Most notably bubbling to the surface during 2014's 'summer of hate' at the height of the GamerGate controversy, a very prominent minority of gaming 'fans' decided that a great way to spend their vast quantities of free time would be to maliciously and anonymously target gaming journalists, in the name of what they saw as ethical violations by industry critics. Not only did GamerGate highlight the endemic presence of sexism and misogynistic attitudes commonplace in online spaces, it drew particular attention to the severity of online trolling against women in the medium. These attitudes didn't really evaporate in 2015, but were in fact amplified as the medium attempted to make gaming more diverse and inclusive for people of all races, sexualities, and genders. Many trolls wrongly assumed the belief that geek culture - and gaming along with it - is in the unique possession of straight, white males. Those misconceptions have been eroded by some very intelligent authors and personalities within the industry, and that is very commendable, but it can often feel as though these strides are going nowhere when the constant retorts taken by social media abusers revolve around calling their opponents 'White Knights' or worse still, 'Social Justice Warriors'. Such things lead to any forward movement not being able to move forward or be addressed in a mature manner, and the entire fandom surrounding gaming looks worse because of it.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
