Anita Sarkeesian displays a great Machina interpretation on how video games have distorted the many different ways females are represented in her two-season web series curriculum Tropes vs Women in Video Games.
Context
Gamergate:
In August 2014 a female game developer Zoe Quinn broke up with her boyfriend and word of the relationship got out after he spoke on how toxic it was in a blog post. Unexpectedly the gaming community made this a larger issue when a hashtag “#Gamergate” was created. This became a large controversy with many arguments on Sexism and Progressiveness in the video game culture. Many people who claimed to be part of the Gamergate movement said that they had no official leaders of the phenomenon that seemed to grow out of thin air.
Connection:
Due to the explosion of Gamergate, many feminist activists were targeted in the gaming industry. One of those being targeted was Anita Sarkeesian and specifically her Web Series. Sarkeesian received death threats from many people over the internet, which was claimed as a right-wing backlash against progressiveness. On, August 24th, 2014, Sarkeesian had her own home address leaked, which compelled her to flee from her house in fear. Therefore, with her criticism and harassment at such a high level, Anita had to turn off her comments on all of the video projects on her Youtube channel FeminestFreqeuncy. This was the smartest thing for her to do because of how much hate the video’s received, however, the ability for the audience to not interact with her works is a huge downfall. With no ability to receive criticism she is solely basing her project on her views and beliefs creating a very one-sided argument.
Peers
Tropes vs. Women (2011):
Before her Web Series Curriculum was a thing Sarkeesian released a Tropes vs Women in video games series that consisted of six videos comparing the most common tropes of females in video games with a variety of examples. Although very similar, the goal was much different at the time. The goal of this series was to show gamers that there is a problem with the way women are portrayed. The exposure of this series is what set up and gave her traction on the internet. After receiving many donations from her Kickstarter, she began to allocate more money then she previously had. With her new found money she was able to create a whole curriculum and better designed Web Series that is now known as Tropes vs Women in Video games.
Ordinary Women: Daring to Defy History (2016):
Two years later after Sarkessian’s Web Series, she decided that she wanted to create another series based on the ordinary women in history that changed and created some of the landscape for today’s society. In these videos, Sarkeesian runs through the life of these ordinary women explaining the impact they created while still struggling to gain any appreciation by men at the time. She informs the viewer that these women struggled to gain any appreciation because of the way the men treated them, and how their work is still underappreciated today. The goal of this series is for Sarkeesian to express the underlying belief that these powerful women were not given the exposure they deserved, hence creating a greater appreciation of women from old ages and even present time.
