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Anita Sarkeesian is a Canadian-American feminist media critic and blogger who focuses on depictions of women in popular culture. She is author of the video blog Feminist Frequency and the video series Tropes vs. Women, which examines tropes in popular culture depictions of women. In 2012, following her announcement of a new series, Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, she was targeted by an online harassment campaign that drew media attention and placed her at the center of discussions of misogyny in video game culture.

Background

Anita Sarkeesian was born near Toronto to Armenian immigrant parents. They later moved to California, and Sarkeesian identifies as Canadian-American. She earned a bachelor's degree in communication studies from California State University, Northridge and a master's degree in social and political thought from York University. Her master's thesis was titled I’ll Make a Man Out of You: Strong Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy Television.

Video blogging and other work

Sarkeesian is the creator of the video blog "Feminist Frequency". The blog includes the video series Tropes vs. Women, a series created with Bitch magazine to examine the use of tropes to depict women in film, television and video games, with a particular focus on science fiction. Videos produced in this series include "The Manic Pixie Dream Girl", "Women in Refrigerators" and "The Smurfette Principle".

Sarkeesian has also produced a number of other feminist analyses of popular culture, such as applying the Bechdel Test to the Academy Awards nominated films of 2011. Her work has been utilized as material for university-level women's studies courses, and she has spoken at universities on the topic of female characters in pop culture. In 2011, she co-authored a chapter "Buffy vs. Bella: The Re-Emergence of the Archetypal Feminine in Vampire Stories" for the anthology of essays Fanpires: Audience Consumption of the Modern Vampire and has been interviewed by The Guardian for her opinions on modern media culture. Sarkeesian has been also a presenter at various conferences and workshops.

Kickstarter campaign and subsequent harassment

On May 17, 2012, Sarkeesian began a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new series of short videos that would examine gender tropes in video games. The Kickstarter campaign was featured as a campaign of note on the official Kickstarter blog, and reached its funding goal of $6,000 within 24 hours, eventually raising $158,917 over the course of a month. In June 2012, prominent video game developer Bungie invited Sarkeesian to its offices to present on the creation of female characters in games.

The project resulted in a large number of negative comments, including threats of death and rape, racial abuse, and an extended attempt to have the campaign suspended; The Escapist referred to the commenters as a "misogynist horde" and Slate characterised the response as an "absolute avalanche of misogynist abuse." Similar comments were left on Sarkeesian's YouTube account and her Misplaced Pages article was repeatedly vandalised, with racial abuse and a pornographic image added to the article. Sarkeesian has also reported attempts to bring down her website via a number of denial-of-service attacks and attempts to obtain and distribute her personal contact information. On July 7, 2012, a Flash game was uploaded to Newgrounds titled Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian, which allowed users to click on a picture of Sarkeesian to simulating hitting her, causing the picture to become increasingly bruised; the game was taken down after a single day. Wired suggested that the level of support received by Sarkeesian's Kickstarter may have been increased by the backlash against it, and the coverage and attention which followed.

The situation generated much media discussion on the issue of pervasive sexual harassment in the video game culture. Sarkeesian told The New York Times that "he gaming industry is actually in the process of changing... That’s a really positive thing, but I think there is a small group of male gamers who feel like gaming belongs to them, and are really terrified of that change happening." She further outlined these views when interviewed by the news show 16x9, detailing her harassment and stating that online harassment and threats have become the norm for female gamers.

References

1. ^ Oliver Moore (July 11, 2012). "Woman's call to end video game misogyny sparks vicious online attacks". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved July 18, 2012.
2. ^ Sarkeesian, Anita. "About". Feminist Frequency. Retrieved 2012-06-12. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
3. Reynolds, Ross (2011-07-01). "Supreme Court Wrap-Up, And Women In Movies". KUOW-FM.
4. Angyal, Chloe (2011-03-12). "The Feministing Five: Anita Sarkeesian". Feministing. Retrieved 2012-06-12. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
5. Mary Elizabeth Williams (June 14, 2012). "Lara Croft battles male jerks". Salon. Retrieved June 18, 2012.
6. Tropes vs. Women at YouTube, accessed June 23, 2012
7. The Oscars and The Bechdel Test at YouTube, accessed June 23, 2012
8. "'I'll Make a Man Out of You': Redefining Strong Female Characters". Sewanee: The University of the South. 2011-02-15. Retrieved 2012-06-12. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
9. "Feminist Frequency comes to SOU". The Siskiyou. March 4, 2012. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
10. Jenson, Jennifer; Sarkeesian, Anita (2011). Schott, Gareth; Moffat, Kirstine (eds.). FANPIRES: Audience Consumption of the Modern Vampire (PDF). New Academia Publishing, LLC.
11. "The Slacker Is Back - and this time she's female". The Guardian. March 25, 2012. Retrieved June 26, 2012.
12. "Feminist Fatale: WAM Los Angeles Playlist for Anita Sarkeesian". Retrieved June 29, 2012.
13. "Geek Girl Con 2011 Programming schedule". Retrieved June 29, 2012.
14. "Create Your Own Web Show with Anita Sarkeesian" (flier). Retrieved June 29, 2012.
15. Marketos, Cassie (May 21 2012). "New Projects Are Sci-Fly". Kickstarter. Retrieved June 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
16. "Tropes vs Women in Video Games". Kickstarter. Retrieved June 14, 2012.
17. Petit, Carolyn (June 12, 2012). "From Samus to Lara: An Interview With Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency". GameSpot.
18. Carter, Jonathan Grey (2012-06-11). "Kickstarter Video Project Attracts Misogynist Horde". the Escapist. Retrieved 2012-06-12.
19. Marcotte, Amanda. "Online Misogyny: Can't Ignore It, Can't Not Ignore It". Slate.com. Retrieved June 14, 2012.
20. McHugh, Molly (2012-06-11). "Kickstarter campaign leads to cyber-bullying". Digital Trends. Digital Trends, Inc. Retrieved 2012-06-12. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
21. Lewis, Helen (2012-06-12). "Dear The Internet, This Is Why You Can't Have Anything Nice". New Statesman. Retrieved 2012-06-12. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
22. Totilo, Stephen (July 3, 2012). "She's Not Hiding From The Hate She's Getting For Examining Video Games. She's Exposing It". Kotaku. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
23. "Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian". Newgrounds. Retrieved July 7, 2012.
24. O'Meara, Sarah (July 6, 2012). "Internet Trolls Up Their Harassment Game With Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian". Huffington Post. Retrieved July 7,2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
25. Watercutter, Angela (June 14 2012). "Feminist Take on Games Draws Crude Ridicule, Massive Support". Wired.com. Retrieved June 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
26. Amy O'Leary (August 1, 2012). "In Virtual Play, Sex Harassment Is All Too Real". The New York Times. Retrieved August 2, 2012.
27. 16:9, Dangerous Game: Tropes vs Women bullying, accessed November 4, 2012

External links

• Feminist Frequency
• Feminist Frequency YouTube channel
• PDF of "Buffy vs. Bella: The Re-Emergence of the Archetypal Feminine in Vampire Stories", by Jennifer Jenson and Anita Sarkeesian

• American bloggers
• American feminists
• American people of Armenian descent
• California State University, Northridge alumni
• Living people
• Video bloggers
• York University alumni