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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gradine" data-source="post: 6878398" data-attributes="member: 57112">No one is asking anyone to "crusade" for any cause. You do not need to "crusade" to "contribute" to building a better community. And contributing is simple. If a gamer at your table, or at your FLGS, or at a Con you are attending, says or does things that are meant demean, harass, threaten or harm women, say something. Whether there are other women around or not. Exactly how you want to respond is up to you, but make it clear that those attitudes are no longer welcome in our hobby. That's all.If you say nothing, then your (and others') silence (to say nothing of explicit support) is taken as confirmation of their beliefs and attitudes and may very well encourage them to act on those attitudes to terrorize women in public (or private) Gaming spaces. I'm sorry, but saying nothing in those situations makes you part of the problem. That's kind of the point behind things like #YesAllMen. It's the point of articles like these. No, not all male games are terrorizing women. Not by a long shot. Yes, way more men participate in this culture of terrorism than believe they do, because they ignore or fail to confront or respond to such terrorism, not just when it actually happens; but also in smaller, more private settings when potential terrorists signal their attitudes and beliefs as a means of gaining acceptance from their peer groups and their peers say nothing.Like it or not, harassment and acts of violence against (and I shouldn't have to say this, but primarily if not exclusively) women in gaming and gaming-adjacent settings has and continues to be a serious problem. And like it or not, every gamer, regardless of their gender, race, age, or status, has some measure of power in stopping that harassment, in many cases well before it even happens. And therefore every gamer does have to make the choice to use that power (in which case you are part of the solution), or refuse to use that power (in which case, sorry, but you are part of the problem).The whole "the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" quote has been floating around these threads quite a few times for a reason. I'll close with another, even more relevant quote; this from Archbishop Desmond Tutu:"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."</blockquote>

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