#feminist frequency

[madame-helen]

[gamer2002]

Bye, and never come back.

[videogamesincolor]

“I do think her work has informed the industry,” Mark Chen, a lecturer at the University of Washington Bothell, said. “I mean, part of the reason we keep hearing about harassment or sexism in the industry I think is because of her efforts and others like her who (forcibly) made space for others to follow.” Her work also continues to be referred to in academia, where it influences students who may go on to develop games. Tropes vs. Women in Video Games is a staple on digital media and video game class syllabuses. Marc Santos, an associate professor of English at the University of Northern Colorado, used Feminist Frequency in an undergraduate English class that’s focused on research writing on video games. Santos said he uses Sarkeesian’s work on Feminist Frequency because it stands up to this day, but also as a way to show students how to research and present analysis and criticism. In a recent project, students used videos like “Lingerie Is Not Body Armor” and “Strategic Butt Coverings,” which analyze the male gaze in video games, as a basis of analysis of clothing in the first 100 role-playing games that pop up on Steam. “I think there’s a lot of students — both men and women — who sort of realize that the portrayal of women, and all marginalized groups, in video games is bad. But Sarkeesian’s work helps focus their attention,” Santos said. “She provides a lens through which it becomes almost impossible to deny or ignore the extent of the problem.” Tropes vs. Women in Video Games continued until the end of 2017, and through years of abuse and harassment that one could simply call hell. The harassment Sarkeesian and her team experienced is unconscionable and included dangerous levels of violence, like bomb threats made at events Sarkeesian was attending. Sarkeesian’s first work predated the period of time now called Gamergate — a movement that is now considered a watershed moment in the rise of far-right extremism, a channeling of decades’ worth of bigotry and hatred embedded into systems, platforms, and communities both online and off. When Tropes vs. Women in Video Games continued through Gamergate, that hatred was channeled toward her and others who advocated for better representation in games.

Around the time she started uploading videos critical of media like Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, I had my first come-to-Jesus moment with the gaming community and just how violently racist and misogynist it was in the Left 4 Dead [2] and Resident Evil 5 fanspace.

Nothing has changed about the L4D[2] and RE fanspace, or gaming, in that regard (they just moved to Reddit). But when she started uploading videos critical of gaming culture and the toxicity of that space, I was grateful to see the pushback, because it gave rise to other voices that occupied areas she either missed or weren't her focus.

It wouldn't be a stretch to say that Sarkeesian, Not Your Momma's Gamer, and I Need Diverse Games, were all a big part of why the dudebro-to-Ggate culture that was once so acceptable in gaming magazines and other gaming spaces, don't have mainstream games culture by the throat any longer, and why this blog exists.

[krissiefox]

image source

This list is for promoting political & news blogs promoting decency and progressive ideas, so if you're a conservative shithead this list is not for you. <3

https://www.tumblr.com/activist-for-change Political artwork

https://social-justice-activism-blog.tumblr.com/ Social justice blog

https://www.tumblr.com/derbypunknpfo Antifascist blog. Warning for some violent images.

https://antifainternational.tumblr.com/ International Antifa blog.

https://antifafurs.tumblr.com/ Antifascist furry blog.

https://justsomeantifas.tumblr.com/ Antifascist blog with lots of fundraisers! You can make a difference and help folks in need!

https://fuckgregabbott.tumblr.com/ Accountability blog for anti-LGBTQ hatemonger greg abbot.

https://rapeculturerealities.tumblr.com/ A blog about rape culture.

https://www.tumblr.com/uppityfemale Feminist blog about sexism, poverty, politics & more

https://everydaysexism.tumblr.com/ Blog about sexism

https://everydayharassment.tumblr.com/ Blog about harassment, sexism, corporate greed & more

https://www.tumblr.com/intolerant-feminist Feminist blog about sexism, corrupt politicians, sexual assault & more.

https://creepygirlclub-blog.tumblr.com/ feminist art and quotes.

https://femfreq.tumblr.com/ A blog about sexism & harmful tropes in media.

https://toxicmasculinity.tumblr.com/ A blog about sexism & abuse.

https://www.tumblr.com/positive-masculinity A positive masculinity blog.

https://celebratingamazingwomen.tumblr.com/ Women in history

https://humanrightsupdates.tumblr.com/ News about human rights.

https://thesatanictemple.tumblr.com/ The Satanic Temple blog. (blog inactive, last post was in 2013)

https://www.tumblr.com/berniesrevolution Bernie Sanders Blog

https://www.tumblr.com/fucktrump Trump accountability blog.

https://www.tumblr.com/thehalfwaypost Political Satire

https://theonion.tumblr.com/ Political Satire

https://jensorensen.tumblr.com/ Political comics by an artist from The Nib.

https://cartoonpolitics.tumblr.com/ Political comics & cartoon drawings.

https://slimethought.tumblr.com/ A blog based around the Thought Slime Youtube channel.

https://www.tumblr.com/fucknovideogames Accountability for creeps and assholes in the video game industry/community.

[questioningespecialy]

SiCKtM: the horrors of time travel

post migrated to pillowfort (May 2024) archive: dashboard | blog

[removed non-image content for reasons]

[ai-yo]

Anita Sarkeesian chose to end Feminist Frequency after 15 years and I've had the displeasure of seeing some people who used to harass her back in the day celebrate as if they accomplished something. As if they got rid of her.

Anita chose to end FF because she has done all that she could and ended it on her terms. Feminist Frequency was one of the first people that I saw making decent video essay type content on YouTube back in the day. She pivoted from YouTube into podcasting quite smoothly and was like "I'm burning myself out too much I'm done" and good for her.

[higherentity]

[tachyonblu]

Christina Hoff Sommers tried to understand Anita Sarkeesian. "Do you remember her critique of a game with Bayonetta? Bayonetta was a video game with a very powerful but sexualized, sexy protagonist, and she accused it of being sexist because it appealed to the male gaze. What she neglected to care about was that it was created by a Japanese woman. This is where I see a distinction between an equality feminist and a victim feminist. She was offended that the character was sexy."

[omercifulheaves]

Well, with Anita Sarkeesian announcing she’s shutting down Feminist Frequency after 15 years, I felt like poking the hornet’s nest and asking if after all this time, it ever sank into the skulls of any of the trash nerd gamergate chuds out there that their own personal Anti-Christ would have probably never have been as well known or lasted as long if they hadn’t decided to all have a collective shit hemorrhage over what was ultimately the most basic-ass Feminism 101 takes imaginable. ...oh what am I sayin’ of course it hasn’t.

[chiegetseven]

When you grow up seeing female archetypes in the media, there are some that get left out of feminist discourse. Namely "best girl". Anita Sarkeesian never talked about the "best girl" archetype in Feminist Frequency (although she did break down the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope well. I've only ever heard "best girl" used by men/boys/AMAB NBs (assigned male at birth non binaries). In part, I think, because that's who most of the "gamers" I know are and certainly most of the gamers involved in online gamer culture spaces. "Best girl" is complementary and usually describes a female character who is actually more well-rounded, more realistic than the other female archetypes in games. Mostly negative or damaging female archetypes from games are discussed in feminist discourse.

I think it's a problem with how women or AFAB (assigned female at birth) people are socialized because it happens with interpersonal relationships too. Women often cherry-pick their negative experiences and feelings as the topic of conversation with girl friends, or fem spaces, when discussing their romantic relationships. I even find myself doing it. Sometimes it's a healthy outlet for venting frustration but I think it also has some very negative consequences. (The following statements are primarily about discussions of benign relationships, abusive relationships and the behavior around them can look very different from this and I'm not wading into that right now. If you are in an abusive relationship, please seek help from an organization near you. If you are scared your abuser will find out, go to your local library, you can say you want to get a book or attend a community event. They have computers and knowledgeable staff who will be happy to help you find resources and are not required to report patron interactions.)

1) girl friends and anyone else receiving the gossip (and I know that is a hot button word but I'm not just going to call it "the tea" because everyone knows that's the same thing right now but they might not in 5 years) get a lopsided impression of the relationship being discussed not only because they're only getting one side of the story but because that story itself isn't even the whole story for the side that's telling it. This issue goes beyond women and is more of a human condition issue. As they say, "misery loves company", in this case meaning that when people are enjoying themselves, they want to soak in that feeling and are not driven to express their feelings but when they have negative feelings they want to get them outside of themselves. But AFABs are socialized to do more of this. So when things are going well in a relationship, people may just say "oh things are really good right now!" or maybe even some details of things they're doing with their partner, but when things are going poorly, the immediate response is to analyze and rehash every detail like you're planning a strategic military operation and say all of the negative stuff you wouldn't say to your partner.

2) because women have this "vent" for frustrations, they might not actually try very hard to change the situation by talking issues out with their partner, leaving their partner at a disadvantage because the woman has not spelled out the issue clearly enough for the partner to change anything. There is an addictive quality to this behavior, and there is a social payoff too in that AFABs can get a lot of mileage out of pity without having to do anything. AFABs are often socialized to downplay their successes and so if you're happy and you share it with your friends, hopefully they're happy for you, but if you're upset, they get upset with you and it creates more of a bond. This is not a "trauma bond", a trauma bond happens between the victim of abuse and the abuser. But it is bonding over trauma, and that can reinforce learned helplessness.

3) this reinforces stereotypes about women and men even though contexts have changed significantly in certain ways. While men and boys historically had the advantage in work and academics, as well as other fields, women and girls have been out-performing men and boys for over a decade. There is a book called "Of Men and Boys" by Richard Reeves that discusses these issues in a truly well-balanced, well researched, and effective way. There are still disparities in wealth and emotional labor, and obviously the threat to women's reproductive rights is terrifying and is a tool to take away these gains. But the average AMAB actually faces more disadvantages in school, particularly if he/they are also a POC (person of color) or poor. So while the men in power, usually men who have held powerful positions from before the social shifts of the last 2 decades, are absolutely belligerently advantaged over women/AFABs, the average man/AMAB does not hold the reigns of society, he has the bit in his mouth, he is enslaved by Late Stage Capitalism. And the anger men and boys feel at being enslaved is often redirected from the actual cause of their problems to the women and girls they see surpassing them, and they feel there is insult added to injury when women talk about them like they are subhuman. That isn't an excuse for violence, but it is important to recognize where we really stand.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[ayakho]

Sad to hear that Feminist Frequency is closing its doors but its been a good run. I can imagine the folk there, especially Sarkeesian who has been slandered by bigots for the whole run, are super tired after all this time. I wish them well on their future endeavors!

[shampoo153]

The tropes vs women series was one of my first introductions into feminist theory and it's place in pop culture. This was precisely BECAUSE it was introduced to me as a cultural analysis within the geek space I was in at the time.

I hate that I understand why these bad faith "gamer" spaces would focus on her, it felt like she was in the forefront of feminism in the severe "bro" spaces of gamergate and places like it.

Disclaimer: I like Anita Sarkeesian.

But also, I just saw a writeup of a Youtuber whose content has come a long way from his Gamergate days, and to explain that, the wiki says, "Anita Sarkeesian is a radical feminist who created a webseries about sexist tropes in video games"

AHAHAHAHAHA ANITA SARKEESIAN, RADICAL FEMINIST

HOO HEE EXCUSE ME THAT'S A GOOD ONE

Radical feminist. Feminist extremist. Anita Sarkeesian.

Anita Sarkeesian did her Master's Thesis in Social and Political Thought in 2010 on the trope of the "Strong Woman" in fantasy and science fiction TV shows, and produced Tropes vs Women, a series of online videos breaking down her work in a way that was accessible to a lay audience. She found a ready audience in geek feminist circles, since this was exactly the kind of thing we wanted and needed right then.

Tropes vs Women was extremely bog-standard cultural critique, what you'd find expressed in discussion between scholars of literary theory or media analysis anywhere, and exactly what 99% of feminists were saying at the time. It certainly talked about patriarchy as the complex system of sexism fused into our cultural matrix, so it's not like it wasn't radical feminism from that viewpoint, but it wasn't "radical" by way of being especially militant. Sarkeesian frequently pointed out how individual occurrences of a trope weren't harmful in themselves, but that a media landscape completely saturated with only that trope and nothing but that trope is, in the aggregate, a big feminist issue.

And the internet

HAAAAAAAATED

her for it.

Like, geek feminists got flak a lot anyway, especially when we wanted things like properly enforced policies against sexual harassment at science fiction conventions. And yeah, there totally were toxic keyboard warriors who said stuff about all men being scum - but Sarkeesian wasn't one of them.

It's probably because of her succinct, matter-of-fact, "this is not a debated issue, feminists have decades of theory and research to back this point up, sources abound if you google for thirty seconds so I won't stop to baby you through all the fundamental concepts" approach that she got such a big reach. She was calm, concise, coherent, and rational, everything feminists are told we need to be.

Unfortunately that just made her seem... attackable, I think. A good target, not actually scary or impassioned, unlikely to respond to violence with violence. The perfect kind of person to play five seconds of, and then spend the next five minutes yelling into your mic because IF ANITA IS RIGHT ABOUT VIDEO GAME SEXIST YOU MIGHT AS WELL SAY THAT EVERYTHING IS SEXIST AND SEXISM IS SYSTEMIC AND ENDEMIC TO ALL OF WESTERN CULTURE AND OTHER CULTURES TOO, WHICH IS CLEARLY RIDICULOUS, ANITA LADY BAD.

She literally spent five solid years as Enemy #1 in online geek spaces. It was completely insane. I am so sorry she had to take the brunt of it, and yet grateful that she did. She held the line and took the shit and kept doing good decent feminist work for years after, though she did admit to burnout and closed up shop on her nonprofit org Feminist Frequency in 2023. I hope to hell she's having a good day.

But even now, more than a decade later, dudes talk about her as though she were Geek Feminist Godzilla, the biggest baddest woman in the universe, off to lay waste to downtown Video Games and cut everybody's balls off.

When people (mostly dudes, but not all) talk like this, it's just very funny and unintentionally revealing because of the absolute averageness of her third-wave, trans-inclusive, western-centric, intersectional feminism. It makes them look absolutely pathetic.

Because it just makes it clear that she is probably the first and last self-described feminist the speaker has ever paid attention to.

[krissiefox]

https://www.tumblr.com/techturd Lots of cool video game gifs and images.

https://acornfriend.tumblr.com/ Cute video game art

https://bsptourist.tumblr.com/ Scenery from Source Engine Games

https://www.tumblr.com/didyougaming Weird video game things.

https://alpha-beta-gamer.tumblr.com/ Learn about new indie game alphas and betas you can try!

https://www.tumblr.com/have-you-played-this-ps1-game Polls about PS1 games! Good place to discover new titles.

https://www.tumblr.com/videogametatts Video game tattoos!

https://www.tumblr.com/gogcom Official GOG tumblr blog (inactive)

https://gamespot.tumblr.com/ Not sure if it's an official Gamespot blog, but it is a blog about video games!

https://armorgames.tumblr.com/ Blog of game dev team Armor Games.

https://didyouknowgaming.com/ Video game trivia fun!

https://gaygamer.tumblr.com/ Video games from a gay perspective.

https://nintendometro.tumblr.com/ Nintendo gifs and videos

https://snesanctuary.tumblr.com/ Super Nintendo gifs!

https://mysteamgrids.tumblr.com/ Custom art for Steam games.

https://www.tumblr.com/celebgames Celebrities talking about video games.

https://kartridges-blog.tumblr.com/ Video game music, gifs, ads,screenshots, etc.

https://www.tumblr.com/chocolate-covered-portals Various games

https://n64thstreet.tumblr.com/ Blog about Nintendo 64 games!

https://obscurevideogames.tumblr.com/ Gifs and screenshots of lesser known video games

https://hiddenpalaceorg.tumblr.com/ A blog about lost games and video game history preservation!

https://videogamesskies.tumblr.com/ Skies from video games!

https://playstationgamemania.tumblr.com/ Blog about PlayStation games.

https://low-polygon-count.tumblr.com/ Screenshots and gifs of video game scenery.

https://www.tumblr.com/vgcartography Video game maps! (the visual aid kind, not the playable mod kind)

https://www.tumblr.com/naruhoudo A blog with nice video game fan art!

https://lowpolyanimals.com/ Video game animals!

https://n64retro.tumblr.com/ Pictures and gifs related to Nintendo 64.

https://fangamer.tumblr.com/ Online store that sells licensed video game merch.

https://femfreq.tumblr.com/ A feminist perspective on video games.

[richardsondavis]

Lingerie is not Armor - Tropes vs Women in Video Games

Holy shit! This was good! Insightful as fuck! Definitely recommend!

[tachyonblu]

GameDiviner explores his thoughts on Anita Sarkeesian, social justice in gaming and negative negative aspects of gaming culture.