Penny Arcade says, "Rape culture is hilarious!"
Has anyone else been following the Penny Arcade Dickwolf Controversy (as I've taken to calling it)? The whole thing started with this comic, posted in August, which many readers took offense to due to an unfunny rape joke. The argument was revived with new fervor recently, and it's still ongoing. Personally, I'm finding it really difficult to enjoy the comic lately, because of the way this whole thing has been handled.

A better and more thorough write-up than I could ever hope to put together has been posted here.

Edit: Via seiberwing: An interesting protest movement has arisen on Tumblr.
Edit again: A couple of comments have indicated that the Tumblr linked in the above post has malware, so tread lightly.

Edit 3: Via lady7jane: This isn't the first time that Mike has exhibited douchebaggy behavior. "I don't know, Love Systems doesn't seem so bad to me."

Edit 4: Via airawyn and alexa: Jerry responds.

Edit 5: Via number13baby, Mike calls for the discussion to end.

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alexa
2011-02-04 12:08 am UTC (link)

Huh. I wasn't aware of the threats made on Mike's family, or their possible effect on the timeline and Jerry's response. Making threats against anyone or their family is totally despicable, and whoever made those threats, I do not believe they represent the feelings of the vast majority of people criticizing PA. There's no excuse for that kind of crap, and it completely undermines any point they thought they were making.

That said, it's unfortunate that it took threats against Mike's family for Jerry to step in, and for Mike to care about what he was saying. Something like that shouldn't have had to happen before they displayed any sympathy. (The eventual sympathy doesn't justify the threat, though. It should never have happened at all.)

It also bothers me that Mike seems to be washing his hands of the argument, even though at this point, it doesn't seem like he's actually attempted to have a serious, empathetic dialog about the issue without being "snarky, sarcastic and rude". Not that I've seen, at least. It finally got personal for him--enough to make he and his family uncomfortable--and now, he just wants to drop it and move on. But it's been "personal" for rape/assault victims since the get go. Their feelings matter too.

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number13baby
2011-02-04 01:11 am UTC (link)

It also bothers me that Mike seems to be washing his hands of the argument, even though at this point, it doesn't seem like he's actually attempted to have a serious, empathetic dialog about the issue without being "snarky, sarcastic and rude". Not that I've seen, at least. It finally got personal for him--enough to make he and his family uncomfortable--and now, he just wants to drop it and move on. But it's been "personal" for rape/assault victims since the get go. Their feelings matter too.

THIS

To clarify, I'm just speculating that this is what it took for Mike and Jerry to finally respond. The timing of their posts is a bit odd, right? It's what immediately jumped out at me.

I also don't think that the vast majority of people criticizing PA would ever encourage or condone threats against Mike's family. So for Mike to call on people on both sides to drop it was a bit disingenuous. If he had said something like "last night someone threatened my family on Twitter and this really made me think about what it feels like to be bullied like this and I'd like @teamrape to stop," that would've been one thing. I hate to make a tone argument, but something about how he frames the whole thing just rubs me the wrong way.

And, yes, I'm also bothered by the way he's washing his hands of the whole thing, like "well, I'm done with it now, ignore them." He didn't say "stop harassing people who are criticizing us" he said "ignore them." Which, yeah. All those people are trying to engage in a dialog with him because they expect better and his response is to ask that people ignore them? I'm pretty sure that it's not much of an improvement on being "snarky, sarcastic and rude." Just seems like yet another way of not engaging (and being straight up dismissive) to me.

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sandglass
2011-02-04 04:33 am UTC (link)

I love how he's ending the issue without doing anything to end it. No apology, no admission of wrongdoing, no nothing.

I wonder if the threats were made before or after he dragged his wife into it, too. Not to say those threats are at all acceptable, but dude, when your side has been making threats and calling a police department to see if one of your critics actually was raped, you can't really claim they're zomg taking it too far.

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	eleutheria 2011-02-05 11:16 am UTC (link)
	I also love how he thinks that he has the power to unilaterally "end it". A man says "stop discussing" and that's the end of discussion, women! That's not his call to make. I'm glad they're calling off their fanboys (even though that should have happened a long ass time ago), but this bugs me. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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