Refuse to Fund How-To Guide on Sexual Assault

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I have been having a few discussions about this today and thought to bring it here as well.

http://www.dosomething.org/petition/kickstarter

Quote: “Pull out your c**k and put her hand on it. Remember, she is letting you do this because you have established yourself as a LEADER. Don’t ask for permission, GRAB HER HAND, and put it right on your d**k.â€

That’s from Ken Hoinsky’s proposed book on “dating advice.†“Disgusting†doesn’t even begin to describe it: basically, it’s a how-to guide on sexually assaulting women. (Read more excerpts here.)

But, get this: Hoinsky’s book, Above the Game: A Guide to Getting Awesome with Women has raised $15,929 on Kickstarter, the world's largest funding platform for creative projects.

That means that at 11:56 am EST today (6/19), Hoinsky may actually receive nearly $16,000 to publish a book that advises men to “Physically pick her up and sit her on your lap. Don’t ask for permission. Be dominant. Force her to rebuff your advances.â€

Kickstarter’s Terms of Use prohibit content that is “threatening, abusive†or “offensive.†It also “reserves the right to suspend a campaign at any time and for any reason.â€

That’s why we’re demanding Kickstarter take down the project and refuse to fund Hoinksy a single dime for this sexual assault handbook. We also want Kickstarter CEO Perry Chen to issue a statement apologizing this project was approved in the first place and vowing not to support projects of this nature in the future.

Tweet @kickstarter or report it on the bottom of this page. Hoinsky has taken these excerpts off Reddit (where they were originally posted), but you can read them here.

And, of course SIGN and SHARE this petition! Tell Kickstarter to pull this offensive, abusive, and misogynistic project and prohibit others like it. When we reach 10,000 signatures, we’ll personally deliver the names to the Kickstarter offices in New York City.

 
The link takes you to a petition to try and get Kickstarter to not fund the project. Get the word out there and maybe we can stop this.

 
Seriously?! Someone is saying that doing that is OKAY?! OMG, that's disgusting.

Originally Posted by Pancua /img/forum/go_quote.gif

I have been having a few discussions about this today and thought to bring it here as well.

http://www.dosomething.org/petition/kickstarter

Quote: “Pull out your c**k and put her hand on it. Remember, she is letting you do this because you have established yourself as a LEADER. Don’t ask for permission, GRAB HER HAND, and put it right on your d**k.â€

That’s from Ken Hoinsky’s proposed book on “dating advice.†“Disgusting†doesn’t even begin to describe it: basically, it’s a how-to guide on sexually assaulting women. (Read more excerpts here.)

But, get this: Hoinsky’s book, Above the Game: A Guide to Getting Awesome with Women has raised $15,929 on Kickstarter, the world's largest funding platform for creative projects.

That means that at 11:56 am EST today (6/19), Hoinsky may actually receive nearly $16,000 to publish a book that advises men to “Physically pick her up and sit her on your lap. Don’t ask for permission. Be dominant. Force her to rebuff your advances.â€

Kickstarter’s Terms of Use prohibit content that is “threatening, abusive†or “offensive.†It also “reserves the right to suspend a campaign at any time and for any reason.â€

That’s why we’re demanding Kickstarter take down the project and refuse to fund Hoinksy a single dime for this sexual assault handbook. We also want Kickstarter CEO Perry Chen to issue a statement apologizing this project was approved in the first place and vowing not to support projects of this nature in the future.

Tweet @kickstarter or report it on the bottom of this page. Hoinsky has taken these excerpts off Reddit (where they were originally posted), but you can read them here.

And, of course SIGN and SHARE this petition! Tell Kickstarter to pull this offensive, abusive, and misogynistic project and prohibit others like it. When we reach 10,000 signatures, we’ll personally deliver the names to the Kickstarter offices in New York City.
 
So the original signal booster got a reply from Kickstarter about the project

Quote: I e-mailed them earlier in the day, expecting fully for that e-mail to hit some poor community manager who had no idea this was what they were waking up to, and for a simple thanks for your input we’ll look into it or to not hear anything back at all. Instead they got back to me. And after a long day of “one second, we’re still discussing this,†they sent me a statement, the relevant bits I’ve pasted here - 

This morning, material that a project creator posted on Reddit earlier this year was brought to our and the public’s attention just hours before the project’s deadline. Some of this material is abhorrent and inconsistent with our values as people and as an organization. Based on our current guidelines, however, the material on Reddit did not warrant the irreversible action of canceling the project.

As stewards of Kickstarter we sometimes have to make difficult decisions. We followed the discussion around the web today very closely. It led to a lot of internal discussion and will lead to a further review of our policies.


So, yeah. 

http://caseymalone.com/post/53394156872/hey-everyone-if-youre-here-its-probably

Basically, it seems like it slipped past their radar for a number of reasons, but since the content wasn't on the KS page, they decided not to pull the project, even though the content was still what they were funding.

OP still suggests we sign the DoSomething petition, but I'm really side-eyeing KS right now and probably a number of people are.

I think it was admirable of him to bring this to people's attentions because he's getting a lot of hate on his blog right now (don't even get me started on dudes in the "men's rights" movement. It's worth checking out Anita Sarkeesian's TED talk for a clue). Hopefully something can be done about it still, but. Well.

 
Thanks for the update! I'll just repost what I'd said on another person's blog about this topic yesterday:   "KickStarter is getting a lot of heat for it, as they should be. It's disappointing they didn't refuse to fund it. No one is blaming them really for not catching it in the first place, but it's sort of the lack of action that's really frustrating."   I don't think anyone will blame them for not catching it in the first place. It's just unfortunate this got funded, and I'm glad KS is working to right that wrong in as many ways as their policies would allow. Unfortunately, they've really taken a hit to their credibility this. I hope they'll be able to work over this because KS really is a great place to raise money for great causes including funding a series on misogyny in video games and VG culture.   If anything, this brings to light once again how prevalent misogyny is still, and how deeply ingrained rape culture is. Sigh. :|

 
I wish I had the time to do this, but I really hope someone with an excellent idea about awareness and sexual assault prevention has a kick starter that someone can start publicizing and can piggy back off of this. I'm glad kickstarter is donating to RAINN but still...gross. 

 
And now the guy who started this shitstorm of BAD IDEA sat down with the petition writer, and he's actually going to work with anti-rape and anti-abuse people to rewrite the book so it doesn't encourage assault "in any way, shape, or form."

 
UPDATE: Above the Game author Ken Hoinsky apologies and says he'll write a book that promotes consent (Monday, 1:18 pm) 

While our petition received 61,095 signatures in two days, our goal isn’t lots of clicks or even an apology from Kickstarter. Our goal was and always is, impact. So we reached out to Above the Game author Ken Hoinsky. He agreed to a coffee.

On Saturday, our petition writer Ben Kassoy sat down with Ken (we kind of love the idea of two straight guys sitting down to chat about sex, sexuality, and violence).

Today, Hoinsky said in a statement that he “wholeheartedly apologizes to everyone I offended†and is committed to writing a book that promotes consent, respect, and healthy relationships.

“Ben Kassoy of DoSomething.Org, a non-profit that encourages social change, reached out to me,†he says, “...to provide alternate opinions and insights to help remove all of the potentially harmful advice.â€

Hoinsky realizes he needed to “seriously evaluate every last word of my writing to make sure I wasn't encouraging sexual assault in any way, shape, or form.â€

“I am proud to say that his was the first of many meetings I will be having with anti-rape and anti-abuse organizations and experts to make sure that the advice I am offering is free of any tinge of sexual assault or rape vibes,†he added. “I will be rewriting Above The Game under their guidance and insight.â€

You did this. Because so many of you signed that petition and tweeted and commented all over Facebook, Kickstarter and the author listened and righted their wrongs.

Let’s not stop. Tell us what else you want to change. We'll help you make it happen...with  the same commitment to transparency and impact we demonstrated here. It’s time to do something.

 

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