New Criticals


Third, this event underscores the importance of unpacking the multitude of ways in which gender, technology, and cultures intersect. In disclosing his vote manipulation, Unidan was met with downvotes, a bit of negative press,  and probably a number of angry private messages. However, he was not doxxed, nor did he receive death and rape threats, nor did he have to leave his home because he feared possible violent retribution for his actions. Neither Zoe Quinn nor Anita Sarkeesian have been so lucky. Both have been subjected to intense and violent harassment in the last few weeks for simply being women involved in gaming culture – and much of the harassment has been, if not outright condoned, then at least tolerated by the reddit community. Even Unidan himself has been complicit in perpetuating reddit’s often-misogynistic view of women. For this year’s April Fool’s Day he posted an album of nude images of a woman to one of reddit’s NSFW subreddits suggesting that they were pictures of the real Unidan (terminalfilth, 2014). Given that women who post on reddit are frequently met with comments about their appearance, receive harassing private messages, and are regularly asked if they have posted to /r/gonewild, the tasteless joke also reinvoked the idea that reddit was (or should be) a place for cisgendered straight men where women are objects of sexualized desire rather than valid members of the community.