The Most Dangerous Woman in Videogames - Anita Sarkeesian

Icehearted

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Worgen said:
What is it about Anita Sarkeesian that makes people really really stupid? I mean seriously, it seems like people are just bitching about her to ***** and have paid no attention to anything shes said. "Oh a woman is talking about vida james, RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE BURN STAKE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!"
Youtube is full of people that have paid attention to what she's said and have proven her assertions are crappola. Then there's the MRM crowd, the radically pro-male flip side to her feminist pandering, and even they've made some fair arguments, most recent one being that it's unfair to women that actually play video games to come in from nowhere and demand things change for the sake of someone that doesn't even like video games. There were women that liked things as they were, that were already gamers, not really against any of it. Then along she comes telling everyone things need to change because she is a damsel and it distresses her, ironically again because she doesn't even really play video games anyway. She earned her money by being a damsel in distress by the "big scary patriarchy" that chose to abuse her for having a voice, then rode that theme to conventions and public speaking engagements, all the while pandering to a fear-based group of supporters that feel bad for her being abused by these awful churlish male misogynists.

More than anything she struck oil, some magic grouping of funding, publicity, radicalized support, radicalized hate, and just plain good timing. It's like one of those marvelous accidental discoveries that changes things, for better or worse.

Some links if you care (and many of you may have seen at least one of these already):

Fair waning on these, they are from MRM activists... so with a grain of salt, folks.
 

Karadalis

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Goliath100 said:
Karadalis said:
WHAT DID SHE SPEND ALL THIS TIME ON?

Did you really just say that a person does not need to actually research a topic to judge it..
Well, if she is holding lectures on colleges all over the states, I'll bet on travelling. She spend time on the road, I think. (Sarkeesian should really have said something definitiv about her day job)

No, I asked how much. Because you don't need to 100% a game to know if it's good (or ok). Than why do Sarkeesian need to play all of NSMB Wii when Peach is in only the begin or end? Don't answer that, just answer how much do a person need to experience before judging?
More then 0% would be a good start.

And its not about being good games, its about claiming that a game is actively trying to broadcast sexist ideals and that the "patriarchy" is using these video games to actively supress womens rights, without having any real proof for that but some random examples of poor story telling and shoddy commercials. For every women you present that is reduced to eyecandy i can show you a poorly written emotionless "bruuhaha" muscle bound idiot male protagonist. It simply is poor storytelling and lack of character depth. I bet no one would roll their eyes on a "sexy" female character with a really well made and interesting backstory and agenda that shows that shes more then just a pair of tits... the same goes for male protagonists. Yet male protagonists are in most cases nothing mroe then ice cold mass murderers that slaughter their way through endless legions of adversaries without even a hint of the never ending slaughter affecting them one bit.

Also theres something called credibility and she lacks alot of it, not only shown by her cherry picking but by simply just regurgiating what was allready written about the topic elsewhere on the net without even so much as offering the source.

Not to mention the controversy about her stating that she is not a fan of video games, but then when she asks for money suddenly shes a long time fan... very questionable at best.

Sorry but all shes doing is clervely making money, she has no real agenda beyond that. Its like those scam preachers traveling around the countryside and impressing the local populance with flashy preaching shows.. claiming belief will cure the lame.. and when youre not cured? Well guess your faith wasnt strong enough.. now gimme dat money!
 

Miroluck

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He just keeps kissing bottoms, isn't he?

Also, what's up with cuss words in there? "Fighting f**k toy". Is that an actual term in their theory, or is it Anita's neologism?
 

Goliath100

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Tenmar said:
Great, you have open the debate for who do own the content of let's players, I do not want that debate. Please feel free to come with an example of Sarkeesian practicing what you are saying (without linking it).
 

Story

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Sep 4, 2013
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Goliath100 said:
Story said:
...I think are actually rather good for a Feminist 101 type of thing. I mean pretty all of the things she mentioned were literally discussed in my Feminist 101 class...
That maybe the main problem with Sarkeesian's videos: They only make sense if you have taken (or is familiar with the material) a feminism 101 class. That pretty much guarantee to split the audience in to 2 main factions that can't understand what the other don't get.
I would actually argue that her videos make such simple points that they are best suited to educate people who didn't take feminist classes or know very little about feminism in general. But of course, you have to have interest in the material in the first place, which usually happen to be people who are already interested in Feminism and are already partly knowledgeable about it.

If anything what these videos have going for them is that they discuss video games in relation to feminist issues, which is pretty unique.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

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Captain Pooptits said:
How d'ya mean hilarious?
It was something i thought might have needed more qualities other than brandishing a saucepan, to be motherly. Ive brandished many a saucepan...then again, i'm not the most masculine guy ever...so you could be onto something there. OH and i like kittens :D :D
 

deathzero021

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again? i really wish people would just let this thing go. stop feeding her popularity with articles like this. this is just one f***ing woman who happens to make a few sloppy youtube videos about games. So what? there are millions of other youtube videos about games, many of them from women. this celebritism [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Celebritism] is making me sick.
 

Goliath100

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Story said:
...her videos make such simple points that they are best suited to educate people who didn't take feminist classes or know very little about feminism in general. ...
Maybe, but I'll argue that her language is only suitable for they who already knows feminism lingo and ideas.
 

Guiltyone

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May 10, 2013
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I don't respect Anita Sarkeesian work because it's aggressively propagandistic. She uses almost every cheap text-book propaganda trick in her videos.
Also, she never mentions positive changes that are happening in games. Why doesn't she talk about Gone Home, Mass Effect or the Walking Dead? Because it doesn't suit her one-sided lies.
I'm not against her message and I don't think that there's no truth to what she is trying to say, but I don't respect her methods, and simply can't trust her words.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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I've said it before and I'll say it again: she means well, but her videos are a fucking bore. Goes in circles too often and for too long, probably because she doesn't have a lot of ideas to flesh out.
 

kael013

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Jun 12, 2010
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Holy Hell Bob, nice feelgood piece. Shame it's wasted on someone as insignificant as Sarkeesian.

She has said conflicting statements about being a fan of videogames (I view this as a gray area, it's entirely possible she picked up the passion recently), she points out negative examples but no positives (yes there can be some), she offers no possible solutions to the inherent "misogyny", she uses clips from LPs without sourcing em (not a big deal, but it would be nice and would show exactly which games she didn't bother to play herself), and she uses clips out of context in order to sell her view (which is the biggest sin here). Let's see, what else, oh!, she still uses the "I was harassed online" card to get sympathy and bash her haters. She also offers no link between videogames and real-life misogyny (similar to some other argument we're tired of) and her view of a strong female character is..., well I don't know: on one hand she bashes games where the female character doesn't fight back for saying women are weak and ineffectual, but on the other she bashes games for having female characters who [i/]do[/i] fight back by saying it shows that women are weak and ineffectual since they always fail and get kidnapped or whatever. In essence, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. She's like Kreia from KotOR2, only more asinine. And if you read her thesis paper you'll notice her chart for positive feminine traits is pretty sparse and prone to some unfortunate implications.

Still, she is looking at a problem which needs to be addressed, I just don't think she's the right person to be looking at it.