Mansplaining1 isn’t real. Also, you’ve probably never heard of Jessica Price. That makes you normal.

She’s not an especially notable person. She is, however, a feminist crusader, especially interested in the phenomenon known as mansplaining.

Recently she was fired for her interactions with someone on Twitter. Which as someone who advocates for freedom of speech, I find a bit concerning.

So, let’s dig into what happened and try to figure out what went down.

This story begins with this tweet:

I want you to notice that she begins this 29-tweet thread by referencing a Reddit AMA. If you’re unfamiliar with what those are, Reddit is a forum, and an AMA, or Ask Me Anything, is where a person starts a thread in which people ask them questions and they answer them. Sometimes people reply to the answers and more good conversation results.

So, I just want to point out that Price frames this thread by referencing a place where discussions were had. She’s also posting it on Twitter, which is a social media website, where people interact with each other.

If she doesn’t want people to interact with her, she’s doing a bad job of showing it.

So, someone does what I might have done had I stumbled across the thread: responds to it.

For the record, I disagree and agree with some of what Jessica Price said. I also think she took a pretty strong, controversial stance on an aspect of writing. I think it deserves to be examined in detail, and I might give it a post of its own in the future.

But, for the purposes of this article, we don’t need to know what she said. Her argument isn’t what’s being disputed here. We just need to know that there are a couple of reasons that someone might think she was open to discussion.

So, someone responded.

His name is Derior. He refers to himself on Twitter as a “Gw2 Tuber and streamer,” meaning that he spends a lot of time playing and talking about the game that Price writes for, Guild Wars 2.

Here’s what he said:

Just like Price’s argument, what Derior is saying doesn’t matter. But, let’s take a look at how he said it. It’s a calm and respectful response. He’s also complimentary, calling the thread “interesting” and “insightful,” and expresses his appreciation for Price creating it.

Let me tell you this: that’s as good as it gets on the Internet.

For real.

People on the Internet tend to not be kind, so when they are, I think you should go out of your way to reward it. Create the community you want to be a part of, so to speak.

So, how does Jessica Price respond?

Wow!

First off, I don’t even think her accusation is accurate. That wasn’t what he was trying to do.

Second, while it might be a stretch to call it rude, it is a harsh, curt, dismissive, condescending tweet, which comes out of nowhere because she seemed to be inviting people to interact with her.

Third, why put an eyeroll? That’s unnecessary and childish.

That’s super unfair to the people who follow her or at least have an interest in the game. You can’t act like you want interaction but then shut it down whenever someone says something you don’t like.

So, Price goes and does this the next morning:

And then follows it up with this:

And you know what, I’m going to have to give it to Deroir. He handled it better than I probably would have.

He apologizes! He apologizes and then says he’s going to leave her alone.

So, that’s the end of it, right?

You can’t possibly drag this out any further. There’s no reason to be vengeful after getting an apology, right?

Right?

Nope.

Price can’t let it go, tweeting this after Deroir apologizes:

Well, I’m glad she dropped all pretense, I guess, because that means we can start to ask relevant, important questions.

Like, why does she feel like a victim?

If you’ve paid any attention at all, you know that Jessica Price went on the offensive because someone had the gall to kindly disagree with her on Twitter. I can’t stress enough how ridiculous her response was.

And people responded to that in replies to her tweet. I didn’t see anything especially unkind, just a lot of people surprised at how strange Price was acting, and others who were defending her, for some reason.

So, why was Price fired?

At first glance it appears to be because she defended herself from a case of “mansplaining.”

If you look at what different media groups are publishing, that might be your takeaway.

She gave an interview to The Verge, which does not appear to have reached out to Derior before publishing. Personally, I think that’s wrong. They should get both sides of the story instead of just pushing what Price tells them, which is what they end up doing.

Look at this line from their article:

“Toxic members of its community are already counting Price and Fries’ firing as a win . . . ArenaNet’s swift action to fire both Price and Fries sends a disturbing message to its fans, and especially its most toxic ones: that their power is directly correlated to how loud they yell. It’s a worrying precedent for anyone interested in working for ArenaNet, but especially those in marginalized communities that are more likely to face blowback and harassment from the worst parts of its fanbase.”

Remember when Jessica Price went on the offensive?

She’s not a victim; she’s the original aggressor. The person who bothered her apologized, and she wouldn’t let it go.

Now, does she deserve to be fired?

I want to say no.

But, I’ll have to answer this question tomorrow.

If you liked this article and are excited about reading something else, check out:
How We Got Here: Macedonia
Roseanne
Free Speech and Consequences

  1. Considering the number of normal words that Word doesn’t recognize in a given day, I can’t get over the fact that its spellchecker recognizes “mansplaining.”