I consider myself a feminist. I’m not quite as active or involved as some others I know, but I’m a strong advocate of women’s rights and in equality of the sexes. Today, I learnt a hard lesson about feminism: If you’re going to try to address women’s issues in a predominantly male industry, expect backlash.

Apparently people think it’s okay to call women sluts, feminazis and cunts if they do something that offends you. Apparently disapproving of such sexist language means I’m up on a high horse. Apparently expecting human beings to show some fucking civility towards one-another makes me a preposterous figure.

Let me make this clear: I do not think of Jim Sterling as a sexist man, but that doesn’t mean that his decision to use loaded, sexist language was not in itself a sexist act. I don’t give anything even vaguely resembling a fuck if Jim Sterling thinks he’s being funny, or edgy, or “speaking his mind”, or any such bollocks. He used words which are specifically purposed to put down women, “slut” being an exceptionally poor choice of words considering its representation of a gross double-standard in society - the idea that a woman is a lesser being if she has multiple sexual partners. A woman sleeps around and there is something wrong with her. A man sleeps around and it is a game, a conquest, a right. Whether Jim intended to use the word in that manner or not, one cannot forget that this is what the word means.

Jim’s target “started it” by posting stories and drawings of Sterling in a sexy sexy tryst with with David Jaffe after the former said that the latter shouldn’t have apologized for comparing Sony’s new handheld to a vagina. That was exceptionally homophobic and bigoted of her, and she’s no better than Jim in my estimations. They’re both in the wrong, so far as I’m concerned. I’ve focused less on her than I have on him because, well, he’s a game journalist. He’s part of the machine. She isn’t. When Sterling called her a “feminazi slut” he wasn’t representing Destructoid, but Destructoid is on people’s minds when they see it.

A lot of people - a lot of people - have suggested that if Sterling worked for a credible organization he’d probably have been sacked by now. Indeed, Sky Sports in the UK recently sacked two of their commentators for making sexist comments off-air to one of their guests, leaving them with more airtime in which to show semi-naked women in soccer kits.

However we all know that This Is Game Journalism, and asking for a writer to get sacked for saying something stupid is about as pointless as asking a writer at IGN to review a game honestly and truthfully while using the 0-10 rating system in an appropriate manner. Besides which, this is Jim fucking Sterling. Destructoid know what they’ve got. Hell, they more or less pay him to be that very person.

If you want to attack me, however, for believing that Jim was in the wrong, then by all means go for it. If you think his choices of words was acceptable, that it’s okay to call a woman a “slut” during an argument, then that’s you. If you don’t want to think about what that represents for the way society views women, then be true to yourself and continue to skirt the issue.

I’ll be back tomorrow with less Twitter drama and more commentary on actual journalisms.