I'm wanting to respond to some of you, but I'm having trouble putting my thoughts into one concise post, but I think I nailed the down the broad stuff that I disagree with so here goes...
My biggest problem is exactly what ILLYRIAN said. She's making a problem out of nothing. It seems like a lot of people tend to think that there's some deep-rooted misogyny problem in gaming, but where's the evidence? Are we really suggesting that the majority of game creators and gamers are sexist? I'm totally in agreement that the industry should try to cater toward many demographics, but I don't think the problem is sexism. Until very recently, men were the target demographic for most games, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm not gonna pretend like I've never had any encounters with sexism in a video game, but it has been very infrequent. I'm not a huge gamer, but I have definitely logged an embarrassing amount of time into a few games, and I can say with absolute certainty that there are more gamers who accept woman than not. Most of the time guys just react with shock, and then go on to enjoy the game like everyone else. Anita, and others like her, think there's a big problem, when in reality most gamers really don't give a s***. They just want to play games and have fun.
Secondly, I just have to say that there's nothing wrong with "sexualization" or "the male gaze" or "the male power fantasy." Feminists tend to use these buzzwords to denote something negative, but I don't think there's anything wrong with making a woman hot. For example, the new Lara Croft is awesome, but there was nothing wrong with her before. Her enormous breasts and sexuality were part of her character, and people (male and female alike) loved her regardless. At the end of the day, guys like to look at attractive women, and they shouldn't be looked down upon for that. And don't even get me started with people complaining about women only looking like scantily clad supermodels. Their male counterparts do the exact same thing. Everyone is exaggerated in video games.
Thirdly, Anita is just missing the point. I liked Athena's final paragraph a lot because she said that she loves a game, even though feminists would hate. Feminists are taking these thing way too seriously! No one goes to play GTA and thinks, "Hmm.. what should I do today? I think I'll knock out a few hookers!" They play GTA to have fun, vicariously break the law, and drop tanks from the sky. If that includes punching hookers it's usually to great comedic effect. Nothing will ever be good enough for these people. The well-known publisher Blizzard's (WoW) new game, Overwatch has gotten a lot of praise for having a huge selection of women to play as, but yet Anita just has to find a way to bitch about it because some of them are attractive. Give me a break.
I will grant you that, assuming Anita's motives are pure, the idea of more inclusivity in the gaming community will never be a bad thing. I think more women in positions of power and more cool female characters can only be a good thing. The problem comes when Anita will say and do anything to promote her ideology. And that's exactly what it is.. an ideology and worldview, and anything that seems to contradict it is "problematic" and should be changed. It has been shown in dozens of instances that she blatantly lies to people's faces. So even if she has a good message, it's hard to get behind when she acts the way she does. It doesn't help that every word out of her mouth is tinged with an air of superiority and pretension.
My final, and perhaps most annoying, problem with Anita is that she is addicted to playing the victim. So she got made fun of on the internet? Big deal. I'm not saying death threats are ever ok, but being a lightning rod for controversy means that shitty people are something you have to deal with. Running scared and acting like everyone's against you is not the answer. All of this culminates in her and her supporters living inside a little bubble where anyone who disagrees with them is labeled as mean or misogynistic. I mean for god's sake, how much of a coward do you have to be to disable the comments on YouTube? She's so afraid of conflict that she just decides to assume that all of her naysayers are simply naysaying because they hate women. That's awful, and it's also the exact reason why Clinton lost the presidency. Demonizing an entire group of people without listening to a single actual argument will only strengthen their resolve.
Anyway, I hope that was mildly to the point, and I'm really trying not to ruffle any feathers here. I just have some strong opinions about Sarkeesian and modern feminism (and the American left at large if we're being honest).
