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Anita Sarkeesian
Sarkeesian in 2011
Born	1983 (age 41–42) Ontario, Canada
Nationality	Canadian American
Education	BA (communication studies) MA (social and political thought)
Alma mater	California State University, Northridge York University
Occupation(s)	Media critic, blogger
Website	Feminist Frequency

Anita Sarkeesian (/sɑːrˈkiːziən/; born 1983) is a Canadian-American feminist, media critic and blogger. She is the author of the video blog "Feminist Frequency" and the video series Tropes vs. Women and Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, which examine tropes in the depiction of women in popular culture.

In 2012, Sarkeesian was targeted by an online harassment campaign following her launch of a Kickstarter project to fund the Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series. At the same time, supporters donated over $150,000 to the project, far beyond the $6,000 she had sought. The situation was covered extensively in the media, placing Sarkeesian at the center of discussions about misogyny in video game culture and online harassment. Subsequently, she has continued to study gender perceptions in video games and speak publicly about problems she perceives in the industry and culture. In 2014, she became the subject of terrorist threats against her planned lecture at Utah State University which made international headlines.

Background

Sarkeesian was born near Toronto to Armenian immigrant parents. She later moved to California, and identifies as Canadian American. She received a bachelor's degree in communication studies from California State University, Northridge, and then earned a master's degree in social and political thought from York University, graduating in 2010. Her master's thesis is titled I'll Make a Man Out of You: Strong Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy Television.

Feminist Frequency

Sarkeesian launched her website Feminist Frequency in 2009, while a student at York University. She created site to host videos discussing popular culture portrayals of women in an effort to create accessible feminist media criticism. In 2011, she partnered with Bitch magazine to create the video series Tropes vs. Women, which examines common tropes in depictions of women in film, television and video games, with a particular focus on science fiction. The series comprises six videos dedicated to tropes such as "The Manic Pixie Dream Girl", "Women in Refrigerators" and "The Smurfette Principle". She has also produced a number of other videos analyzing popular culture from a feminist standpoint, such as applying the Bechdel test – a gauge of whether a film has at least two named female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man – to pictures nominated for an Academy Award.

She has spoken at conferences and workshops about media criticism and video blogging, and was interviewed by The Observer in March 2012 about modern media culture, stating: "I think to the extent that it could be creating authentic, human female characters, it is a push towards a more feminist media." Her blog has also been utilized as material for university-level women's studies courses, and she has spoken at universities on the topic of female characters in pop culture. In March 2012, Sarkeesian and her blog were listed in the journal Feminist Collections's quarterly column on "E-Sources on Women & Gender".

Tropes vs. Women in Video Games

Kickstarter campaign and subsequent harassment

Sarkeesian was inspired to start a video series on female representation in video games after she was invited to speak to developers at Bungie. On May 17, 2012, she began a Kickstarter campaign to fund a series of short videos that would examine gender tropes in video games. This was featured as a campaign of note on the official Kickstarter blog, and reached its funding goal of $6,000 within 24 hours.

The project triggered a campaign of sexist harassment, including rape threats, efforts to obtain her personal contact information and attempts to gain access to her Twitter and Google accounts. She was sent via email images of herself being raped by video game characters and negative comments were posted to her YouTube and Facebook pages.

Supporter of Sarkeesian Stephanie Guthrie also received rape and death threats after criticizing the game Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian, in which users could punch Sarkeesian's image until the screen turned red. Following Guthrie's complaint with the police one of the men behind the attacks was arrested and charged with criminal harassment and breach of a peace bond in November 2012. Sarkeesian responded to the threats against Guthrie in a statement to the Toronto Standard, condemning the widespread harassment she and other women have faced online.

The events also led to speaking engagements on sexual harassment and online communities at the TEDxWomen conference, Lincoln Land Community College, Western Kentucky University, and Northeastern University. When Sarkeesian was scheduled to speak at the 2014 Game Developers Choice Awards, organizers received an anonymous e-mail threatening to detonate a bomb at the ceremony if they did not rescind her award and cancel her speaking engagement. San Francisco police swept the Moscone Center hall and the event proceeded as scheduled.

By the end of August 2014, after Feminist Frequency issued a new Tropes vs Women in Games episode, harassment of Sarkeesian reached such high levels that she decided to leave her home. Investigation into these threats has been handed off to the FBI, and the affair has become part of the ongoing GamerGate controversy in video game culture. Speaking in public for the first time since the renewed threats (at the XOXO Festival in Portland, Oregon on September 14), she described the allegation that she and other women fabricated harassment as itself being a form of harassment. “Harassment is the background radiation of my life,” she later remarked in a Bloomberg Business Week cover story on her work and the video game industry.

On October 29, 2014 Sarkeesian was interviewed on The Colbert Report where she discussed the harassment she suffered at the hands of GamerGate and her views on making video games more inclusive of women.

Terrorist threat at Utah State University

On October 14, 2014, Sarkeesian and Utah State University received e-mailed terrorist threats to murder Sarkeesian and others attending her planned lecture at the university the following day. The threats specifically cited the École Polytechnique massacre as inspiration. The university and police did not believe the threats were credible or real inasmuch as they were consistent with others Sarkeesian had received, but scheduled enhanced security measures. Sarkeesian cancelled the event, however, feeling the planned security measures were insufficient. The university had planned to sweep the room for bombs and prohibit all bags from the lecture hall, but metal detectors would not be used to detect weapons under clothing, a point that Sarkeesian felt was essential. Later it was revealed that a second threat was made by someone who claimed affiliation with Gamergate. The threats resulted in public attention to misogynistic and violent harassment on the Internet, along with the propriety of concealed weapons on university campuses.

Video series

Production

Sarkeesian initially planned to release the Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series in 2012, but pushed it back explaining that the additional funding allowed her to expand the scope and scale of the project.

The first video in the Tropes vs Women in Video Games series, "Damsels in Distress (Part 1)", was released on March 7, 2013. The delay led critics to question how she was using the money. Jesse Singal of The Boston Globe wrote that the production values of the new series were high, saying "so far, she appears to have put the money to good use."

Parts 2 and 3 of the series were released on May 28 and August 1, 2013. The second video was briefly removed due to abuse of YouTube's "flag" system, though it was quickly restored.

Reception

The first three videos discuss examples of the "Damsels in Distress" trope, in which passive and often helpless female characters must be rescued by the male hero. Paul Dean of IGN described the videos as an analysis of sexism that, while possibly difficult to accept for some video game players, did not attack gaming itself but only "disappointing" stories in games. Aja Romano of the Daily Dot writes that even "strong female characters" are portrayed under this trope. Maddy Myers of Paste commented on the difficulty Sarkeesian faces due to the "impossible and insurmountable expectations" and intense scrutiny placed on her and other female video game critics. The Boston Globe wrote that the videos' strength lies in Sarkeesian's "deft at anticipating rebuttals", and said such work was important in challenging the industry to move away from overused tropes.

Nate Carpenter reviewed the "Damsel in Distress" video positively in the journal Women & Language. Carpenter commended the series for rendering the ideas and language of media criticism into a format accessible for a general audience. He wrote that it was limited in failing to analyze the cultural milieu that perpetuates damaging tropes, but described it as an "intelligent, engaging, and entertaining point of departure" for viewers interested in media studies. Chris Suellentrop of The New York Times referred to the first four videos of the series as "essential viewing for anyone interested in video games", and cites it as the reason why he asked Shigeru Miyamoto about the themes of damsels present in his games, to which he responded "I haven’t given it a lot of deep thought over the years".

Awards and commentary

Sarkeesian's Feminist Frequency blog was highlighted by Feminist Collections and Media Report to Women. Sarkeesian and her work have come to much greater public attention following the announcement of "Tropes vs. Women in Video Games" and the harassment she subsequently faced. The events helped bring the issue of pervasive sexual harassment in the video game culture to mainstream media attention. Discussions occurred in a range of publications and outlets, including The New York Times, The Guardian and New Statesman. The situation was a catalyst that led to new attention on the importance of diversity and inclusion in the gaming culture and industry that year; Gamasutra named this call for inclusion one of the "5 trends that defined the game industry in 2012". While noting that the support Sarkeesian has received "stands at a counter" to the harassment, Sal Humphreys and Karen Orr Vered suggest that ultimately the campaign may serve to discourage other women from following Sarkeesian's lead for fear of being subjected to similar attacks.

In 2013, Newsweek magazine and The Daily Beast named Sarkeesian one of their "125 Women of Impact", writing that regardless of the harassment, "Damsel in Distress" was "racking up accolades". In 2014, Sarkeesian received the Ambassador Award at the 14th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards for her work on the representation of women in video games, becoming the first woman to receive the award. She was also nominated for the Ambassador Award at Microsoft's 2014 Women in Gaming Awards for her work. After the Utah State University death threats, Rolling Stone called her "pop culture's most valuable critic," saying that "the backlash has only made her point for her: Gaming has a problem" In December 2014, The Verge named her as one of its fifty Game Changers.

References

1. Nathman, Avital Norman (August 6, 2012). "The Femisphere: Video Bloggers, Part 1". Ms. Magazine. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
2. Moore, Oliver (July 11, 2012). "Woman's call to end video game misogyny sparks vicious online attacks". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
3. Rivas, Jorge (December 13, 2012). "Watch Anita Sarkeesian Deconstruct Sexism in Gaming". ColorLines. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
4. ^ Greenhouse, Emily (August 1, 2013). "Twitter's Free Speech Problem". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
5. Sarkeesian, Anita. "About". Feminist Frequency. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
6. ^ Kolhatkar, Sheelah (November 26, 2014). "The Gaming Industry's Greatest Adversary Is Just Getting Started". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
7. ^ Dean, Paul (May 31, 2013). "Tropes vs Women in Video Games: Why It Matters". IGN. Retrieved December 4, 2014. Cite error: The named reference "Dean" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
8. Williams, Mary Elizabeth (June 14, 2012). "Lara Croft battles male jerks". Salon.
9. ^ Singal, Jesse (June 22, 2013). "Taking on games that demean women". The Boston Globe. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
10. Barthel, Michael (February 25, 2012). "The Oscars’ woman problem", Salon.
    • Sarkeesian, Anita (February 15, 2012). "The Oscars and The Bechdel Test", YouTube.
11. Hermione Hoby (25 March 2012). "The slacker is back – and this time she's female". The Observer. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
12. Duggan, Padraic (March 4, 2012). "Feminist Frequency comes to SOU". The Siskiyou.
    • "'I'll Make a Man Out of You': Redefining Strong Female Characters". Sewanee Today. Sewanee: The University of the South. February 15, 2011.
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    • Cohn, Jacob (January 11, 2013). "Feminist Media Critic and Blogger Anita Sarkeesian to Present Convocation". Carleton News. Carleton College.
13. ^ Lehman, JoAnne (Spring 2012). "E-Sources on Women & Gender". Feminist Collections. 33 (2). University of Wisconsin-Madison: 13. ISSN 0742-7441.
14. Marketos, Cassie (May 21, 2012). "New Projects Are Sci-Fly". Kickstarter.
15. "Tropes vs Women in Video Games". Kickstarter. Retrieved June 14, 2012.
16. Totilo, Stephen (July 3, 2012). "She's Not Hiding From The Hate She's Getting For Examining Video Games. She's Exposing It". Kotaku.
17. Lewis, Helen (December 25, 2012). "Game Theory: Making Room for the Women", The New York Times.
18. Watercutter, Angela (June 14, 2012). "Feminist Take on Games Draws Crude Ridicule, Massive Support". Wired.com.
19. ^ O'Leary, Amy. "In Virtual Play, Sex Harassment Is All Too Real", The New York Times, August 1, 2012.
20. ^ Fernandez-Blance, Katherine (July 10, 2012). "Gamer campaign against Anita Sarkeesian catches Toronto feminist in crossfire". TheStar.com.
21. O'Meara, Sarah (July 6, 2012). "Internet Trolls Up Their Harassment Game With Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian". The Huffington Post.
22. Magi, Kim (November 22, 2013). "Man charged with harassment after Twitter attacks". The Toronto Star. Retrieved November 4, 2013.
23. Lyonnais, Sheena (July 10, 2012). "EXCLUSIVE: Anita Sarkeesian Responds to Beat Up Game, Online Harassment, and Death Threats on Stephanie Guthrie". Toronto Standard.
24. Lyonnais, Sheena (July 9, 2012). "Toronto Tweeter Causes Uproar Over Violent "Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian" Game". Toronto Standard.
25. TEDxWomen - Anita Sarkeesian
26. "Feminist website creator to speak at LLCC Oct. 10". The Breeze-Courier. October 12, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
27. "Critic assails portrayal of women in video games". The Daily News. October 24, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
28. Chipman, Bob (November 7, 2013). "The Most Dangerous Woman in Videogames - Anita Sarkeesian". The Escapist. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
29. Myers, Maddy (November 13, 2013). "Hyper Mode: Anita Sarkeesian vs. The World Part II". Paste. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
30. Bomb Threat Targeted Anita Sarkeesian, Gaming Awards Last March, Stephen Totilo, Kotaku, 17 September 2014
31. "FBI investigating death threats against Feminist Frequency creator Sarkeesian". Polygon.
32. Keith Stuart. "Gamergate: the community is eating itself but there should be room for all". the Guardian.
33. "anita-sarkeesian-shares-the-most-radical-thing-you-can-do-to-support". The Verge.
34. /anita-sarkeesian-battles-sexism-in-games-gamergate-harassment
35. Stephen Colbert takes on Gamergate with Anita Sarkeesian. McCormick, Rich. The Verge, 30 October 2014
36. ‘Gamergate’: Feminist video game critic Anita Sarkeesian cancels Utah lecture after threat. McDonald, Soraya Nadia. The Washington Post, 15 October 2014
37. Feminist cancels speech at USU after terror threat. Neugebauer, Cimaron and Ben Lockhart. Standard-Examiner, 14 October 2014
38. ^ Feminist games critic cancels talk after terror threat. Hern, Alex. The Guardian, 15 October 2014
39. USU students, faculty protest terrorist threats against critic of video games. Wood, Benjamin. The Salt Lake Tribune, 15 October 2014
40. Matt Peckham. "Fixing Everything That's Wrong with Gamergate Starts with You". TIME.com.
41. Saeed Ahmed and Tony Marco, CNN (15 October 2014). "Anita Sarkeesian cancels Utah State speech after threat - CNN.com". CNN. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
42. Wingfield, Nick (15 October 2014). "Anita Sarkeesian, Video Game Critic, Cancels Speech After Threats of Massacre". New York Times. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
43. "BBC News - Feminist video-games talk cancelled after massacre threat". BBC News.
44. McDonald, Soraya Nadia (October 15, 2014). "'Gamergate': Feminist video game critic Anita Sarkeesian cancels Utah lecture after threat". The Washington Post.
45. Erin Alberty (Oct 16, 2014). "Anita Sarkeesian explains why she canceled USU lecture". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 18 October 2014. After the mass shooting threat was sent to the school late Monday, a second threat arrived Tuesday. That one, USU spokesman Tim Vitale confirmed, claimed affiliation with the controversial and sometimes violent online video gamers' movement known as GamerGate.
46. Axed speech sparks US gun debate. Irish Independent, 15 October 2014
47. Feminist Speaker Questions Utah's Campus Gun Laws. Whitehurst, Lindsay and Alina Hartounian. Associated Press, 15 October 2014
48. Game critic Sarkeesian avoids Utah due to foolish gun laws. Utah looks bad in global media.... Pyle, George. The Salt Lake Tribune, 15 October 2014.
49. Feminist Frequency - "Damsels in Distress (Part 1)" accessed May 28, 2013
50. Kevin Morris (February 13, 2013). "Anita Sarkeesian is not stealing Kickstarter money to buy Gucci shoes". Daily Dot. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
51. Fruzsina Eördögh (March 19, 2013). "Anita Sarkeesian, I Love You. But Please Show Us The Money". Retrieved 19 September 2013.

    "When you get past the vitriol, their main criticism is that the production quality of Sarkeesian’s videos hasn't increased. The quality of her videos has increased, So the haters are wrong. But how much could Sarkeesian's production upgrades have possibly cost? Tally all that up, and it's still less than $15,000. What happened to the rest of the $160,000? Answering this question would certainly knock down the only legitimate point made by Sarkeesian's online stalkers. Much more important, would also help women video bloggers, who struggle with sexism every day on YouTube, better understand the financial costs of creating a successful video series."

52. Hamilton, Kirk (28 May 2013). "New Anita Sarkeesian Video Calls Out Gaming's 'Women in Refrigerators'". Kotaku. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
53. Aja Romano (August 2, 2013). "Anita Sarkeesian still can't catch a break". Daily Dot. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
54. Maddy Myers (June 4, 2013). "Hyper Mode: Anita Sarkeesian And The Trouble With Magic Bullets". Paste Magazine. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
55. Carpenter, Nate (Spring 2013). "Tropes vs. Women in Video Games ". Women & Language. 36 (1). Michigan Technological University: 97–99. ISSN 8755-4550.
56. Chris Suellentrop (December 13, 2013). "In the Footsteps of Lara Croft". The New York Times. Retrieved March 11, 2014.
57. "Briefly". Media Report to Women. 40 (2): 19–21. Spring 2012. ISSN 0145-9651. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
58. ^ Settle, Amber; McGill, Monica M.; Decker, Adrienne (2013). "Diversity in the Game Industry: Is Outreach the Solution?". SIGITE '13: Proceedings of the 14th Annual ACM SIGITE Conference on Information Technology Education. Association for Computing Machinery: 175. doi:10.1145/2512276.2512283.
59. Zerbisias, Anita (January 28, 2013). "Internet trolls an online nightmare for young women", Toronto Star.
    • Casey, Paul (December 10, 2012). "Why should Anita Sarkeesian have to work for free in return for misogynistic abuse?", New Statesman.
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60. Kris Graft. "The 5 trends that defined the game industry in 2012". Gamasutra. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
61. Humphreys, Sal; Vered, Karen Orr (September 5, 2013). "Reflecting on Gender and Digital Networked Media". Television & New Media. 15 (1): 4. doi:10.1177/1527476413502682. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
62. "125 Women of Impact". Newsweek. March 29, 2013.
63. "Women In The World: 125 Women of Impact". The Daily Beast/Newsweek. 29 March 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
64. Suellentrop, Chris (March 20, 2014). "The Last of Us Claims a Top Video Game Prize". The New York Times. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
65. "Anita Sarkeesian, Riot co-founders win GDCA 2014 Special Awards". www.gamasutra.com. Gamasutra. February 11, 2014. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
66. Parker, Laura (March 20, 2014). "A Day of Honors for Women in the Video Game Industry". The New York Times. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
67. "Anita Sarkeesian, more up for nominations at Women in Gaming Awards". www.gamasutra.com. Gamasutra. March 19, 2014. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
68. Anita Sarkeesian on GamerGate: 'We Have a Problem and We're Going to Fix This'. Collins, Sean T. Rolling Stone, 17 October 2014
69. /2014-verge-50/anita-sarkeesian

External links

• Feminist Frequency
• Anita Sarkeesian at IMDb

• Biography
• Feminism
• Internet
• Video games

Template:Persondata

• 1984 births
• Living people
• American bloggers
• American feminists
• American people of Armenian descent
• California State University, Northridge alumni
• Video bloggers
• York University alumni
• Canadian emigrants to the United States
• Ethnic Armenian feminists
• Canadian people of Armenian descent
• Video game critics
• Third-wave feminism
• Women bloggers
• American media critics