OH MY GOD, I'M GOING TO CRY

[logansrogue]

"A Penny Arcade fan at thefremen.blogspot.com wrote that he would no longer be reading the comic, and he then auctioned off all of his Penny Arcade books and merch on eBay. Several other geek blogs voiced their disapproval, including prior PAX speaker Wil Wheaton.

Read more: http://thephoenix.com/boston/life/116456-gaming-rape-culture-and-how-i-stopped-reading-pe/#ixzz1Fbfb2ZGz

"

From: http://thephoenix.com/Boston/life/116456-gaming-rape-culture-and-how-i-stopped-reading-pe/?page=1#TOPCONTENT

Dear Wil Wheaton,

I love you. In the way a fangirl loves her favourite actor from her teen years, with that fond adoration that makes her get out that particular movie, even if it's crappy (Yes I'm talking about Toy Soldiers. And Mr. Stitch). You've always been funny, always been good to your fans, always been a generally nice guy.

But not approving of this sort of thing? It makes me more grateful than you ever know. It exists outside of the fan-actor framework. I'm in this moment, a hurt, tired, sad human being who sees that another human being gives a shit. And that makes me so *FUCKING GRATEFUL*. It makes me grateful that I don't have to give up the childish crush that I'd always been so happy with. I have always been able to say to people, "You know, my actor teen crush? He's a good guy. I can say that I picked a good person to crush on. He's awesome and I've never felt ashamed of adoring Wil Wheaton."

So keep being awesome, man. I'm sure you'll fuck up a thousand ways, we all do, but in this instance, you did the right thing. And I'm truly grateful.

Knowing you'll never read this but grateful, so I'm writing an open letter,
Napalm Nacey.
(The girl that many, many years ago, when you were on geocities, sent you that shopped picture of you as Dream from Sandman).

Comments

[shantari.livejournal.com]

Awwwwww!

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

\o/

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

I feel sad for people whose teen crushes were Charlie Sheen. Or Mel Gibson.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

I feel sadder for the people who have signed up for Mr Sheen's Twitter feed, then RTing his blatant book promotion. Let's enable the abusive addict!

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

But who else with amuse and enthrall them with their mindless, offensive shenanigans? (Uhm, most of Hollywood, I guess...)

Sometimes I wonder if Martin Sheen just cries at night.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

I imagine he's got a constant, low-level headache that's never really gone away since filming Apocalypse Now.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I really think Charlie is suffering either from a sharp turn in an existing mental illness no longer under control, or perhaps advanced syphillus (sp?). In which case, I'm not sure he can control his mind or his offenses.

I'm kind of with Craig Ferguson, who said he was going to leave the mental patient alone. My sister catches me up on his latest news each night from the Internet, but we don't subscribe to Twitter or anything where we can "monitor" or interact with him. It's the most respectful we're capable of being, LOL.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

This is true. But it's not his mental illness I'm ribbing him for. It's the beating on his wives and girlfriends and being a general asshole. There are people with his mental conditions that aren't fuckwits. :-P

[hanabishirecca.livejournal.com]

*reads full article*

*scrolls up*

*removes Penny Arcade from feed*

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Sorry to do that, I know it's hard to find a good source of entertainment that doesn't trigger or bother, but yeah, these guys Do Not Get It (TM).

[hanabishirecca.livejournal.com]

I never found their comic entertaining that often. I was on the feed for the occasional hilarious insight into the dumbness of the video gaming industry. I should really be thanking you. Though, I couldn't find the Wil Weaton comment you referenced in your post.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

He blogs a lot, so it might be some way back. I never saw it myself, I'm going on the word of the article. It might have also been something mentioned in another website somewhere - he's all over the internet being a professional geek these days. :)

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've rarely read this comic, but I read the article because I kept seeing hints online about the debacle but not all the specifics. I do wish the creators would have talked with the writer; they've made themselves look extremely bad. I personally didn't find the original comic as offensive as some others did, but if a few people tell you something offended them, the best response is really to say "I didn't mean for it to, I meant it to be funny, but I'm sorry I made you feel like that." I would have advised them to respond similarly, privately to each offended comment they got and then just move on with life on the comic, rather than addressing it again, especially in the manner they did. I mean, I get someone saying "that offended me" and feeling "um, it really shouldn't have" - I also get how something can spiral out of control on the Internet after the fact - and while I don't think anyone should always prostrate themselves before anyone who demands an apology for anything, neither do you do what these two Clueless Johnnys did in "handling" it. Maybe some value will come from them serving as an object lesson to others ...

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

See, that's the thing that shits me about this whole thing - they just went on and encouraged people in *tormenting rape victims*. By not telling the dipshits on twitter to stop harrassing women and sending pictures of mutilated women to them, they're tacitly encouraging that. There's no middle road, no grey area. Either you're okay with that or you're not, and if you're not, you say, specifically, "Knock it off, stop sending photos of dead women to rape victims and allies!" But no. They kinda faffed about with the, "Both sides knock it off, we're tired of this now!" Which is craven and pathetic.

But I'm not very forgiving about this sort of thing, I tend to get all ranty and ravey and red-misty about it. *flail*

[mysanal.livejournal.com]

I met Wil at our local ComicCon last year and he really is a terrific guy. I'm reading "Just A Geek" right now & my admiration for him keeps growing by leaps & bounds. Here's another bound. ;-D

[rhyana.livejournal.com]

Never read Penny Arcade, but what a bunch of morons.

Have friends going to PAX this weekend, but I don't know if they know about this. Don't want to put a downer on their vacation.