( cheers and applause ). >> jon: that's our show. here it is the moment of zen. >> cat calls when you walk down the street and a stranger hoots at you. one woman in new york city got more than 100 in 10 hours. >> she got 100 cat calls? let me ad captioning sponsored by comedy central captioned by media access group at wgbh ready to goh.org ready to go ready to go captioning sponsored by

comedy central [cheers and applause] >> stephen: welcome. good to have you with us. [crowd cheering] [chanting stephen, stephen] >> stephen: thank you so much. thank you. you folks, you folks at home can't possibly know but the things we've all been through tonight already. [laughter] this is a stressful job, we're

not going to lie to you. when i'm not out here spitting the truth hot and hard, i relax by gaming. i'm a huge gamer, i play them all, monopoly, go fish. i meet you there but i have a thing i don't show up. i win. i also love games of the video nature. i've spent hundreds of hours playing dark souls, assassin's creed, call of duty. which is when i cause assassin's creed and go use the bathroom. [applause] high score. new high score last night. [laughter] as a gamesman, i am gripped by a scandal called gamergate that's shaken the video world. you probably heard of the term gamergate. i have. that's why i brought it up just

now. [laughter] >> what is it about. it is a scandal about gaming and sexism now made front pages across the country. one million tweets and counting to the gamergate hashtag. on-line battle of the sexes how it is portrayed and violent acts into women who speak out. >> stephen: gamergate named after watergate when a cohort group known as the plumbers were caught spying for the whitehouse. at least in gamergate we know who the plumbers are. [laughter] as the tv man said, gamergate involves some male gamers hassing women speccing out on video games presuming the shock that women were even speaking to them at all. [crowd cheering] [applause] leading the charge is media critic and world war craft

tribute named anita sarkeesian. >> she's abused women in video games virtual as video dragon. >> grab a whore and have a good time. >> women are often a damsel in distress, they're helpless in some way or highly sexualized and sort of created to be these male fantasies. >> stephen: video games are loaded with male fantasy stereotype all the girls in dead and align, devin and ms. pacman. [laughter] she can gobble my ghost any time. [laughter] gamergaters say that the scandal is really about something called

ethics and video game journalism and claim collusion between critics like sarkeesian, female developers and the media to favor softer more female friendly game where in this game you play a gust of wind. do you know what i say to that gust of wind? blow me. [laughter] now according to news week, the original claim that started all this, collusion between one developer and one reviewer wasn't true. but the fire was lit and the film wars began. >> it is a group of male gamers who are attacking women. >> threats of death and of sexual violence. >> bomb, rape and death threats from on-line has hers. >> she went into hiding over the weekend after receiving death threats like these. you just made a blank game nobody likes. that's it nobody will care when

you die. >> stephen: as opposed to on-line trolls, their death led to wide celebration. gamers have been awe hassed too, gamers have complained about anti-gamer, anti-nerd bullying for following their traditional gamer life-style. yes, there's a traditional gamer life-style. god ordained it is one man, one joy stick. read your bible. [applause] read your bible, folks. [applause] it's right there in sega genesis. well no matter, no matter what all these feminist critics say, i'm not ashamed of my hobby that's why i did it alone in my base many. because news flash what i do in a video game doesn't reflect the way i act in the real world. i love mario kart but i don't go around throwing banana peels out of my car. because turtle shells are much

more effective. [laughter] for all gamers when i say the media should stop talking to critics like anita sarkeesian. i need a sarkeesian. [applause] all right, look. let's put this on the line, okay. let's call this what it is. you and the other fellenot sees in the gamer world are coming and put them into a little felt purse and take them away so we have to lay your non-violent games, right. >> no. >> it's a subculture war. >> it's women being harassed and threatened and terrorized. >> after you attack gairms after

enjoying looking at women whose armor barely covers their nipples. i like what that looks like. i'm a man baby, news flash, i like it. >> one of the problems with that is it actually reinforces the culture myth that women are sexual objects and sexual play things for male amusement and we're not. >> stephen: they're damsels in distress. i'm saving the princess. am i supposed to let the princess di is that what you want. that's harsh. >> maybe the princess couldn't be a damsel and she could save herself. [crowd cheering] >> stephen: i didn't know you brought a posse. all right all right. so you've been the object of criticism yourself. >> yes. >> stephen: what happened at utah state university. >> there was a threat that someone e-mailed to the school saying that they would commit the biggest school shooting, a massacre if i was allowed to speak. >> stephen: by criticizing

these, you say would you call them male fantasy games or male fantasy objectification of women games. >> some of them. >> stephen: give me some names. name some names. >> so in the work that i do, i look at hundreds of examples of video games. >> stephen: can you think -- >> i can but it's a bigger issue to talk about the industry as a whole and how it perpetuates these ideas of sexism and misogyny as opposed to grand theft auto for example. >> stephen: why do you think that women are being threatened. it's almost entirely women who are being threatened in gamer gates. >> yes. >> stephen: chris cloi has talked about this, other men haven't been threatened. why do you think women are being threatened in this exchange. >> i think women are perceived as threatening because we're asking for games to be more inclusive. we're asking for games to acknowledge that we exist and we love games. >> stephen: why not have a separate game. separate but equal game.

[laughter] >> well we do have lots of different kinds of games. >> stephen: what are you complaining about. >> that's one of the things that's happening here is we have this wide range of game that we're seeing mobile games, we're seeing indy games, we're seeing this influx of different kind of games and that's what gamergate is responding to. they're actually responding to the fact that you're saying gaming can no longer be this little boy's club anymore. only us women who have been playing games our whole lives. so they're rashing out because we're challenging the status quo of gaming as a male dominated space. [applause] >> stephen: you see. you hear the applause for the idea of a male dominated space. what about the aizations of collusion between designers, feminists and journalists. do you understand how important it is. we're talking about ethics in gamer journalism. do you understand how huge that is. what if there was no ethic in

hollywood journalism. [laughter] if we can't trust entertainment tonight or tnt, where would we be. is that what you want for gamer journalism. >> i think that is a sort of compelling way to reframe the fact that this is actually an attack on women. ethics and journalism is not what's happening in any way. it's actually men going after women in really hostile aggressive ways. that's what gamergate is about. it's about like terrorizing women for being involved. >> stephen: as a man, am i allowed to be a fellness. >> you believe that women should have equal rights to men and we should fight for those rights. >> stephen: sure. >> great, then you're a feminist. [cheers and applause] >> stephen: anita sarkeesian, >> stephen: anita sarkeesian, f

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>> stephen: welcome back. thank you very much. thank you very much. the great thing about this job is i'm learning something new all the time. for instance i just found out canada had its own government. [laughter] even more shocking, it is not led by wayne gretzky. separation of church and state i guess. last week in ottawa a lone gun

man opened fire and sustained a shooting spree inside the building. a shocking attack and all americans share and our neighbors grieve over the sensely tragedy. it would have been even worse if the hadn't been stopped by the house of commons sergeant-at-arms kevin vickers seen here with his ceremonial giant baby rattle. [laughter] here's what happened. >> after exchanging gunshots with the parliamentary security team at the entrance of center block that's right here, he made his way to the end of the hall of honor beside the library these doors to the right is a small alcove protected boy this pillar and he tucks himself in there and hides. kevin vickers office is right around the corner. he hears the gunshot. he grabs an automatic pistol. he exits his office and he immediately runs towards the pillar here.

tivo is on the other side. they're an arm's length. the sergeant of arms could actually see the barrel of the gun sticking out from behind the peril pillar. kevin vickers takes his side arm and dives around the pillar to the ground. while he's in the air he skills, he lands on his backfiring up, hitting debow as he hits the browns. to hell with bruce willis. this guy, our neighbor to the north just put the eh in yippy-kay-eh. the very next thing. listen to this, the very next day vickers returned to work and parliament tore the roof off. [applause]

look at that magnificent bastard. stoic. humble. folks, i have not been this moved by something canadian zips the return of degrassi. i cannot believe am saying this but i was wrong about canada. i said thursday nothing but a maple sucking moose hum purrs and bunch of beaver stroking ice holes. but now i know that you are steely-i'd snowballed john wu diving. but tonight i'm going to do something, i'm going to do the most canadian thing i can

imagine and say i am sorry. no, no, no. i'm more than that. i'm sore-y. i know in your language means both hello and good-bye. [laughter] and to make amends to all resident of canadia for everything i ever said i will now sing your national anthem. [crowd cheering] please rise for someone else's national anthem. oh canada, our home and native land. true patriot love, in all thy son's command, oh canada. and the way you look tonight.

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you're a staff writer for the new york. your book of age is through the national book award and your new book is called the secret history of wonder woman. what is the history. we know she's an amazonian queen. >> she's a princess. we know because -- [laughter] they have left ancient greece to replace with journeymen and a plane crashes on paradise island 1941. and the u.s. military intelligence officer needs to be saved so princess diana leaves the island, gives up the crown. >> stephen: we're talking 1941. >> 1941. >> stephen: okay. should a 73 year old woman be wearing an outfit like that. >> i think like the internal life kind of rubbed off.

like an anti-aging after effect. >> stephen: was she a feminist icon or was there even a thing called that at the time. >> there was absolutely a thing call it. the thing that's interesting about the secret of wonder woman is first of all i never knew any of this. i was never a comics person. but the oldest female comic super hero who has lasted this long. superman starts in 1938. batman 1939, bat woman never been out of france she joins the justice society in 1942. they have a lot of readers. a women isn't allowed to join the justice society. >> stephen: she's allowed to join. >> she's voted in. eight kids voted against her. >> stephen: i understand when she's first elected to the justice society she's the secretary. >> yes, that's true. >> stephen: she's the secretary to the justice society. >> that's true. >> stephen: does she take a

little to get that job because i would be angry if i were wonder woman. >> it's pretty rough. the guy who created wonder woman is this harvard ph.d. psychologist. >> stephen: that's my next question is how can she be a feminist icon when she was created by this man. >> he said wonder woman is psychological propaganda for the type of woman i believe should rule the world. [crowd cheering] >> stephen: what does feminism mean at this time. >> the interesting thing about creating wonder woman in 1941 is she's really a throw back. he had gone to college in 1910 and was really inspired by the suffrage movement. the women gained the right to vote in 1920. he was a freshman in harvard when the great suffragists came to campus. he married his childhood

sweetheart. he went to mouth holyoke in 1910. he becomes a professor and teaches at tufts university in 1925. my alma mater, tufts university. [applause] and falls in love with one of his students who happens to be the niece of margaret sanger who founded the birth control movement. she moves into the family and they are poly amorous. >> this guy who is a feminist has got two women one of whom is an undergraduate he's teaching and his wife is cool with that. >> so olive burn is margaret sergeant's sister. they are nurses in the 1914, margaret sanger found the woman rebels. sort of an antecedent of wonder woman. they opened the first birth control clinic.

they are arrested for obscenity. planned parenthood was founded in 196 by ethyl burns and margaret sanger. >> stephen: so the guy who created wonder woman has a wife and a girl on the side who he knows is on birth control. >> yes. [laughter] >> stephen: so the playground is open, all right. >> he says to his wife, you know, i would like her to live with us and i really love her and you could, either she could live with us, she could take care of the children and you could go to work and solve your problems. >> stephen: as a woman how would you -- would you feel about that. would you be into that. would you be down for that? >> no. there's no other answer. >> stephen: no. >> there's no other answer.

>> stephen: i'm more of a feminist than you are. [crowd cheering] >> exactly. >> stephen: thank you very much. [crowd cheering] >> stephen: jill lepore, the yeah, dinner sounds good. i could come by your place. my place? uhh... um... hold on. introducing the all-new volkswagen golf. plenty of room for whatever life throws at you.

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