Problem is, modern feminism is about empowering women at the cost of disempowering men. It's not about gender equality.

Really?

And how does this have any impact on this discussion on how women are portrayed in games?

Such as?

Another problem is, modern gaming is all about empowering angry dudes with computers at the cost of Anita Sarkeesian. Trust me, I'm an expert on modern gaming and what it's all about because I read some individual rants on a random gaming forum! :P

That the basis of her argument is flawed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp8tToFv-bA

Flawed, in what way?

Yeah... Taking my assault rifle and killing everything that moves is a REALLY good thing ;)

Don't worry, I know what you meant to say.

Well, relating to her first two videos with the title "Damsel in Distress", I don't see THAT much bad stereotypes. Again: It is effing hilarious to call Super Mario Bros a sexist game, because you have to save a princess. Yes, 30 years ago she was nothing more than an excuse to stomp some turtles. But you can't change that anymore. You can't say "From now on Mario has to save Luigi." You don't swap Fallout's wastelands for green hills, just because something bad happened in Fukushima. The wasteland is all that Fallout is about. The same goes for Mario and Peach. Nothing sexist about it. Really. Every fairy tale you'll tell your 4 years old kids is more sexist. Exaggetrating things doesn't serve the cause. But that's what she's doing with her "Damsel in Distress".

There are a lot of women involved in games business. And they do more than just serving the coffee. Take Jane Jensen for example. And what do you want to bet that Moebius (her Kickstarter) will be "sexist" and full of stereotypes as well? Women aren't that different from men. Their stereotypes might differ a little bit, but that's it.

Never said it was ;)

Honestly? With the Damsel in Distress scenario, I don't see that much of a problem. Sure, there are cases where women do appear like the property of men. But those are rare. And as I already said in my last posting, there are enough games where men have to be freed. There are enouh games that display violence againt men. There are enough games where men are sacrificing themselves, or ask you to kill them. Sure, it is imbalanced. But she leaves the impression that there aren't sceneraios where men are the Damsels in Distress. If you listen to her you think that role is exclusiv to women and that this is a bad thing. Yes, it would be, if it was excusive... But it isn't. Not in the slightest.

"Bad" things are those leg-spreading fighting chicks who wear nothing more than a bikini (like in Dead or Alive). But I'm sure she will come to them with a more fitting headline than the actual one.

It's all in the vid, you don't even have to watch more than ten minutes to get an idea of what she's talking about. she can explain it much better than I can. :) Seriously, just google the modern Swedish feminist movement and enjoy the crazyness.

As for her take on women in games, she's obviously doing two things: picking on the lowest common denomintor, something all media has; and trolling. She's actually trolled game sites to garner hostile responses for later use on her TED talk.

The Hostility is Backlash towards Ideological feminism's "With us or Against us" stance that's been telling men that they should be ashamed for what they are and that they have a privilege. They look at them selves and see that there really isn't a privilege and get angry, some handle it poorly and behave terribly.

It also happens on the other side. Some Feminists behaving poorly And here They pull the Fire alarm to silence the MRA group. Who are Talking about improving Gender relations for everyone, including women.

I don't excuse the Troglodytes for their underhanded tactics but Ideological Feminism has taken an Us Vs. Them stance that tends to bring such people out of the wood work.

Well that explains why this thread has nearly 1000 posts :P

Of course there are, but her critiquing pop culture is the worst place to start solving the problem. It's like me writing a dissertation on the subjectification of women and starting with...PORN! That would be an easy target. Instead, she could draw attention to the fact that writing in games has for a long time been abysmal and only in the last 5-10 years is it getting more sophisticated and inclusive.

What harm has she really done? She is just a nobody who is just voicing her option on Youtube. I think the feminist movement will survive that. Furthermore, people would soon forget about her if it wasn't for the massive amount of people who keep drawing attention to her by criticising her. You made her.

And yes, these people perpetuating the hate campaign are scum, but they are bringing other men down with them. If you don't speak up against it, you are basically condoning it. Any grievances you have against Sarkeesian should be nothing compared with the grievances you should have with those assholes. Do you really think that one woman making Youtube videos is more important an issue than a huge number of men ruthlessly bullying said woman for speaking her mind?

Also, consider this: you don't agree with a person and have a list of criticisms about them, or their activities, or their views, or whatever. Okay, fine, fair enough. One day she gets bullied and abused in a massive way. In public. By a swarm of assholes who use the lowest tactics. And it does not stop, but just goes on and on and on... I dare you to try criticise her after that without looking like a jerk. And it's all thanks to the aforementioned assholes. Anything intelligent you might have to say about it gets drowned in comments about her race and sex, nitpicking about her university thesis, etc... basically the worst kind of abuse and character assassination. And what's worse, you will appear to support it.

She is mentioning these things, and is not the first step to critique what is happening? How would you expect a situation to change if you do not highlight that there are problems? Which is what she are doing, granted from a little bit limited perspective, but she is up against a large block which do not see any problems in the situation as is. How can things change if there are not first a highlight on what the problems are? Does there not first need to be made awareness on these problems? For this reason, these videos are ok, and for these reasons it does not matter that "modern feminism is about empowering women at the cost of disempowering men". (which I, by the way, think is completely wrong, if it was we would not have situations like this, there would not be a problem with how women are portrayed.)

If it makes any sense....

I'm in a bit of a catch 22, sadly those kinda people are doing it for the attention, they want me go out and call them slime or say what they're doing is wrong so they can lash at me too, it's how trolls and bully's work, you ignore them so they don't get the audience they crave. I find the only way that works for me is to present my arguments in a civil manner and only to argue with people who have arguments worth replying too. The rape threats are only to get a Rise and so I either ignore it or give them what they want.