Canadian-American feminist speaker Anita Sarkeesian was forced to cancel a presentation at Utah State University Oct. 14 due to threats made against her the night before.
Sarkeesian was scheduled to speak about the portrayal of women in video games at the university’s student centre. She received a threatening message the night before the presentation and although university security was notified, she chose to cancel because of USU’s apparent inability to restrict possible attendees from carrying concealed firearms.
“To my knowledge, the threat made against Ms. Sarkeesian was the most egregious Utah State University has received,” Eric Warren, director of media relations at USU, said in an email.
The university had taken into account previous threats against Sarkeesian that were of a similar nature, and prepared security measures in order to address that. They stated in a press release that after working in collaboration with the FBI, they had decided the additional measures would be adequate.
“After receiving the threat, enhanced security measures were planned and included an explosives sweep before the event, more uniformed and plain clothes officers, controlled access points prohibiting backpacks and large bags capable of hiding the specific types of weapons mentioned in the threat, and several other measures,” Warren said.
“However, Ms. Sarkeesian made a decision to cancel based on her own sense of safety and level of comfort. She was the one who was going to be on stage and who the threats were made against, and to diminish her decision would not be appropriate.”
Sarkeesian focuses the bulk of her work, which includes running the video blog “Feminist Frequency” on the issues of sexism and misogyny in video games. Her most recent video posts explore the issue of women as “background” in video games, often only placed as a convenient violent outlet to further the plot or for players to exploit.
Kayla Spagnoli, co-organizer of SlutWalk Ottawa 2014 and co-owner of the feminism-themed blog “Feminist Twins,” said she thinks Sarkeesian made the right decision in cancelling the speech if her safety couldn’t be completely assured.
“I feel like that was kind of the point where, if nobody’s safety can be guaranteed, then why [is she] going to put herself at risk, and other people?” Spagnoli said.
She said has been following the development of the issue closely online.
One of her biggest concerns is the backlash that Sarkeesian received online, especially from men, who were happy to see the event cancelled.
“I was just searching through trends and tags on the subjects to see, you know, what other people thought, and it was really alarming how many men, especially on Tumblr, were really against her, and really thought this was for the best, that she didn’t come,” said Spagnoli. “It was pretty terrifying.”
Sarkeesian said on her blog that though the Utah talk was cancelled, she will continue to speak out on this issue regardless of any threats.
