It is a very pivotal time for corporations to decide which side they are on.
In terms of reproductive rights as the league's Supreme Court decision
shows that we are on the precipice of potentially obliterating Roe v Wade.
And the right to get a safe abortion.
And the president of PlayStation, that's right?
The video gaming company, has boldly made his views clear that he
doesn't want his employees to talk about reproductive rights.
So, in an email seen by Bloomberg PlayStation president Jim Ryan,
didn't take a stance on abortion rights.
Instead writing that the company and its community are quote, multifaceted and
diverse and hold many different viewpoints.
He wrote that we owe it to each other and to PlayStation's millions of users
to respect differences of opinion among everyone in our internal and
external communities.
Respect does not equal agreement,
but it's fundamental to who we are as a company and
as a valued global brand, little.
I'm just going to accept the diversity of people dying cuz
they can't get an abortion or reproductive rights anyway.
That wasn't the end of the email.
However, in fact, the more eyebrow raising part was that, while he was asking
PlayStation workers, employees to just kind of shut up about reproductive rights.
And the PlayStation is probably not gonna take a stance on this.
He then goes on for
a very extended time to talk about his kitty cats, that's right?
Ryan then went on to write an email that he would like to share some light
hearted news to help inspire everyone be mindful of having balance that
can help ease the stress of an uncertain world.
Saying that it was recently his two cats first birthday.
And elaborating over the next few paragraphs about his cats birthday cakes,
there noises and his desire to one day get a dog.
What?
Excuse me?
[LAUGH] So internally, some women wrote that they felt that
their rights are being disrespected or trivialized by this message.
One employee said that they've never been so mad about a cat birthday before.
[LAUGH] As someone who doesn't know their cat's
birthday because I adopt slash save kitty cats.
I agree, I'm like, usually I'd be down if I knew my cat's birthday,
it would be on, there would be like I would get rent a clown, a bounce house,
everything made out of catnip.
But this is just so, so, tone deaf and upsetting.
I don't know, could we expect more from the CEO of PlayStation?
Then.
>> I hope not, I mean to get the obvious out of the way you and I sometimes take
a lot of crap for being avowed cat people in cat lovers and cat adopters.
But I also feel like just stand gently,
I think a cat would be the least caring about having a birthday party.
They would be like super chill with it and then like, okay?
I'm done, this is too many people, I'm out of it, but no,
like at the end of the day, it's thank you for getting the cat B roll.
That is such a trivializing of the issue and
it is male fragility kind of immediately at play.
Because I don't wanna talk about this.
I literally won't even mention the matter at hand.
The topic at hand that is controversial, let's say or touches a political end or
bound to me, I'm not going to acknowledge the legitimate fear some people have.
I mean, I'm not, he wanted to cheer corporations, but there are some really
large tech companies, not Sony PlayStation large but bigger.
Who are saying, listen, we will pay for
our workers if they have to travel outside of the state knowing that there is
a conservative legal front heading straight for them.
They're willing to take that public scrutiny,
potential legal scrutiny to make sure their employees feel safe.
Contrast that with not even acknowledging why a lot of your employees don't
feel safe right now.
And then moving on and
peppering it by saying, I don't want to talk about this uncomfortable thing.
Let's instead talk about my cat's birthday and let's emphasize that.
It's important for men in these positions to also speak up because this isn't just
a women's reproductive health rights issue or
people who give birth like reproductive health rights issue.
This is about all of us.
This is about everything going together and you can't do these,
I think we're way past these times.
These milk toast CEO statements.
The fact that he then decides to, okay, let's just talk about my cat instead
because this is the most important thing to do with my business or the news today.
That adds an extra level of insult to injury.
>> Absolutely.
And it reminds me of of some of the ways that corporations really bent
over backwards to even on a symbolic level.
But some in a more structural level respond to the George Floyd murder and
the massive protests and the Black Lives Matter movement.
And it reminds me of how actually weakened the reproductive rights movement has been.
And how much we need a militant radical inclusive feminists movement.
Again, like you're saying with everyone involved so we can bring these CEO's.
I mean straight up to heal like that.
I'm like we have to bring them under our thumb to be like, nah man,
it's not okay to actually not take a side on this.
This is a side of bodily autonomy and freedom and rights or not.
So which side are you on?
And I wanna see overtures to women, to people who can reproduce to anyone.
I mean, I wanna see overtures about like contraception.
That is the response that I'm looking for, for
a giant corporation like PlayStation in this moment.
And it also again there's a tinge of like women don't play video games misogyny
going on here.
Like come on and like we're talking about the employees, the women who do work for
PlayStation, the people who play PlayStation.
Like what this is not the 90's man, like gamer gets done bro.
Gamer gets done.
I think the men won that one but [LAUGH] I'm kidding.
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