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| Anita Sarkeesian | |
|---|---|
 Anita Sarkeesian in 2011 | |
| Born | 1984 (age 39–40) Canada |
| Citizenship | Canadian-American |
| Education | BA (communication studies), California State University, Northridge MA (social and political thought), York University |
| Occupation(s) | Media critic, blogger |
| Website | Feminist Frequency |
Anita Sarkeesian (born circa 1984) is a Canadian-American feminist, media critic and blogger. She is the author of the video blog "Feminist Frequency" and the video series Tropes vs. Women, which examines tropes in the depiction of women in popular culture. 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 about misogyny in video game culture.
Background
Sarkeesian was born near Toronto to Armenian immigrant parents. They later moved to California; 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.
Feminist Frequency
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". She has also produced a number of other videos analyzing popular culture from a feminist standpoint, such as applying the Bechdel test – whether a film has at least two named female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man – to films nominated for an Academy Award.
In 2011, Sarkeesian co-authored the essay "Buffy vs. Bella: The Re-Emergence of the Archetypal Feminine in Vampire Stories" for the anthology Fanpires: Audience Consumption of the Modern Vampire. She has spoken at conferences and workshops about media criticism and video blogging, and was interviewed by The Observer in March 2012 about modern media culture. Her blog has also 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.
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 campaign was featured as a campaign of note on the official Kickstarter blog, and reached its funding goal of $6,000 within 24 hours.
The project triggered a campaign of sexist harassment that Amanda Marcotte in Slate magazine described as an "absolute avalanche of misogynist abuse," in which "very access point they could exploit was used to try to get to her ..." The New York Times reported that she was e-mailed images of herself being raped by video game characters. Attempts were made to hack her Twitter and Google accounts, doctored images of her were posted online, negative comments were posted to her YouTube and Facebook pages, and an Internet game was created – Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian – where users could punch her image until the screen turned red. Her Misplaced Pages article was repeatedly vandalized with images of sex acts. Her website was subjected to denial-of-service attacks, and there were efforts to obtain and distribute her personal contact information. The people behind the campaign awarded each other "Internet points" for the abuse on forums; Sarkeesian argued that they had "gamified" misogyny.
Sarkeesian posted examples of the harassment on her blog, and supporters responded by donating over $150,000 to her project. The situation helped to bring the issue of pervasive sexual harassment in the video game culture to mainstream media attention, with discussions occurring in a range of publications and outlets, including The New York Times, The Guardian and New Statesman. Sarkeesian told the news show 16x9 that online harassment and threats have become the norm for female gamers. She told The New York Times: "The 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."
The campaign also led to speaking engagements on related topics. In 2012, Sarkeesian was a speaker at the TEDxWomen conference, discussing online sexual harrassment and the nature of online communities. In June 2012, video game developer Bungie invited Sarkeesian to its offices to present on the creation of female characters in games.
Tropes vs Women in Video Games
The following videos are planned for release in the Tropes vs Women in Video Games series.
| Title | Release |
|---|---|
| Damsel in Distress (Part 1) | March 7, 2012 |
| Damsel in Distress (Part 2) | May 28, 2012 |
| Damsel in Distress (Part 3) | TBA |
| The Fighting F#@k Toy | TBA |
| The Sexy Villainess | TBA |
| Background Decoration | TBA |
| Voodoo Priestess/Tribal Sorceress | TBA |
| Women as Reward | TBA |
| Mrs. Male Character | TBA |
| Unattractive Equals Evil | TBA |
| Man with Boobs | TBA |
| Positive Female Characters! | TBA |
| Top 10 Most Common Defenses of Sexism in Games | TBA |
References
- Nathman, Avital Norman (August 6, 2012). "The Femisphere: Video Bloggers, Part 1". Ms. Magazine. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
- ^ Watercutter, Angela (June 14, 2012). "Feminist Take on Games Draws Crude Ridicule, Massive Support". Wired.com.
- ^ Oliver Moore (July 11, 2012). "Woman's call to end video game misogyny sparks vicious online attacks". The Globe and Mail.
- Sarkeesian, Anita. "About". Feminist Frequency. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
- Williams, Mary Elizabeth (June 14, 2012). "Lara Croft battles male jerks". Salon.
- Sarkeesian, Anita (March 22, 2011). Tropes vs. Women, YouTube.
- Barthel, Michael (February 25, 2012). "The Oscars’ woman problem", Salon.
- Sarkeesian, Anita (February 15, 2012). "The Oscars and The Bechdel Test", YouTube.
- Jenson, Jennifer and Sarkeesian, Anita (2011). "Buffy vs. Bella: The Re-Emergence of the Archetypal Feminine in Vampire Stories", in Gareth Schott and Kirstine Moffat. FANPIRES: Audience Consumption of the Modern Vampire. New Academia Publishing, LLC.
- Duggan, Padraic (March 4, 2012). "Feminist Frequency comes to SOU". The Siskiyou.
- "'I'll Make a Man Out of You': Redefining Strong Female Characters". Sewanee Today. Sewanee: The University of the South. February 15, 2011.
- Hoby, Hermione (March 25, 2012). "The Slacker Is Back - and this time she's female". The Observer.
- Cohn, Jacob (January 11, 2013). "Feminist Media Critic and Blogger Anita Sarkeesian to Present Convocation". Carleton News. Carleton College.
- Marketos, Cassie (May 21, 2012). "New Projects Are Sci-Fly". Kickstarter.
- "Tropes vs Women in Video Games". Kickstarter. Retrieved June 14, 2012.
- Marcotte, Amanda (June 13, 2012). "Online Misogyny: Can't Ignore It, Can't Not Ignore It". Slate.com.
- ^ Lewis, Helen (December 25, 2012). "Game Theory: Making Room for the Women", The New York Times.
- ^ O'Leary, Amy. "In Virtual Play, Sex Harassment Is All Too Real", The New York Times, August 1, 2012.
- Watercutter, Angela (June 14, 2012). "Feminist Take on Games Draws Crude Ridicule, Massive Support". Wired.com.
- For the game, see O'Meara, Sarah (July 6, 2012). "Internet Trolls Up Their Harassment Game With Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian". The Huffington Post.
- McHugh, Molly (June 11, 2012). "Kickstarter campaign leads to cyber-bullying". Digital Trends. Digital Trends, Inc.
- Lewis, Helen (June 12, 2012). "Dear The Internet, This Is Why You Can't Have Anything Nice". New Statesman.
- Sarkeesian, Anita (June 10, 2012). "Harassment via Misplaced Pages Vandalism", Feminist Frequency.
- Totilo, Stephen (July 3, 2012). "She's Not Hiding From The Hate She's Getting For Examining Video Games. She's Exposing It". Kotaku.
- Zerbisias, Anita (January 28, 2013). "Internet trolls an online nightmare for young women", Toronto Star.
- Casey, Paul (December 10, 2012). "Why should Anita Sarkeesian have to work for free in return for misogynistic abuse?", New Statesman.
- Cross, Katherine. (2012). "Why Gaming Culture Allows Abuse... and How We Can Stop It". Bitch. Issue 57. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
- Dangerous Game: Tropes vs Women bullying, 16:9, accessed November 4, 2012.
- TEDxWomen - Anita Sarkeesian
- Petit, Carolyn (June 12, 2012). "From Samus to Lara: An Interview With Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency". GameSpot.
- Tropes vs Women in Video Games Kickstarter
- Feminist Frequency - "Damsels in Distress (Part 1)" accessed May 28, 2013
- Feminist Frequency - "Damsels in Distress (Part 2)"