The game has gone too far

Video games developers tend to objectify women in their productions. And although women represent about half of all gamers today, we still see half naked female characters: Quiet in the latest Metal Gear game is just one example in a thousand. Many feminist activists are strongly opposed to this sexualized depiction and protest to try to change it. But as soon as they do, their social media accounts become flooded with sexist reactions, insults, and even death threats.

Meet Anita Sarkeesian, a Canadian-American feminist media critic, blogger, and public speaker. She is the founder of Feminist Frequency, a website that hosts videos and commentary analyzing portrayals of women in popular culture. In a series of videos called Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, she criticizes how women are usually seen: as damsels in distress, trophies, or victims serving male characters and players. As a result, her Twitter account is the daily target of insults and sometimes death threats. Recently, she called the police following threats toward her and her family. “I’m gonna drink your blood’’ one of the tweets said. She had to leave her home and stay at a friend’s house until investigations were complete.

One might think that this an isolated case, but unfortunately it’s not. Extreme reactions to the comments of female activists are increasingly widespread these days.

Brianna Wu was another target of cyber aggression. Wu is the developer of the stealth game Revolution 60. She criticized Gamergate, a community of gamers associated with sexism, misogyny, and criticism of both feminism and those it labels as “social justice warriors”. Subsequently someone managed to get her address, and made it public. She received then rape and death threats, and had to leave her house, calling in the police to investigate. 

If there seems to be a pattern to these aggressions, it’s because the same group is behind them: Gamergate. They hack into the person’s personal data, then make it public for their members, who start making their threats. But as it’s an online community, police have trouble finding the real identity of the people behind these criminal actions. 

Luckily, these women haven’t stopped because of threats. Their response has only strengthened, adding more conviction to their campaigns to change female images in video games. 

Benmakhlouf Youssef

Sources:

http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/les-internets/20140828.OBS7527/je-vais-boire-ton-sang-elle-denonce-le-sexisme-dans-les-jeux-video-et-se-fait-insulter.html

http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2014/08/22/une-creatrice-de-jeux-video-victime-d-une-vaste-campagne-de-harcelement-en-ligne_4474760_4408996.html

http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2014/10/13/une-autre-creatrice-de-jeu-victime-de-menaces-de-mort-en-ligne_4504979_4408996.html#xtor=AL-32280270