Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Are you part of the internet who has heard about this?
Anita Sarkeesian runs Feminist Frequency, a website and YouTube channel where she posts smart, well-researched, critical video commentaries about media and pop culture. And in turn, uses those pop culture references to give folks access to normally-dense gender theory. Her videos give us common language we can all use in being more discerning critics of the media we consume and the culture we live in.
If you haven’t already, check out her 6-part video series on Tropes vs. Women detailing the 6 most common female-stereotypes-gone-wrong in pop culture media today. So common, that we take them for granted. Here’s my favorite on the Smurfette Principal:
Sarkeesian recently started a Kickstarter campaign to fund more videos, this time researching the video game industry as a whole (not just the worst offenders) to distill and describe the most common Tropes for Women in Video Games. Yay!
BUT this sparked a backlash of trolls who have deliberately and destructively ganged up on Sarkeesian to abuse her through all channels—comments on her YouTube videos, Twitter, Facebook, her website, vandalizing her Wikipedia page, and her personal email. She has left the comments open and running to document and to prove to anyone who thinks cyber harrassment is harmless that it is certainly not.
Reading those kinds of comments gives me a headache and makes me feel literally sick to my stomach.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
[via catiemonstrous]
On the bright side of things, this attention has generated tons of support for Sarkeesian and Feminist Frequency in return from people of all genders. She’s gotten a lot of press and exceeded her Kickstarter goal by over 2,500%. Thus, also providing a good spark for us (yes, you) to have more of these important critical discussions and debates about gender, pop culture, abuse, and/or voice.
(On a personal note, I’m mad at myself for not contributing while there was still time! ARGH. I really want that project to show up on my Kickstarter contributions. Oh welp…sad Stina is sad.)
Love this video by J Smooth of AnimalNewYork for showing support and actionable ways for you to help when you see online abuse: please contribute some humanity into your corner of the internet.
And loveloveLOVE Kate Leth’s gut reaction to all of this, which is what caught my attention in the first place:
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Filed under: Food for thought Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
