Tropes vs. Women in Video Games--first video is out

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Lissibith

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He also didn't pay as close attention as he should have for someone critiquing

Which is why I had to judge it as a rant video. As an actual rebuttal, it falls down hard. Onto Legos. Legos made of nonsense, at several points. :-/


I don't think he's really trying to understand Anita's perspective. And you can't create a good argument against something, unless you understand it first.

Definitely. He just wanted to vent his spleen about the perceived evils that she's inflicted upon him, or maybe male-dom, or the world at large. He has, in fact, done what he accused her of - he went in with an idea of what he wanted to say and twisted her words to try and support his half-baked claims (and threw in a few personal insults along the way).


I didn't have any real problem with the hypothetical game video. It seemed like a good idea for an RPG, kind of like Fable 3 (but hopefully without the really crappy end-game). Although it is of course, very sparse.

Oh, I didn't have any problem with the game she proposed - I'd play it if it got made, to be sure. :) And I understand that her videos are very 101, maybe 102 at this point, but it felt like padding to me. A more clear focus on what exactly she wanted the listener to get out of her thought experiment may have tied it in for me. Ah well. At least we got those pretty cool visuals out of the deal, so I should probably just chalk that up as a win.
 

thebloodfiend

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Came across this excellent criticism of the second video in the series and Anita's argumentative tactics and videomaking as a whole.
Knowing how you feel about Sarkeesian from your blog, or anyone who dares view video games in a light other than that which you deem appropriate, I was wary to click on that link, lest I fill my living room with angry bro-ranting about how wrong she is to dare criticize the video game industry or anything regarding sexism in games.

I don't really watch Sarkeesian anymore as her videos aren't entertaining enough (I prefer Lindsay Ellis, and would it kill FF to try and be a bit funnier if her vids are twice as long with higher production value?), and I have a short attention span.

These will pretty much be my thoughts as I watch P#2 and P#3 of Sarkeesian's series and that guy's "rebuttal." I have to do this, otherwise I won't be able to get through 2 hours of Sarkeesian's voice and some random dude commentating on her thoughts.

1) On his claim of academic dishonesty? Gameplay footage doesn't belong to you. That's like claiming screenshots of a DC comic you posted online belong to you and demanding a link to your blog.

2) On her criticism of Grand Theft Auto III? Meh. It's a game that revolves around killing as many people as you possibly can for fun. The cheats are tanks, more weapons, grenades, and etc... and the death of the girlfriend is really irrelevant when put into the context of how nonsensical that world is.

3) I wish she'd brought up Queen of Blades from Starcraft.

4) Just scrolling through the response videos on YT, it's amazing how ignorant and butthurt people get when someone dare criticize their favorite game.

5) It's hilarious how many dumbasses poke and prod Lindsey on twitter to say something negative about Sarkeesian. Do they not realize Lindsey has pretty much said every single thing Sarkeesian has said as NChick in her older vids? God, people are stupid.

6) And I finished watching P#2 without much disagreement.

7) Thank god she disables comments.

8) At 6:59 on vid #3, she makes a very good point that I've been attempting to explain to people regarding race and sexuality for quite a while. Having an angry white dude villain who rapes a white female in a film is not equivalent to having an angry black dude villain who rapes a white female in a film, just like having a guy held captive to be saved by his bro is not the same as having a girlfriend held captive to be saved by her hero. It's false equivalency.

9) The Peach Game sounds incredibly stupid and does not look like something I'd play.

10) 10:10, on Spelunky? WTF? A game like that exists? *facepalm*

11) Oh, Ironic Sexism. haha. It's like the evil sister to ironic racism (or hipster racism).

12) 13:00, thank you. Claiming parody means shit nothing.

13) 15:00, she needs to play Mutant Mudds.

14) 20:20, Like everyone else said, she needs to play Portal. I was really quite high when I played it, so I couldn't exactly understand how to play, but what I did play under instruction from a friend was quite awesome.

15) Overall, not much disagreement with her. It's not like she's saying anything radically different or nonsensical. Onto the dude's video, which I know will probably piss me off.

16) It is fair use and I wish he'd stfu about her usage of game footage. He sounds really, really dumb. No one credits anyone for taking footage of gameplay or movies/tv shows from YT. Give me a break. And video editing takes time. She looked at over 100+ games and he's being incredibly disingenuous.

17) I wish she had played the games, too, though, but reading a walk through is pretty much all you need. These games aren't Russian novels.

18) I don't blame her for blocking him, either. No one wants to deal with whiny bullshit.

19) She uses big words? Really? I consider myself kind of dumb and her videos are kind 1st level easy to get.

20) So, I'm bored and I've started watching his other vids. He does seem like a smart guy. But I really wish he'd put a smart response up to Sarkeesian cause he's sounding incredibly whiny about nothing.

21) His rape vid is incredibly smart. Ok, going back to his rebuttal before I get too side tracked.

22) Parody doesn't really mean what he thinks it means. Parody is Blazing Saddles. Not simply repeating a trope without actually deconstructing it or showing why it's ridiculous.

23) The nitpicking does not in anyway detract from her point. I don't know what he's trying to prove.

24) What a guy thinks a female power fantasy is /=/ female power fantasy. God, I'm not interested in listening to this kind of false equivalency. Bayonetta is a female power fantasy like the Starfire redesign is a female power fantasy. This sounds like a "what about the men" argument, or "what about the white people."

25) I'm looking forward to him defending Mileena's costume next.

26) It's not about sex. It's about agency and objectification. My god, his false equivalency is fucking idiotic.

27) God, he sounds incredibly defensive. I lived in Egypt for half a year and the sexism over their does not negate the sexism in his precious little video games. I'm really not sure if I even want to continue watching this cause it's pissing me off.

28) Stopped at 17:00. I really can't tolerate his whiny bullshit anymore. He does not understand sexism at all, nor the nuances involved. Pity, cause he seems like a smart guy.
 

thebloodfiend

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Oh, I didn't have any problem with the game she proposed - I'd play it if it got made, to be sure. :) And I understand that her videos are very 101, maybe 102 at this point, but it felt like padding to me. A more clear focus on what exactly she wanted the listener to get out of her thought experiment may have tied it in for me. Ah well. At least we got those pretty cool visuals out of the deal, so I should probably just chalk that up as a win.
Exactly. Which I why I don't get why she gets so much flack across the web, unlike any of the other feminist video game/movie vloggers. Is it because she's a solo team and an easy target? It is because she doesn't have dudes to back her up?

People treat her like the Diamanda Hagan of angry feminist critique, but she's really quite basic and mild. I'd say I'm worse than her when I used to blog on tumblr. And I only got one rape threat.
 

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Exactly. Which I why I don't get why she gets so much flack across the web, unlike any of the other feminist video game/movie vloggers. Is it because she's a solo team and an easy target? It is because she doesn't have dudes to back her up?

I think it's because she ran a very successful Kickstarter and raised lots of money. This made a lot of jerks very angry.
 

Torgo

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He does not understand sexism at all, nor the nuances involved. Pity, cause he seems like a smart guy.


“It was, of course, nothing more than sexism, the especially virulent type espoused by male techies who sincerely believe that they are too smart to be sexists.” - Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
 

LOG

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Exactly. Which I why I don't get why she gets so much flack across the web, unlike any of the other feminist video game/movie vloggers. Is it because she's a solo team and an easy target? It is because she doesn't have dudes to back her up?

People treat her like the Diamanda Hagan of angry feminist critique, but she's really quite basic and mild. I'd say I'm worse than her when I used to blog on tumblr. And I only got one rape threat.
Diamanda Hagan doing video game reviews sounds kind of awesome.
Although I'm not sure there are many video games around with the meat on them for Diamanda (or NChick for that matter, although that would also be awesome) to really sink their teeth into.
 

thebloodfiend

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“It was, of course, nothing more than sexism, the especially virulent type espoused by male techies who sincerely believe that they are too smart to be sexists.” - Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
That succinctly summed up my thoughts on him.

See, I've got no problem with criticizing feminist vloggers. It bothers me not at all and I will quite frequently criticize so called "feminist" writers who speak against mtf being real women or bullshit along those lines. But I appreciate legitimate criticism. Not angry dudebro-ranting filled with logical fallacies to appeal to the lowest common denominator of mouthbreathing butthurt gamers.

I'd appreciate a real criticism of Sarkeesian because I don't think she's without flaws. I don't appreciate the way she refuses to take the context of the game into account. And I'd like reassurance that she actually plays the games. His, however, it not a real critique, nor is it excellent. That's akin to calling Clint Eastwood's criticism of the POTUS at the RNC excellent. Yes, there's something there underneath the rant, but at the core, it's really of no value.

If he claims to be a feminist and against sexism and misogyny, his first steps would be towards learning what they actually are. For a guy who uses terms like rape-apologist, you think he'd know what sexism is and what it means. He's just giving the guys who threatened to rape her and made that abusive flash game more fuel. And if he really did go to Africa and see the subjugation some women suffer over there, he should know that kind of shit is not cool, either. It all contributes.
 

Lissibith

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Exactly. Which I why I don't get why she gets so much flack across the web, unlike any of the other feminist video game/movie vloggers. Is it because she's a solo team and an easy target? It is because she doesn't have dudes to back her up?

I think it's because she ran a very successful Kickstarter and raised lots of money. This made a lot of jerks very angry.


I tend to think that's a big part of it (as this guy harped on it repeatedly at the start of the video Lily linked as well.) I think it doubly galls them that if they hadn't been such completely awful people to her to begin with, she likely wouldn't have gotten as much money *or* attention. But instead of wising up, they've decided to double down (and continue to drive more attention to her videos).

And then there's the fact that asking them to examine video games in even an equality 101 sort of way triggers that weird kneejerk of "if you call something I love problematic, then you're saying I'm a raging misogynist, and I'm *not* a raging misogynist, therefore you must be wrong"
 

efkelley

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“It was, of course, nothing more than sexism, the especially virulent type espoused by male techies who sincerely believe that they are too smart to be sexists.” - Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson

I like that a lot.
 

Zoombie

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Here's what I don't get...why are people mad about the kickstarter?

It's volunteer money.

People don't get guns held to their heads to MAKE them give money, it's not tax money or anything.
 

LOG

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Here's what I don't get...why are people mad about the kickstarter?

It's volunteer money.

People don't get guns held to their heads to MAKE them give money, it's not tax money or anything.
I haven't heard about people being mad over the money being given to the kickstarter, just to the idea of the kickstarter.
 

lilyWhite

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Just watched all three DiD videos. Have to say, really appreciate the amount of work that went into gathering so many examples. I thought it was very interesting that had I played any of the games where the girl begs to be killed by the hero on their own, I probably wouldn't have thought much of it. But seeing that line used over and over (followed with the breathless "thank you" afterwards) was really creepy.

The problem is when the majority of games she uses also have male characters in peril and in need of assistance from the player character. Showing brief glimpses of a game's story does not give an accurate portrayal of gender representation in the story. (Especially when Anita still has a problem when the protagonist and a female character both assist each other in situations they cannot overcome by themselves.)

I wish I could have appreciated this video. I feel that he has some valid criticisms on her methodology, but most of that is lost in his defensive ranting and misogynistic undertones. I don't think he wanted for it to be that way, but it came across like so many of the arguments I've heard against feminist analysis. I actually cringed over some of what he said.

I'm curious as to what these "misogynistic undertones" are.

thebloodfiend said:
Knowing how you feel about Sarkeesian from your blog, or anyone who dares view video games in a light other than that which you deem appropriate

Saying things like this is a great way to get me to consider your opinions.

8) At 6:59 on vid #3, she makes a very good point that I've been attempting to explain to people regarding race and sexuality for quite a while. Having an angry white dude villain who rapes a white female in a film is not equivalent to having an angry black dude villain who rapes a white female in a film, just like having a guy held captive to be saved by his bro is not the same as having a girlfriend held captive to be saved by her hero. It's false equivalency.

Why isn't it equivalent based on the race of the rapist? Do people of different races act in completely different ways and for completely different reasons? Is it only the black rapist who can be viewed to be motivated to specifically rape a woman because she is white? I'd hate to use "political correctness", but that is really what this sounds like. There's a difference between things happening to a character who is [x] and things happening to a character because they are [x].

24) What a guy thinks a female power fantasy is /=/ female power fantasy. God, I'm not interested in listening to this kind of false equivalency.

That's funny, because Anita constantly reduces other games to male power fantasies where (she claims) the male character is motivated not by any sort of emotional attachment but solely out of a sense of damaged masculinity.

Hopefully, you can understand why I have a problem with any brand of feminism that involves degrading men in general.

I think it's because she ran a very successful Kickstarter and raised lots of money. This made a lot of jerks very angry.

A lot of vitriol towards her on the topic of her Kickstarter is how her videos have barely improved in quality despite receiving significantly more than what she sought.

thebloodfiend said:
If he claims to be a feminist and against sexism and misogyny, his first steps would be towards learning what they actually are. For a guy who uses terms like rape-apologist, you think he'd know what sexism is and what it means. He's just giving the guys who threatened to rape her and made that abusive flash game more fuel.

...what? Care to elaborate? I'm very curious as to how the heck you construe someone criticizing another person's views as supporting rape threats. Or does the mere act of saying anything against Sarkeesian and her views make a person anti-women?
 

Torgo

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A lot of vitriol towards her on the topic of her Kickstarter is how her videos have barely improved in quality despite receiving significantly more than what she sought.

Even if this is true, so what? She should have hired Jodie Foster to present and stuck a bunch of Industrial Light and Magic effects in there? Is she somehow obliged to put all the money up on the screen? That whole side of things just smacks of a lot of sour grapes and reaching for things to complain about.

Oh yeah, and while we're at it: that money was made up from individual pledges given in return for clearly-defined rewards. Everyone who pledged got exactly what they signed up for. This isn't one person or a studio, say, giving her 150K more budget than she asked for and expecting her to spend it on production. That isn't how Kickstarter works. Is it immoral somehow for her to make a profit (if indeed that is what has happened, because God knows I'm not her accountant.)
 
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Xelebes

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The problem is when the majority of games she uses also have male characters in peril and in need of assistance from the player character. Showing brief glimpses of a game's story does not give an accurate portrayal of gender representation in the story. (Especially when Anita still has a problem when the protagonist and a female character both assist each other in situations they cannot overcome by themselves.)

I think you are trying to miss the point. Anita is focusing on female characters because she feels there is not enough scrutiny in how they are being portrayed. She wants to ask questions on the variety of roles they play, the preponderance of certain specific tropes, and the exaggeration of such tropes. It is not a question of whether men also fill these roles, but examining what are the roles filled by women.

Why isn't it equivalent based on the race of the rapist? Do people of different races act in completely different ways and for completely different reasons? Is it only the black rapist who can be viewed to be motivated to specifically rape a woman because she is white? I'd hate to use "political correctness", but that is really what this sounds like. There's a difference between things happening to a character who is [x] and things happening to a character because they are [x].

This is where nuance becomes important by the storyteller. The trick is to not use [x] as shorthand, exploiting our crueler assumptions.

That's funny, because Anita constantly reduces other games to male power fantasies where (she claims) the male character is motivated not by any sort of emotional attachment but solely out of a sense of damaged masculinity.

Hopefully, you can understand why I have a problem with any brand of feminism that involves degrading men in general.

I don't get that from her vlog. *shrug* Maybe there is some projection going on. I don't know.

A lot of vitriol towards her on the topic of her Kickstarter is how her videos have barely improved in quality despite receiving significantly more than what she sought.

. . . I've read the vitriol and that is not what the complaint is about.

...what? Care to elaborate? I'm very curious as to how the heck you construe someone criticizing another person's views as supporting rape threats. Or does the mere act of saying anything against Sarkeesian and her views make a person anti-women?

His definition(s) is lacking and giving too much room for those who make those nasty games. That's what I'm reading.
 

MacAllister

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PSA: Let's all please attempt to remember that these threads all too often end with thread-locks and time-outs, and avoid that outcome this time.

Thanks.
 

lilyWhite

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I don't get that from her vlog. *shrug* Maybe there is some projection going on. I don't know.

To quote the transcript of her second episode:

And since the majority of these titles focus of delivering crude, unsophisticated male power fantasies...

On the surface victimized women are framed as the reason for the hero’s torment, but if we dig a little deeper into the subtext I’d argue that the true source of the pain stems from feelings of weakness and/or guilt over his failure to perform his “socially prescribed” patriarchal duty to protect his women and children. ... In this way these failed-hero stories are really about the perceived loss of masculinity, and then the quest to regain that masculinity, primarily by exerting dominance and control, through the performance of violence on others.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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It's not clear to me what point you are trying to make. Ms. Sarkeesian is discussing male power fantasies. That is the topic of her entire series.

What does that have to do with the bloodfiend's point that what many men think are female power fantasies are not actually female power fantasies?
 

thebloodfiend

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PSA: Let's all please attempt to remember that these threads all too often end with thread-locks and time-outs, and avoid that outcome this time.

Thanks.
I was up till 1:00 last night, and I'm tired, so I'll agree and say I'm simply not going to respond in length.

lilywhite: My lack of interest in this discussion has nothing to do with backing out of an argument—it's merely a sign of frustration. Take what you want from my previous posts, but I think you've missed my point by a wide margin and I've got no interest in going back to explain why your guy's vid is ridiculous when I could be writing.

I'm not a fan of Sarkeesian by any means, but for you to quite openly express that you hate her because of her very, very basic videos on feminism is quite insulting to anyone who holds those beliefs, in my opinion, and there's really no point in continuing a discussion about feminism, or her videos, with you as this is certainly not the first time I've been drawn into getting angry over topics like this.
 

lilyWhite

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I think you are trying to miss the point. Anita is focusing on female characters because she feels there is not enough scrutiny in how they are being portrayed. She wants to ask questions on the variety of roles they play, the preponderance of certain specific tropes, and the exaggeration of such tropes. It is not a question of whether men also fill these roles, but examining what are the roles filled by women.

The problem is that Sarkeesian isn't giving a full portrayal of how female characters are being portrayed in the games she presents—only very small parts of those games, presented in a way that supports the arguments Sarkeesian is making. For example, she'll use a scene from a game in which a female character is presented in a helpless manner, without acknowledging that once the protagonist helps her, she quickly comes to the defense of the protagonist in their then-helpless state (Kingdom Hearts). Nor does she give a proper portrayal of how the male characters are portrayed, which is worth acknowledging if you want to argue that males are constantly portrayed as superior to females.

It's not clear to me what point you are trying to make. Ms. Sarkeesian is discussing male power fantasies. That is the topic of her entire series.

What does that have to do with the bloodfiend's point that what many men think are female power fantasies are not actually female power fantasies?

It isn't directed at bloodfiend's point because it was quoting Sarkeesian's second video in response to something someone else said.

Of the games which Sarkeesian describes as "male power fantasies" which I've played or know about, Gears of War is probably the only arguable example of a game that is a power fantasy. And that's a series in which there are strong and capable women and "victimized" men in the story.

thebloodfiend said:
I'm not a fan of Sarkeesian by any means, but for you to quite openly express that you hate her because of her very, very basic videos on feminism is quite insulting to anyone who holds those beliefs, in my opinion

I don't hate Sarkeesian because she's a feminist in general. I dislike Sarkeesian and her videos because she makes flawed arguments using flawed examples, to the point where it is obvious that she simply does not know anything about many of the games she is talking about. (Her Bayonetta "review" is likely the high point of this, in which the only positive attribute of the titular character that she acknowledged was that she was a single mother. Yeah.) Her misandrist undertones and double standards in some of her videos don't help.
 

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Someone pointed out this counterpoint video to me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJihi5rB_Ek

Like the original DiD video, I don't agree with everything the commenter said, but unlike several of the rebuttal videos I've seen, there's no angry ranting (she actually compliments a lot of the original DiD video). It mostly comes off as a call to be more positive and celebrate the games that get it right.
 

LOG

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I like that video, although I disagree with:
A) The idea that Peach becomes significant based on sales figures. A better argument would be that the Super Mario games have no more importance to the Mario franchise and canon than any other of the Mario games, so Peach's playability outside of Super Mario has as much impact as her lack of playability within them.
B) That games being a business means they should receive lighter criticism.

Of course, Anita's second and third videos hadn't come out yet--I hope Kite responds to them as well.

Also, I think a lot of the people around this kind of discussion could learn something from Kite's attitude.
 

thebloodfiend

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Someone pointed out this counterpoint video to me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJihi5rB_Ek

Like the original DiD video, I don't agree with everything the commenter said, but unlike several of the rebuttal videos I've seen, there's no angry ranting (she actually compliments a lot of the original DiD video). It mostly comes off as a call to be more positive and celebrate the games that get it right.

I think your own quote is relevant to Kite's video.

Just watched all three DiD videos. Have to say, really appreciate the amount of work that went into gathering so many examples. I thought it was very interesting that had I played any of the games where the girl begs to be killed by the hero on their own, I probably wouldn't have thought much of it. But seeing that line used over and over (followed with the breathless "thank you" afterwards) was really creepy.
Only, instead of line, I'd use "trope."

Of course Sarkeesian, like every person on the globe, has bias and an agenda (it's quite cute to see people use those words, as if they're negative in any kind of way). And I don't think she does much to shed light on games/movies that are positive—at least, from what I know, as I stopped watching her vids when I discovered Channel Awesome—but nor do I think that's a problem. My main problem is that Kite used the "it's marketing" line. "It's marketing" has been a long standing excuse used to keep PoC/Women/LGBT from television shows, out of leading roles, off of book covers, and out of movies as lead actors unless they fill a token role or a niche. "It's marketing" is not a valid excuse if you're trying to make a change. And Sarkeesian is trying to make a change, not pander to games/movies that only kinda/sorta/maybe get it right half of the time. It's why I get sad when people are glad that The Help was produced and that Tyler Perry keeps making money because black actors stay funded. Yes, but at what cost for how we're represented?

Peach and other characters like her are not problematic when viewed alone without the context of the entire video gaming industry, just like Starfire and Power Girl and the new Harley Quinn and Voodoo and Emma Frost aren't problematic when viewed without the context of the entire comic book industry. I agree, Sarkeesian should try to take the context of the game into account, but given that any criticism she directs at gamer culture results in threats of rape and violence and irrational disrespect, that speaks to the problem they so ardently try to deny exists, I doubt that would please them.

I do, however, appreciate Kite's levelheaded approach to criticizing Sarkeesian and the fact that she insists she's not "attacking" her. That, IMO, is the first step towards having a discussion and not an argument, as arguments usually go nowhere.
 

Katrina S. Forest

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I think the biggest point I did agree with Kite on was her attempts to turn things into a real discussion.

I also agree that the character's whole plot needs to be taken into consideration, not just one scene. Unfortunately, being a DiD really does seem to be Peach's whole plot. We're told Peach is a princess and we kinda assume she leads the kingdom in some way, but unlike Zelda, we never actually see her do it.

I didn't buy the marketing bit either, aside from a general agreement that if you find a game is demeaning to women (or any group for that matter), you shouldn't financially support that game by buying it.
 

RichardGarfinkle

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Sarkeesian has an agenda, but looking at her earlier videos (the shorter ones that came before the Kickstarter project), she's quite open and aboveboard about it. She's clear about what she thinks the right way pop culture should treat a number of subjects.

She's specific about her ideas of what feminism means and what kind of feminist she is and she talks about the good and bad in what she sees.

Her video game analysis is interesting as is are her shorts about tropes, but I think her best was in her discussion of LEGO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrmRxGLn0Bk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe65EGkB9kA
 

Opty

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Honestly, I've always felt that she was intentionally trolling for publicity, even if only slightly. She makes a few good points but they get lost and washed away in her sea of troll, in which she sets up some serious strawmen arguments and selectively chooses to focus mainly on games that are either 20 years old (therefore not relevant to contemporary gaming) or games that were not ever blockbusters or popular sellers (even though she mendaciously describes them as such). Her two biggest examples so far are the Mario games and Double Dragon (seriously?).

I will agree that, as the Mario games are marketed mainly at kids, that Princess Toadstool (i.e. apparently now she's called Peach) is not a good female role model and possibly reinforces archaic stereotypes to children. But, to define an entire industry by the Mario series, several games that are decades old, and several more that most people have never heard of or played, all while ignoring a wealth of disconfirming evidence, is both disingenuous and misguided.

She's also, thus far, conveniently ignored the strong female characters in popular games (actual blockbusters) such as Lara from the new Lara Croft, FemShep from Mass Effect, Morrigan from Dragon Age, Elena from the Uncharted series, Faith from Mirror's Edge, etc. as well as the explosion of female gamers over the past few years.

She also, as has been mentioned, fails to take the overall plot into consideration and reduces female characters down to unidimensional paper dolls (i.e. weak damsels), as if female characters are never deeper or more complex. I also dislike how she equates a character being in a perilous situation to that character being "weak."

She also misrepresents two very popular games in her 2nd tropes vid - God of War and Infamous - by suggesting that they are also examples of the "damsel in distress trope." She does this by talking about the trope while quickly flashing scenes from both games (as well as a few others) where the main character is holding or otherwise standing over the body of a dead/dying female loved one. However, neither of those games' plots fits the trope in any way whatsoever. Neither are rescue stories (GoW is about vengeance and Infamous is about societal unrest after a form of terrorism). This is blatantly misleading and no doubt intentional on her part.

Just because a female character dies in a story does not in any way mean that the entire story is a damsel in distress trope.

Anyway, she claims that her videos are "well-researched" but they really don't seem to be. Her level of research seems to be incredibly superficial, actually.* (per the first link in my following next post after this one, there's evidence she may have not even played any of these games at all. How fraudulent).

They are a decent message wrapped up in so many layers of troll bait and bullshit misrepresentation that they are rendered ineffective, at least to the audience she claims she wants to reach. And, it's very unfortunate that such an important message (that games would benefit from stronger female characters and better stories for them) is being wasted by having her as the messenger.

Her vids are nothing more than her preaching to the choir, grabbing her 15 minutes, and running off with over $100,000 of other people's money. It is beyond believable that after all this time, with so much money, she's only released 3 vids, all of mediocre production quality, all where she's wearing the exact same thing, all where she fails to bring up any scientific data, legitimate sources, or deeper critical analysis to bolster her position.

If that is what $100,000+ of other people's hard-earned, donated money yields, then a lot of people have been anally fleeced.

Rather than a thoughtful critical analysis of games, she offers little more than a heavily cherry-picked rant.

Even though he gets a bit carried away and over-reaches a bit (just as she does in her vids), Thunderf00t posted a 3-part take down of her "Tropes" vid (even analyzing Sarkeesian's own graduate thesis). He makes a few good points (and some not so good ones) even though it's a bit more priggish than it needs to be:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJeX6F-Q63I

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGAvjwQPCHE

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_O1R7Zq9EI
 
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