Streamer Gabriela Cattuzzo, formerly of Razer. Photo: Razer Brazil
“Men are trash, with some exceptions.” That’s the (translated) statement made by former Razer-sponsored streamer Gabriela Cattuzzo. She stated it after losing her cool. Men continued to harass her online, sexualizing and harassing, and her personal information was shared online. She reached the point that every woman is all too familiar with: being tired of men. She finally tweeted that men are trash, a common phrase of frustration with terrible men.
For that, she was fired.
Her harassers, however, are still loyal and welcome Razer customers, though Razer also somehow managed to insult men and gamers in particular far worse than Gabriela’s exasperated statement, they did basically state that sexual abuse will always be welcome at Razer.
The ‘Men Are Trash’ Heard Around the World
https://twitter.com/gabicattuzzo/status/1142582646989565953
Seriously? Her response makes me wish I was into watching streamers so I could be a fan.
Okay, let’s not get carried away. The average woman thinks or says the phrase “men are trash” about once a week. Now, for those ready to froth at the mouth shouting, “Not all men,” you’re absolutely right! No, really, not all men. Of course not all men! Maybe you, person who was convinced this was about you, but no, not the rest of guys.
In fact, many, if not most, guys are pretty decent. I actually said, “Ugh, men are trash,” last week at a bar. Those exact words! I was hanging out with 4 or 5 guys. They thought it was hilarious. That’s because, if you’re not trash, you generally understand that 99.99% of the sexual harassment, assault, and misogyny women face come at the hands of… yeah, men. It’s also funny because all of my closest friends are guys. By the way, I like hanging out with women too, I just work in tech, and, well, yeah, you see where that’s going.
Are all men trash? No, not even a small fraction. But enough of them are to make our lives very difficult. That’s all “Men are trash” means. It means, “The men who have made my life so difficult by being shitty towards women are trash,” but that’s a mouthful. It’s far from misandrist, it’s about behavior, not identity.
Constant Abuse
https://twitter.com/Rhaegar___/status/1142151198264438784
That tweet there was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Or, seeing as it was sexualizing and harassment, more like the brick that broke the camel’s back. That’s what lead Gabriela Cattuzzo, Brazilian streamer, to finally say enough is enough and call out her harassers. She did so with the “men are trash” meme, and, unfortunately, it was taken very seriously by a few of the aforementioned trash. She was doxxed, harassed, and had to give up her online presence. On top of that, Razer fired her for, “Extremism.” No, really. A woman facing harassment who said something biting was accused of being an extremist by the gaming device manufacturer.
Apparently, Razer believes women should just take their harassment on the nose.
“There’s always going to be fucked in the head macho man to talk shit and sexualize women until the woman starts making jokes, right? And this is why men are trash.”
– Translated from the deleted tweet by Cattuzzo, who later explained that only men who react like this are trash. These tweets have been deleted, but she clarifies it later.
But it’s not just women who should be mad at Razer for asking a woman to deal with sexual harassment in silence, it’s also men, women, kids, anyone who likes gaming. Not only for their horrendous response, but for the way they then insulted everyone.
Razer’s response was basically, “Not all men are trash, but all gamers are trash.”
Razer’s Anti-Gamer Response
“We have been since the beginning, as gamers, confronted with all types of preconceptions and stereotypes, and we will continue to fight so that this type of situation won’t repeat itself.”
– From Razer’s Official Response
Yup. That’s really Razer’s position. To paint gamers as persecuted and stereotyped nerds who naturally sexually harass women. I, a woman, got into software through gaming. A lot of my friends, male, female, young, and old, play games. Not one of us fits their stereotype of socially useless nerds, sweating in their basement, harassing women. Oh sure, we’re geeks. We work in tech, for crying out loud, of course we’re a little nerdy, but sexual harassers? No. That’s not what defines a gamer, a nerd, a geek, or a man.
Side note: Revenge of the nerds also showed a nerd raping a girl as a positive thing. No, really.
Playing games doesn’t give you an excuse to be a piece of trash. Most people play games. Most people are not trash.
Razer?
It’s okay, Razer is trash. Seriously. Their mechanical keyboards are overpriced light up junk (warning: harsh, angry language). They moved to their own garbage switches, abandoning Cherry’s only slightly decent switches, have a terrible layout, and are known only for RGB lighting. Seriously, they’re junk.
If you want a keyboard that will truly last you, get a board like the Massdrop Ctrl for gaming, and throw on some Kailh Silver switches (also available from the factory on the CTRL if you order right now). It’ll feel better to use, the switches are faster, and it’ll last much longer. Plus, you can swap out the switches like building Lego. It’s also made of high quality materials instead of cheap plastic. As an added bonus, you don’t have to deal with Razer’s awful designs and hideous fonts.
This isn’t even a difficult boycott. Just buy quality mechanical keyboards and mice and you’ll have no problem avoiding Razer. Despite problems with their software, I still recommend Steelseries for everything but their new “gaming keyboards.” Again, just buy a real mechanical keyboard, you’ll thank me immediately. If you stick to quality and affordability, you won’t pay Razer’s ridiculous markups on cheap junk.
Best of all, you won’t support a company that thinks women should be silent about sexual harassment and nerdy male gamers just can’t help themselves but sexually harass women. Because, I’ve got to tell you, I know plenty of nerdy gamer guys and girls, and none of us think sexual harassment is okay.
Razer, on the other hand, does.
Because Razer is trash.
Sources
- Nicole Carpenter, Vice
- Cara Curtis, The Next Web
- Ethan Gach, Kotaku