Part 2 of Tropes vs. Women in Gaming

I hope you understand the ridiculousness of the title of this post.

Anita Sarkeesian, the target of such a massive outburst of ignorant male aggression of which there is no comparison, has part 2 of her video on sexism in gaming.  Sexism isn’t the right word as it really doesn’t do the series justice.  Tropes doesn’t work either, since they are simply used to denote a cliché.  No, there’s a word for this but I think it’s one of those words that’s applied retroactively, once people look back and go “holy shit, we did that?“.

Do I agree with her individual points?  No, not really.   There are some serious flaws in many of the detailed arguments but holistically, when viewed as a serial issue, the problem does become glaring.  She addresses that weakness, which makes it more relevant I find.

Spinks has a good thread on this topic.  She has mentioned in the past that she sees herself as a feminist, and it’s a particular viewset we gamers lack in general.  There’s a reason so few women enter the field, so few actually game.  The games themselves are certainly at issue but it is the universe of gaming that is really polluted.

How many times have we seen abuse in games and done nothing?  How many women simply will not use voice chat due to the immediate “stalker” reaction?  It’s really hard for gaming to be taken seriously when we’re by far the most immature art form on the planet (and yes, I think rap videos are better than XBOX live).

Everyone has a daughter, a sister, a mother or a friend.  No one would ever want them to be treated the way that the gamer population treats women.  If we want society to respect gaming, we seriously need to start looking at respecting ourselves.

[edit: fixed link]