PAX East: Triggered? Tough.

[Trigger warning for rape culture, rape "humor."]

I am so tired of the Penny Arcade Dickwolves garbage that I can barely convince my fingers to write this post, but I'm getting lots of emails about the bullshit going on at PAX East, so here's a thread for discussion.

This article has a good summary of what's going on: The two primary issues are that the guy who runs the @teamrape Twitter account organized two "Dickwolf flash mobs" at the con, one with 15 participants and one with 18. Whooooooooops your tiny mob.

Despite public organizing, nothing was done to prevent the mobs from happening. And, as Maddy notes in linked article, which brings us to the second issue:

@Teamrape had a little encouragement from on high, of course. On Saturday, Mike Krahulik drew a "[Vaginawolf]" at the Make-A-Strip panel, similar to the way he drew a Dickwolf at the Make-A-Strip panel at PAX Prime last year. Of course, both of these were drawn at the audience's request, so that makes it okay. Right? Uh, right. That totally justifies further fanning the flames.

Yikes. I know there were some survivors who'd been triggered by the original comic but, after long consideration, decided to give Krahulik and Holkins the benefit of the doubt, or decided it was bigger than Krahulik and Holkins, and attend PAX East despite the Dickwolves debacle, and instead of entering a space that reflects the repeated assurances that there had never been an intent to trigger, they entered a space in which one of the artists very publicly draws a "Vaginawolf," referencing the triggering comic, and "Dickwolves flash mobs" organized by a guy self-identifying as "teamrape" are allowed to go off without a hitch. Swell.

It ought to be patently obvious by now to everyone with a capacity for reason and a shred of decency what I mean when I say that these things aren't about survivors being "too sensitive" but about rape-humorists not being sensitive enough.

Said Spudsy via email: "So, the dickwolves rape apologists managed to get together a handful of 'brave' guys to wear a t-shirt in an environment where no one would dare challenge them, and the PA guys continue to prove they are complete asses. Awesome. What a legacy. How proud they must all be." Yeah, that about sums it up.

In related news, despite the alleged prohibition on booth babes, there were booth babes. Shocking. As Scott Madin notes, apparently as long as you can argue "misogyny is really central to our game," you can skirt the rule by disguising booth babes as game characters. Inclusive!

[Previously: Rape Is Hilarious, Survivors Are So Sensitive, Quote of the Day, Troll Math and Teaspoons, T-Shirts and Teaspoons and Mythical Creatures, Taking a Brave Stance Against Survivors of Rape, Offended Is the Worst Thing to Be, and An Observation, My Point, Here It Is, Penny Arcade Open Thread I, Penny Arcade Open Thread II.]