What was it about the woman who wants to change gender stereotypes in video games that brought out so much hate?
The last few days, a number of folks have been upset about this bizarre clusterfuck, in which a woman (Anita Sarkeesian) starts a Kickstarter for a project to thoroughly and carefully critique the issues surrounding female characters in video games. Good on her, I say. Mind you, I think male characters in video games are also overdue for some serious examination, but that in no way invalidates Ms. Sarkeesian’s project. As periodically happens on the internet, her project drew a tsunami of invective so misogynistic it makes me want to run off and join a lesbian commune. (I asked—apparently I don’t meet the entry requirements.)
Now, I’ve been downstream from the exact same kind of pseudo-Anonymous attack myself in the past, and it’s frustrating. It’s like being attacked by hundreds of noisy chihuahuas. Individually, they’re ineffectual and annoying, but there’s a bottomless well of them. Adding to the frustration is the knowledge that they don’t even mean half the misogyny they spout, they’re just saying the ugliest things their limited imaginations can encompass, in order to get a reaction. Of course, the punchline is that Ms. Sarkeesian’s project ended up raising ten times its intended budget, because the schmucks calling themselves “the true face of the internet” have somehow never heard of the Streisand Effect.
This case raises an interesting question, though. Gender role representation has been improving in all kinds of media, with men and women increasingly allowed to be complex characters outside of genital-based stereotypes. Video games are running behind, though. It makes me think of a conversation I was recently having with a friend about lagging indicators, metrics that are the last to change, so that by the time a change shows up there, it’s fully propagated everywhere else. Lagging indicators show up in most forms of data analysis; the simplest way to understand them is that when your grandma’s heard of a band, it means they’re not cool any more. Grandma is a lagging indicator.
This makes me think of articles like this one, all about how the big game and electronics companies are still relying on “booth babes” and similar objectification of women to try to sell their products. “Yeah, but they’re just doing what works!” runs the standard objection, but that’s not true. Women are close to half of the market for video games, and more than half of the market for consumer electronics. Cheap T&A marketing tells women, and an awful lot of men, “This product is not for you. It’s for someone else, someone who makes boob-based purchasing decisions.”
What we’re looking at here is an entrenched culture. They’re still doing booth babes because that’s what they’ve always done. Likewise, gender roles in video games tend to still fall into a very few stereotypical models. Video games, like soap operas and sports journalism, are a lagging cultural indicator, and the vicious reaction to Ms. Sarkeesian’s project indicates that some gamers, surprisingly, want a longer lag time.
Photo of young woman playing video games courtesy of Shutterstock
Is this “critque” actually going to be nuanced, or is it just going to be another tally-list that’s riddled with confirmation bias?
Having seen this sort of thing done roughly a hundred times before, I sure won’t be holding my breath.
Sarkeesian is not a Video Game critic; in fact, she’s not much of a critic at all Maybe in the most literal sense, but she shows very little knowledge of whatever subject she’s critisizing. She cited Portal 2 as an example of non-violent conflict resolution when the entire franchise centers around dodging death traps and surviving psycological abuse from an unhinged AI, whom you have to destroy at the end of each game. She is so adament that sexy pictures of Bayonetta will drive men to molest women on public transit, that she suggests cities should pay for women-only subway… Read more »
Sarkeesian’s methods of damage-control weren’t. She was, I believe, trying to encourage it to generate outrage and boost funding. The video wasn’t on YouTube until the very end of the campaign, and it was spammed on 4chan within minutes of going up, not as a target, but in advertisement. Like 99% of things that exist, this pissed off 4chan, and 4chan did what 4chan always does when 4chan gets pissed. Then Sarkeesian posted about all the hate she received and generated media attention which drastically boosted her donations, all based largely on her victim status. If 4chan hadn’t been directly… Read more »
I suspected something like that had occurred. In other words, she kicked over a hornet’s nest and then claimed she was being victimized by the stings she got.
What would feminists do if there was actual equality? All these pontificators with their gender studies degrees would have to go out and get real jobs I guess.
You assume that everyone agrees that women are objectified. They do not. The rest of your response does not answer my question either. My question is why is it wrong to create games for people who make “boob-based purchasing decisions” (and for the moment I will ignore the inherent misandry of that statement). The only argument presented is a political one, which your following statement confirms: “It’s about sending the message to the people who are creating that product to branch out from the T&A female character because a good portion of the people who purchase games would like to… Read more »
Cheap T and A marketing tells women, and an awful lot of men, “This product is not for you. It’s for someone else, someone who makes boob-based purchasing decisions.” And that is a problem because? I am not being factious. I genuinely do not understand this argument. The nature of entertainment is that some things will appeal to certain groups. There are scores of TV shows, comics, films, and video games that are not for me. I have an option: do not watch or read them. Glee is not for me, so I do not watch the show. Fox News is… Read more »
The problem is twofold…firstly it says that objectification is okay, which it’s not. More importantly, though, is the fact that in mainstream games there’s very little else out there. It does exist, as we’ve been discussing in these comments, but in AAA games there are precious few female characters that aren’t strictly T&A. It’s not about political views…and it’s not even about stopping other people from purchasing a product. It’s about sending the message to the people who are creating that product to branch out from the T&A female character because a good portion of the people who purchase games… Read more »
This case raises an interesting question, though. Gender role representation has been improving in all kinds of media, with men and women increasingly allowed to be complex characters outside of genital-based stereotypes. Video games are running behind, though. Really? This claim perfectly matches the stereotype of the misogynistic gamer who lives in his mother’s basement and can’t get laid. But if you look at other kinds of media or entertainment are they really more progressive when it comes to gender roles? For example the Fifty Shades books which are still on the first three places of the NYT bestseller list.… Read more »
A big difference, I think, is how long these other media have been around. Other media have been around long enough that tropes and cliches have been created and broken multiple times. You still get books, movies, etc that rely on old stereotypes, but there are also a wealth of really popular books, movies, etc. that don’t. And so it sort of softens the blow a bit because it’s not as if the entire medium is full of these really horrible representations. So I don’t think video games are falling behind, so much as I think they’re still being figured… Read more »
So, are video games lagging behind or are they just taking their time to develop just like other forms of media? You seem to recognize that video games are still a growing media type but the OP says they are indeed lagging behind. I wonder if comparing a 30 yr old media type to one that is a bit over 100 yr old and then saying the 30 is lagging behind isn’t a bit hasty. As you say the business side figures into this. We are just now in the last few years getting to the point where you don’t… Read more »
All right, let me tell you something so obvious it hurts.
There are many types of games, catering to many different kinds of players.
From strategy games to erotic games : thousands of titles have been created.
Picking a few and showing that Oh My Gawd, the lady is in a tight suit and my eyes aren’t bleeding when I look at her is just….
TVtropes provides us examples of Chainmail Bikini or Stripper Iffic: what this woman wants is some cash to play games for free.
There are many different types of games……..there are not many different types of games that AAA studios are making. There are not many different types of female characters in popular games (even if you include non AAA games that became really popular). Also, she’s not picking a few games to comment on…her plan is to show trends, thus the term “tropes.” Her plan is to show some common themes and point out how they are problematic. Also the idea that she’s wanting to be paid for playing games is just a bit ridiculous. She’s going to be playing games for… Read more »
Well these trolls probably feel their past-time is being threatened and are defending it to the core. So often video games cop the blame for all kinds of bullshit, zomg school shooters, zomg men failing, etc that some of them are probably just reacting to another perceived attack.
I think it’s good to list the tropes of women in games, hopefully someone will do one for men too (zomg yet another man that needs 34million calories to sustain his muscle mass). Trolls are going to cause laws to be passed that will bite them in the ass!
I’ve found that for the most part, video games is a place where commenting on gender stereotypes is pretty evenly done (whenever it’s done at all). GiantBomb, Extra Credits, TotalBiscuit, even Zero Punctuation on occasion…they critique the industry for it’s representation of women and it’s representation of men.
Could you elaborate on what laws you mean when you say “Trolls are going to cause laws to be passed that will bite them in the ass!”? There’s never going to be a gender-equalization law for fictional characters.
Laws as in forcing isp’s, websites to hand over data for things like harassment. I believe the UK is trying to pass it and maybe other countries.
ht tp://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/jun/12/internet-trolls-bill-defamation-online
Not laws to bring in equalization, that’s up to people to write content, make games, movies etc with it in and considering it’s the creative arts it’s a bit silly to mandate equality in representation per item, eg a game has to have 1:1 ration men to women (good luck doing a ww2 game).
“It’s a bit silly to mandate equality in representation per item, eg a game has to have 1:1 ration men to women (good luck doing a ww2 game).”
For what it’s worth, I don’t know anyone who actually plays video games who is suggesting this.
If stores would actually stock AO titles so the “sex sells” market could be separated from the rest of the game market, I think that would help too.
I’m currently in my third year of a Game Design course at University, and I can tell you the future unfortunately isn’t very bright. For starters, there’s an 80/20 gender split. That was actually measured in the first year, could well be less now. The uni has a few programs to try to encourage females to join but it hasn’t had the best take up. And while there are a few very talented and creative individuals in my course, there are also a LOT of immature guys that I know won’t be helping things. The issue is that the industry… Read more »
“For starters, there’s an 80/20 gender split. That was actually measured in the first year, could well be less now.” Which is interesting because the last stats I saw were that when it comes to consumers, it’s about 50/50. So for some reason women are playing video games, but aren’t going into game design. It could be because women aren’t interested in game design, which is possible. However, considering the way video games are largely considered a ‘boy’s toy’ and the way that a lot of video games do treat their female characters so badly (if they have female characters… Read more »
That 50% stat is great, but a little confusing. It measures absolutely every form of game (as it should) so when you look into it you see that the female market is centered around casual gaming and mobiles. “Hardcore” gaming is still pretty male dominated, and you have to play a LOT of games to consider it as a career :p
As a classic ‘hardcore’ gamer I totally get what you’re saying…but I also think the line between hardcore and casual is becoming less and less about how often someone plays a game and about the genre of game. Someone could play iPhone games all day and still not be considered ‘hardcore’ because of the types of games they’re playing. It’s become an identity in itself that is no longer simply descriptive.
Certainly, things will still progress slowly. I think, though, that if the industry can continue to mature, hopefully they’ll invest more in hiring good writers. Until then, I will continue to send my money towards Valve, because damn their games are good, well written, and their female characters are amazing.
Well now this is totally off topic but…if you actually were interested in playing an MMO but just couldn’t get past a lot of the crap in MMOs, I suggest looking at Guild Wars 2. 🙂 I could do a whole like, sales pitch here, but I’ll refrain. But hey if you’re interested in it e-mail me at [email protected] and we can chat about it. 🙂 Or just check their website, lol.
Frankly, the criticisms she has are completely valid and worth bringing up. Female characters are evolving… slowly… into something a little more complex than a Reward For Playing. Valve, my absolute favorite developer, produces strong female characters that are completely capable and still attractive. They aren’t and don’t need to be built with silly proportions with boobs that defy physics. Those aren’t integral to their characters. Zoey and Rochelle, from Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 respectively, are both attractive characters that are no different than the male characters. I play as them because I identify much better with them.… Read more »
Best female character ever: GLaDOS. 😉
I completely agree. haha
God what a brilliant character she was.
Ugh, Half Life 2 gives me motion sickness problems that don’t occur in any other area of my life. It’s really weird, especially because the Portal games didn’t affect me the same way.
@ Steph
I like Zoey. Would I like her better if she had proportions that defied physics, probably? Would it stop me from buying the game? I own two copies. If she had proportions that defied physics, would that stop you from buying it or playing as her?
I have the same problem with her project that I have with all these sorts of things: There is a focus on destroying the creativity of others rather than the critic creating something themselves. The piece run on the GMP today about how Daddy Blogging began as a grass roots movement is probably a great example. The Daddy bloggers gained status and success by building up a community that provided parenting advice. They created new content. They did not simply attack existing content until they were blue in the face. If there really is a market out there for video… Read more »
But but …
I thought a “critique” was closer to an “analysis” rather than necessarily a put-down .. thingy? An analysis would be good to have, right?
Critique is an analysis, though generally a critical analysis. A good critique isn’t about putting anything down, but about understanding it and pointing out it’s flaws…and perhaps suggesting ways to fix or improve those flaws.
But if the flaws are real…why not just put out a better product?
Because, as I pointed out, she’s not a game designer. Also, from what I understand, she’s commenting on mainstream culture and in this case mostly AAA games…i.e. the big ones. She doesn’t have the cash that a AAA gaming studio would have to make a huge game and promote it and ship it, even if she were a designer. I mean what you’re basically suggesting is that like, movie critics, shouldn’t critique cinema…but that they should just go make a movie instead, not just a movie but a blockbuster. That is so unrealistic as to be nearly impossible, mate.
So, what your saying is that games like Portal or Angry birds shouldn’t exist, because it’s impossible for popular games to be developed on a shoestring budget…right. Also, the comparison to movie critics is a non sequitur, movie critics act to inform consumers about the pros and cons of a particular movie. Ms. Sarkeesian is only interested in attacking the entire industry at large, not about helping consumers to make purchasing decisions. A better analogy would be someone asking for money so that they could do a six-part documentary on why McDonald’s food is problematic. It’s just unhelpful at this… Read more »
Uhhhh… Portal isn’t on a shoestring budget. It is a major production. Valve is one of the biggest studios out there. They had a “shoestring” budget back in 1998, but even then it wasn’t shoestring because it was founded and funded by Gabe Newell, who is a billionaire because he was a part of Microsoft from the very beginning.
Trust me, Valve is NOT a small studio. They’ve been around since the beginning of the millenium, and have been a revolutionary company since then… but they are also a big studio.
Er, the team that made portal was a bunch of Students (some who started in there teens as I recall), who made a game (well tech demo) about a no knee princess (she can’t jump as a result), who had to use portals to solve puzzles. Gabe Newell saw this at a student showcase, was highly impressed, told them to demo to valve and offered them jobs. Very limited money to AAA game based on a new concept they made themselves, pretty much out of Uni. Given this its entirely possible a game can go from shoestring to major title… Read more »
Also, Angry Birds can exist because it doesn’t need the rendering power that a PC or console game does. Such games like Angry Birds have existed since the invention of Flash. In fact there’s whole websites dedicated to simple Flash games just like Angry Birds. It CAN be developed on a shoestring budget if the person 1) has a good art style, 2) has a simple game mechanic, and 3) can market it well. But it does not need the rendering power, the writers, the physics tools, the art department, the lighting, the gameplay mechanics, the programming, coding, debugging, the… Read more »
“A better analogy would be someone asking for money so that they could do a six-part documentary on why McDonald’s food is problematic.” Such as the smash hit, Super Size Me, which was one among many social commentaries that has emphasized how unhealthy that kind of food is. As to the movie critic comparison…there are critiques of cinema as an industry out there, that then are used to improve the industry. And whether you’re commenting on a single movie or the entire industry, the point is to inform consumers (and movie-makers) as to the good and bad aspects to the… Read more »
One can create games using existing software, like RPG Maker for example : as long as you can create something with a good plot and great characters you can get quite a lot of fans and fame.
Part of building something new involves identifying problems with the old something, in this case video games. She’s not a programmer or a game designer. She’s a social critic…so she’s doing what she can in the venue she has to comment on the problems in he media she loves.
Also, she doesn’t have to “prove” that there is a market for different types of video games; that ship’s sailed. That’s already been proven.
If it’s already been proven, then why is she writing a critique? At the end of the day, she’s not actually creating anything, just continuing to attack something that others have created. As you say, she’s “not a programmer or game designer” so she’s not going to be able to actually suggest real improvements, just provide “comments on the problems.” We already have the entire internet providing “comments on the problems” we hardly benefit from more of the same. We would actually benefit from better designed games, but again, Ms. Sarkeesian isn’t actually interested in that, just in pointing out… Read more »
Oh. My. God. Non-game designers can totally make extremely useful critiques of games…particularly if they play games. They are the consumers, after all. And she’s making the critique because even though it’s been proven, nothing has changed…or at least very little has changed. So, as a consumer and as social critic, she’s making her voice heard, because the more voices that speak out and the wider audience they reach, the more likely it is that AAA game designers might hear it and listen to what they’re saying.
Hear, hear, Heather. Game studios are as big as movie studios. There are a few developers out there that do provide wonderful female characters (Valve fangirl right here), and many allow you to create a strong female character. However, the biggest studios, quite often being developers of fighting games, tend to go with things that are “tried and true”. Meaning women characters that are fan service. However, with female consumers becoming a growing base, adding their voices to the critique, we’re beginning to see the evolution of the female character. Part of Ubisoft’s next installment in their Assassin’s Creed series… Read more »
Your beloved Portal and Portal 2 came about because enterprising college kids programmed a simple game called “Narbacular Drop” and presented it to major studios.
It did not come about because of “social critique.”
Feel free to give money for more “critique” if you want, but don’t pretend it’s going to help.
You have the part where it was developed by college students. But Valve HIRED the students from the local tech college that developed “Narbecular Drop”, which had a new and interesting game mechanic, and then GAVE THEM THE TOOLS to develop it into a major game. They did the same with Portal 2, where they picked up an interesting game mechanic from college students, HIRED THEM, and then incorporated that mechanic into their sequel of Portal 2. However, the CHARACTERS from those games, GlaDOS, Chell, everything in those games – that came from Valve’s WRITERS.
Jesus Mike.
Since you probably didn’t really read the wikipedia page that well, I’ll give you examples of the differences between the games that the students developed and the games that Valve made by incorporating those mechanics created in college. Narbacular Drop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNG52b_jLYc Portal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCheThV29K4 TAG: The Power of Paint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFrPjrRwR8o Portal 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeVmSEvhzQU Valve hired the students that made these innovative game mechanics and then gave them a cohesive storyline out of it. Both Portal and Portal 2 were made with Valve’s own developer tools, and built around Valve’s own engine, called Source. Narbacular Drop and TAG were both senior student… Read more »
I’ll add, that I suppose technically the reason Portal 2 came out at all was because Portal did so well. And originally Portal was just part of an apology by Valve for taking so flipping long to put out Half Life 2…it was bundled in the Orange Box (think that’s what it was called) with Team Fortress 2, another smash hit. So it wasn’t conceived of as a huge project, but it was developed by a major studio. Also, you point out that Portal wasn’t developed via social critique…and yeah that’s true, but I’m not arguing every game is or… Read more »
You are right, in that Portal wasn’t a result of DIRECT social critique – it came about from writers who were already doing the unexpected by creating strong female characters that weren’t token T&A. They were ahead of the game so to say. So the characters of Chell and Alyx were created by the same people, and as such became a huge part of the influence to making stronger female characters and non-“traditional” characters more common place. Valve is a highly successful studio, and they proved that you can make a game with strong female characters and make huge profits… Read more »
Good point. 🙂
Uh, Chell is not a strong female character. She has literally zero personality and doesn’t talk! Her gender is basically a completely irrelevant part of the game.
Gordon Freeman is the same – yet people still love him as a character. I still consider Chell a character through how other characters interact with her, and the description of her from the comic that was released.
I can’t speak for Chell, because I haven’t played Half Life 2…it’s on my to-do list… But with regards to having great characters who don’t talk…well yeah as Steph pointed out, Gordon Freeman is the same way. But as for great female characters who don’t talk…how about Samus from the Metroid series? Not talking doesn’t mean zero personality…and arguably Samus was a much better character before she did start talking in the fiasco that was Other M. Which I suppose this is a bit off topic of the original post…well except maybe not…because with Other M the critique was to… Read more »
“Since you probably didn’t really read the wikipedia page that well” Welp, now we’re at the point of open insults. Glad to see that’s what it takes to “make your point.” The fact remains that these games were created by creative college kids whose original ideas caught the eye of a developer (I never said anything different). You have yet to prove that “social commentary” contributed in any way shape or form to the process. My point has always been, and will remain: if you want video games to change, learn to program. If you want to whine, go ahead… Read more »
Since my comment trying illustrate the differences between the games got deleted, I’ll try to explain this more nicely. Both Portal and Portal 2 took the senior student projects that came out of Digipen, the local technology college, and hired the students to work on a new game. Portal took the basic premise and game mechanic (in Narbacular Drop it was “magic doors”, in Portal it was “portals”) and then gave them the tools to develop the gameplay. However, the writers of Portal: Chet Faliszek, Eric Wolpaw, and Marc Laidlaw are all longtime Valve writers. They were the ones that… Read more »
Hiya,
So I’m a moderator here and I’m just letting you know that sometimes comments get held in moderation for awhile when none of us moderators are around to look at it. We’re all volunteers so sometimes it takes awhile. Also, it’s often an automatic thing, when a comment has multiple links or uses specific terms. In your case it was the use of multiple links. Generally, we try to get comments sorted (either approved or deleted) within an hour…but this doesn’t always happen. So yeah, we ask patience. 🙂
Also, here’s a link to the commenting policy: https://goodmenproject.com/commenting-policy/
haha all right, I thought I saw my comment had been baleeted because I was angry and probably wasn’t using very nice language.
You continue to act as though I don’t know how Portal was developed. I do, note that I’m the first one who said “Narbacular Drop.”
You have yet to demonstrate where “social commentary” helped this process.
My point has always been that learning to program changes the face of games. Writing social commentary does not.
I look at glamour magazines and stuff for women and see nothing but hot women many in bikinis. How do they know that women don’t want hot women in the games? Women have an idea of what women should look like also. Can the game developers already be considering that?
I find it amusing that you’ve decided to criticize this woman’s creativity rather than creating something better.