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147 lines
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<title>Zk | 2013-06-19-kickstarter-and-censorship</title>
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<h1>Zk | 2013-06-19-kickstarter-and-censorship</h1>
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<p>type: post
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title: Kickstarter and Censorship
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slug: kickstarter-and-censorship
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date: 2013-06-19</p>
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<hr />
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<p>So, let's talk about censorship and transgression.</p>
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<p>I wrote about transgressive behavior <a href="http://adjectivespecies.com/2013/06/19/an-argument-for-non-conformity/">earlier today</a>, notably why it's
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important for minority identities and subcultures, and how it winds up
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benefiting the majority of society in the end. I think it's an okay read, even
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if it does gloss over quite a bit - I mean, I had to get to the point somehow!</p>
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<p>Today, however, it came up that somebody was aiming to fund a book through
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Kickstarter to <a href="http://caseymalone.com/post/53339539674/this-is-not-fucking-harmless">teach the art of seduction</a> via quite a few creepy and
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objectifying lessons, boiling down to: Men, you are Men, and they are Women, and
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so if you want to Do The Sex with Women, here are the steps to woo that alien
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species. It was bollocks, and I think that this was easily recognized by just
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about everyone I talked to. Not once did it come up amongst any of those I
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follow on Twitter that it's ever okay to "just put her hand on your dick" in
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order to force the issue of sex.</p>
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<p>Let's set the content aside, though. We can all agree that it was, at the very
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least, a poorly executed attempt to cast someone's <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:40tT3neK7egJ:www.reddit.com/r/seduction/comments/1dvnem/above_the_game_part_7_physical_escalation_sex">Reddit posts</a> into book
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form, and at most, a (and I quote) "De-facto rape manual". Let's set that
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aside, and lets talk about the importance of transgression to oppressed or
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minority identities, and lets talk about censorship.</p>
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<p>An oppressed or minority identity - say, LGBT, or women, or PoC - has a few
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options to try and seek change in their status, aiming nominally for equality.
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They can petition politely, I suppose, and write open letters or talk amongst
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themselves about how they wish things were better, but that accomplishes little:
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the former doesn't necessarily challenge anything, and the latter isn't heard
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outside their discussions. They could commit a terrorist act, but I think we
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can all agree that that tends to accomplish the opposite of the intended effect.
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Or they can structure their behavior around transgressive (that is, acts outside
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the boundaries of what's considered normal in a given society) acts and
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behaviors in order to get their point heard.</p>
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<p>It's not a new thing, by any stretch. A protest is the basic transgressive act,
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and it can take the form of modifying fashion, sitting silently, yelling loudly,
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or even a boycott. These are the ways we have at our disposal to transgress -
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literally step across - the border of what's considered conforming into
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non-conformity and prove our points. Polite, non-transgressive discourse
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requires multiple participants, after all, and the comfortable majority has no
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incentive to begin a discourse with a quiet minority, least of all in a
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capitalist system.</p>
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<p>So here's what happened: some entrepreneur decided to start a Kickstarter in
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order to produce content on a controversial subject and received both a personal
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and professional (through Kickstarter) backlash. This description is vague
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enough to target both <em>Above The Game</em> and <em>Tropes vs. Women</em> intentionally.
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What happened specifically in that backlash portion is where things differ:
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<em>Above The Game</em> induced a protest and a rash of complaints to Kickstarter about
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the perceived appropriateness of such an organization to fund such a book.
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<em>Tropes vs. Women</em> caused Anita Sarkeesian much the same, plus a rash of death
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threats and a virtual "Beat up Anita" game on top.</p>
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<p>Both Kickstarters were transgressive - the point of Kickstarter is to fund
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disruptive projects, after all - and both responses were transgressive as well:
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most public campaigns such as these are. The difference here lies in what way
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the participants view their transgressions. The transgressions of the author of
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<em>Above The Game</em> and those who responded to Sarkeesian's project, coming from
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the majority, occur well within the confines of that majority. That is, it
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costs those involved almost nothing to perform a transgressive act because, even
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though it's weird and a little out there, and probably goes against what some
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would consider polite behavior, it still fits within that majority viewpoint.
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The opposite is true of the other parties, though, because it costs them rather
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a lot to transgress from the minority viewpoint: they're going against all that
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is right and good in the eyes of those on the other side, and the other side has
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a lot more power in their hands. At the same time, their transgressions mean a
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whole lot more to them, by virtue of the fact that this is their attempt at what
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they view as equality. This is their way to try and change the world.</p>
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<p>This is nothing new, of course. This describes the same tension, when viewed
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from a more classical critical theory point of view, that occurs when any
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minority struggles against any majority, in the small scale. However, it needs
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to be put out there, because of the censorship question, and how it ties in with
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feminism, a force often vehemently accused of censorship.</p>
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<p>Censorship is a mechanism to prevent the flow of information by silencing the
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source. There are, of course, some ways to interpret this petition to not let
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<em>Above The Game</em> be funded as censorship, but here are the reasons which I
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disagree.</p>
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<ol>
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<li>Censorship is the prevention of the flow of information. The point of the
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campaign here is to prevent Kickstarter from funding the publishing. The
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flow of information began back on Reddit, and although the author removed the
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posts, it will continue to flow there as long as there is a sink for that
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information, an audience. My opinions on the content aside, I don't think I
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would stifle the guy from posting the content to the 'net, or even funding
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his own publishing.</li>
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<li>Kickstarter has meaning to its users beyond a simple funding scheme. The
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propensity toward disruptive and social activism projects lends credence to
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this. The business has come to be a means for the voice of the small to
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reach the ears of the large (some notable exceptions, of course), and so when
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that medium is challenged, people react (see some of those notable
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exceptions, for examples).</li>
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<li>The leveraging of capital against interests as a form of protest is not new.
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In fact, the boycott, embargo, and blockade have been around for thousands of
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years. Neither have they gone out of style: just look at the recent
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Chik-Fil-A boycott regarding connections to Christian organizations opposed
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to LGBT rights to see a recent example. It's a transgressive (read:
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noticeable) means of making one's displeasure known in a system that
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automatically tunes out the displeasure of a minority group.</li>
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</ol>
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<p>Given these three points, a boycott of something in a medium that carries
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additional meaning seems to be a fairly obvious solution, and the only thing
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that complicates this fact is that the book has not been published yet: the
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fight is over whether or not this medium should <em>fund</em> the book. While I could
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see that as a form of censorship if the author were not surrounded by potential
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other funding sources (Offbeatr was recommended as a source that not only
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exists, but also might be quite fitting), I can't given the possible
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funding and distribution channels available.</p>
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<p>Beyond even that, in order to evoke change in the world from a disadvantaged
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point - that of a minority or oppressed group - one must be able to use what
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tools they have, and in this case, that tool is financial leverage. By putting
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financial pressure on an organization through boycott, either by not purchasing
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products already made, or by refusing to purchase products that have yet to be
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made, we are transgressing only on capitalist tendencies and still working
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within the law. It's a protest basically blessed by Western society as a tool
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of the free market, should such a thing actually exist.</p>
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<p>The tl;dr version of this boils down to a few quick points: no one's freedom of
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speech was restricted, because the real problem that we're facing is a that
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something that works against so much of what so many of us stand for is coming
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to us from a respected channel.</p>
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<p>That's the protest. </p>
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<p>Do I think the book's awful? Yes. </p>
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<p>Do I think it objectifies women and perpetuates rape culture? Definitely. </p>
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<p>Do I not want it around me? Certainly. </p>
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<p>Do I want to censor the creator? Absolutely not. </p>
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<p>However, do I have the very same right, the ability, and more than enough will
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to spend my own breath making my displeasure heard in order to try and enact the
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change I want to see in the world? Of course.</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2020-04-24</p>
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</footer>
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