well, that’s not so bad is it?
“designed to be easy to understand, quick to read and full of inspirational advice that gets people out there actually practicing and talking to women,” says the author, Ken Hoinsky of Reddit fame. Reddit, a website that took until 2012 and massive outcry to finally ban child pornography, mind you. In the desire to see his fellow men become "alpha Males,” Ken has received over $16,000 in donations from the Internet.
Ken is also most likely a date rapist, and wants his fellow man to follow in his footsteps, according to his now deleted posts on subredddit “/r/seduction:” (Trigger Warning: Rape, Sexual Assault)
Decide that you’re going to sit in a position where you can rub her leg and back. Physically pick her up and sit her on your lap. Don’t ask for permission. Be dominant. Force her to rebuff your advances.
Pull out your cock and put her hand on it. Remember, she is letting you do this because you have established yourself as a LEADER. Don’t ask for permission, GRAB HER HAND, and put it right on your dick.
Real Leaders apparently whip their dick out and force women to touch it without their consent. Wait, no, that’s rapists, I’m sorry. Ken, someone should take your hands, without your consent, and smash them with a hammer, let’s be honest here. I mean, they’re just establishing themselves as a Real, Dominant Leader, physically grabbing your hand and shattering the bones inside it. You were just asking for it, profiting off of advocating rape on the Internet, so who’s going to believe you anyways?
I’ll spare you the rest. Ken’s established himself as a rape enabling misogynist, if not worse. Men on the Internet gave him $16,000+ to be told to force women to touch their genitals without their consent.Which is weird, because the last time I heard someone doing this was at the Minecraft party at PAX Prime some time ago. So I think men just wanted someone to pretend to be an authority and tell them this is acceptable behavior. It’s not.
If any man is reading this and has ever seriously considered “The Game,” pickup artists, gurus, or anything along this sort of stuff - stop. Don’t ever try this shit, because it’s a dark fucking world of rapists, and abusers, and people telling each other that these horrific acts are okay. As someone who’s dating history would probably rank pretty highly among these self-professed “gurus,” it’s all complete embarrassing horseshit, to start, and it gets way worse from there. I’m not here to give dating advice, but I can assure from experience that it’s insecure creeps profiting off of desperate creeps.
So Casey Malone started up a stir on the Internet the other night about this project - good on him - link here. A lot of people got stirred up and voice their complaints to Kickstarter, who responded - by doing absolutely nothing, taking their 5% cut, and deciding that it’s okay to allow rapists and misogynists to take advantage of their service and desperate men with boners on the Internet. Their exact words:
This morning, material that a project creator posted on Reddit earlier this year was brought to our and the public’s attention just hours before the project’s deadline. Some of this material is abhorrent and inconsistent with our values as people and as an organization. Based on our current guidelines, however, the material on Reddit did not warrant the irreversible action of canceling the project.
Instead of showing moral courage, or at the very least, a sense of decency, Kickstarter allowed the project to be funded, taking their 5% cut of the earnings. They profited. From misogynists and would-be rapists. But let’s go line by line, shall we?
“Brought to our … attention just hours before the project deadline.”
So fucking what? That’s no excuse.
Some of this material is abhorrent and inconsistent with our values as people and as an organization.
No, all of it is abhorrent. You cannot look at the blatant misogyny and objectification of women in the mindset of someone who puts this sort of project together, and go “oh, just the how to force women to touch your penis without their consent is abhorrent.” That’s also no excuse. Zero fucking excuse at all. This tip-toe dance of corporate doublespeak when it comes to the very realities of entitled men who can’t understand why women won’t talk to them going way over the line into sexually assaulting women is utterly reprehensible.
Based on our current guidelines, however, the material on Reddit did not warrant the irreversible action of canceling the project.
Why would not enabling rapists ever be considered worth making a reversible decision? How incompetent do you have to be to type out those words and not instantly turn nauseous? Why the fuck are you hiding behind “current guidelines?” Reddit took until 2012 to ban child pornography. Kickstarter apparently doesn’t see “enabling rapists” something that needs to be protected by “current guidelines?” Corporations aren’t people, but they are made up of people, who apparently have zero fucking spine in order to stick up for women, instead of standing besides abusers and misogynists. I hope that 5% of $16,000+, or around, say, 800 bucks, is worth standing alongside misogynists and abusers, hiding under a cloak of corporate doublespeak that accomplishes nothing.
If anyone out there is considering using Kickstarter at this point to crowdfund their pet project, I don’t know what to tell you. This is a corporation that typed up a vague press release in response to the fact they had knowledge hours beforehand they allowed a project to enable misogynists and would-be rapists to assault women with how-to guides and specific instructions, wrapped up in being an “alpha male.” If you don’t see a problem with this, you have serious personal problems you need to work out with regards to your hatred of women. Everyone needs to take a stand, and reject these sorts of practices, from everyone small and large - especially considering how popular Kickstarter has become. Which brings me to Casey.
Casey wrote the following on his blog, without a single ounce of self-realization:
4. I still love Kickstarter, and will keep using it.
They made a really bad call. Straight up, this was a bad call to allow this to be funded. But it’s undeniable that they had not a lot of time to make that call in, and a weird confluences of loopholes in their policies. Big companies move very slowly, and they had to act fast, so you know. They made a bad call. That does not mean it’s a bad platform, or they’re bad people - in fact, they seem pretty upset about the whole thing, and I hope that they re-examine some of the policies that led to that call now that they have more than a few hours to breathe.
I still think crowdfunding in general is the internet’s way of fighting back against the monopolies on entertainment, and Kickstarter specifically is a pretty special tool. My friends have followed dreams because of this, they’ve made games and prank apps and children’s books and burnt giant guitars. It’s awesome. And I find it inevitable that I’ll launch one of my own one day. I hope that more projects like this being funded doesn’t cause that inevitability to fall away.
This project is funded, but make your voice heard by signing this petition someone started over at Do Something - http://www.dosomething.org/petition/kickstarter - Hopefully they’ll know that if projects like this that forward a culture of violence against women or any oppressed group continue to be funded, we’ll stop just stop using it. And as I’ve made clear, I would like to continue using it!
Finally…
“I still love Kickstarter, and will keep using it."
This is a large part of why you see women saying men cannot be feminists. Because they will say they support women, call themselves feminists, tweet about how much they hate misogynists, and when it comes to nerd bullshit, hypercapitalism, and being a proud consumer instead of a stand-up person, they will sell women out and continue to support a company that has profited from enabling rapists. Kickstarter made money off of Ken Hoinsky and the pathetic misogynists that donated to his projects. There is no cause, no purpose, no object worth supporting more than standing up to the thousands of years of misogyny and violence against women in our history. Worse more so that people like Ken and Kickstarter found a way to fucking profit off of telling men to force women to touch their genitals without their consent. Casey, that’s fucking pathetic.
That does not mean it’s a bad platform, or they’re bad people
That’s probably for women to decide. They took money from misogynists and would-be rapists seeking confirmation that sexually assaulting women and pressuring them into sex is acceptable. Casey, that’s fucking horrific. This entire first paragraph is apologizing for a multi-million dollar corporation, who had several hours, according to them, to pull the plug on this project. What a sad fucking state of men in society where apologizing for a private corporation profiting off of misogyny and violence against women is acceptable.
I still think crowdfunding in general is the internet’s way of fighting back against the monopolies on entertainment, and Kickstarter specifically is a pretty special tool. My friends have followed dreams because of this, they’ve made games and prank apps and children’s books and burnt giant guitars. It’s awesome. And I find it inevitable that I’ll launch one of my own one day. I hope that more projects like this being funded doesn’t cause that inevitability to fall away.
How in the fucking hell is "entertainment” more important than standing up to misogyny.
How in the hell is “games and prank apps and children’s books and burnt giant guitars” more “awesome” than fighting thousands of years of men thinking sexually assaulting and raping women is acceptable.
What has Kickstarter brought us that is supposedly more important than not enabling misogyny and would-be rapists? Is it the OUYA, an Android console that lets you play smartphone games on your television? Is it indie games like “Old School RPG” from fallen Gaming Gods like Brenda Bratwithe and Lord British that hide in “social [not]games” designed to extract money from Facebook users? Is it Star Citizen, a new space simulator from the people behind Wing Commander, a project I personally enjoy? Is it more important than “Double Fine Adventure” and “Massive Chalice,” from people like Tim Schafer and Brad Muir, who I both personally respect a great deal? Is it another entry in the long forgotten Veronica Mars franchise? Is it worth a spiritual sequel to Garden State from Zach Braff of Zach Braff Quotes Dot Com?
None of this consumerist nerd bullshit is worth throwing women under the bus, Casey. Kickstarter has done nothing, enabled misogynists, and hid behind corporate doublespeak and excuses instead of showing moral courage. Making excuses for million dollar corporations does nothing to make the situation better and help end male entitlement to women’s bodies. What’s worse is how Casey ends his long-winded blogpost:
And then, finally, when no one has to deal with these morons being the dominant voice in the culture, we can all stop talking about rape.
It takes a lot of fucking courage, if not utter incompetence, for a man to decide when “we can all stop talking about rape.” These people aren’t “morons,” they are men who hate women. One of them made thousands off of telling men to force women to touch their penises without their consent. Others harassed women who spoke their minds or simply reposted Casey’s statements. Here’s the thing, and I think I might be somewhere on the money for saying this:
We can probably, quite possibly all stop talking about rape when rapists stop doing this shit. When men aren’t throwing their money at self-professed “gurus” to think this sort of behavior is acceptable. When harassing women on the Internet for simply speaking their mind and throwing rape threats their way is no longer acceptable. When million dollar corporations with plenty of time to do the right thing actually do so, and don’t need white men apologizing for their mistakes on the Internet. When men stop deciding they can tell women when they can stop talking about women’s issues.
Telling people to sign an online petition, when they have had zero effect on the relevant issues of our time, especially when it comes to enabling misogynists, is utterly shallow and pathetic. If you’re fucking sick of what Kickstarter has gotten away with today, here is what you can do, instead of this hollow online petition bullshit:
1. Flood Kickstarter’s Twitter account, “@kickstarter,” with questions about what they’re going to do with their five percent cut from “Above The Game” and ask them to clarify their corporate doublespeak in greater detail.
2. Request the same answers from their official support page, http://www.kickstarter.com/contact and feel free to ask what crowdfunding services they would suggest if you don’t wish to associate with a corporation that enables misogynists. IndieGoGo might be a start, but I cannot verify this information.
3. If you seek to start a crowdfunding project, try using their competitors, eight of them listed here.
4. Ask your favorite Kickstarter project creators how they feel about using a service that enables and profits from misogynists and would-be date rapists seeking confirmation of their hatred of women.
Direct action and loudly making your disapproval heard, instead of locked away in an online petition nobody cares about, is going to bring a hell of a lot more change to the system. Growing a fucking spine and being loud and outspoken, instead of apologizing for the corporation that provides your precious nerd trinkets and indie games, will bring a hell of a lot more change to Kickstarter’s practices.
If the power of Kickstarter has shown us anything, the power of everyone chipping in can make big things happen, and there’s no reason that energy couldn’t be directed to fighting misogyny, pickup artists, corporate bullshit, and profiteering from the enabling of would-be rapists.
Grow a fucking spine.
edit2: apparently kickstarter thinks kobe beef is more important than women.
edit3: I have posted an update on Ken’s status and recent events.
