Anita Sarkeesian
Anita Sarkeesian | |
|---|---|
 Anita Sarkeesian in 2011 | |
| Born | 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 Feminist Frequency YouTube channel |
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 about misogyny in video game culture.[1]
Background
Sarkeesian was born near Toronto to Armenian immigrant parents.[2] They later moved to California; Sarkeesian identifies as Canadian American.[2] 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.[3]
Video blogging and other work
Sarkeesian is the creator of the video blog "Feminist Frequency".[4] 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.[5] Videos produced in this series include "The Manic Pixie Dream Girl", "Women in Refrigerators" and "The Smurfette Principle".[6] Sarkeesian 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.[7]
In 2011, she 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.[8] Sarkeesian has spoken at universities, conferences and workshops about media criticism and video blogging, and was interviewed by The Observer in March 2012 about modern media culture.[9] Her blog has also been utilized as material for university-level women's studies courses,[3][10] and she has spoken at universities on the topic of female characters in pop culture.[11]
Kickstarter campaign, 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,[12] and reached its funding goal of $6,000 within 24 hours.[13] In June 2012, prominent video game developer Bungie invited Sarkeesian to its offices to present on the creation of female characters in games.[14]
The project triggered a campaign of sexist harassment that Slate described as an "absolute avalanche of misogynist abuse." Slate wrote that "[e]very access point they could exploit was used to try to get to her ..."[15] The New York Times reported that she was e-mailed images of herself being raped by video game characters.[16] 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.[17] Her Wikipedia article was repeatedly vandalized with images of sex acts.[18] Her website was subjected to denial-of-service attacks, and there were efforts to obtain and distribute her personal contact information.[19] The people behind the campaign would return to the forums they normally posted on to award each other points for the abuse; Sarkeesian argued that they had "gamified" misogyny.[16]
Sarkeesian posted examples of the harassment on her blog, and supporters responded by donating over $150,000 to her project.[17] The situation generated much media discussion on the issue of pervasive sexual harassment in the video game culture. Sarkeesian told the news show 16x9 that online harassment and threats have become the norm for female gamers.[20] 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."[17] As of January 28th, 2013, no videos had been published from her kickstarter campaign.
References
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b Oliver Moore (July 11, 2012). "Woman's call to end video game misogyny sparks vicious online attacks". The Globe and Mail.
- ^ a b Sarkeesian, Anita. "About". Feminist Frequency. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
- ^ Angyal, Chloe (March 12, 2011). " The Feministing Five: Anita Sarkeesian", Feministing (interview with Anita Sarkeesian).
- ^ 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; Sarkeesian, Anita (2011). Schott, Gareth; Moffat, Kirstine (eds.). FANPIRES: Audience Consumption of the Modern Vampire (PDF). New Academia Publishing, LLC.
- ^ Duggan, Padraic (March 4, 2012). "Feminist Frequency comes to SOU". The Siskiyou.
- "Must see: WAM! Los Angeles playlist for Anita Sarkeesian". Feminist Fatale. March 29, 2010.
- "Sunday Programming 2011". GeekGirlCon. Retrieved June 29, 2012.
- "'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.
- ^ "'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) - ^ "Feminist Frequency comes to SOU". The Siskiyou. March 4, 2012. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
- ^ Marketos, Cassie (May 21 2012). "New Projects Are Sci-Fly". Kickstarter.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Tropes vs Women in Video Games". Kickstarter. Retrieved June 14, 2012.
- ^ Petit, Carolyn (June 12, 2012). "From Samus to Lara: An Interview With Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency". GameSpot.
- ^ Marcotte, Amanda (June 13, 2012). "Online Misogyny: Can't Ignore It, Can't Not Ignore It". Slate.com.
- ^ a b Lewis, Helen (December 25, 2012). "Game Theory: Making Room for the Women", The New York Times.
- ^ a b c 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.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - For the game, see O'Meara, Sarah (July 6, 2012). "Internet Trolls Up Their Harassment Game With Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian". The Huffington Post.
- For the page that hosted the game, see "Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian". Newgrounds. Retrieved July 7, 2012.
- Watercutter, Angela (June 14 2012). "Feminist Take on Games Draws Crude Ridicule, Massive Support". Wired.com.
- ^ 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 Wikipedia 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.
- ^ Dangerous Game: Tropes vs Women bullying, 16:9, accessed November 4, 2012.