Half a year into the infamous GamerGate debacle, and we've finally seen the termination of one of the key reasons it has lasted half a year, irking people, getting them threatened and ruining careers on both sides. (Though also launching others to prominence.) Leigh Alexander, up until this week a writer for Gamasutra, has left to form her own site; Offworld--which, in light of the site's and its parent company UBM's decreased traffic since she dropped her bomb, likely means she was ordered to leave or get fired and be officially denounced.
That face is autism. Leigh and her ilk can call them "gamers" all they like, but as they, too, play video games, obviously they needed to redefine the term so they aren't tarring themselves, and Leigh Alexander opened fire upon the socially awkward; the people who don't make eye contact, don't dress the way she likes, don't act the way she likes, speak differently, ignore surroundings because they are are deep in thought, etc. It's interesting to note that Zoe Quinn, the woman who was originally at the center of this debacle, has a rather unique sense of fashion, with blue hair and face piercings, something that doesn't get any mention in Alexander's article. That's a convenient omission on her part, as it solidifies her narrative casting female victims as upstanding, proper-looking citizens in whose name it is acceptable to persecute those who look "off".
I am not by any means the only person who has come to this conclusion. Tim Morrison, who is himself autistic, breaks it down well in his videos, while Liz Finnegan joined the fight because her daughter is autistic. Tragically, Liz was doxxed and harassed out of the debate by opponents, her children themselves being threatened as well*; she still is too scared to divulge all the details, and the media that has sensationalized this online war from the start said nothing about it, presumably because Liz was pro-GamerGate. They never even bothered to consider why she was, and why many of us are.
While I and many others originally thought those who wrote about video games were made of sterner stuff, Leigh is unfortunately not the first to make a scapegoat of autistic traits. In the decade since the Columbine Massacre, society has grown used to the stereotype of school shooters as uniquely-dressed, moody social outcasts who snap from being tired of mistreatment by mainstream society better off than they are.
It's a fixation that has ascended even to our pop music, but in fact, it's a simplification at best, and a gross myth at worst. Certainly, people who engage in these acts are mentally unwell, but there is no pattern to how they project this; no definitive signs that unite them with other shooters; no solid position as to where they fall on the greater bully vs bullied scale. One of the Columbine shooters, Harris, had an effective poker face to convince the adults nothing was wrong with him. They reveled in victimizing "fags"--a term that I, as a straight-but-neurodiverse man, have been called multiple times by bigots.
While I am on the subject of my own experiences, I will weigh in on what I believe may be intertwined with the genesis of such myths. My schools, and perhaps others, had a one-size-fits-all attitude towards those with learning disorders. Up to Third Grade I struggled with (believe it or not) reading and writing, so I was placed into a resource class with the genuinely retarded and, by all evidence, psychopathic children. Some of the children in this class with me talked constantly about killing. When such a non-discerning attitude is taken towards mental disorders, it's no wonder that the simply different get seen as genuinely sick, scary people.
Educational facilities have probably gotten more aware since then, though I still hear horror stories, but the stigma around autism--not always recognized as such--hasn't gone away elsewhere. We still struggle to make friends, and especially form romantic relationships, because people we approach are often alarmed. We still get discriminated against in the job market, by manipulative questionnaires that despise our mindsets as allegedly unfriendly, that force us to lie about who we are to get jobs. UK data shows only 15% of autistic adults fully employed as a result of such things. Even when they get in, bigotry still bites. I once got thrown out of a volunteer position because of it. The venue offered free English lessons to Spanish speakers, and after the girl who introduced me to the venue stopped going because she needed to focus more on her school work, I was the only tutor there who understood Spanish and could work with the clients one-on-one, which they needed often. I felt invaluable, but apparently somebody got bothered by how I occasionally thought out-loud, and I was told not to come back. That is just a a sample of the depths of bigotry affecting the people who don't--sometimes can't--conform to common but trivial behavioral standards, no matter how well they do the job at hand. I have many other anecdotes, too.
Leigh Alexander was the latest and worst person I know of to stoke bigotry against autistic people, but she was not the first, and I have no delusions of her being the last. I celebrate her departure from a site that wants to portray itself as a mainstream face of game journalism, but I'm not abandoning the greater struggle against her type. Pro- or anti-GamerGate, do not support her new site, Offworld. Do not rally behind her just because she frames her shallow, ablist diatribes around the positive goal of protecting women. The now-common pejorative "Social Justice Warrior" is too kind for Leigh Alexander. If you cannot stand up for one marginalized group without punching down at another, you deserve to be shunned in favor of the many, many people who can. Still, not all the people who can, actually do, because autistic people are not yet recognized as a marginalized group. They're still frequently seen as people who need help, but do not deserve respect and in fact should be scrutinized lest they snap. I aim to change that perception. The battle is won against Leigh Alexander, but the war against the culture of hate that fueled her continues.
*I do not have a link to the bit about her children being threatened at the moment, but I have seen it written somewhere. Any help finding a source would be appreciated.
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