Cyber feminist Anita Sarkeesian is both vilified and revered by those in the gaming industry. In 2009, she launched feministfrequency.com, a website designed to educate others about the use of tropes by developers in their gaming creations.
Anita Sarkeesian contends that there is a pervasive pattern in modern gaming as women are depicted as sexual playthings as well as victims of violence by their male counterparts.
In her web series Tropes vs. Women in Video Games launched in 2012, she points out that games like Bioshock 2 (2010) portray women not only as background decoration but as sexualized, maimed women in ‘arousing positions’. In stark contrast, she notes that there is a distinct lack of sexualization and objectification of male characters in games.
A YouTube user under the name of ‘Thunderf00t’ not only criticises Sarkeesian’s claims but also the fact that she was crowd funded through Kickstarter accumulating $158,000 in donations 2012 to make the web series. The user claims that she has only done 5 videos in 24 months which works out at $30,000 per video. ‘Thunderf00t’ admonishes her for having her comments section switched off.
It is understandable in the aftermath of Gamergate where female gaming developers were subject to trolling and insidious, vile threats of physical and sexual violence. Cast your mind back to an earlier post where I alluded to the world of gaming as a bloodsport.
One might argue that the sexualization and objectification of women is nothing new and is something that had been around for centuries. How do you change a stereotype that is deeply entrenched in our culture?
Iconic women like Marilyn Monroe, Madonna and Beyonce have used their sexuality to sell their movies and music and are often admired by other women for using their beauty and prowess to their advantage.
More worrying is the emerging culture of those that hide behind their online anonymity to bully and terrorize others. Personally, I think Anita Sarkeesian’s thesis is a little one-dimensional and simplified. In my view, feminism particularly cyber feminism is complex and needs some teasing out.
As recently as this week, Milo Yiannopoulos challenged Anita Sarkeesian in his latest blog post, “Debate me and I will donate $10,000 to feminist frequency or a charity of your choice”
“I have a couple of conditions. The debate will last at least an hour, and must be streamed live. No subject is off-limits. Questions must be taken by each speaker from members of the audience and from each other: there should be plenty of time for cross-examination. Questions should not be shared ahead of time. No earpieces, and no long prepared statements. Admittance is free. (I’ll cover the cost of the venue and security, if need be.) And that’s really it.”
I am not sure Anita Sarkeesian will be signing up to the debate any time soon. The fact that she has disabled her comment section on YouTube screams to me that perhaps she just wants to be left alone to get on with it.
Jenny Regan Cybercultures 