Poll: How many of Anita Sarkeesian's videos have you actually watched? (be honest!)

[Darth Rosenberg]

But I just can't get behind the massive overwhelming hate for her. So I commonly get lumped in with the supporters

That's because, as we know, Teh Internetz is stupid. As the recent Jimquisition pointed out, somehow populist, kneejerk reactions online have an inability to not be one thing or the other - reality, and normal people merrily existing within it, isn't polarised.

But there's this idiotic, deeply insecure and immature culture online where everything is reduced to something you Agree with or Dislike with. Thumbs up, thumbs down. And it's all fucking bullshit, frankly, which perpetuates confrontation.

Most of the time people aren't even actually expressing opinion - they are spewing reaction, and they can't tell the difference between the two.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

I watched all of them fully, except the latest one. I got bored with that one about halfway through. I have no problems with it content-wise, but her presentation just doesn't gel with me.

 

[JetVypre]

I've watched the whole Tropes v. Women in Games series...admittedly I had to be high as a kite to get through them as I found her voice so monotonous...

I was curious as to what everyone was getting shitty about and didn't really want to form an opinion without at least watching them.


P.S. Long time lurker, first post! Woo!

 

[San Martin]

I watched TvW this week. I like the videos, and find the vast majority of what she says completely unobjectionable.

I do not get what the big deal is.

 

[Saltyk]

I've watched the first two episodes, then about half of the third one. Though, I stopped watching it the third way half way through. I can't remember exactly what it was, but something in that video just pissed me off. It's been a while since I saw it, but I'm pretty sure something in that video was being misrepresented or she was obsessing over some detail that was small in the grand scheme of things.

I'm not a fan or a hater of Anita, but she certainly has some issues with her videos. Yeah, I can't help but feel that criticizing NES games for how they portray women shows a complete ignorance of what games were capable of at the time. You probably have apps on your phone that are larger in size than NES games were. But she does have some points. It's just too bad that she doesn't actually make them and comes across as she is attacking games on the whole. Hard to argue she's not when she misrepresents things like Hitman.

At the end of the day, I would rather just ignore Anita and let someone else handle this discussion who actually understands the medium and knows how to argue the actual points better. It's pretty obvious Anita can't do that.

 

[ElMinotoro]

I actually watched most of the FF videos before kind of ODing on them. TvWiG is a good idea, the show brings up topics that should be talked about without death threats. It is a shame that she's become more of a charisma black hole as time goes on. I suspect she's removing all semblance of personality to appear more professional.

 

[Verlander]

Watched a few but don't care for her delivery. I feel like I'm being nagged, and the discussion didn't move on much from "look at how bad this is, look at it!!"

That said, I disagree with many of the critics. It's not cited? It's a youtube video, wait for the inevitable book before you make that accusation.

 

[happyninja42]

Never seen an episode, or even watched a clip when it's been linked. I have no real interest in what she has to say. Not out of any dislike of her or what she has to say, but mostly because I just don't focus that much time on the media of gaming and the industry of it.

I play my games and that's about it. She's not exclusive in my disregard of her, I'm pretty much ambivalent to any and all of the gaming media stuff out there. Never heard of the Zoe lady until people started posting about her either.

I'm pretty sure that some of her points I would agree with, as I am fairly in the camp that women in gaming has got some really screwed up trends, and in entertainment in general. But, don't really have any interest in watching her videos about it.

 

[Kyrian007]

I watched the first one. I'm like many here, I wasn't particularly entertained. I saw plenty of errors in her arguments and her comprehension of some of the games she used as an example. But there's no question that some of the things she is highlighting are happening. And that is not a good thing. And abuse leveled at anyone (especially concerning rape and murder) is wrong, criminal, and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

And on the topic of the so called "anti-gamer" articles that have some people upset with The Escapist and other gaming websites. I've been a gamer for over 35 years. I read several of the so called "offensive" articles that "called for the end of gamers..." and I was offended by none of them. Mainly because they had nothing bad to say about me, a gamer. They had plenty to say about toxic idiots that I hear on teamspeak and see on message boards all too often. But I don't care to stand up for those guys. And I don't have enough of a paranoid persecution complex to believe that "all gamers" were being lumped into one category even though the articles made it pretty clear that it was referring to those who contributed to the threats and toxicity.

So the articles insulted and denigrated the toxic and the criminal... and I referred to everyone else who would defend that kind of behavior because they perceived they were being lumped in with the toxic and criminal, as mentally ill. Not deserving of hatred like the toxic criminals, just needing education and medical help to get rid of the persecution complex.

 

[Something Amyss]

But I just can't get behind the massive overwhelming hate for her. So I commonly get lumped in with the supporters

That's because, as we know, Teh Internetz is stupid. As the recent Jimquisition pointed out, somehow populist, kneejerk reactions online have an inability to not be one thing or the other - reality, and normal people merrily existing within it, isn't polarised.

But there's this idiotic, deeply insecure and immature culture online where everything is reduced to something you Agree with or Dislike with. Thumbs up, thumbs down. And it's all fucking bullshit, frankly, which perpetuates confrontation.

Most of the time people aren't even actually expressing opinion - they are spewing reaction, and they can't tell the difference between the two.

Hell, some places have actually only got a thumbs up.

They're hard to find, but....>.>

People bring up "tired old argument we've heard before" and yes, we have. But the general public (those the TvW videos are AIMED at btw) don't see it. And as we've seen from a great many developers, even those MAKING games can miss these issues.

Additionally, while we've heard them all before, a lot of people deny them. People often phrase it as "shit we already know," but people really insist it's untrue/not an issue.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

To be honest, i access the forums in the library because i don't have a home connection and generally the anita topics are nearly always censored due to bad language in large abundance. I tried to watch 1 of her first videos to see what all the hype was about but it was just plain terrible so i gave her the respect she deserves and stopped giving a shit. I do sometimes try to get into the debate (aka shit slinging contest) but nobody is there to listen, only to shout above everyone else about how much more monstrous they find her than the last person did.

*yawns*

Glad i'm old enough not to care about the other stuff...i'll stick to hardcoring games and lambasting people for being shit because they never 'try'...male or female. I'll leave the verbal gesticulation to the children

 

[Johnny Impact]

I haven't watched any. I avoid pop culture and people who are famous for being famous are one of the worst examples of pop culture. This is basically what happened to Anita, she did almost nothing and is now a superstar.

 

[Reincarnatedwolfgod]

I seen a few of the videos before the first tropes vs women videos where made was made and published on her channel. My option of her videos seem to bring up valid points and then fails to effectively argue them due to examples being cherry picked and taken out of context.

my most recent attempt of watching one of here video was a few mouths ago. It bored me in less the 5 minuets and felt no motivation to continue watching it. I don't like or dislike her, I just ignore her and I don't care about what she does. Life is to short for me to care about something as inconsequential as person who makes videos I don't watch.

 

[Wan Shi Tong]

The only thing that rubs me the wrong way is that she doesn't seem to fully understand what she's talking about when she starts giving examples from games, other than that she has some good points.

After watching a few I couldn't believe she caused such outrage, she's not even "edgy" like the tumblr kiddies. To be perfectly honest, I got a little sleepy during the second part of one of her videos since they are unnecessarily long.

 

[Lunar Templar]

I can only handle so much before I hit Bullshit Overload and have to shut it off and watch something else.

So maybe a whole ep in total?

 

[krebons12]

All right, let's get one thing straight: this isn't some sort of trap. There is no prize for claiming to have watched all of her videos and still hated them, there is no shame in admitting you've only seen a few out-of-context clips. I don't have any axe to grind, I'm not posting this to make some kind of a point.


See, here's the thing: I'm in Option 7 on the above poll. And the reason I am is that I quite enjoyed her videos.

I'll pause here while you wipe the coffee off of your screen.

I'm being serious. Sure, academic dissertations they are not. Nor do they contain any answers to the problems she highlights. And yes, I know, she disabled the comments and like/dislike ratio. But I get the impression all of this is by design, rather than omission. To me, the videos seem like a genuine and surprisingly in-depth attempt to bring feminist film theory over to the field of video game criticism, while keeping the content accessible to anyone unfamiliar with Laura Mulvey or Carol Clover. For example, it's true that she doesn't cite any specific sources or studies, but I don't think she needs to. It's the kind of video you would show in an "Introduction to Video Game Criticism" class for college freshmen, not as part of a PhD thesis. And I'm pretty sure you would have disabled the comments too, if you knew what verbal abuse they would convey.

Anyway, I like them. You probably don't. No big deal. But that's simply in the interest of full disclosure. My real question is: have you actually watched her videos? I'm genuinely curious. You and I both know that for every video she releases there are dozens of "refuting Anita" videos that immediately pop up. And I'm wondering: how many people skip straight to thunderf00t's or TheAmazingAtheist's vids, without taking the time to watch the originals? And don't say you don't care enough about Anita to be bothered, I saw you posting a comment about her just yesterday!

So that's it, really. I mean honestly, given how many threads there are about her videos, I would really like an answer to this.

I'm also in the 7th option, but I still do think that she needs to be able to allow some kind of criticism of her stuff on her videos directly. While yes there would be a larger than normal number of jerks than usual on the videos, if she doesn't let people who actually care say "I think this is incorrect because this" she opens herself to assumptions that she doesn't desire true debate or discussion of the status of women in video games, just that she wants to say things and keep saying things without anyone calling her out if she says something they find illogical (which I have found more often than not to be the case with myself) which can actually be an even larger magnet for jerks, I find.

 

[Wan Shi Tong]

All right, let's get one thing straight: this isn't some sort of trap. There is no prize for claiming to have watched all of her videos and still hated them, there is no shame in admitting you've only seen a few out-of-context clips. I don't have any axe to grind, I'm not posting this to make some kind of a point.


See, here's the thing: I'm in Option 7 on the above poll. And the reason I am is that I quite enjoyed her videos.

I'll pause here while you wipe the coffee off of your screen.

I'm being serious. Sure, academic dissertations they are not. Nor do they contain any answers to the problems she highlights. And yes, I know, she disabled the comments and like/dislike ratio. But I get the impression all of this is by design, rather than omission. To me, the videos seem like a genuine and surprisingly in-depth attempt to bring feminist film theory over to the field of video game criticism, while keeping the content accessible to anyone unfamiliar with Laura Mulvey or Carol Clover. For example, it's true that she doesn't cite any specific sources or studies, but I don't think she needs to. It's the kind of video you would show in an "Introduction to Video Game Criticism" class for college freshmen, not as part of a PhD thesis. And I'm pretty sure you would have disabled the comments too, if you knew what verbal abuse they would convey.

Anyway, I like them. You probably don't. No big deal. But that's simply in the interest of full disclosure. My real question is: have you actually watched her videos? I'm genuinely curious. You and I both know that for every video she releases there are dozens of "refuting Anita" videos that immediately pop up. And I'm wondering: how many people skip straight to thunderf00t's or TheAmazingAtheist's vids, without taking the time to watch the originals? And don't say you don't care enough about Anita to be bothered, I saw you posting a comment about her just yesterday!

So that's it, really. I mean honestly, given how many threads there are about her videos, I would really like an answer to this.

You know that actually explains a lot, while I was watching I kept thinking, "Boy this sure does sound like feminism 101" which is part of the reason it bored me to tears. I'm kinda disappointed that "Video game feminism 101" causes such an uproar.

 

[Nieroshai]

My viewing experience:

Tropes V Women 1 (Damsels p1): "She makes decent points, but BOY did she cherrypick source material. I respectfully disagree based on provided evidence."
Tropes V Women 2 (Damsels p2): "Okay, about 3/4 of these damsels in distress examples undeniably do NOT treat women as the Football. If your sister OR brother was kidnapped, what would YOU do? This is annoying me."
Tropes v Women 3 (Damsels 3): "In no way do I agree that simply because a man must be rescued, it is a sore attempt to pander to those who hate the trope. People get captured. Ransom is demanded. Life is life. Sorry!"
Tropes V Women 4(Ms Male Character): "Yeah, I agree that a female version of a male character is a cop-out. I still find you rhetorically dishonest, but hey, we agree here."
Tropes V Women 5-6 (women as background 1-2): "I give up! Not only has your tactic not improved, you use a Let's Play-er dicking around with corpses as proof that the game itself treats women like props. Mind you that these corpses were of civilians who did not need to die and the drag mechanic exists to hide bodies, not pose them." etc, this set has so many things I could go on about that I would break my keyboard.


Simply put, it's not her message that games come from a sexist society and need improvement. It's her delivery, her shoddy research for even a youtuber, her reaching for proof where none exists, and her particular brand of feminism that even most women directly oppose.

But I'm getting off-topic. Having watched the series and some of her non-game videos, I can honestly say I'm not just mindlessly consuming her opposition's criticism. Whether I'm wrong, however, comes down to a political and phlosophical debate that this thread wasn't meant for.

 

[Texas Joker 52]

Well, out of a sense of morbid curiosity, I've finally gone out and watched the entire series she has on Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games, at least that she has so far. I've avoided it mostly because I wanted nothing to do with the shitstorm surrounding the entire thing. I didn't see the point of the uproar. Now that I've seen her videos however, the fervor actually seems more alien to me.

She prefaces each section, at least with the first part on a particular trope if not at the beginning of each video, pointing out that sometimes it's good to both enjoy something, as well as give it a critical look. And as uncomfortable as some of her points made, I can see them and at least partially agree. She comes off as pretty reasonable, and hardly seems aggressive towards the games she uses for examples, or to the gamers that like them.

So, I actually kind of liked them. I'm not going to let the points that she highlighted affect how I enjoy the games I have, at least not in a major way, but I'll probably be more aware when the games I play use the kind of tropes that she points out.

Besides, it's not like there's such a thing as a 'flawless' game.