Acclaimed feminist Anita Sarkeesian releases first episode of 'Tropes vs Women,' examines female stereotypes in gaming
- Posted March 7th, 2013 at 23:10 EDT by Kyle Prahl
- 17 Comments
Last year, acclaimed internet feminist Anita Sarkeesian garnered praise and vitriol with a Kickstarter campaign for "Tropes vs. Women in Video Games," a video series that would seek document female stereotypes and typecasting in gaming. After a wildly successful campaign that raised over $150,000 of support, Sarkeesian embarked on 10 months of filming that, earlier today, culminated in the series' YouTube debut.
11 videos are planned, and should result in a roughly 4-hour examination of gender stereotypes in gaming. Peep the first (roughly 20-minute) episode, dubbed Damsel in Distress, below. Then, drop a comment below and join the conversation about gender stereotypes in gaming--for the love of Kaz, keep it civil.
Interested in our thoughts about the subject? Check out our fair and balanced debate here.
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Gameoholic007 |
Demented007- 12:24am EST - March 8th, 2013
- 2
No thanks, I'll pass. I got better things to do.
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RedOrb_Collector
- 12:53am EST - March 8th, 2013
- 3
Sounds like a complete waste of time. I'll pass : )
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Alpha2
- 1:53am EST - March 8th, 2013
- 4
@kflashin Sadly yes.
The fact that the thumbnail shows "heroic Princesses" might mean it wont be as sterotypically anti-male as some of these types of things tend to be... But I think I'll pass until I hear an even handed review of it. But hey, maybe women gamers will get some enjoyment out of it even if we guys pass on it out of fear of getting our Y chromosome bashed.
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hood
- 2:48am EST - March 8th, 2013
- 5
This video says it all
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lERF9q40iS0
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Chris_Redfield
- 3:11am EST - March 8th, 2013
- 6
@hood - Sure does. Complete bull. By the way, never met a woman who didn't want me to be a man. Just saying. There is a reason "bad boys" are popular amongst women. The good guy always lose, and they never get the trophies.
Can be added that the opposite, a passive man who doesn't know what to say and do, is ALWAYS seen as undesirable. Women have the prerogative of being accepted and found desirable both as active parties and as passive parties. Men are solely judges by what they do.
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darksora
- 3:41am EST - March 8th, 2013
- 7
I watched this last night and wanted to thumbs up the vid or atleast comment something positive on it but shes got it all disabled. I enjoyed watching the video and made some cool points in my opinion with good examples and she presented it in a way that isn't hate. Plays out more like an essay you'd write at uni :P
The problem she raises in this vid is how the damsel in distress over saturated games especially during the old days and how its still happening today but she acknowledges that it's changing today :)
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Chris_Redfield
- 3:48am EST - March 8th, 2013
- 8
@Darksora - Is that why she uses the word crap and emphazises specific words? This would never fly as a scientific report. Value words and tones in her report are far from objective. As long as her own values are presented in any fashion, this is not scientific.
And one has to wonder, why does she use too much make-up. Learn how to do your eye-shadow and lips for crying out loud. As a person who does not enjoy the objectification of women, why does she use make-up at all? Make-up has the sole purpose of objectifying yourself. You use make-up to look "better" in the eyes of others, not yourself. Because the only way you would recognize how you are accepted and look would be by the public reaction to yourself. Clearly she is not living true to herself and her own values. In fact many women don't. People should really read "The game".
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Chris_Redfield
- 4:28am EST - March 8th, 2013
- 10
@Darksora - No, you said "Plays out more like an essay you'd write at uni" which is an untrue statement based on the things I mentioned. That is being objective, presenting facts to support your claim not depending on your own belief. It is a FACT that she said "C**p". Furthermore it is a fact that she emphazised certain words to put pressure and make "her values" clear in the sense that "she does not think certain things are OK". In science, at uni, that is unacceptable. She also uses a very one-sided method.
Her make-up is a point of question because she is objecting to the objectification of women. At the same time she uses products that are intended to objectify people as a sole purpose. Does that not say "Hypocrisy"? Of course it does.
Fact is most women say they want to be equal to men. At the same time there are statistics showing that women find men who do house-chores to be unsexy and undesirable. So which is it? There is a duality in women AND men. We want one thing, but we are attracted physiologically to another thing. Why do we want that thing? Because society tells us it's the right thing. Cultural change.
If one was on the other hand to embrace differences between sexes and say "Hey, you and I are different, but I respect you for what you do and think that's really cool" instead of trying to erase apparent differences in gender. We might actually come to a good conclusion. Men and women ARE different, make no mistake. Instead, embrace and love that there is a difference.
Edit: I am not a hater. A hater would say she is a B**** or something like that. I am objectively showing what is WRONG with her clip and then putting in my own values outside of that to show what I believe to be true.
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Bones311
- 9:18am EST - March 8th, 2013
- 11
I'm really sick of women trying to tell me what what my thoughts are or how i perceive things, because i'm a man and my thought patterns are so predictable. boy talk about sexist. Personally, with all the damsel games I've ever seen which she describes as "men reclaiming their property", Ive always seen it as the love interest of the protagonist is in peril and since the protagonist has a genuine emotion for said damsel, that he might be inclined to help her... you know... like any human with some moral substance? sorry that being a man means id like to protect the ones i love and that just so happens to be a theme in these "sexist" video games. when women stop getting rap3d around every corner and have to dub our society as a "rape culture" then perhaps media will reflect the new comming of age where women arent actually in peril. You can argue that media perpetuates such a thing... but then mainstream media hasn't existed in the thousands upon thousands of years of women being victimized.
this almost falls under a "you people" type of knee jerk reaction. regardless that its a reaction thats been stewing for a few decades of video games. To just say, "hey, heres a plot device... now here is how you MUST be perceiving it (or as the developer, this is how you want it to be perceived) and that wrong!" is no different then when some black guy thespian drops the race card because you say "you people" and perhaps you mean "you actors". If she wants to make a point that the ratio of male to female protagonists is disproportionate then I have no argument against that but how about she calls a spade "a spade", instead of this HUGE history lesson ended with her own opinion and assertion as to what the reasons for these plot devices are.
also @5's video link is awesome. it completely shines a light on how this girl is essentially a fraud using "feminism" as a spring board to some sort of success...
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Robert Glasel
- 2:44pm EST - March 8th, 2013
- 13
"Acclaimed"? By whom? Practically no one has heard bout her just 1 year ago, since then she did nothing until today.
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PS3-The Ultimate Machine
- 8:54pm EST - March 8th, 2013
- 14
In other news, PSU don't know the meaning of 'acclaimed'
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KyleOnTheRun
- 9:12pm EST - March 8th, 2013
- 15
acclaimed (adj.) - to be praised.
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/06/anita-sarkeesian-feminist-games/
To not agree with someone does not make them *not* acclaimed.
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