Anita Sarkeesian debuts first episode of "Tropes vs. Women"

[Ohio Joe]

A while back, demmiblue had an excellent thread on this project, you can read it here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002811749

Now, the first video is out and it should get some DU love:

After nine months of international headlines and endless harassment, Feminist Frequency creator and pop culture critic Anita Sarkeesian has finally presented the first video of Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, her series of Web videos analyzing and deconstructing the underlying sexism in games, the gaming industry, and gaming culture.

The long-awaited series debuted Part 1: Damsel in Distress yesterday on YouTube. Although Sarkeesian came under fire for supposedly being high-handed about what she was doing with the $150,000 she raised on Kickstarter, it's easy to see where the money has gone. At 23 minutes, the video is nearly three times longer than most of her other Tropes vs. Women videos, and features rare clips from lost games like Dinosaur Planet as well as footage from films like Popeye and King Kong explaining the "damsel in distress" trope.

http://www.dailydot.com/entertainment/anita-sarkeesian-tropes-vs-women-debut/

Annnnnd, the video:

&feature=youtu.be

I love gaming and I have for many years but the fact is that we do not seem (for the most part) to be able to get past a certain 12 year old mentality. Dammit, I grew up a long time ago and I would like the pastime I love to grow up as well and cut this shit out.

[Taverner]

1. Now that the milennials have started graduating

And with them the large numbers of female CS majors, I expect this to change soon

[LittleBlue]

2. It's already started changing

Last edited Fri Mar 8, 2013, 05:02 PM - Edit history (1)

The big new game out is Tomb Raider. The franchise has been around for a couple decades.


Old Lara Croft:




New Lara Croft:

[Donald Ian Rankin]

3. Colour me unimpressed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/06/videogames-girls-female-characters makes the same point, more powerfully, in far less time, and for far less money. This 23 minutes doesn't have anything that isn't blindingly obvious in it, I fear. Yes, she's quite right, but she doesn't add the debate, and very few people who don't agree with her to begin with will sit through it all.

[Ohio Joe]

5. Well... It is only part 1 of a series...

Smaller articles are great... The more the better. I also see a lot of value looking into, analyzing and documenting the subject. Ignoring it because the ignorant will not watch is bad reasoning. A very worth while project IMO.

[Starry Messenger]

4. k&r

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

6. Saw the video today. It's fantastic.

There's even a few surprises, like the one for the game that Rare was developing.

I'm also a gamer, and I'd love it if games finally grew up. True, some are, but for each one that does, there's a half dozen that don't.