Great article, couldn't agree more. In my experience, sexists are on the same level as homophobes; resentment towards any group of people, whether it stems from the bible, bad parenting or bad education, all comes back to fear and misunderstanding. I was also disturbed by the juvenile response to the documentary announcement and other GameSpot segments regarding the growing number of female players, but not shocked. Not after the outcry over Danny's look at religion in videogames, not after outcry over the negative Warfighter review. Not after watching the news for five minutes and learning there are still yokels out there who think it's okay to control women's bodies and were never taught that rape is bad. The majority of the reaction for those bits, as you highlighted, reveal how out of touch not just gamers but males in general have become. These idiots are so backwards they believe that war is fun, that women are objects and Christianity is somehow less evil than Islam. And the rest of us have to live and work around these people in society every day. And they will just keep on whining and forcing the rest of the progressive-minded among us to claw for every bloody inch of social justice we can get in our beloved medium. So be it.

And yet again you're making an issue where there is none or rather driving it to the wrong direction. Games in the general consensus are supposed to be fun. Pure entertainment. And yes, there is "serious" gaming and casual gaming. When computers were at their infancy people would likely go out more and play cards or hide and seek or something.  There are some givens and parameters that have traditionally been there as some others said (mostly the "nerd" stereotype and its evolution along with technology over the years). Variety of themes and mechanics is mostly about creative thinking and messing with your chances and not a matter of whether you're male or female. Sure, you may do it in a different way.

YET, again you're asking people (excuse me, men) to not generalise when you keep referring to masculinity issues. I could very easily say "Oh yes, you say men are animals who just like punching stuff". Yes, most men do like sports/action/blabla stuff. But that's not 100% indicative of everything else. Oh, and they are so shallow... God, they only like attacking women and are so fearful of change. It's NOT a matter of masculinity, it's mainly a matter of business and respect. Action is EASY TO SELL. It's pure entertainment. The problem is not accepting that games can be insightful works of art. It's not even a matter of being a nerd. The casual, most representative mindset is to view gaming as a pass-time activity and not as something you'd spend ours on and analyse its every bit and byte. Again, as someone said, this could be an issue of gamers to gamers or better, of gamers to publishers.

You can ask for something. You can say "Hey peeps, we're a [growing] group of people and maybe you should consider our preferrences - we're part of your audience/clientele after all". I personally have nothing against women. It's just about numbers. Not even female population numbers, but selling figures and purely casual, enetertainment mindset. 

I DON'T CARE if a game is made (only) by women...

I DON'T CARE if a game deals with female issues (it could be a study into the female nature)...

I DON'T CARE if it has a female protagonist

...AS LONG AS I CAN FEEL IT PROVIDES ME WITH SOMETHING I LIKE AMD IT'S WORTH MY TIME.

You yourself pretty much admit that feminism in 2013 is stupid. And even though it was a movement with completely valid starting points, now you've completely twisted it into an argument of being suppressed every single time you want to ask something. Respect isn't.

Nobody stops you from making your own dev team, noone stops you from bringing up an issue, noone stops you from making suggestions. It's just not cool when you are dividing the community with falsely based assumptions. Where is the fun? Where is the art? What does dating have to do with anything? Yeah... 

I don't think anyone is against anything, nor afraid of anyone. There's room for all. People just don't like being crapped on for their decisions and preferences. And if you feel you need to do this in gaming... Guess what. Maybe you should be doing in reality first. Don't turn GAMES into a scapegoat for society's syndroms.

Think there's something different and purposeful and original to offer? You think YOU can offer it? Come on ahead and be judged and put to the test.

P.S. Caps are for attention purposes, not shouting.

This is not a welcomed addition to the gaming population and rightfully so.  We are "sexist" because we disagree with the making of this film to highlight... sexism?  A documentary titled, "GTFO: A Film About Women in Gaming" isn't what I would call positive PR for the gaming industry.  I never heard of a company that talk about their faults of their product.  Why?  Because it's not going to help them, GROW!  This is a hit piece on gaming.

although there may be a good amount of truth to some of the things you say, there are however very few female gamers in general, gaming is still arguably shaking the image of a hobby attributed to basement dwelling nerds, and all of the girls i know irl don't like anything beyond motion dance games or workouts.  When more girls begin playing i imagine things changing.

i imagine you did cherry pick the few comments that illustrate your points.  how bout something good about the men lol

The lesbians are at it again... Perhaps take this shit elsewhere. What happened to Gamespot being about games? No one has problems with women. The femists are the problem, not games, not the gaming industry, not men, not women. That "sexism" you fucking morons claim you see on Gamespot is nothing more than people letting you know how fucking stupid this all is. The sad part is all the brainwashed men who actually agree with this femist crap. Play games and shut the fuck up.

I AGREE.WHAT IS THE ILLUSTRATION AT THE TOP?

lol well heres my two cents and fyi im a guy

once when i was a freshmen at humboldt state university and if you know that school you know how left wing hippie paridise it is. heck its has the best vegitarian cafeteria in the nation just to get my point across i was in a english 100 class and the proffessor asked the class what is the definition of feminism. nobody answered and i had an answer so i spoke up.

what i said was well femisist want equality in all things for women. techinacly there isnt anything witen in the constuition that gives equal rights to both men and women. the consitition does say that all citizens shall have equal protection to due process and the right to vote that shall not discrimentate based on race or color. it dosent say anything about women actually(fact). so thats what i said and then i was like idk why it cant get past the house or senate but whatever and then at the very end i was like but there touchy about it.

then the femisit in the class makes a disgusted noise and is like that was the perfect defintion of femisim and then it got ruined cause of me saying there touchy. and that basically sums up women for yea cause they want equality for everyone but say a womens wrong or touchy and she'll ripe your head off and thats what women do in video games. its not the video gamer fault that most of us are guys and that coperate morons are the ones that stunt creatiivity and just try to make a quick buck and have the largest profit margin possible. why is it our fault that women dont 'feel' accepted its because 6 years ago i would have been shocked to play with a girl now not so much but frankly i dont really give a crap.

How bout we get EA and activion stop making fps and mmos that havent changed at all since call of duty 2(the WWII one not MW) came out and when wow was first realesed. well thats my two cents just thought id contribute

I actually was wondering if this was going to be your content or if it was a clever tongue and cheek title and I would be given some top ten lists with the likes of Lisa Trevor, Scarlet from Silent Hill, etc.

Who cares if they want to make a documentary. If you don't want to watch it then don't but don't sit there and dictate what they can and cannot do because they are "inferior" women. Buncha sexist d-bags I am ashamed to be a man when comments are made like this.  Grow up.

You got the point perfectly, nice blog here :)

Ok, seems like everyone is contributing their two cents, so I'll throw mine in.

I think a large part of this debate lies in the evolution of what it means to be a "gamer" or a "nerd".

I'm a thirty year old man.  I've been playing PC and console games for about 26 years.  When I was a teenager, being a nerd was a negative label.  It meant you were physically weak or unattractive, socially inept, and interested in something so exclusive or unusual that only other nerds could appreciate and understand you.  Being a nerd meant being a pariah.

Fast-forward to present day.  What does being a nerd mean now?  It means being intelligent, being a capable and creative problem-solver... in short, it's become a positive label, and as such, popular culture has invaded nerd culture.  However, many gamers still see being a nerd or a gamer as an exclusive club for people that "know what they are talking about."  They've romanticized this illusion of being a brilliant outsider.  Many male gamers still feel that social neglect, and are reflecting that negativity at the swiftly-growing population of female gamers.  Guess what guys?  Highschool is over, and if you are still in high school, it doesn't last long.  Grow up.

I view modern feminism as an immoral movement, if anything. First, most modern feminists aren't fighting for equality anymore-neither are most racial groups. If you want to fight for true, non-biased equality, be a humanist. It's more expansive. Second, there are issues that are really just not worth fighting over. Sexism in video games? We'll get back to specifics later, but frankly, while the income gap exists, while women are having their genitals mutilated, while women are being virtually enslaved in the middle east, a real, brave feminist has more to fight for than video game sexism. Period. How many beaten wives could Anita Sarkeesian helped with the money she pocketed, ostensibly for a series of videos of dubious quality and no intellectual merit?

I've found that most women defending this kind of nonsense, when you ask them what changes they want to see in video games, have no real response. When you point out that there have been Zelda games starring Zelda, that the protagonist of Portal 2 is female, and most RPGs allow you to choose your gender (hence making gender equality in such games a non-issue), you don't tend to get very inspiring responses. Sexism in the industry is one thing, but in video games themselves, is another. If developers want to create a male protagonist, that's a creative (and perhaps marketing) decision. If you want to play a grrrrl power game, make one yourself... Maybe get a Kickstarter campaign for one started? My conclusion is that most feminist gamers aren't much for gaming-it's just a male-dominated area of life they're targeting for their petty, safe, and useless expressions of modern feminism. You know, you challenge religious fundies about women's rights, you might get shot. You complain about male gamers, you get trolled... which brings me to another point. If you say stupid crap... no, strike that, if you say anything on the internet, you will get trolled. The internets is full of kids, people. We all know this. If not physically, at least mentally, and everybody gets abused online. It's not a gaming thing, it's not even a male thing... it's the bravado of anonymity.

Lastly, I have a girlfriend, who plays many games. Her opinion on this, of course, is offense that there are women out there who presume to speak for her-as if their genitalia enables them an opinion for everybody with the same set of chromosomes. Her big issue in gaming? Not having a color slider for hair/eye/skin color in RPGs... but then again, she hates playing female protagonists, and is in love with Geralt from the Witcher, so maybe she's not the best example... or maybe she's a perfect example. Not everybody is the same, stop pretending you're fighting the good fight for women when you're really just provoking gender tension in order to scam other feminists out of their money. I'm tempted to make a video series counter to Anita's, pointing out all the strong women in gaming... anybody want to give me money?

Feminism is not at all about "gender equality", not as it used to be; it's about misandrist, personal agendas and gender superiority. Most women in North America have more rights than any other women in any other part of the world. More rights than the men do. They are narcissistic, egotistical, champion manipulators. Cry wolf at any chance they get. The worst has to be Canada, or at least Toronto, where men aren't even allowed have an understanding of their own rights, without extremist feminazis coming to crashing the party. You want to know why so many men in North America have no respect for this crap in the gaming industry? Because in the real world it has become a cancerous plague that has destroyed any kind of "gender equality" there can ever be. And now it's coming for the last refuge from the hypocritical, misandrist, political agendas of these extremist nutjobs. I have the utmost respect for the women who have the perception to see through these agendas and see the real issues present here. I'll say it again; "gender equality", is not what is the goal of this "movie" is. Superiority and victim-ism is.

The poster of this entry is absolutely clueless. Okay, I'm getting REALLY pissed off about this issue, I know I'm going to take alot of flak for this, but it has to be said. Disclaimer: I am fully a proponent of gender equality, or humanism (for both parties). 

I find it beyond enraging that so called "feminists" (actual feminists are really humanists) can label every single man a sexist when he objectifies a woman on the physicality of her body. However; it's perfectly acceptable for said "feminists" to be sexists; make sexist, misandrist comments about a man, emasculate him, be physically violent to a man, emotionally abusive, manipulative etc. But a second you get the reverse, no matter how small, zero tolerance. If these "feminists" really want "gender equality"; well why don't they SHOW it? Because "gender equality" only suits them when it is to the benefit of them ONLY. When it comes to the trade off, they refuse to meet the man halfway, and expect him to do A, B and C. The reason? They are not for gender EQUALITY, they instead want gender SUPERIORITY under the guise of "equal treatment". You really want gender equality? Then stop it with the double standards! "feminists" say that the problem with men is that they have a huge ego, I disagree. I find that the ego on a woman of that caliber can be just a strong, if not stronger. We are all human beings, we all have similarities and differences! Stop blaming your insecurities, and dislike of certain personalities on entire genders. Bottom line: You can't combat sexism with MORE sexism.

boobs

An article here says video game violence can desensitize players to real violence. 

I wonder if all this feminist BS can desensitize people from real women issues.

Yes, we all fear females. File that one next to 'virgins' and 'living in our mothers basements'.'

I'm not sure blanket statements are the most effective way to get male gamers to sympathise with the situation of women in gaming. Those of us that already do respect women and their right to enjoy games don't really appreciate it either.

Its not the fact that their girls, its just their gaming style. The stereotypical girl gamer usually casually games for attention. If I were to see a guy gamer posting on facebook that hes level seven in Skyrim just so that he could get attention for the opposite gender, it would be a different reaction because girls don't usually game, and therefore wouldn't really be a valid way to attract the opposite sex. I frequent LAN centers, tournaments, and the like, and I am a big part of the gaming culture. Men really don't care, until you mess with something we're passionate about just so that you can get plowed by a neckbeard. You can like the things we do, but stop expecting to be treated special because you're a girl gamer, shits real annoying. Girl gamers as a whole have really made a bad name for themselves already because of their own actions, but male gamers just need to stop caring. Its really a touchy subject unique to the situation in your life, but I find that male gamers are usually upset because girl gamers are just so terrible at every video game, yet they continue not because they have a passion for it, but because they want the attention of guys, and true gamers hate seeing this form of video art as a medium for dating.

tl;dr Guys: stop caring, they're here to stay. A lot of guys eat that shit up, that's why they're going to stay.

        Girls: if you're good at video games, I'm sure no one will discriminate you. So stop trying to focus on people seeing you as a "gamer" and trying to fit in, and actually become a gamer.