Anita Sarkeesian posts new video

Check it out here

don't give that charlatan any more attention that she already has. She's not a gamer and she's only doing this shit for the money.

I'll make sure not to watch it

Or she want to address an issue.

What a skank

No she is a con artist who just wants money. She made a phoney fund raiser to make money to pay for research despite already stating the conclusion of the research she is yet to do within the video asking for money. In other words she never needed the money, she's just a con artist.

I hate people like this. Geeez, another commentator who is ignorant about the topic she professes to discuss.

Her videos don't run on ads so the money is also used to keep the channel running with high quality videos. Basically she needs money like every other online blogger if she wants to continue what she's doing.

High quality? They are anything but high quality. None of the money went into making the videos, there are channels that put more research into their work for free.

When I say high quality I mean the videos have high production values (which they do). And are you absolutely sure those channels aren't using ad revenue for their videos?

She should wear a bread bag on her head. Would improve the quality of the image.

I love how the feminist always makes a point of wearing tons of make-up with those ugly hoop earings making her look like some sort of slutty latina chick stereotype for her feminist videos...

Oh and she is a moron and con-artist who people really need to ignore so she doesn't get her attention. I am sure the vast majority of her audience at this point is actually the people who hate her....

I've never cared enough about this stuff to really pay much attention to what she had to say. However, I think that some people here are missing something. When a woman starts talking about sexism, crowds of angry gamers instantly labeling her "ugly" and "a slut" doesn't really make for a compelling counterargument. If anything, it goes like this...people make comments about how the video game industry is sexist, and I think to myself, "nah, I don't believe it." Then I read comments from gaming fans and think, "gee, I guess I was wrong."

I don't mean to reduce the anti-Sarkeesian argument to petty stuff like that, but I really do find it terribly funny that a feminist chooses to present herself physically in the manner she does.

She sits there and fights against these "female identifiers" that game-makers use to inform people a character is a female, yet she presents herself using those SAME MARKERS, and on top of that she does it in such a way that she makes her physical appearance resemble a very bad stereotype....

If you ask me, she just looks like a normal woman. You could arguably criticize her for having bad fashion taste (I've always thought that giant earrings were kind of stupid), but that doesn't exactly invalidate what she's saying. Regardless, even if she does look like "a bad stereotype", what does it say that people are attacking her appearance instead of her arguments? That's sort of reducing her role to "be pretty and don't think too hard". WTF does her being "ugly" have to do with anything?

Think of it this way. Imagine that Spike Lee went on TV complaining about racism in Hollywood, and then the next week you saw him at KFC ordering fried chicken and a grape soda. Would that suddenly invalidate his arguments? Would that instantly justify legions of movie fans making racist comments about the guy every time he brought up the issue?

Well honestly it is extremely hypocritical of her. You go and bitch about developers using these things to help identify female characters as if a woman wearing pink or having lipstick or a bow or earrings is somehow wrong, yet she goes and parades around wearing those identifiers. If devs aren't supposed to use those identifiers than WTF does she want them to do? Make them all androgynous? Lets just put everyone in a tux and call it even?

It just points to how stupid her argument in this particular video is to begin with, when she wants to whine about female characters wearing certain fashions when she is a female wearing said fashions. There are mens and womens sections at clothing stores for a reason, that reason being that mens fashion and womens fashion DIFFER.

The whole bitching about the female animal characters having identifiers is just dumb as hell as well. I really would love to see her go and try and distinguish between a male and female alligator. The vast majority of people wouldn't be able to tell the fucking difference between a male and female with an animal like that, so an identifier is kind of necessary or else it is just going to be weird having all the characters the same.

These are just games after all, not tools of suppression like she seems to think they are. Devs are just trying to differentiate between characters. Really, she doesn't even criticize them on the level she could, which is to say they are just being LAZY when it comes to this area. Throw on a pink bow and BAM! You got a female character. Rather than putting in some more effort to make the female character differentiate from the male character in better ways they just take that lazy way out.

Funny thing you mention race, I love how she touched on L4D having only one female character, but failed to acknowledge the token black guy situation in the first game. She really is dumb for touching that series to begin with considering the characters are fairly well-loved, ESPECIALLY Zoey, the "Smurfette" of the first game. EVERY character in those games is unique and has a fleshed-out personality, and I would go so far as to say they are prime examples of how to properly make a female character. The two women in those games have unique personalities, aren't overly feminine OR overly masculine, and on top of that they are STRONG women who are fighting to survive an impossible situation.

As for that proposed situation, I can't say anything considering "complaining about racism" is not nearly specific enough. If he is complaining about characters portrayed doing the EXACT SAME STUFF he is doing, I do find it kind of dumb and hypocritical, granted that topic is a much different monster than this topic where the feminist is complaining about female characters being portrayed wearing feminine identifiers that are not only extremely common parts of women's fashion, but things that she herself is ALWAYS wearing in her videos which is just ridiculous and why when feminism gets to topics like these that things get ridiculous because their demands are just too much as you just have to ask WTF do you want them to do? Put every female character in a tux?

Of course this is all ignoring the fact that at the root of all this she is completely ignoring the underlying issue that these games are being marketed to young males, whether or not doing such a thing is right (granted I am fairly certain that young males are the majority of the gaming market). We have seen games try and NOT go for that market recently and the results were not so good. Bayonetta definitely tried valiantly to cater to a more female demographic and despite garnering lots of praise, the game sold like crap and it is only because Nintendo was willing to buy up exclusitivity that a second game is being made.

Yeah, but here's the thing...you guys weren't breaking down how her argument was hypocritical, I'm seeing a bunch of posts about how she's ugly or fat or wears too much makeup or looks slutty. Half of this $hit is even contradictory. On one hand we've got people just criticizing her for not knowing $hit about video games, and then we've got comments about her using "research money" as a scam because she obviously knows video games well enough to not have to do any research.

How much of that is true? Beats the hell out of me, because I'm not invested enough in this $hit to follow what's going on. All I know is that I kind of like video games, yet still have an image of this "nerd hobby" as just the domain of pointless whiny self-entitled man-children. It's like when I raised tarantulas and scorpions for a hobby. Kind of weird, I guess. But hey, people like what they like. But then I went on tarantula forums and saw that the people there were overwhelmingly out of their f***ing minds, and it's like, "holy $hit...do I really want to become like these f***ing people?"

Think about this...despite gaming becoming incredibly popular among hugely diverse demographics in recent years, how is it that there's still this perception of gamers as losers? Well, it's because there are gamers and there are GAMERS. I'm a gamer, but I don't know about the details of this $hit. All I know is vague stuff like, "a woman makes a web series about sexism in games, gamers slam her for being a fat ugly slutty b***** without refuting any of her arguments." How the hell am I supposed to take that? It's no different than when I join a tarantula forum in order to share my hobby with like-minded hobbyists, and then end up running away when I realize that the community I've joined is one in which people treat goddamned spiders like their f***ing children.

And that's what you're not getting. You people can make all the "the ugly slut isn't a real gamer, she should get back in the kitchen" comments all day. But if there's any substance to such comments, if this is like some kind of "in-joke", then you're just preaching to the choir. That only works for the people who already have decided that she is a slut/ugly/etc, and how/why that is somehow relevant. In other words, it doesn't do jack $hit to counter anything she's saying, it's just a circle jerk for people who have already made up their minds. For EVERYONE ELSE, you're just arguing in her favor. If nongamers happen upon this site, and see such comments, are they gonna be in on the joke? No, they're just gonna see a bunch of f***ing nerds call a woman an ugly slut for suggesting that there might be sexism in games. How does that COUNTER the argument that there is sexism in games? Someone who likes games but isn't hardcore enough to be well-informed on this woman? They're just gonna see these kinds of comments and then say, "what the f*** kind of coomunity have I joined? Do I really want to be like these people, do I want to be a part of this group?" Like you say, "these games are designed to cater to young males", but I'm seeing a whole lot of young males acting like total f***ing misogynist jerks. If the vocal audience is acting like pricks, then how does pointing out that the games cater to that audience somehow counter what she's saying?

Make no mistake...I'm not saying that you're wrong about her. Maybe she's ugly or a slut, and maybe that's somehow relevant. But I can't see how that's relevant from my point of view, I just see a bunch of people bashing a woman for having the balls to say what's on her mind. The real question is what the GOAL of those kinds of comments is.If the goal of such comments is to just form a big circle jerk, then by all means continue. I just hope you realize that you're sort of arguing in favor of her point to anyone who isn't already on your side of the issue. As far as changing minds, those comments actually support her argument.

The goal of these comments? Jesus maybe people are just making fun of her stupidity. I can assure you anyone making comments like that aren't trying to actually argue against her. Thing is people are just sick of hearing about this idiot who is intruding into an area she apparently doesn't know shit about and is making these dumb arguments based on some random belief she held and is trying to cherry pick things to try and prove her own hypothesis.

You act as if anyone is going to come to a gaming forum to try and get our side of the story. I assure you anyone who is going to buy her drivel has had their mind made up well-before any of this arguing started and nothing we can say can change that. There is a huge portion of the public out there who can't even begin to recognize that gaming isn't a kids hobby anymore and has been dominated by young adults (mainly male with an ever-growing female population) who have jobs and lives for some time now. They do not care enough to even look and see if their perceptions are right and they really don't care what gamers have to think.

Not saying that the immaturity is helping things, but when I post in this topic I am not sitting here trying to pretend I am posting anything that is going to change anyones mind. I do think the gaming community is freaking awful which is sad considering it is a community I am part of. I understand the funs of trolling and being a bit of an ass at times, but there is too big of a psychotic side to the community who go absolutely apeshit and take things way too far whenever anything happens. I am sure this dumb Sarkeesian woman has received death threats which seems standard whenever anyone says anything that might rustle the internet a bit these days which as much as I dislike her, that is taking things way too far.

These forum posts, even long well-thought-out ones like these are really just pissing in the wind at the end of the day. I can try and sound a eloquent as possible and mean every bit of what I say and type with much passion hoping to make that ultimate case for my side but deep down I know and have accepted that none one of these posts are going to change anything. Sometimes it just ends up being fun to accept that fact and rattle of a trolly post to let out some steam.

Anita's stuff really just pisses me off for the same reason that as an animal love I absolutely abhor PETA with a passion. When you have idiots like Anita pushing themselves at the forefront of their "cause" (which the cause of women equality is a very good one) they overshadow other people/groups who are doing legitimately good jobs of furthering the cause and have actual legitimacy to what they are doing. She simply belittles woman's rights and actually HURTS her cause by pushing forward this horseshit when there are major legitimate problems that need to be addressed.

There IS an issue of misogyny in the gaming community, but it has NOTHING to do with the games themselves. Just a year or so ago there was a big incident within the fighting game community where some sexist remarks were made, and how was that responded to? We had a pro-player come forward and say that misogyny is "just a part of the fighting community". You want to combat misogyny in the gaming world? How about we start with the COMMUNITY where the real issue lies.

I haven't even see her begin to talk about the community in her videos (which I try to watch without giving her hits). She rattles off all this BS about the portrayal of female characters in games and completely ignores the real issues. She is so dimwitted she can't even come CLOSE to touching on the real issues, and yet she is the face of feminism in the gaming community now. It sucks, she sucks, and I just wanted to leave a trolly comment to let out some of this steam I have built up dealing with her stupidity.

I don't get how she looks at games like Mario and complains about the characters. Like every single character in the games is one dimensional - why does it matter that the girl koopa or whatever is one dimensional?

What the ****, she complains about Adam and Eve? A story from a book over 1000 years old? Yeah, no shit it's not feminist.

I love how when Roger Ebert said video games weren't an art people reacted with "WHAT THE **** IS HE SAYING OF COURSE THEY'RE AN ART!" Yet when someone takes the time to do a critique of them (like you would any other art form) people react so strongly against her.

I have no interest in what this professional victim has to say. I watched her first video and it was so poorly put together and her arguments were ridiculous. She already had her conclusion before she even started...which makes her asking for money for 'research' hilarious.

she spent nearly half the video explaining the concept of sign and signifier

@LostProphetFLCL: I could understand the argument that this is just making fun of her, if it wasn't for the fact that this woman seems to make te community so ANGRY. It isn't just that people think she's stupid, there appears to be a huge segment of the gaming community that is genuinely pissed off at what she's saying. So why help to support her in the eyes of casuals? Like it or not, those kinds of comments do make the community look bad, which by extension makes gaming look bad in the eyes of those responsible gamers with jobs and responsibilities who don't obsess over this stuff.

The gaming community is an angry one and anytime anyone attacks the gaming world like this, this is the reaction they get...

And yes, people are pissed off that this woman is attacking their hobby with her complete ignorance on the subject. The community has dealt with such a crazy amount of ignorance towards their hobby and this idiot and they are sick of idiots like her.

It is a sad occurence, and it happens with reviews all the time. It seems people want video games to be art when it comes to the legal system, but for all other purposes they don't want them treated as art. If video games truly want to be art, then we should not only listen to critiques of games in the manner that Sarkeesian and other people are give, but explore them and encourage them to their full potential. "Video games are art and should be treated as such!" "OMG YOU GAVE GAME X A 7/10! WTF YOU SUCK YOU CAN'T HAVE AN OPINION ON A GAME YOU NEED TO REVIEW THE GAME OBJECTIVELY! GAME IS A 9/10 AT LEAST YOU *****!"

Wow I don't even know where to begin. These were some seriously mind-numbing 25 minutes. Its amazing how absurd feminists are becoming by the day. What do feminists want I don't understand. What purpose does this specific video serve? What is the point she's making? what, according to her, needs to change in the real world? I mean I've listened to her talking for 25 minutes and I still don't know what she wants. All I get for the most part is that female characters are made to look feminine. So? What is so bad about this? What is so unfair, unjust and backwards about recognizing the timeless reality that there are males and females, two sexes not one, with each sex having different physiology and maybe even different roles. Should characters and actors start cross-dressing so that some feminists may shut the hell up.

BUT, regardless of everything, what I find particularly epitomizing of her hypocrisy and nonsense is the amount of makeup she's wearing in the video and just how much apparent time and effort have been invested in preparing her for the video. It also appears that she's still keeping her boobs, why? Boobs are major female signifiers, she should just amputate them. Who says just because she's a female she has to have boobs? If the default and the norm is not to have boobs, as the case with men, why should all females suffer the stereotype of being the exception of the rule and having boobs? Why should they bear the burden of being labeled as belonging to a sex (that they belong to) according to a pair of fat lumps? Oh the tragedy.

It's not a critique as she hasn't done any research, she is just making stuff up. Nothing she says has any truth behind it.

All she does is make sexism more acceptable by trivialising it

@DharmaMember77: You seem to be fond of her as a critic who has done actual research on the things she's spouting. Let me ask you this: Aside from the contents in the video and the points she's seemingly making, don't you objectively feel that she's scripted as ****? Doesn't she come off to you as someone who's just reciting things? I don't know about you, but I don't recall seeing a single meaningful expression on her face. She didn't do any hand gestures. She didn't even blinked lol

A critique is giving your opinion and opinions aren't supposed to have any truth behind them.

Her point was that these female characters in video games aren't treated as individuals with their own personalities and that the only thing that differentiates them from their male counterparts is the typical female signifiers.

Can all of you shut up about the whole make up argument? Aside from the fact that she has the freedom to wear whatever she wants you have to understand that when you're filming a video which consists of a medium close up shot of yourself the make up helps make your face stand out in the video (this is something males occasionally do as well)

Yes they do. If I say I think pokemon is racist because Ash beats up a black person while repeatedly shouting the n-word. Is that a valid critique?

I don't get why she complains about Mass Effect trailers. The game is the perfect example of what she complains about done perfectly. So what if the trailers were almost all male shepard? Mostly guys play the game who.... guess what, are going to generally chose maleshep.

And she was just outright wrong about people using femshep say just shepard for male shepard. People who do that generally say maleshep.

What was the stat? Only 16% of ME players actually make a female Shepard anyway? I made one, but I also made male sheps.

I was going more along the lines of everyone having an opinion and no one opinion being the correct one. But instead of complaining about how her information is wrong why don't you take the time to actually explain?

I've never played Mass Effect and I never knew there was a female option for the character. Her complaints do hold some validity.

People need to be less sexist

So? The game may not have advertised it but the option is there and it's a great example of female/male character choice done right. It's not like they were like "We hate women so we're not going to advertise Female Shepard!" They probably looked at their player base and saw it was mostly guys and that male Shepard is usually chosen (she said in the video like 78% of characters are male or something) so advertised the one more people used.

I just don't understand why she would complain about the game's advertising when she even admitted that the game was very good for her feminist thinking or whatever. It's like what is good enough for you?

I'll watch the response videos instead.