I think the amount of venom directed at her is more informing than what I've seen of her videos, if only for the tendency of internet people to abandon any sense of good deportment. I don't think everything hateful directed to her proves some of the points she would like to illustrate (I do think some deserve reflection), and there are certainly some valid points between the bilious bits, but they're not very flattering.

Look! Look what I found on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj29-hepBiA

Listen to what THS WOMAN says about Anita Sarkeesian

I mostly am just disappointed in the videos and really how the feminist movement handles video games. They're arguments seem to focus on content and some kinda moral obligation to not offend and be more inclusive. But for art and entertainment there isn't, the only ones they have is to not do direct harm and to make money. That's all they need to do, now there are things behind the scenes that are important, but there's nothing in Anita's TVW videos, it's all about content and how they need to portray women better and how it's Morally wrong the way that they're doing it. The movement has to handle the people behind the scenes, Equality is for people that work in the industry, they deserve equal rights, Zelda and Peach and all other video game characters are constructs, they have no rights, no more than a mouse or a keyboard. And developers can make games for any audience that they like, they could make a game for cats and cats alone and it's Ethical. If they want to use the DiD trope then that's ok, just as ok as having a bad ass woman hero in true armor, or a chainmail bikini if they want.

Oh and the whole these videogames are supporting violence against women is just BS. Sorry, the video's just a rant about things she doesn't like. And all that money she got could have gone to organizations that help real women that need help.

Honestly the Tropes Vs. Women series has been nothing but rebuking industries that don't care and will make games for who they want, and free market and free society allows them too. It is sad that not everyone will get the representation that they want but simply put, it's how life works and you take what you can get or you work to make what you want. I know that I don't get the representation is games that I want, well almost never. (Dust an Elysian tail did come out.)

What Olympic gold winning logic gymnastics did you perform to take that away from his post?

This woman is spot on in calling Anita and her crusade a sham.

No they should Not!

testerical?!? is that Even a word or just one you made up?

Nope Sexist Maggot I am not? So I'm guessing Are you Anita?

I say freedom for everyone! Nobody should have any Special Treatment based solely on gender!

It takes two to tango!

So women should not receive the "special treatment" of being depicted as helpless damsels in need of a hero to rescue them more than men are shown in that way? They should not receive the "special treatment" of being the victim of a so-called mercy killing again and again by their husband/partner in many more games than men?

http://requireshate.wordpress.com/2012/04/29/on-male-feminist-supporters-and-vaulting-low-bars/
1. It's a word; made up, like all words, some time ago and not by me.

[[Pointless personal attack removed by Mods]]

@Cormoran: that's an actual argument he makes with that post. It's by no means new on the internets.

@scampywiak: whatever. I for one think Ursula LeGuin is a gender essentialist disgrace to feminism, and her books are a waste of electricity. But I would call out assheads who might seek to dismiss her by "Look! Look what I found! Here Starmaker calls LeGuin a disgrace, so she must be one!" nonetheless.

[[post deleted by mods as it was in response to another edited post. Let's let this one cool down, folks.]]

I finally took the time to watch both videos from beginning to end. I think, so far, they're well done and do well to identify and explain said tropes. I'm more baffled than ever at the anger directed at her. She's a bit cheeky, but that's hardly offensive.

There are other sexist concepts beyond the helpless damsel, one of which springing to mind is that men are disposable while women are special and valuable. I think videos (or just a written [and edited] post) exploring that sort of reverse sex-discrimination would be interesting, if a particular GOGer wants to take him or herself with it.

Are there counter-examples to the "damsel in distress"? Yeah, of course. But the trope still exists.

I would hope she will do more to indicate later that these examples in video games are symptomatic of a larger cultural stereotype that penetrates into everyday life, though I guess she has touched on that already. But I think, as far as "gamers" are concerned, exploring the concept within the games industry is an interesting beginning point before looking at the larger picture.

Anyway, I'm pretty late to the party as far as the online "dialogue" is concerned, but I enjoyed them so far.

That's right, there's a lot of sexism in video games. But she's exaggerating the issue.
- women shouldn't be saved, because men are always able to free themselves as well
- women shouldn't be illustrated sexy, because they aren't the fuck toy of men
- women shouldn't be shown only as "useless" sidekicks of a male hero
- women shouldn't be shown as victims, because we have violence against women in reality
- female protagonists shouldn't be "men with breasts"
...

Yeah... Slowly I'm getting the picture of her ideal female character. A fat nun, freeing herself from captivity (Don't worry, she wasn't really captured... She volunteered to... uhm... yes, she volunteered), using a prayer to loosen her manacles and persuading her captors to give her the keys to her cell. wtf?

How does she imagine women in video games? They shouldn't be freed by men? Well, next time a game asks me to save a woman, I'll grab a beer, sit on my couch and watch football. Let the b*tch free herself, she's old enough. Women shouldn't be shown as sexy? What about men? Does Duke Nukem look like a fat pimple face? No useless women sidekicks? What about freaks like the "adoring fan" from Oblivion? No female victims? Play some GTA, Fallout or Call of Duty. There you'll have enough tortured and abused men.

No, seriously... Sexism works in both directions. She's got enough of half naked women? I have enough of men in muscle shirts firing assault rifles one handed because they're so strong and masculine. Those are sexist stereotypes as well. Why is this so? Because we don't want to see Average Joe and Plain Jane, fighting for free education and better health care. I can go out for a walk if I wan't to see average people with ordinary problems.

As I said before when talking about King's Quest, have a story that works the same when swapping any of the protagonists genders. Have the kidnapped one be your brother, have a mother go looking for her son, have the woman go looking for her husband. If in a game you lead a team of men, and one of them gets captured, you know that if he is a male he will have probably escaped by the time you get to him, if she's a woman she will be locked and vulnerable in her cell. Doesn't matter the game, doesn't matter the setting.

If you can, take a look at Phillip Jose Farmer's "The Dungeon" series. A soldier goes looking for his brother in a Dante-like descent, and finds strange companions to help with the foes they encounter. Some companions are male, some are female, but all are able to hold their ground and assist the rest. And while Clive does automatically assume that the females won't be able to pull through, they do pull through time and time again.

She's not advocating a sexless female, but a capable female that is not just a plot device for male character development.

For the last part of your post, I haven't seen anything in her videos to suggest she believes males are not victims of a different kind of sexism. In fact, she does mention a 'socially assigned patriarchal role' that the hero is bound to perform. While there's undoubtedly more to explore with respect to male sexism, to be fair, the kickstarter was 'tropes vs. women in video games'. She's exploring the issue she is interested in, and what she was funded to do (so presumably what her backers were interested in). I don't think she should be faulted for that.

"But what about the menz!"

Split personality much? According to your strawman, there are only two types of characters: "guys in muscle shirts" are unavoidable because we'd have to have Average Joe otherwise. What do you want to actually see?

Regardless of your personal incoherent tastes, I do want to see the alternative to guys in muscle shirts. And Anita does, and her other supporters do. That's kind of the point of those videos.

---
More pertinent to the thread in general, I'm interested at what Anita will say about "men with breasts". While she may address "good enough to be one of the boys" internalized misogynist crap, it (men with breasts) is also a complaint leveled at gender-transparent media - a complaint that I disagree with. The myth of informed gender transparency irl is used to stall criticism and uphold status quo, but fiction can just go ahead and show a society without discrimination.