FriendlyFyre said:
I'm always curious why people say she leaves no room for discussion just because she disabled her youtube comments. You could always e-mail her site and engage from that angle, it's not like youtube is the only way to start dialogues, though I believe these are pretty rare given the age of youtube commenters.
Of course the real problem is that she probably has thousands of those (and more then likely just a ton of ugly hate mail) and can't respond to everything as fast as you'd like.
So I guess talking about her on a forum is the next best thing in my mind...
As for her "research," isn't her thesis available online?
The problem is not merely that she disables Youtube comments. I don't think one person could make a reasonable argument against doing that, given the general attitude, intelligence, and cogency of the average Youtube comment on
non-controversial videos, let alone ones that handle sensitive or controversial topics. The problem is that she largely ignores, or at least fails to respond to in an intellectually-honest and charitable manner, reasonable, respectful, and cogent criticism of her work -- regardless of venue. It's not even a matter of not having access to, or not reading, criticism, given the amount of time she spends discussing the unreasonable, destructive, or ill-conceived criticism and repeating the threats and invective levied against her that only other A-holes and trolls attempt to defend -- if she has that much time to respond to the internet's sewage, she certainly has the time to respond to quality criticism.
She seems to have more interest in knocking down straw men, and creating an echo chamber than a meaningful, productive dialog. I concluded a long time ago she falls into the category most liberal, academic radical feminists fall into -- she's so convinced she's right, and that her cause is righteous and just, anyone "capable" and/or "has done their research" will agree with her by dint of her having spoken, and that anyone who disagrees or approaches her outside the confines of radical feminist discourse is simply an unfortunate product of patriarchy. It's not a narrative designed really for education, outreach, or encouraging discourse; it's by, of, and for those who share her beliefs for the purpose of self-perpetuity. At least, that's my opinion.
That's before you consider the number of questions about the veracity and ethics of her work -- whether or not she's a plagiarist, whether her research was dutifully done in its full context (i.e. whether she played these games about which she speaks, given displayed ignorance of plot points, characters, and the context of shown game scenes). Hell, I remember her critique of Kanye's video "Monster" in which she
completely missed the entire point of the song and video...
the very point she was making.