For the life of me, I can't name a single woman I know who doesn't claim to be a feminist. I find this unfortunate, not because I disagree with equal rights and equal treatment for both genders (except for obvious cases where gender kinda matters in the issue at hand), but simply because I have a sinking feeling that the average woman doesn't realize that it's women like THIS woman who leave a lasting impression on men and get associated with the term "feminism." Asking for equal rights and treatment? Sure thing. Referring to men as this oppressive gender that's keeping all women under their thumb and limiting their potential? Erm...that's how society works. Like I mean both men AND women play into it, it's not really something you can change overnight, and in some ways it exists for a reason. I mean, I feel pretty safe in assuming that a majority of men will consider themselves more dominant (sixually) while a majority of women consider themselves happier when submissive. At least, that's been my experience with women I've met.

There's two potentially-good causes that I think are unfortunately led quite horrendously: one is PETA ("animal testing and experimentation involves spraying perfume directly in a bunny's eyes while breaking it's legs so it can't struggle and resist from all the pain.....HOW ABOUT WE ATTACK KFC FOR HAVING DELICIOUS CHICKEN?"), the other is Feminism.

But while PETA is just a bunch of idiots who can't figure out people are more likely to support you if you say "look they're shoving laundry detergent under that puppy's eyelids" rather than saying "how dare you enjoy that delicious chicken, you monster" or randomly throwing paint on coats, feminism just seems flawed at it's core, at least when taken über serious.


Hell, I don't know if anyone knows this, but studies have shown women are more depressed since the feminist movement. Kinda obvious in a way; more equality means more responsibility which means more stress. But yeah, it's not really something that I think the world needs people screaming about EVERY DAY. Go scream at Saudi Arabia, go scream at states that force [censored] pregnant women to have their child instead of aborting, go scream at places that may still have ridiculous rules and standards like women not being able to vote.

But as I've asked before, she's speaking like all of this is a crime that these video games use that trope. My question is: who's the victim? Who is hurt by this trope, if anyone? Are you saying it hurts a woman's sense of self-worth and belief in her own ability when she grows up seeing the princess being rescued? Well I'd bet it'd give young boys a weird outlook on what they're supposed to act like around women if you had them read Twilight before they hit puberty. Yknow what you do? Don't make them read it, don't make them play it. In that sense, ok, it's obviously more difficult to avoid the damsel in distress trope, but you know what you can do? For every damsel in distress game you have them play, give them one that breaks it. Have your young girl play Metroid, then Super Mario, then Wind Waker. Suddenly there's no pattern in the female role so she really has nothing to learn.

Asking ALL of society to change just for this? Incredibly naive. Especially when one considers all the different cultures of the world. For example, I for one can tell you that based on my experiences with russian women, they're (usually, of course) MOOOOOORE than happy to take the submissive role in the relationship. Are you going to tell the entire country of Russia their culture is "wrong," for that? That's absurd, as you're basically judging a culture and a lifestyle you have no experience with.



To me, feminism is a type of idealism. Typically, idealistic views are....not neccesarily unrealistic, but they're things that wouldn't just happen overnight, and would take some work and maybe a bit of luck to get people to listen. But feminism? Wow, that's an out-there idealism that wishes to undo 2000 years of literature, male dominated society and history. It's just NOT gonna happen....ever. Unless you wish to suddenly lie to future generations and claim the first president of the United States was Jenny Washington and the inventor of the lightbulb was Tina Edison.

Watched her Damsels In Distress video. God it was boring. She could at least be engaging. I noticed that she talked about older games in that video instead of modern ones and really that video was nothing mindblowing. All that info she was talking about I could read about on TV tropes.

I think this video did a far better job of addressing tropes about women than she did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqMN8s9j3lI

Comedic approach > whiny one

Wait, this had a KS? I got a tweet with this link. I watched about 2 minutes of this video, rolled my eyes, told the screen to Please continue, my good sir. and closed the window.

Just finished watching the video: yeah, pretty tame in comparison to all the publicity that was surrounding this.

She does say in the video that future installments of the series will explore more contemporary examples as well as talking about positive female characters in videogames. I was also starting to feel like she was giving a pretty one-note view of things while watching it, but it looks like that's going to come in the next episodes. Probably not the best way to format your video series if you're interested in more than preaching to the choir, but there you have it.

Taken as one episode, however, it's really just a scholarly essay on damsels in distress in videogames, with a focus on the early years of the industry. And let's be honest - saying that most videogame stories of the time revolved around a male protagonist saving a damsel in distress is hardly a controversial view. I thought that was given, right? Not only was it common, but it happened a lot. Not just in videogames, but watch nearly action or kung-fu movie from the 80's and 90's and you'll see the same thing.


Her point, as I understand it (and she probably could have stated this better, to be fair) is not so much that any single game is "evil" for following what literally couldn't be a more archetypal story structure, but that taken as a whole there was just a lot of misogyny in videogames at the time. And when you take the industry as a whole, a focus on gearing games toward adolescent males and crafting stories that tie into a male empowerment fantasy isn't exactly the best thing ever for gender equality.

She's not demonizing any of these games in her video, but pointing out that this is something that happened. I think the real trap lies in my question of relevance (and this might be answered in later videos.) As I said, I don't think there's much question about early videogames being pretty heavily male-dominant.

But yeah, I don't know if a video is really the best medium for what she's going for. I kept thinking this felt like it would work better as an article, or in a blog.

There's also the matter of perspective. It's sixist for me to even think this (because I wouldn't have questioned her "geek cred" if she were a fat man in glasses,) but I couldn't help but wonder if she's a gamer or not. She says she played a lot of nintendo as a kid, but that's just about everyone. Doesn't make someone a "gamer," in my mind. As I said, it's sixist that a woman needs to "prove" her hobby, whereas a man doesn't - but given how gamers tend to react to "outsiders" having opinions about the industry, I think a bit of personal background would have helped establish her point of view much better.

Because as it stands, I just don't know who this is, really. I'd be much more interested in hearing views on feminism and videogames from someone in the industry. All things being equal, I'd be much more interested in hearing what Rhianna Pratchett thinks about the state of the industry than someone I don't know anything about and don't know her background.

Overall, though? Yeah, there's just not much there beyond being something for the conversation to take place around (ie, the ongoing debate about the role of women in the industry is larger than this one woman's short history of damsels in distress in videogames.)

According to her, it doesn't count because the characters are completely interchangeable and the female role isn't specifically written as "female", whatever that means. The role was written for a man and just had briasts slapped onto it. You can't win with her.


She couldn't have used even a third sixth of her funds. She should have donated the majority of unused funds to a feminist charity. I'd feel terrible about taking $150 000 for making a series of pedestrian, unoriginal videos.


It's really quite unfortunate that a militant, third-wave, anti-six feminist is the face of women, and more specifically feminists, in the industry. I can only see bad things come from this.

After watching the TEDxWomen 2012 video linked in the description, I can understand why she disabled comments. Besides, youtube is not a place to express a level headed opinion.

With that said, I watched around 7 minutes of the video and I didn't think too highly of it. It begins on the assumption that already exists and shows examples of it. I did not think this video tried to prove that sixism against women exists in video games. To be fair though, it is what part 1 of 13 videos in the series. And she come off as a little bias -- watching other videos made by her, I sort of expected it.

I may watch other videos when they are uploaded. But given how I didn't care enough to finish this video... I don't know...

This is what's so wrong with kickstarter.

I salute you guys for watching that. Lost interest when I saw the name of the channel and the 1st 30 seconds of footage. People just love this topic.

Her claim is that the song is creepy, not that it is sixist. The person to whom she is replying is apparently too busy with his own agenda to actually hear what she is saying.

We should put $150k into Longknife's pocket, your replies here so far are already much better than high school essay level. Lol

Most of the points I believe in have been mentioned, but what did the 150k she received, go towards?

150,000? To this? Are people serious?

OMG HOW DARE PEOPLE FUND SOMETHING THEY THINK IS WORTHWHILE! THE HORROR! THEY PRODUCED SOMETHING I DON'T LIKE! BURN IT TO THE GROUND!

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=341

Agreed. The only thing that would make me laugh, if it weren't so pathetic, is if people who donated to her little kickstarter fund demanded their money back.

But that's just it. What's so worthwhile about this video? Nothing. A woman sets herself up as a Damsel in Distress (ironic), takes people's money, and regurgitates some trite, stock talking points. There's a guy on youtube who made a video about damsels in distress who 1. did it without first requiring $6 000, and 2. did a much better job of discussing the trope.

Heck no,

He would use it to make a massive project to demonize Skyrim

You mean demons in Skyrim? At last a challenging enemy to fight.


Oh, wait, that's not what you meant.

Kickstarter has been used to help fund things that actually are for a good use and has helped with funding things that really would have trouble getting sold otherwise. Sadly, stuff like this video's Kickstarter makes something that actually is good seem terrible. Of course, every good thing seems to be required to be possible to abuse... >_>

Why do you care? Don't say its because it creates a negative stigma around feminism or some other [censored].

I funded http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/738299958/wearable-sculpture-an-artistic-jewelry-project?ref=card. I funded http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/321236486/slither-by-matthew-j-levin?ref=card.

Those may not have value to you. I thought they were neat. How does that harm you? Yeah, she pretty much said stuff we all already knew. But that people are getting so worked up about that is very, very telling.

She raises a few good points, but they are quickly drowned out under a lot more stuff that doesn't make a lot of sense. Ultimately I wish there was someone less biased, or some sort of group of women discussing the issue so I could get opinions from more than just one who has taken it on herself to speak for an entire demographic. Apparently. A group of women who aren't all form the same group, I need to clarify and add that in. This way we can get a diverse amount of opinions and truly see the crux of the issue.

Reading this topic and the replies in it gave me a GINORMOUS (yeah it's a word, which is spelt in the dictionary with all-caps. Well, at least it might be! Alright, it isn't...) Deju-Vu feeling. A feeling that I've heard/read about this / something similar at least two times before. But I can't remember when or where.

I'm curious... Where does "extra" money go? Her pocket? I hope not.


Edit: ExtraCreditz (worth watching, maybe): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1qndga6SNU

So if say, a homelss person, asked for $5 to ride the bus and you found him copping a nickel bag instead you wouldn't be upset? Even if someone else gave the person the five dollars I know I would be upset, even when it wasn't my money.

I know some of these posts come off as anti-feminist as any subject like this would lure those kind of people out of the woodworks. But I think you're missig the point.

I care because I'm tired of women being treated, and expecting to be treated, with kid gloves in the gaming industry, and I'm tired of them receiving adulation for the simple fact that they have a [censored] and exist in a male-dominated field. It's really not a notable achievement. From Hepler to Sarkeesian to every other incident (that girl who worked for Square Enix, then went on to review their games while not disclosing that fact, for example), when it's a woman that's being criticised everyone rushes to her defence and makes a big deal out of it but when, for example, MovieBob and Ben Croshaw regularly get online abuse it's just a part of their job. Do gender-specific attacks exist in these cases? Hell yes. That's definitely a problem. But that doesn't make the attack any worse or better than all the other, non-gendered, attacks that everyone on the internet gets. Women are not helpless little girls, and they don't deserve a brigade of white knights and sapphic support every time someone insults their sensibilities. It's exploitative [censored].


Those are really cool, actually. I should spend more time flipping through Kickstarter.


She got $150 000 for acting the victim, and she doesn't even have the academic or critical thinking chops to prove that she deserved the initial $6 000, let alone the eventual amount. None of this deserves my respect. I said as much when she initiated her Kickstarter, and people disagreed vehemently with me. I wanted some vindication. I wanted the satisfaction of saying, I told you so. And now I have it.