from thegamer

A report from Kotaku alleges that male employees were also subjected to sexual harassment within the walls of Activision Blizzard. One employee on Twitter (whose name was withheld for his protection) shared that he experienced unwanted shoulder-rubbing, sex proposals, and conversations about sex acts in front of colleagues who remained silent. He didn't take any issues to HR as he feared this would lead to gossip around the office. He also alleges that other employees he confided in brushed off the incidents.

Another story comes from Cher Scarlett, a former engineer at Blizzard. She not only corroborates the frat-boy culture that the lawsuit claims is still happening, but mentions that senior managers would regularly engage in games where they would grope male colleagues' genitals. One such was called "gay chicken" and tasked managers with being "the first man to grab the others' junk." Scarlett says she knows of at least three men who reported Activision Blizzard to the DFEH, which resulted in the current lawsuit.

Here's the thing, the language of the lawsuit explicitly places the blame of harassment on male employees and frames the problem as coming from maleness. Quoting for example:

Defendants workforce is only about 20 percent women. Its top leadership is also exclusively male and white.

Male employees proudly come into work hung over, play video games for long periods of time during work while delegating their responsibilities to female employees, engage in banter about their sexual encounters, talk openly about female bodies, and joke about rape.

Every time Men are mentioned in this document it's stories of what they did wrong or characterized as the owners and privileged few of Activision/Blizzard, extrapolated from a handful of stories yet mentioned in duplicate throughout the document. I could not find any mention of the male victims or any effort to find male criticism of the workplace culture (even though you can find it online). The way in which the lawsuit is phrased makes it sound as every male employee is guilty of these acts and that clearly is not the case as they signed the open letter and participated in the walkout.

As it says above, the DFEH was able to file this lawsuit on part because of male employees reporting their harassment to the DFEH after having been rebuked by HR. Yet the DFEH assigns them no importance, and even demonizes them in the report.

Plaintiff DFEH, an agency of the State of California, brings this enforcement action against Defendants in its prosecutorial role, seeking relief in the public interest for the state and for Defendants' female employees("the Group").

This is a betrayal. This is no different than what Blizzard's HR department did to it's employees. These Men reported to the DFEH and it thanked them by seeking justice exclusively for female employees. Unless these clients actually are supported but aren't included in the filing by their appropriate sex, then this lawsuit will be stealing from male victims. The DFEH is charged with protecting 'all persons from unlawful discrimination' and this ain't it.