During the week I was lucky enough to attend Anita Sarkeesian’s presentation “The F-Word”. In her talk, Sarkeesian took us through the level of abuse she had gone through over the past three years during her critical work in games.
It was hard to listen to, and when I was discussing it with a friend she noted that Sarkeesian had talked about the harassment in the way someone would talk about their scars, or tell you’ve they’ve lost their dog.
I had only seen this tone as professionalism, it never occurred to me to pay closer attention to her tone. That she had adopted a certain way of speaking about the awful things that have happened to her.
I was always aware how much people could people give away about themselves through tone and gestures, but it was never anything I made the effort to intentionally notice. After my friend had brought up her tone it lead me to think about how careful Sarkeesian has to be in her talks as not to say anything that could be misconstrued or make anyone feel uncomfortable.
This noticing is defiantly something I want to make a habit on in the future.
