Anita Sarkeesian
Anita Sarkeesian | |
---|---|
Sarkeesian in 2011 | |
Born | 1983 (age 40–41)[1] |
Nationality | Canadian-American[2] |
Education | |
Occupations |
|
Website | www |
Anita Sarkeesian (/sɑːrˈkiːziən/ sar-KEE-zee-ən; born 1983) is a Canadian-American feminist media critic. She is the founder of Feminist Frequency, a website that hosts videos and commentary analyzing portrayals of women in popular culture. Her video series Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, examines tropes in the depiction of female video game characters. Media scholar Soraya Murray calls Sarkeesian emblematic of "a burgeoning organized feminist critique" of stereotyped and objectified portrayals of women in video games.[3]
In 2012, Sarkeesian was targeted by an online harassment campaign following her launch of a Kickstarter project to fund the Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series. The threats and harassment generated widespread media attention, and resulted in the project far exceeding its funding goal. The media coverage placed Sarkeesian at the center of discussions about misogyny in video game culture and online harassment. She has spoken to TEDxWomen, XOXO Festival, and the United Nations' Broadband Working Group on Gender, and appeared on The Colbert Report discussing her experiences of harassment and the challenge of attempting to improve gender inclusivity in gaming culture and the media.
Early life and education
Sarkeesian was born and raised near Toronto, Canada.[4][5] Her parents were Iraqi Armenians who emigrated to Canada in the 1970s.[4][6] She later moved to California and identifies as Canadian-American.[2][6][7]
She received a bachelor's degree in communication studies from California State University, Northridge, in 2007 and then earned a master's degree in social and political thought from York University in 2010. Her master's thesis is titled I'll Make a Man Out of You: Strong Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy Television.[8][9]
Career
Feminist Frequency
Feminist Frequency | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
YouTube information | |||||||
Channel | |||||||
Years active | 2009–present | ||||||
Genre | Commentary | ||||||
Subscribers | 211 thousand[10] | ||||||
Total views | 34.1 million[10] | ||||||
Contents are in | English | ||||||
| |||||||
Last updated: May 25, 2024 |
Sarkeesian launched the nonprofit organization and website Feminist Frequency in 2009, while a student at York University.[11] She created the site in an effort to create accessible feminist media criticism.[9][12] Videos created for the site analyzed social and cultural gender structure and popular culture from a feminist standpoint, such as applying the Bechdel test to pictures nominated for the 84th Academy Awards in 2012 and highlighting Lego's role in reinforcing cultural norms.[13][14][15]
In 2011, Sarkeesian partnered with Bitch magazine to create the video series Tropes vs. Women. The series examined common tropes in the depiction of women in media with a particular focus on science fiction.[12][16] The series comprises six videos dedicated to tropes such as the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Women in Refrigerators and the Smurfette Principle.[2][17]
In 2011, Sarkeesian co-authored the essay "Buffy vs. Bella: The Re-Emergence of the Archetypal Feminine in Vampire Stories" for the anthology Fanpires: Audience Consumption of the Modern Vampire.[18] She spoke at conferences and workshops about media criticism and video blogging, and was interviewed by UK Sunday newspaper The Observer in March 2012 about modern media culture, stating: "I think to the extent that it could be creating authentic, human female characters, it is a push towards a more feminist media."[19]
In March 2012, Sarkeesian and her blog were listed in the journal Feminist Collections's quarterly column on "E-Sources on Women & Gender".[20] Her blog has been utilized as material for university-level women's studies courses, and she has spoken at universities on the topic of female characters in pop culture.[19][21][22][23]
Sarkeesian was inspired to start a video series on female representation in video games after she was invited to speak to developers at Bungie.[9] On May 17, 2012, she began a Kickstarter campaign to fund a series of short videos that would examine gender tropes in video games that was featured as a campaign of note on the official Kickstarter blog.[24] The threats and harassment she received in response generated widespread media attention, and resulted in the project ultimately far exceeding its initial funding goal of $6,000,[3] which it reached in less than a day.[11] The final amount raised was $158,922 from 6,968 backers.[25] While stating that the support Sarkeesian has received "stands at a counter" to the harassment, Sal Humphreys and Karen Orr Vered, writing in Television & New Media, suggest that the harassment Sarkeesian received may ultimately serve to discourage other women from following Sarkeesian's lead for fear of being subjected to similar attacks.[26]
Sarkeesian initially planned to release the Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series in 2012 but pushed it back explaining that the additional funding allowed her to expand the scope and scale of the project. The first video in the Tropes vs Women in Video Games series was released on March 7, 2013.[27] The first three videos discuss examples of the "Damsels in Distress" trope, in which passive and often helpless female characters must be rescued by the male hero.[12][17] Chris Suellentrop of The New York Times referred to the first four videos of the series as "essential viewing for anyone interested in video games", and cites it as the reason why he asked Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto about the themes of damsels present in his games, to which he responded "I haven't given it a lot of deep thought over the years".[28]
Colin Campbell writes at Polygon that Feminist Frequency has had a demonstrable effect on the games industry, stating, "video games have seen a rise in the number of positive women and minority protagonists and a decrease in the tropes [Sarkeesian] discusses" since the launch of the project.[29] In January 2015, as part of a $300 million effort to increase diversity and inclusivity in the technology sphere, Intel announced it would partner with Feminist Frequency and other groups to help promote increased career opportunities, engagement and positive representation for women and minorities in technology and gaming.[11][30][31]
In January 2015, the nonprofit issued its first annual report[citation needed] and announced they were planning two new video series tackling the "positive" portrayal of women in video games, as well as the "portrayal of masculine identities in games".[32][33]
In March 2016, Feminist Frequency launched a crowdfunding campaign for an animated video series called Ordinary Women: Daring to Defy History. The planned 5-episode series will explore the lives of historical women such as Ida B. Wells and Emma Goldman.[34][35] The video series was released in 2017.[35]
In March 2016, Feminist Frequency began a formal partnership with the Crash Override Network, agreeing to serve as its fiscal sponsor.[36] Crash Override is a support group for victims of large scale online abuse formed by game developers Zoë Quinn and Alex Lifschitz in the wake of the Gamergate controversy.
The Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series ended with its final episode, "The Lady Sidekick", posted on April 27, 2017. Sarkeesian announced that Feminist Frequency would produce another series.[37]
In March 2019, Feminist Frequency returned with a three part miniseries on Queer Tropes in Video Games that is similar to Tropes vs. Women in Video Games.[38]
According to Axios in March 2022, "Reflecting on her work and its impact during a Game Developers Conference talk ... Sarkeesian says that making [Tropes] videos today might be 'not impossible, but harder,' as there are fewer examples and 'the pattern is less egregious.'"[39]
In October 2022, Sarkeesian began a new video series on online streaming service Nebula called That Time When, which "looks at the moments when pop culture and politics collide in modern history".[40]
In August 2023, Sarkeesian announced that the nonprofit would close, citing "exhaustion and burnout", with operations ceasing at the turn of the year.[11][41] The nonprofit's programs would cease operations in early 2024,[42] while the Feminist Frequency Radio podcast would continue to be presented by co-host Kat Spada; past episodes would remain accessible online, along with Sarkeesian’s previous media criticism video series including Tropes vs Women and The FREQ Show.[43][44]
As a target of harassment
External media | |
---|---|
Audio | |
Video | |
The Tropes vs Women project triggered a campaign of sexist harassment against Sarkeesian that included rape and death threats, hacking of her webpages and social media, and doxing. Attackers posted disparaging comments online, vandalized Sarkeesian's article on Wikipedia with racial slurs and sexual images, and sent Sarkeesian drawings of herself being raped by video game characters.[45][46][47][26][48]
One attacker created the computer game Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian, which prompted players to bloody a picture of Sarkeesian by clicking the mouse.[47][49] Toronto feminist Stephanie Guthrie received death and rape threats for criticizing the Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian game.[46][50][51][52] The resulting criminal trial against critic Gregory Alan Elliott is regarded as having significant implications for online freedom of speech in Canada.[53][54] Sarkeesian responded to the threats against Guthrie in a statement to the Toronto Standard, condemning the widespread harassment she and other women have faced online.[55][56]
In March 2014, Sarkeesian was scheduled to speak and receive an award at the 2014 Game Developers Choice Awards. The organizers later revealed that they had received an anonymous bomb threat and that San Francisco police had swept the Moscone Center hall before the event proceeded.[57]
In August 2014, Feminist Frequency issued a new Tropes vs Women in Games episode. This coincided with the ongoing harassment of Zoë Quinn as part of the Gamergate controversy. The increased volume and specificity of the harassment (including death threats) prompted Sarkeesian to leave her home. San Francisco Police confirmed that they had passed the case file to the FBI for investigation.[58][59]
On October 14, 2014, Sarkeesian and Utah State University received terrorist threats pertaining to her planned lecture at the university the following day. The threats, one of which was issued by a person who claimed to be affiliated with Gamergate,[60] specifically cited the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada as inspiration. The university and police did not believe the threats were credible inasmuch as they were consistent with others Sarkeesian had received, but scheduled enhanced security measures nonetheless. Sarkeesian canceled the event, however, feeling the planned security measures were insufficient given that the university could not prohibit handguns in the venue per Utah state law.[61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68]
The threats resulted in public attention to misogynistic and violent harassment on the Internet, along with the propriety of concealed weapons on university campuses. In an editorial, The Salt Lake Tribune wrote that the threats "would seem to support Sarkeesian's point about a link between some video games and violent attitudes toward females" and called on the state to allow universities "to ban firearms from venues where they are not just inappropriate, but destructive of the mission of an institution of higher learning".[62][69][70][71][72]
In an August 2015 interview with The Guardian, Sarkeesian remarked of dealing with the pervasive harassment (her "new normal") that older mentors and feminists told her "We were dealing with that, but they were throwing rocks at us."[73] Soraya Murray describes the attack as a "watershed moment" in the "culture war" being fought over representations of women and minorities in video games.[3]
At VidCon 2017, Sarkeesian appeared on a panel discussing online harassment directed towards women. A group of YouTubers and bloggers who produce content critical of feminism and political correctness sat directly in front of the stage and filmed Sarkeesian as part of a targeted harassment campaign against her.[74][75][76][77][78] Sarkeesian singled out British YouTuber Carl Benjamin, seated in the first row, as a serial harasser of hers.[74][75][29] Speaking directly to Benjamin, she said, "I hate to give you attention because you're a garbage human."[75] The event went viral among both critics and supporters of Sarkeesian.[74] Benjamin accused Sarkeesian of abuse and cyberbullying; in a blog post, Sarkeesian wrote:
[Benjamin] makes over $5,000 a month on Patreon for creating YouTube videos that mock, insult and discredit myself and other women online, and he’s not alone. He is one of several YouTubers who profit from the cottage industry of online harassment and antifeminism.[75]
VidCon founder Hank Green issued a statement that the group's actions were clear "intimidating behaviour" and apologised for the situation "which resulted in [Sarkeesian] being subjected to a hostile environment that she had not signed up for".[76][77]
In a retrospective for Polygon in December 2019, Sarkeesian said that "GamerGate's real goals were expressed in the explicit racism, sexism, and transphobia of the memes the movement generated, and the posts its supporters wrote on the message boards where they organized and strategized. Later, the flimsiness of the 'ethics in games journalism' pretense would become a mocking meme signifying a bad faith argument. It would almost be funny, if GamerGate hadn't done so much harm, and caused so much lasting trauma." Sarkeesian also criticized the video game industry's response to Gamergate, saying "the game industry's silence was shameful".[79]
In 2020, Sarkeesian launched the Games and Online Harassment Hotline, a free non-profit service that started development in 2019.[80] In 2023, it was announced that the hotline would cease operating in September along with the closure of Feminist Frequency.[41][42]
Media appearances
Sarkeesian and her work have come to much greater public attention following the announcement of Tropes vs. Women in Video Games and the harassment she subsequently faced. These events helped bring the issue of pervasive sexual harassment in video game culture to mainstream media attention.[81] Discussions occurred in a range of publications and outlets, including The New York Times, The Guardian and New Statesman.[82][83][84][85] Sarkeesian's elevated profile led to speaking engagements on sexual harassment and online communities at the TEDxWomen conference and several universities.[86][87][88][89][90]
Speaking at the XOXO Festival in September 2014, Sarkeesian described the allegation that she and other women fabricated harassment as itself being a form of harassment. "Harassment is the background radiation of my life," she later remarked in a Bloomberg Businessweek cover story on her work and the video game industry.[91][92]
On October 29, 2014, Sarkeesian was interviewed on The Colbert Report where she discussed the harassment she suffered at the hands of GamerGate and her views on making video games more inclusive. She told Colbert that video games often portray women in a manner which "reinforces the cultural myth that women are sexual objects" and that her goal is not to censor video games, but to raise awareness of how women can be portrayed in more realistic, less stereotypical ways.[93][94][95]
The harassment of Sarkeesian and other women in gaming was featured in the January 14, 2015, edition of Nightline. When asked by ABC News why there was so much anger, she responded "I think it comes from this idea that gaming is a male-dominated space, and that games are for men by men... it's a very misogynist backlash".[96] She appears in the 2015 documentary GTFO.[97]
On February 11, 2019, Sarkeesian appeared at the University of Alberta's Myer Horowitz Theatre with the presentation "I Am Tired: The Costs of Online Harassment" during the Level Up: Gender Based Violence Prevention Week.[98][third-party source needed]
Awards and nominations
Sarkeesian's Feminist Frequency blog was highlighted by Feminist Collections and Media Report to Women.[20][99] In 2012, Gamasutra considered the harassment and success of Feminist Frequency a catalyst that led to new attention on the importance of diversity and inclusion in the gaming culture and industry. They named this call for inclusion one of the "5 trends that defined the game industry in 2012".[81][100] In 2013, Newsweek magazine and The Daily Beast named Sarkeesian one of their "125 Women of Impact".[101][102]
In 2014, Sarkeesian received the Ambassador Award at the 14th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards for her work on the representation of women in video games, becoming the first woman to receive the award.[103][104] She was also nominated for the Ambassador Award at Microsoft's 2014 Women in Gaming Awards for her work.[105][106]
After the Utah State University death threats, Rolling Stone called her "pop culture's most valuable critic," saying that "the backlash has only made her point for her: Gaming has a problem".[107] In December 2014, The Verge named her as one of "the 50 most important people at the intersection of technology, art, science, and culture".[108] In March 2015, Time magazine included Sarkeesian in its list of the thirty "Most Influential People on the Internet",[109] and in April of that year, chose her for the Time 100, the magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.[110] In May 2015, Cosmopolitan included her in its list of the "50 Most Fascinating People on the Internet".[4]
Feminist Frequency won a Peabody Award in the category of "Digital and Interactive Storytelling" in 2022.[11][111][112]
Selected publications
- Sarkeesian, Anita; Cross, Katherine (2015). "Your Humanity is in Another Castle: Terror Dreams and the Harassment of Women". In Goldberg, Daniel; Larsson, Linus (eds.). The State of Play: Creators and Critics on Video Game Culture. New York: Seven Stories Press. ISBN 978-1-60980-639-2.
- Sarkeesian, Anita; Adams, Ebony (2018). History vs Women: The Defiant Lives That They Don't Want You to Know. New York: Feiwel & Friends. ISBN 978-1-25014-672-4.
References
- ^ "Anita Sarkeesian". Virtual International Authority File. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
- ^ a b c Greenhouse, Emily (August 1, 2013). "Twitter's Free Speech Problem". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
- ^ a b c Murray, Soraya (2018). On Video Games: The Visual Politics of Race, Gender and Space. London: I.B. Tauris. pp. 35–36. ISBN 978-1-78-453741-8.
- ^ a b c Filipovic, Jill (June 8, 2015). "Anita Sarkeesian Is Fighting to Make the Web Less Awful for Women – And Getting Death Threats in the Process". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
- ^ Writer, Taylor Wofford Staff (October 17, 2014). "Who is Anita Sarkeesian, One of the Women at the Center of #GamerGate?". Newsweek. Retrieved July 30, 2024.
Sarkeesian was born near Toronto and is of Armenian descent but identifies as Canadian-American.
- ^ a b Moore, Oliver (July 11, 2012). "Woman's call to end video game misogyny sparks vicious online attacks". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
- ^ Rivas, Jorge (December 13, 2012). "Watch Anita Sarkeesian Deconstruct Sexism in Gaming". ColorLines. Archived from the original on December 16, 2012. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
- ^ "About". Feminist Frequency. n.d. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
- ^ a b c Kolhatkar, Sheelah (November 26, 2014). "The Gaming Industry's Greatest Adversary Is Just Getting Started". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on November 26, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
- ^ a b "About Feminist Frequency". YouTube.
- ^ a b c d e Shanklin, Will (August 1, 2023). "The award-winning Feminist Frequency is shutting down after 14 years". Engadget. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
- ^ a b c Dean, Paul (May 31, 2013). "Tropes vs Women in Video Games: Why It Matters". IGN. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
- ^ Barthel, Michael (February 25, 2012). "The Oscars' woman problem". Salon. Archived from the original on March 13, 2013. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Sarkeesian, Anita (February 15, 2012). "The Oscars and The Bechdel Test". Feminist Frequency (video). Retrieved November 25, 2019 – via YouTube.
- ^ Johnson, Derek (November 13, 2014). "Chicks with Bricks: Building Creative Identities Across Industrial Design Cultures and Gendered Construction play". In Wolf, Mark J.P. (ed.). LEGO Studies: Examining the Building Blocks of a Transmedial Phenomenon. Routledge. pp. 90–94. ISBN 978-1-317-93545-2.
- ^ Williams, Mary Elizabeth (June 14, 2012). "Lara Croft battles male jerks". Salon. Archived from the original on June 18, 2012.
- ^ a b Singal, Jesse (June 22, 2013). "Taking on games that demean women". The Boston Globe. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
- ^ Jenson, Jennifer & Sarkeesian, Anita (2011). "Buffy vs. Bella: The Re-Emergence of the Archetypal Feminine in Vampire Stories" (PDF). In Schott, Gareth & Moffat, Kirstine (eds.). FANPIRES: Audience Consumption of the Modern Vampire. Washington, D.C.: New Academia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-98458-321-8. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 25, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ a b Hoby, Hermione (March 25, 2012). "The slacker is back – and this time she's female". The Observer. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
- ^ a b Lehman, JoAnne (Spring 2012). "E-Sources on Women & Gender" (PDF). Feminist Collections. 33 (2): 13. ISSN 0742-7441. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Duggan, Padraic (March 4, 2012). "Feminist Frequency comes to SOU". The Siskiyou. Southern Oregon University. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ "'I'll Make a Man Out of You': Redefining Strong Female Characters". Sewanee Today. Sewanee: The University of the South. February 15, 2011. Archived from the original on March 25, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Cohn, Jacob (January 11, 2013). "Feminist Media Critic and Blogger Anita Sarkeesian to Present Convocation". Carleton News. Carleton College. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Marketos, Cassie (May 21, 2012). "New Projects Are Sci-Fly". The Kickstarter Blog. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Maguire, Matt (March 6, 2013). "Sexism in games series debuts this week". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ a b Humphreys, Sal; Vered, Karen Orr (2013). "Reflecting on Gender and Digital Networked Media". Television & New Media. 15 (1): 3–4. doi:10.1177/1527476413502682. hdl:2328/35044. ISSN 1527-4764. S2CID 145777327.
- ^ Sarkeesian, Anita (March 7, 2013). "Damsels in Distress (Part 1)". Feminist Frequency. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
- ^ Suellentrop, Chris (December 13, 2013). "In the Footsteps of Lara Croft". The New York Times. Retrieved March 11, 2014.
- ^ a b Campbell, Colin (June 27, 2017). "Anita Sarkeesian's astounding 'garbage human' moment". Polygon. Archived from the original on September 18, 2018.
- ^ Wingfield, Nick (January 7, 2015). "Intel Budgets $300 Million for Diversity". The New York Times. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
- ^ "Intel CEO Outlines Future of Computing". Intel. January 6, 2015. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Dredge, Stuart (January 27, 2015). "Anita Sarkeesian launching new video series focused on masculinity in games". The Guardian. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
- ^ Jenkins, Ria (January 30, 2015). "When will gamers understand that criticism isn't censorship?". The Guardian. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
- ^ Rosenberg, Alyssa (March 8, 2016). "Anita Sarkeesian's next Feminist Frequency project tackles women's history". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ a b Yamato, Jen (September 23, 2016). "Anita Sarkeesian on Life After Gamergate: 'I Want to Be a Human Again'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
- ^ Sarkeesian, Anita (March 3, 2016). "Feminist Frequency and Crash Override Partnership". Feminist Frequency. Retrieved February 3, 2017.
- ^ Frank, Allegra (April 27, 2017). "Tropes vs. Women ends the series with a look at female sidekicks". Polygon. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
- ^ Takahashi, Dean (March 5, 2019). "Anita Sarkeesian is back with Feminist Frequency video on queer tropes in games". VentureBeat. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
- ^ Farokhmanesh, Megan (March 25, 2022). "Sarkeesian reflects on 10 years of "Tropes vs. Women in Video Games"". Axios. Retrieved September 17, 2022.
- ^ "Pop culture and politics collide in Anita Sarkeesian's new web series". Tubefilter. October 21, 2022. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
- ^ a b Valentine, Rebekah (August 1, 2023). "Gaming Nonprofit Feminist Frequency to Close After 15 Years". IGN. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
- ^ a b Jackson, Claire (August 1, 2023). "Anita Sarkeesian Shutters Feminist Frequency, Operations To Cease In Early 2024". Kotaku. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
- ^ Sarkeesian, Anita (August 1, 2023). "Shutting Down Feminist Frequency". Feminist Frequency. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
- ^ "Anita Sarkeesian Announces Closure of Feminist Frequency" (PDF) (Press release). Los Angeles: Feminist Frequency. August 1, 2023. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
- ^ Heron, Michael James; Belford, Pauline & Goker, Ayse (November 2014). "Sexism in the circuitry". ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society. 44 (4): 18–29. doi:10.1145/2695577.2695582. ISSN 0095-2737. S2CID 18004724.
The simple launching of this project resulted in a staggering and continuing campaign of harassment, defamation and real life threats spectacularly out of proportion to the triggering incident.
- ^ a b O'Leary, Amy (August 1, 2012). "In Virtual Play, Sex Harassment Is All Too Real". The New York Times. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ a b Kyle, Catherine Bailey (2014). "Her Story, Too: Final Fantasy X, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and the Feminist Hero's Journey". In Jones, Norma; Bajac-Carter, Maja; Batchelor, Bob (eds.). Heroines of Film and Television. New York: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 131–32. ISBN 978-1-4422-3149-8.
- ^ Watercutter, Angela (June 14, 2012). "Feminist Take on Games Draws Crude Ridicule, Massive Support". Wired. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Das, Sarmista (2014). "Leveling (Up) the Playing Field: How Feminist Gamers Self-Identify and Learn in Online Communities". In Venkatesh, Vivek; Wallin, Jason J.; Castro, Juan Carlos; Lewis, Jason Edward (eds.). Educational, Psychological, and Behavioral Considerations in Niche Online Communities. IGI Global. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-4666-5207-1.
- ^ Fernandez-Blance, Katherine (July 10, 2012). "Gamer campaign against Anita Sarkeesian catches Toronto feminist in crossfire". Toronto Star. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ O'Meara, Sarah (July 6, 2012). "Internet Trolls Up Their Harassment Game With Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian". Huffington Post. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Magi, Kim (November 21, 2012). "Man charged with harassment after Twitter attacks". Toronto Star. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
- ^ Blatchford, Christie (July 15, 2015). "Ruling in Twitter harassment trial could have enormous fallout for free speech". National Post. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Nadeau, Jean-Phillippe (October 6, 2015). "Procès pour harcèlement criminel sur Twitter" [Trial for criminal harassment on Twitter]. ICI Radio Canada (in French). Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Lyonnais, Sheena (July 10, 2012). "Anita Sarkeesian Responds to Beat Up Game, Online Harassment, and Death Threats on Stephanie Guthrie". Toronto Standard. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Lyonnais, Sheena (July 9, 2012). "Toronto Tweeter Causes Uproar Over Violent "Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian" Game". Toronto Standard. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Totilo, Stephen (September 17, 2014). "Bomb Threat Targeted Anita Sarkeesian, Gaming Awards Last March". Kotaku. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Crecente, Brian (September 17, 2014). "FBI investigating death threats against Feminist Frequency creator Sarkeesian". Polygon. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Stuart, Keith (September 3, 2014). "Gamergate: the community is eating itself but there should be room for all". The Guardian. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Alberty, Erin (October 16, 2014). "Anita Sarkeesian explains why she canceled USU lecture". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
After the mass shooting threat was sent to the school late Monday, a second threat arrived Tuesday. That one, USU spokesman Tim Vitale confirmed, claimed affiliation with the controversial and sometimes violent online video gamers' movement known as GamerGate.
- ^ Neugebauer, Cimaron; Lockhart, Ben (October 14, 2014). "Feminist cancels speech at USU after terror threat". Standard-Examiner. Archived from the original on December 18, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ a b Hern, Alex (October 15, 2014). "Feminist games critic cancels talk after terror threat". The Guardian. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Wood, Benjamin (October 15, 2014). "USU students, faculty protest terrorist threats against critic of video games". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Peckham, Matt (October 16, 2014). "Fixing Everything That's Wrong with Gamergate Starts with You". Time. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Ahmed, Saeed; Marco, Tony (October 15, 2014). "Anita Sarkeesian cancels Utah State speech after threat". CNN. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Wingfield, Nick (October 15, 2014). "Anita Sarkeesian, Video Game Critic, Cancels Speech After Threats of Massacre". The New York Times. Retrieved October 15, 2014.
- ^ Kelion, Leo (October 15, 2014). "Feminist video-games talk cancelled after massacre threat". BBC News. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ McDonald, Soraya Nadia (October 15, 2014). "'Gamergate': Feminist video game critic Anita Sarkeesian cancels Utah lecture after threat". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ "Editorial: Utah's laws place gun rights over free speech". The Salt Lake Tribune. October 15, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ "Axed speech sparks US gun debate". Irish Independent. October 15, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Whitehurst, Lindsay; Hartounian, Alina (October 15, 2014). "Feminist Speaker Questions Utah's Campus Gun Laws". ABC News. Associateed Press. Archived from the original on October 25, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Pyle, George (October 15, 2014). "Game critic Sarkeesian avoids Utah due to foolish gun laws. Utah looks bad in global media..." The Salt Lake Tribune. Archived from the original on October 18, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Valenti, Jessica (August 29, 2015). "Anita Sarkeesian interview: 'The word "troll" feels too childish. This is abuse'". The Guardian. London. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
- ^ a b c Aghazadeh, Sarah A.; Burns, Alison; Chu, Jun; et al. (2018). "GamerGate: A Case Study in Online Harassment". In Golbeck, Jennifer (ed.). Online Harassment. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. pp. 179–207. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-78583-7_8. ISBN 978-3-319-78582-0. LCCN 2018939005.
- ^ a b c d Marwick, Alice E.; Caplan, Robyn (2018). "Drinking male tears: language, the manosphere, and networked harassment". Feminist Media Studies. 18 (4): 543–559. doi:10.1080/14680777.2018.1450568. ISSN 1468-0777. S2CID 149246142.
- ^ a b Mulkerin, Tim (June 28, 2017). "Exclusive: Patreon investigated YouTuber "Sargon of Akkad" over VidCon harassment". Mic. Archived from the original on January 1, 2019. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
- ^ a b Vasquez, Vanna (June 27, 2017). "VidCon apologizes for panelist clash involving activist Anita Sarkeesian". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 3, 2018.
- ^ Lockett, Dee (December 29, 2017). "The 10 Biggest YouTube Dramas of 2017". Vulture. Archived from the original on July 7, 2018. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
- ^ Sarkeesian, Anita (December 23, 2019). "Anita Sarkeesian looks back at GamerGate". Polygon. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
- ^ Takahashi, Dean (August 3, 2020). "Why Anita Sarkeesian started the Game and Online Harassment Hotline". VentureBeat. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
- ^ a b Settle, Amber; McGill, Monica M. & Decker, Adrienne (2013). "Diversity in the Game Industry: Is Outreach the Solution?". SIGITE '13: Proceedings of the 2013 ACM SIGITE annual Conference on Information Technology Education: October 10–12, 2013, Orlando, Florida, USA. New York: Association for Computing Machinery. p. 175. doi:10.1145/2512276.2512283. ISBN 978-1-45032-239-3. S2CID 14178125.
- ^ Zerbisias, Anita (January 18, 2013). "Internet trolls an online nightmare for young women". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on December 13, 2017. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Casey, Paul (December 10, 2012). "Why should Anita Sarkeesian have to work for free in return for misogynistic abuse?". New Statesman. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Cross, Katherine (2013). "Why Gaming Culture Allows Abuse... and How We Can Stop It". Bitch. No. 57. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
- ^ Steadman, Ian (August 27, 2014). "Tropes vs Anita Sarkeesian: on passing off anti-feminist nonsense as critique". New Statesman. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ "Anita Sarkeesian". TEDxWomen. Archived from the original on February 9, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2019. Video on YouTube.
- ^ "Feminist website creator to speak at LLCC Oct. 10". The Breeze-Courier. October 12, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
- ^ "Critic assails portrayal of women in video games". The Daily News. October 24, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
- ^ Chipman, Bob (November 7, 2013). "The Most Dangerous Woman in Videogames – Anita Sarkeesian". The Escapist. Archived from the original on December 13, 2013. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
- ^ Myers, Maddy (November 13, 2013). "Hyper Mode: Anita Sarkeesian vs. The World Part II". Paste. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
- ^ Newton, Casey (September 13, 2014). "Anita Sarkeesian shares the most radical thing you can do to support women online". The Verge. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Kolhatkar, Sheelah (November 26, 2014). "The Gaming Industry's Greatest Adversary Is Just Getting Started". Bloomberg Business Week. Archived from the original on November 28, 2014. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
- ^ McCormick, Rich (October 30, 2014). "Stephen Colbert takes on Gamergate with Anita Sarkeesian". The Verge. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ McDonald, Soraya Nadia (October 30, 2014). "How media critic Anita Sarkeesian turned Stephen Colbert into a feminist". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 15, 2018.
- ^ Day, Patrick Kevin (October 30, 2014). "Anita Sarkeesian educates Stephen Colbert on Gamergate". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 15, 2018.
- ^ Chang, Juju; Yu, Katie (January 14, 2015). "When Jumping into Gamergate Turns into Fearing For Your Life". ABC News. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
- ^ Ito, Robert (March 6, 2015). "In the Documentary 'GTFO,' Female Video Gamers Fight Back". The New York Times. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
- ^ Sarkeesian, Anita (February 11, 2019). "I Am Tired: The Costs of Online Harassment". University of Alberta Students' Union Facebook. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
- ^ "Briefly". Media Report to Women. 40 (2): 19–21. Spring 2012. ISSN 0145-9651.
- ^ Graft, Kris (December 6, 2012). "The 5 trends that defined the game industry in 2012". Gamasutra. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
- ^ "125 Women of Impact". Newsweek. March 29, 2013.
- ^ "Women In The World: 125 Women of Impact (No.92)". The Daily Beast. March 29, 2013. Archived from the original on April 1, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
- ^ Suellentrop, Chris (March 20, 2014). "The Last of Us Claims a Top Video Game Prize". The New York Times. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
- ^ "Anita Sarkeesian, Riot co-founders win GDCA 2014 Special Awards". Gamasutra. February 11, 2014. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
- ^ Parker, Laura (March 20, 2014). "A Day of Honors for Women in the Video Game Industry". The New York Times. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
- ^ "Anita Sarkeesian, more up for nominations at Women in Gaming Awards". Gamasutra. March 19, 2014. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
- ^ Collins, Sean T. (October 17, 2014). "Anita Sarkeesian on GamerGate: 'We Have a Problem and We're Going to Fix This'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 18, 2017. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ "The Verge 50: Anita Sarkeesian". The Verge. 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ "The Most Influential People on the Internet". Time. March 5, 2015. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ "Anita Sarkeesian – The 100 Most Influential People". Time. April 15, 2015. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Beresford, Trilby (March 24, 2022). "Iconic Adventure Game 'Journey' Among Recipients of Peabody Digital and Interactive Storytelling Awards (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
- ^ Hipes, Patrick (March 24, 2022). "Peabodys Reveal 'Legacy Class' Winners Of Inaugural Digital And Interactive Storytelling Awards". Deadline.
Further reading
- Campbell, Colin (June 19, 2019). "The Anita Sarkeesian story". Polygon.
- Farokhmanesh, Megan (March 25, 2022). "Sarkeesian reflects on 10 years of 'Tropes vs. Women in Video Games'". Axios.
- Farokhmanesh, Megan (November 10, 2022). "Anita Sarkeesian Hates Talking About Gamergate—but She Has To". Wired.
- Marie, Meagan (2018). "Anita Sarkeesian: An Agent of Change Through Pop-Culture Critique". Women in Gaming: 100 Professionals of Play. London: DK Publishing. pp. 260–261. ISBN 978-0-7440-1993-3.
External links
- 1983 births
- American feminists
- Canadian feminists
- American women bloggers
- Canadian women bloggers
- American media critics
- Canadian video bloggers
- American video bloggers
- Video game critics
- Third-wave feminism
- Victims of cyberbullying
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers
- Game Developers Conference Ambassador Award recipients
- California State University, Northridge alumni
- York University alumni
- Women video bloggers
- Women video game critics
- Canadian people of Armenian descent
- Canadian people of Iraqi descent
- Canadian emigrants to the United States
- American people of Armenian descent
- American people of Iraqi descent
- Living people
- Commentary YouTubers
- American YouTubers
- Canadian YouTubers
- 21st-century American women writers
- American women critics
- Gamergate (harassment campaign)