Views of cats, dogs and abortions

An internal email from PlayStation President Jim Ryan includes several paragraphs about cats, but doesn’t include a hardline stance in support of its employees’ reproductive rights, even urging employees to “respect” anti-abortion views and opinions, which many PlayStation employees did angry and upset.

As reported by Bloomberg earlier today and independently verified by my boxan email from PlayStation boss Jim Ryan addressing the recently leaked Supreme Court draft signals that the court will hear the case of Roe v. Wade d. from 1973 will be repealedexcision went to PlayStation employees Need and Earn on Thursday, May 12th. However, while Ryan’s email opens with a mention of it seemingly imminent devastating blow to reproductive rightsthe PlayStation president avoids taking sides, instead urging staff to respect “differences of opinion” on either side of the issue.

In the email that Bloomberg

has seen and my box Having confirmed it was sent to internally hired employees, Ryan writes that the company, its employees and its players are a “multifaceted and diverse” community and that they all represent “many different viewpoints”. He also wrote that the employees and the company “owe it to each other and the millions of PlayStation users to respect disagreements between everyone in our internal and external communities.” Respect is not the same as approval. But it is fundamental to who we are as a company and as a valued global brand.”

my box contacted Sony and PlayStation about the email but heard nothing prior to the release.

Rather than take a stand and promise to use his company’s resources to help employees who may need abortions in the future, or at least deliver a mild message of support for abortion rights, Ryan spent much of the email ranting about to talk to his cats. Seriously.

After barely paying lip service to the destruction of safe, legal access to abortion in the United States, Ryan wanted to share something “carefree” to “inspire everyone to take care to have a balance that can help relieve the stress of uncertain world events.” (Emphasize that perhaps a powerful president of a large corporation could exonerate more effectively by supporting his employees and their rights…)

He then spent a reported five paragraphs in the email about his two cats’ first birthdays, the noises they make and his dream of one day owning a dog. Bloomberg

Reporter Jason Schreier also reported via Twitter that Ryan wrote “that dogs really are man’s best friends, they know their place and perform useful functions like biting burglars and chasing balls thrown at them.” my box also separately confirmed the content of that email and learned that Ryan also wrote about missing and watching his trips to Japan Anatomy of a Scandal

Continue reading: Tripwire CEO resigns after supporting anti-abortion law

As might be expected, some employees were not happy with the email. Bloomberg reports that internal discussion of the email was negative, with many sharing their anger and disappointment at the letter’s tone and lack of a stance in support of reproductive rights. One staffer reportedly wrote that he had “never been so mad at a cat’s birthday before.” Some women at the company allegedly wrote that they felt their rights were being disregarded or even downplayed by Ryan’s email.

While PlayStation and Jim Ryan appear unable or unwilling to offer more concrete support for abortion access and women’s rights in the United States, Bungie took a very different approach.

That determination Developer has spent the last week and a half on Twitter, publicly supporting access to abortion, the possible overthrow of Roe v. Condemned Wade and even attacked angry gamers who don’t like the idea of ​​studios supporting their employees and their bodily rights. Under the circumstances, it is interesting to note that PlayStation plans to buy Bungie for $3.6 billion. (my box I also reached out to Bungie about this story, but didn’t get a response prior to publication.) I’m curious to see if Sony and PlayStation will be okay with the studio continuing to be so public in supporting abortion rights after the sale closes.