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Woman of the Week #7 - Anita Sarkeesian

You can check multiple options:

  • I have watched some of Sarkeesians videos. She raises some interesting points.

    Votes: 24 60.0%
  • I have watched her videos. I don't necessarily agree with them but having a discourse is a good thin

    Votes: 4 10.0%
  • I have never heard of Sarkeesian or GamerGate.

    Votes: 8 20.0%
  • It's about ethics in video game journalism... !

    Votes: 4 10.0%

  • Total voters
    40
This is complete crap. Sarkeesian doesn't hate gamers, she's not against gamers. She likes gamers.

Yup, that's pretty much what she says in the video above, too. She thinks that the gaming community has already become more inclusive and that it's just a small reactionary minority that is raging now.
 
This is complete crap. Sarkeesian doesn't hate gamers, she's not against gamers. She likes gamers. She just happens to think that gamers, as a group, can and should aspire to more, and should also be critical of the media they consume. In other words: she wants them to be smart and informed consumers as well as culture critics.

The divide here is really something GamerGaters trumped up. The reality is that there's just this tiny group of morons who know how to scream very loudly, while everyone else sees them for what they are: entitled manbabies who simply refuse to grow up or tolerate having women in their hobby.
Hell, I wish there as more women that gamed online. They're the best shots on every team, from my experience. And that's not even meant as joking: women snipers, in my experience, are more professional, can actually work with the team, and are goal focused. Versus hyperactive, highschool/college guys that think just holding down the trigger and screaming into the mic is "tactics".

As for gamergate: It started on /pol/ and just mutated from there with every a-hole troll dog-piling in.

So what we got do it get more women back/back into computer programming and then we can get more women who can compete for the smaller job market in the gaming industry. So how do we get more women interest in computer sciences/programming? What do we need to do at the educational level, to stir or encourage young women in highschool to see the computer industry as a possible career choice?

A thought: Perhaps we (that is men and women) could make sure that girls/women don't view gaming/programming/video games in a negative light because of the negative/sexist portrayal of women they find in video games.

As a man, if programming was dominated by women, most games featured main characters that were women only, with men being relegated to support/NPC/non-essential sexual objects roles I would lose interest in video games and computer programming.

And that goes back around to the market: Companies/investors don't see money in the big franchises in being inclusive. At best, for now, we can strive to make the communities more inclusive. From there, hopefully, get more women into the big name franchises, and from t here show that there's a market (money) to being inclusive at the game level. But some games (GTA, for example), just aren't, by nature, going to be as open to being as inclusive as say something like CoD.
 
But the first question we have to answer is why is the number of women programmers, across the board, down in the computer industry?

What is the source for this? Do you mean computer programming in general, or just in relation to games?
 
I voted for "I have watched some of Sarkeesians videos. She raises some interesting points"

However I don't agree with her 100% of course but there is no denying that the gaming world is dominated by Men in the field of making them, publishing them & advertising to them. The fact we hear stories like "Naughty Dog" had to fight to just put the character Ellie on the cover of "The Last of Us" and Irrational Games didn't put Elizabeth on the cover of Bioshock Infinite because it tested poorly :rolleyes: proves we have a long way to go.

However I disagree with her on the facts games should not have stories that put women im harms way, sexual them or be non playable. AAA games need top branch out but the writers/devs can make their games as they see fit at the end of the day. Personally and in my circle of friends, we have never been influnced in our treating of women in real life because of games and the only people who are were already arseholes or their parents need to do some actually FUCKING PARENTING and stop little Johnny from playing every mature game out on the market like GTA. As for the joke that is GamerGate, hopefully stronger internet laws will stop trolls or punish them for their hideous behaviour towards female gamers and their supporters.

Now where the fuck is my proper Perfect Dark sequel with Jo Dark ;)
 
But the first question we have to answer is why is the number of women programmers, across the board, down in the computer industry?

What is the source for this? Do you mean computer programming in general, or just in relation to games?
In general.

When Women Stop Coding.

ber of women studying computer science was growing faster than the number of men. But in 1984, something changed. The percentage of women in computer science flattened, and then plunged, even as the share of women in other technical and professional fields kept rising.

Can't find the one that shows the worse drop was in the last 10 years.

Now this article just bring up a interesting point: That in the 90s computers were aimed at boys and men. That the media, the culture of the late 80s and 90s, just fueled that perception. So from there, girls growing up through the 90s were less interested in computers. And, we're reaping the results now of a generation of girls that simply didn't want to go into the industry.
 
Ok. Because I've seen articles like this that indicate at least that female developers are increasing, which seems pertinent to this discussion.
 
Ok. Because I've seen articles like this that indicate at least that female developers are increasing, which seems pertinent to this discussion.
It's sort of like splitting a half by a half, if that makes sense. The overall pool is down, but so there's not enough specialization of an already small pool to put a dent in the industry. As it stands, there's going to be more male developers, cause there's more of them over all. What need is up the number of women getting the CS degree then moving into game development. So at the highschool level we need to present it as a solid career choice for women.
 
Oh, Seer, not you too. :(

I'm finding a lot of people whom I consider friends looking at Anita Sarkeesian as if she's tearing down gaming from the inside. Over on WF there's a thread along those lines, and no matter what gets presented by myself and others, there are people who still insist she's out to destroy gaming and gamers, as if women aren't gamers, too.

I just hope you don't watch thunderf00t/Phil Mason videos on Youtube, because that man is a horrible anti-feminist, and has a reputation as such. He's popular in the Gamergate community right now, and on the A Voice for Men website, too. If you guys haven't visited there, don't. I'd rather you keep your food down.
 
Oh, Seer, not you too. :(

I'm finding a lot of people whom I consider friends to look at Anita Sarkeesian as if she's tearing down gaming from the inside. Over on WF there's a thread along those lines, and no matter what gets presented by myself and others, there are people who still insist she's out to destroy gaming and gamers, as if women aren't gamers, too.

I just hope you don't watch thunderf00t/Phil Mason videos on Youtube, because that man is a horrible anti-feminist, and has a reputation as such. He's popular in the Gamergate community right now, and on the A Voice for Men website, too. If you guys haven't visited there, don't. I'd rather you keep your food down.
I don't think she's tearing gaming down. I think she's profiteering from real issues and keeping the pot stirred to line her own pockets. And her followers, like any /v/ or /pol/ (gamergate if you want to shorthand it) drone out there go out their way to stifle and troll her critics. I have no issue with the topics she brings up, I have issue with how she does and the question of her ethics. And the divisive way she handles it.

What we're facing with women in gaming is not something that can be fixed either immediately or merely by changing the gaming industry. The first step is we've got to change the perception of computers/games as a career choice for young women and we've got to change the overall image of gaming as a worthless hobby. Inclusion can't happen when both sides (as it is now) are dedicated to being divisive and playing blame games. So we need to start small, in the online communities; make personal choices to be more inclusive at the community level; rather than prove out the screaming points both sides are using. Praise good, skilled women players; give 'em equal chances in the guilds/teams to advance up the ranks. And offer to help the ones that aren't' skilled, help them get on par with the rest of the players so they can hold their own and improve. Stuff that you can't code into a game or meet a HR hiring quota with.

Gamergate attacks her, she attacks them, both feed off it. It's a sick back and forth they're both benefiting from. And frankly men and women are hurt by it,cause it divides the community unnecessarily along sexes; when all that should matter is skills.

And I'm not a feminist, I'm a humanist: Level the playing field for everyone.
 
Gamergate attacks her, she attacks them, both feed off it.

Oh, sweet baby Gandalf.
I know I said I'd stop replying to you but since you keep shitting on this thread I'm not gonna shut up either. What you just wrote there is disgusting. Nothing she does even remotely compares to what's being done to Sarkeesian (or Wu and Quinn for that matter).

And I'm not a feminist, I'm a humanist: Level the playing field for everyone.

Look up feminism. Feminism is about leveling the playing field for everybody. Equality, get it?
 
I don't think she's tearing gaming down. I think she's profiteering from real issues and keeping the pot stirred to line her own pockets. And her followers, like any /v/ or /pol/ (gamergate if you want to shorthand it) drone out there go out their way to stifle and troll her critics. I have no issue with the topics she brings up, I have issue with how she does and the question of her ethics. And the divisive way she handles it.

The division started with threatening women, and the misogyny that runs deep in the gaming community. She just began addressing it, and that got the ball rolling.

What we're facing with women in gaming is not something that can be fixed either immediately or merely by changing the gaming industry. The first step is we've got to change the perception of computers/games as a career choice for young women and we've got to change the overall image of gaming as a worthless hobby. Inclusion can't happen when both sides (as it is now) are dedicated to being divisive and playing blame games. So we need to start small, in the online communities; make personal choices to be more inclusive at the community level; rather than prove out the screaming points both sides are using. Praise good, skilled women players; give 'em equal chances in the guilds/teams to advance up the ranks. And offer to help the ones that aren't' skilled, help them get on par with the rest of the players so they can hold their own and improve. Stuff that you can't code into a game or meet a HR hiring quota with.

Right now, women are discouraged from entering the math/sciences/programming field, so no, the women aren't doing anything to cause this problem.

The problem is institutional:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/m...few-women-in-science.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://news.stanford.edu/pr/2007/pr-murphy-101707.html

Gamergate attacks her, she attacks them, both feed off it. It's a sick back and forth they're both benefiting from. And frankly men and women are hurt by it,cause it divides the community unnecessarily along sexes; when all that should matter is skills.

Gamergaters threaten her with rape, and death. The FBI has to be on top of everything, lest some crazy asshole actually tries to go through with it. She's not benefiting from anything except for everyone else to see how awful Gamergate is, and we can see that from their own words.

And I'm not a feminist, I'm a humanist: Level the playing field for everyone.

I'm just going to let you know, but most MRAs use "I'm not a feminist, I'm a humanist", or "I'm an egalitarian, not a feminist." Not saying you're an MRA, just letting you know that it is a common usage.
 
They have been harassing her but even if the story were true (it isn't) it would be the journalist's duty to keep his integrity and not give anybody a good review just because he received sexual favours. So if it's about "ethics in game journalism"... talk about journalists please.
So true.
 
Gamergate attacks her, she attacks them, both feed off it.

Oh, sweet baby Gandalf.
I know I said I'd stop replying to you but since you keep shitting on this thread I'm not gonna shut up either. What you just wrote there is disgusting. Nothing she does even remotely compares to what's being done to Sarkeesian (or Wu and Quinn for that matter).

And I'm not a feminist, I'm a humanist: Level the playing field for everyone.
Look up feminism. Feminism is about leveling the playing field for everybody. Equality, get it?
Modern feminism is not overly worried about leveling the playing field for every. Women, and maybe men, but transgendered and even homosexuals (two groups with their own concerns about equality needing to be addressed) are often left out of the debate when it gets right down to the nuts and bolts.

And yes, Sarkessian gets a boost in publicity (and the olde coffers) every time Gamergate looses their shit and does something stupid. And in turn Gamergate flips their shit cause she's posting about them. It's a damn circle around and around. Not saying Gamergate is in the right, but she does benefit in terms of press and donations when they flip their collective shit. Ironically, Gamergate is what has helped her gain some much recent press; so they are basically helping their own enemy.

As for Quinn. Not even getting into that one. By all accounts that I've read that was a very dirty and public personal breakup made public by a bitter ex, that /v/ and /pol/ jumped into the middle of.
 
I don't think she's tearing gaming down. I think she's profiteering from real issues and keeping the pot stirred to line her own pockets. And her followers, like any /v/ or /pol/ (gamergate if you want to shorthand it) drone out there go out their way to stifle and troll her critics. I have no issue with the topics she brings up, I have issue with how she does and the question of her ethics. And the divisive way she handles it.

Bull. Fucking. Shit.

Nobody's out there "stifling" her critics. I'll note she's being invited to all these interviews because people are concerned about what's happening--they've heard about all the threats and harassment and they want to reach out to her, because this is not something anyone should have to endure. Some of the other women facing this kind of abuse have also been interviewed for TV shows, print publications, and magazines because guess what? The behavior of GooberGoats is appalling. Sarkeesian did not create this mess. She did not cause this reaction. Remember, the only reason she was targeted was because one of her videos came out while the Quinn "scandal" was still burning hot, in the first couple weeks of this whole debacle. The trolls weren't getting the kind of reaction they wanted from Quinn so they turned on Sarkeesian instead because she released one of her hated videos, giving them a concentrated dose of zomg feminism to attack. Exactly what about her reaction to this has been inappropriate?

What we're facing with women in gaming is not something that can be fixed either immediately or merely by changing the gaming industry. The first step is we've got to change the perception of computers/games as a career choice for young women and we've got to change the overall image of gaming as a worthless hobby. Inclusion can't happen when both sides (as it is now) are dedicated to being divisive and playing blame games.

The only people who think what Anita Sarkeesian does is "divisive" are GrabbyGeese. Everyone else sees that she's doing some pretty run-of-the-mill feminist critique of video games that wouldn't be terribly notable if not for the absolutely bugfuck crazy reactions it gets from self-proclaimed gamers.

So we need to start small, in the online communities; make personal choices to be more inclusive at the community level; rather than prove out the screaming points both sides are using.

"Both sides." "Screaming points." What did you do, read about this on CNN.com and decide that it's a "both sides" issue?

Should women be allowed to create and play games without receiving rape and death threats? Let's hear both sides!

Praise good, skilled women players; give 'em equal chances in the guilds/teams to advance up the ranks. And offer to help the ones that aren't' skilled, help them get on par with the rest of the players so they can hold their own and improve. Stuff that you can't code into a game or meet a HR hiring quota with.

People already do this, of course. They just don't do it enough. Thanks for bringing up "quota" nonsense, though. That's always a sure sign someone is arguing in good faith. :rolleyes:

Gamergate attacks her, she attacks them, both feed off it. It's a sick back and forth they're both benefiting from. And frankly men and women are hurt by it,cause it divides the community unnecessarily along sexes; when all that should matter is skills.

How on Earth can you construe her calling attention to the threats she's received as "attacks"? People say stuff like "I'll fucking rape and murder you, you bitch" and she gets on stage and says "it's really upsetting and terrible that this happens" and you call the latter an "attack." What the fucking hell.

And I'm not a feminist, I'm a humanist: Level the playing field for everyone.

Feminists do believe in an equal playing field. They just recognize that, between men and women, men hold many advantages women do not, advantages which are built-in by society and not based on reality.

Of course, trying to erase "feminism" is essentially the same as trying to erase the notion that women have different experiences at all. It's exactly like white people saying they don't see race the second a black person brings up racism.
 
Here's Anita's video on sexualization of women in gaming.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZPSrwedvsg[/yt]

She's right, and at 28:00, she really gets to the heart of it. Reinforcing the idea that women are objects can lead to strong, indwelt objectification of women, and that exposure to sexualization of women leads to skewed perspectives of women.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/social_issues-july-dec13-sexualization_12-21/
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2011/08/12769.html
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...exualized-women-are-seen-objects-studies-find
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-our-brains-turn-women-into-objects/

Yet I have a number of otherwise intelligent guys telling me she's lying, making it up, pulling it out of her ass, but she isn't. There is hard evidence that this is exactly what happens when men are exposed to strong sexual images of women.
 
Here's Anita's video on sexualization of women in gaming.



She's right, and at 28:00, she really gets to the heart of it. Reinforcing the idea that women are objects can lead to strong, indwelt objectification of women, and that exposure to sexualization of women leads to skewed perspectives of women.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/social_issues-july-dec13-sexualization_12-21/
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2011/08/12769.html
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...exualized-women-are-seen-objects-studies-find
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-our-brains-turn-women-into-objects/

Yet I have a number of otherwise intelligent guys telling me she's lying, making it up, pulling it out of her ass, but she isn't. There is hard evidence that this is exactly what happens when men are exposed to strong sexual images of women.
Which is some of the very same arguments used against the pornography industry.
 
Here's Anita's video on sexualization of women in gaming.



She's right, and at 28:00, she really gets to the heart of it. Reinforcing the idea that women are objects can lead to strong, indwelt objectification of women, and that exposure to sexualization of women leads to skewed perspectives of women.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/social_issues-july-dec13-sexualization_12-21/
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2011/08/12769.html
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...exualized-women-are-seen-objects-studies-find
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-our-brains-turn-women-into-objects/

Yet I have a number of otherwise intelligent guys telling me she's lying, making it up, pulling it out of her ass, but she isn't. There is hard evidence that this is exactly what happens when men are exposed to strong sexual images of women.
Which is some of the very same arguments used against the pornography industry.

And?
 
Here's Anita's video on sexualization of women in gaming.



She's right, and at 28:00, she really gets to the heart of it. Reinforcing the idea that women are objects can lead to strong, indwelt objectification of women, and that exposure to sexualization of women leads to skewed perspectives of women.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/social_issues-july-dec13-sexualization_12-21/
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2011/08/12769.html
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...exualized-women-are-seen-objects-studies-find
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-our-brains-turn-women-into-objects/

Yet I have a number of otherwise intelligent guys telling me she's lying, making it up, pulling it out of her ass, but she isn't. There is hard evidence that this is exactly what happens when men are exposed to strong sexual images of women.
Which is some of the very same arguments used against the pornography industry.

And?
Would you argue then that any male that watches porn is anti-woman or automatically views women as objects?
 
Here's Anita's video on sexualization of women in gaming.



She's right, and at 28:00, she really gets to the heart of it. Reinforcing the idea that women are objects can lead to strong, indwelt objectification of women, and that exposure to sexualization of women leads to skewed perspectives of women.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/social_issues-july-dec13-sexualization_12-21/
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2011/08/12769.html
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...exualized-women-are-seen-objects-studies-find
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-our-brains-turn-women-into-objects/

Yet I have a number of otherwise intelligent guys telling me she's lying, making it up, pulling it out of her ass, but she isn't. There is hard evidence that this is exactly what happens when men are exposed to strong sexual images of women.
Which is some of the very same arguments used against the pornography industry.

And?

Beat me to it. I figured the pornography angle would come up, though.

Pornography can be empowering for women. They can choose their partners, their rate of pay, they can say no and walk away. The stripper in the video game that gets raped, shot and robbed has no say. She's a representation of the base desires for whatever programmer decided she needed to be put in that game. Remember, video games don't happen by magic. It requires a programmer to code the physics, to create paths a player can take. If you can do it in a video game, it's because the environment was designed to allow it.

Men can watch porn and not turn women into sexual objects. The key is that the normal man understands the woman in the video is not his plaything for him to control. Not so in video games. Also, keep in mind that porn is geared towards women, too. There's lots of porn out there for the ladies, though it is generally found that the "heightened sexual imagery doesn't turn men into sexual objects" thing doesn't quite work on women.
 
Which is some of the very same arguments used against the pornography industry.

And?

Beat me to it. I figured the pornography angle would come up, though.

Pornography can be empowering for women. They can choose their partners, their rate of pay, they can say no and walk away. The stripper in the video game that gets raped, shot and robbed has no say. She's a representation of the base desires for whatever programmer decided she needed to be put in that game. Remember, video games don't happen by magic. It requires a programmer to code the physics, to create paths a player can take. If you can do it in a video game, it's because the environment was designed to allow it.

Men can watch porn and not turn women into sexual objects. The key is that the normal man understands the woman in the video is not his plaything for him to control. Not so in video games. Also, keep in mind that porn is geared towards women, too. There's lots of porn out there for the ladies, though it is generally found that the "heightened sexual imagery doesn't turn men into sexual objects" thing doesn't quite work on women.

And, like not all games feature this game mechanic or require it, not even the majority, not all porn is empowering. And, like a lot of the anti-porn crowd, she likes to paint the bad and the disgusting elements as the norm, the standard.

And, like a man watching porn, people can play these sort of games and separate the fantasy, the game world, from the reality. But, as with porn, some people can't; again, they're not the norm or the majority as is often portrayed by the anti' crowds.
 
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