Violence in Another Form: Sexism in Gaming Culture

Despite the fact that women make up a significant and growing percentage of gamers, the virtual world remains dominated by men and women, when represented, are shown in some very stereotypical ways. In several provocative videos, Anita Sarkeesian examines the limited and frequently disturbing images of women in video games.

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Several years ago, media critic Anita Sarkeesian launched Feminist Frequencies, a video web series examining the representation of women in popular culture, triggering an all-out misogynist attack by gamers. Watch the following videos for a examination of female characters in video games and the all-too frequent depiction of women as victims of men’s violence

To see all of her videos, check out her youtube page.

These videos elicited a massive online attack, which, as she interestingly explains in this next video, was structured as a game where she became the opponent to be destroyed.

 

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2 Responses to Violence in Another Form: Sexism in Gaming Culture

  1. sabrina romanelli December 9, 2015 at 4:10 pm #

    This by far has shocked me so much. I’ve never really realized that women in video games were most often damsels in distress. Yes, when playing certain games I saw that saving the woman was the main objective but with this video we come to the realization that these are the women’s roles. It’s sad to see that women are seen as dependent and in need on a man to be saved, which leads to the ancient idea of patriarchy. Many young people play video games and these games promote a very bad message: that girls need a man to get through life and that boys are the heroes.

  2. Jessica Marcotte December 4, 2016 at 8:37 am #

    I have two young brothers and I constantly try to make them realize just how sexist their games are. The women are hypersexualized in the way they are “dressed” (and by dressed, I mean mostly exposed) and how they act. I’m happy to say that after years of calmly explaining to them the impact of “just a game”, they have come to understand it’s impact, but even if they understand it they are still exposing themselves to it continually. Eventually, they could learn to believe that it really is normal. I’m glad to see someone take it publicly and push through all the mysogyny.

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