Articles
Why We Need Anita Sarkeesian
Why We Need Anita Sarkeesian
Anita Sarkeesian is one of the most notorious names in videogame journalism, particular
famous for her stance on women in games. Is that something we need right now, or not?
By Ian Kuan
B
ack in the day (like “I aim
with arrow keys” back
in the day) I read about
women entering competitive
FPS gaming during Quakecon.
“Cool!” I thought to myself. “I
always thought that only boys
played games, but it’s really
neat that girls do, too.” As I
look back on that childhood
moment, it seems like it was
a world away. Women were
welcomed, if unevenly, into the
gaming world in the 90s and
Issue 64 • February 2015
early 2000s. Games like No One
Lives Forever weren’t ridiculed
for having female protagonists
and compet itive shooters
such as Quake 2 and Unreal
Tournament included female
models as an industry standard.
Much like my formative feelings
on girl gamers, that time
seems lost in the misogynistic
tornado of YouTube trolling,
Twitter death threats, and
impotent developers of today.
At the blustering inception
of this sweeping storm of
#notallmen’s and #gamergate’s,
there emerged a burgeoning
voice of gender equality: a
woman by the now infamous
name of Anita Sarkeesian.
Anita ran a relatively small
YouTube channel called
Feminist Frequency that was
originally dedicated to critiquing
movies, shows, and books. It
was tied to Bitch Media, but has
since dropped the sponsor’s
watermark as Anita forged
her own path in videogame
criticism. Now she zealously
crusades within the videogame
industry and has become one
of the most recognized (and
reviled) figures in the gaming
community. Through this
position she has galvanized
many camps and been unfairly
elevated to the position of sole
8 • GameOn Magazine