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Feminist Frequency to Air Two New Video Series

New documentaries to examine representations of men and masculinity, as well as positive female characters.

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Anita Sarkeesian, the award-winning essayist who produces videos analyzing gender issues in games, has outlined plans for two new documentary series that are expected to air in 2015.

Feminist Frequency, the non-profit organization that Sarkeesian founded in 2009, gained industry-wide attention with its Tropes Vs Women video series, which documents issues of gender representation in games. In 2012, Sarkeesian sought $6000 on Kickstarter to fund the series, but overwhelming support led to her project amassing $158,000.

The success of these videos has led to Sarkeesian becoming a target of online harassment from a minority of detractors, a few of which have made domestic terrorism threats in an attempt to block her public appearances.

For 2015, Sarkeesian wants to launch a new video series "examining the representations of men and masculinity in video games," along with a mini-series "presenting examples of positive female characters in video games."

In 2014 Anita Sarkeesian received the GDC Ambassador Award for her work uncovering gender issues in games. [Image: GDC Flickr]
In 2014 Anita Sarkeesian received the GDC Ambassador Award for her work uncovering gender issues in games. [Image: GDC Flickr]

No further details of this series was discussed, though she added in the Feminist Frequency 2014 Report that these will run alongside more episodes of Tropes vs Women, starting with a new episode exploring the theme of “Women as Reward."

The expansion plans are due in part to the major influx of donations to Feminist Frequency, with the organization last year making $441,000 in revenue from donations. More than half of that was raised in December alone.

Due to this influx in donations, Sarkeesian wants to expand the Feminist Frequency team and is currently hiring.

"My vision for Feminist Frequency was to bring discussions of feminist theory to a wider audience by way of popular culture. I would never have guessed back in 2009 that Feminist Frequency would officially become a non-profit organization and play a significant public role in shaping conversations about media engagement and online abuse," she wrote in the annual report (download).

"As a result, we have expanded Feminist Frequency's mission to include advocacy around ending online hate and abuse, analyzing, and advancing awareness of how gendered harassment operates online.

"Throughout all of the turbulent ups and downs of 2014, we held onto the warmth and support from our viewers and fans. The overwhelming number of supportive messages, emails, and tweets reminds us of how important this work is and how much of an impact we are making."

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