Mollystix

Actor, advocate, and creative dreamboat Joseph Gordon-Levitt ponders aloud how his views on gender equality went viral not once, but twice. He has some interesting thoughts to share. Take a look — at 3:45, he asks something of all of us, especially if you have a webcam on your computer!

Share this with your friends! Who knows, one of them could end up on his show.

Original by Joseph Gordon-Levitt of hitRECord. For your convenience, here's the Ellen segment where he came out as a feminist, and here's the interview with Marlow Stern for The Daily Beast that he mentioned.

Hero Games donated several RPG books and dice to our convention!

Hero Games sells many RPGs and related items. They are the geniuses behind Monster Hunter International RPG. Go check out their offerings at their website, and come bid on their RPG in our silent auction!

You know how some people are really good at using humor to point out the absurdity of a situation? Hit play and prepare to laugh.

This clip is by the always funny and honest "Last Week Tonight With John Oliver." Don't stop here! We've got a whole lot to talk about — join us LIVE on Twitter Sept. 25, when we will be chatting at the UN for the Climate Summit!

The Cockerham family generously donated a sealed copy of Puerto Rico!

Come bid on this top-ten game in our silent auction for SafePlace!

Sometimes you need experts and research to show the War on Drugs is a failure. And sometimes a cartoon will suffice.

From the storytellers at the Global Commission on Drug Policy.

I'm an unabashed nerd. Most prominent in my repertoire of nerdery is video games. But video games haven't always been good to me. Female characters are routinely verbally and physically abused, sexually assaulted, and killed in video games. I'm always annoyed by unnecessarily revealing costumes and obnoxiously gigantic boobs, but it's the violence against female characters that keeps me away from certain games — even entire genres.

This video starts with a long series of graphic examples of unnecessary violence against women from 28 of the most successful video games of the last eight years*, but I'm starting you toward the end (23:30), where Anita Sarkeesian discusses an example of a video that does "abuse as a theme" right and why it's important (and possible) for video games to be violent without being harmful.

Quick vocab lesson before you start: "NPC" means "non-playable character."

*If you start at 23:30, there are no descriptions or depictions of violence, but if you start at the beginning instead, TRIGGER WARNING for everything I mentioned above.

It's worth considering whether these violent presentations of objectified women affect the people who consume them. I'm forced to wonder if there's a connection between images of fictional women as disposable, non-human recipients of violent treatment and the treatment of real women in the gaming community.

It's worth noting that within days of posting this video, Sarkeesian received threats so specific and so severe that she had to temporarily abandon her home and warn her parents (big-time TRIGGER WARNING here).

She received threats because she is completely right. So share this post so that her voice can be louder than the evil people who would threaten and intimidate her for speaking the truth.

If you're curious about the examples** in the video but don't want to view the graphic content, you can check out the accompanying blog post. Some of the violence is described, but there are no images or videos.

This is the second video in a series called "Women as Background Decoration" featuring Anita Sarkeesian for Feminist Frequency.

**Examples are taken from these video games:

Normally, a picture is worth a thousand words. I'd say each image here is worth millions of words. And millions of tears.

FACT CHECK TIME.

Our fact-checkers gave a thumbs-up to all the dates and ages above. But many of you, I'm sure, would like to know the backstories to the chilling images. Here they are.

John Crawford was holding a toy gun as he stood in the toy section of a Walmart. Before the police shot him to death in that same aisle, John managed to say, "It's not real." But it was too late for John.

Sean Bell was going to get married. One night, he was driving away from his bachelor party with his friends, Joseph and Trent. Suddenly, he hit a minivan. Four undercover police officers from the minivan began to shoot at them without warning, firing a total of 50 bullets at the three unarmed men. A wounded Joseph turned to Sean and said, "S, I love you, son." Sean's reply: "I love you, too." Joseph and Trent survived, but their best friend, Sean, didn't make it.

One of the witnesses in the Trayvon Martin trial, Rachel Jeantel, was on the phone with Trayvon moments before the scuffle with George Zimmerman that ended his life. One of the last things she heard the unarmed Trayvon say to the man who was following him with a gun that fateful night: "Why are you following me for?"

Michael Brown died August 2014. Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson shot him at least six times, twice in the head. Michael was not armed. His friend and eyewitness reported that Michael said: "I don't have a gun. Stop shooting." Minutes later, he was on the ground, bleeding. Dr. Michael M. Baden, the man who did Michael's autopsy, told the New York Times, "In my capacity as the forensic examiner for the New York State Police, I would say, ‘You’re not supposed to shoot so many times.'"

Amadou Diallo died right outside his own apartment in the Bronx. He was unarmed. Four police officers shot 41 bullets, hitting Amadou 19 times. Later, they claimed that they had mistaken Amadou for a serial rapist. That same day, some of the last words he said to his mother as he spoke over the phone were, "Mom, I'm going to college."

Eric Garner died July 2014. He was unarmed. Police officers were trying to arrest him for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes. Eric suffered from asthma, and as a police officer put his arm around Eric's neck during the arrest, he managed to gasp, "I can't breathe!" The New York City medical examiner's office ruled Eric's death a homicide, pointing out that the officer's chokehold might have been a big factor.

Jonathan Ferrell had been in a traffic accident and was knocking on a homeowner's door for help. He was unarmed. A video later used at the trial showed that when police officers approached him, Jonathan held his hands out in a non-threatening manner. The police officers never identified themselves. They fired 12 times, and 10 of those bullets hit him. Even as Jonathan lay on the ground, bleeding and dying from 10 gunshot wounds, the officers handcuffed him. Jonathan's dead body remained handcuffed all the way to the medical examiner's office.

Oscar Grant was on a subway train in Oakland when a police officer forced him out of the car and onto the subway platform. Oscar was lying down when a second police officer shot a bullet into his back. "You shot me! You shot me!" Oscar yelled before he died. That officer later testified that he meant to use his Taser on Oscar instead of his handgun. A court later ruled that the two had no legal reason to get Oscar — who was unarmed — off the train.

Kimani Gray was standing on a street in Brooklyn when police officers approached him. The officers claimed that when they approached Kimani, he pulled a gun from his waistband and pointed it at them. But one eyewitness, Tishana King, said Kimani never pointed a gun. She also said the police officers didn't identify themselves when they approached. Police officers shot Kimani at least seven times, even though Kimani hadn't shot a single bullet. One witness said some of Kimani's last words were, "Please don't let me die."

Kendrec McDade died after a man called Oscar Carillo made a phony 911 call, telling police officers that he had just been the victim of an armed robbery. He later admitted that he had lied about the guns. The two officers eventually found Kendrec in an alleyway. They began shooting after Kendrec apparently moved his hands to his waistband. But Kendrec didn't have a gun on him. All he had was a cellphone in his pocket. Court documents show that Kendrec's last words were, "Why did you shoot me?"

Final fact check: All 10 of these men were black.

I'm forever thankful to Shirin Barghi for giving me permission to repost these graphics. You can follow her on Twitter and keep up with her on Imgur. Please check out the conversation #LastWords on Facebook and Twitter to see people chime in on these images. The thumbnail image is by Flickr user Shawn Semmler, used under Creative Commons license. It shows an Anonymous protestor at a demonstration in Ferguson, Missouri, where Michael Brown was shot dead in August 2014.

While there's been a lot of talk about black men who have unjustly died at the hands of police officers, there have been many black women who also died from police brutality. You can read more about it in these articles at Role Reboot and Dame Magazine.

Looney Labs donated for the second year in a row!

Looney Labs is very well known for Fluxx and Chrononauts. Check out their website for their full list of games, and come bid on their donations in our silent auction!

By now, some of you are thinking, "Man, I'm so tired of hearing about Ferguson." I see it in my comments all the time. But rather than explain to you why I think that's not the best thing to say, I'm gonna let Jon Stewart do it. He's way more eloquent than me. And he smashes pretty much every argument you might have about why we need to keep talking in an eloquent manner.

If, after watching this, you are still thinking to yourself, "Being black can't be that much harder," here are some questions for you. Then, as a favor to me, I'd love it if you shared this. I'd owe you one.

"Race/Off" by "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

If pushing your bed to the back of your house to prevent drunk drivers from running you over in your sleep sounds like useless advice, just wait for it.

Original by Nadia Kamil. Nadia is a comedian, actor, and writer who is all over YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. You'll want to get into what she's doing. And if you got to the end of this and were like, "Wait, rape, sexual assault, what now?" Here are some great articles about how rape survivors are often blamed for "drinking too much" or "dressing provocatively," much like the character in the video blames pedestrians for "walking after dark" or provoking drunk drivers by "dressing up like a cocktail."

I'd love to say, "There's no question whether the justice system treats African-Americans differently," but I can't. People question it all the time. Question answered.

An original video by Vox. Thumbnail by Light Brigading, used under a Creative Commons license.

Plaid Hat Games donated two copies of Bioshock Infinite to our Play-to-Win section!

Plaid Hat is well known for Summoner Wars, a fun two-player game with fantasy races. They have a great company, and great customer service. Come play their game at the convention for a chance to win!

That third GIF? One of the best mic drops I've ever seen.

FACT TIME!

While the dude above has a really good point, I want to point out that there's a good bit of overlap between racism and sexual assault. Over their lifetime, women of color are the victims of attempted or completed sexual assaults at much higher rates — 34.1 percent of American Indian/Alaskan women and 18.8 percent of black women. 52 percent of sexual assault perpetrators are white.

And black men aren't the only ones who disproportionately face police violence — black women go through it, too. They also just face high rates of violence, period. Watch this spoken-word poem curated by Adam Mordecai to learn more.

Race and gender: hard to separate completely!

Credit for this stellar GIF set goes to the creator of the (ex)GYNOCRATICGRRL Tumblr, which you should all take a look at right now. Now that's something. GIFs were based on this original video in honor of International Women's Day. Thumbnail image from Flickr user John Steven Fernandez, used under Creative Commons license.

Wisdom comes with age, huh? Don't try telling that to Kid President. The kid's on fire in this insightful and funny pep talk that we can all most definitely take something from — just be careful with that Walt Whitman quote.

This pep talk by Kid President comes from Soul Pancake. If you're not following them on Facebook, you're missing out.

In this hidden-camera experiment, three people (a white man, a black man, and a white woman) attempt to steal a bike to see how people would respond. The reactions from those passing by is one more reminder that racial profiling isn't just a law enforcement issue.

This GIF set was created by Tumblr user unvitation and is from an episode of ABC's "What Would You Do?".

The result of a Google search is a pretty good reflection of what society is typing into the largest search database in the world. Sadly, this is an example of the results.

Here's what Emily said about her search:

Yesterday morning I was following up on a recommendation from my friend Ben — a woman he knows, an English major, taught herself calculus and wrote a book about it that I really want to read. Couldn't remember her name, though. So I searched for "english major who taught herself calculus."

And Google asked:

Did you mean "english major who taught HIMSELF calculus"?

It was just so weird, I took a screengrab, used a photo-editing tool to crop it to a wide horizontal shape and reduce the file size, and posted it with very short text. What was there to say besides: "No Google, no I didn't.”

Emily McManus is an editor at TED.com. You can follow Emily on Twitter. Thumbnail image via Thinkstock.