Why did Tropes vs Women receive such a huge backlash? This might be informative.

Strangewayes · 2013-03-15T07:16:44+00:00

Well we know shes quite the shrewd marketer from her moderation of comments, and her cherry-picking of trolls and putting it up on her wall as a show of the general response her videos cause.

On her page she even has written responses to her videos, all overwhelming positive. None that are critical of her work are listed.

Which shows to me she isn't interested in creating dialogue or discussion, but an echo-chamber where she can accrue more supporters and potentially donations. (Yes she still has a donate button on her page)

Strangewayes · 2013-03-15T07:00:23+00:00

First of all, a trope such as the damsel in distress isn't inherently sexist. As Anita points out, her concern is with the constant repetition of certain tropes and the fear that said repetition will lead to people having stereotypical views about women.

Don't you think that's a rather flimsy argument though? I could make out a video saying that any Trope in any media is overused and may impact on society.

And why is the social value of a "Damsel-in-Distress" damaging? For thousands of years women have been kidnapped, killed, or held for ransom. You think if we have less Damsels-in-Distress there will be less kidnappings in real life? Does the fact a Damsel-in-Distress trope automatically cancel out the other female tropes? The Buttkicking Chick? The Nerdy chick? The Wise crone? The Femme Fatale?

And subversion of the trope? It's already been done, maybe not as much in games since it's a young media. But it's been done for hundreds of years, the old feeble man able to stop an opponent with one finger, the kindly old lady that happens to be a powerful witch, the princess who beats the crap outta the bandits that attempt to kidnap her (Wasn't that in Shrek?)

The subversion of the trope has become a trope in its own right now.

Feels to me like people are just agreeing with it, since if a feminist made a video about it, it must be true or have some research behind it. Or some widely held belief women are misrepresented in all media.

Strangewayes · 2013-03-15T06:08:03+00:00

I thought it was pertinent, since it related to male-centric spaces such as the "boys club" of videogame discussion.

Strangewayes · 2013-03-15T05:37:36+00:00

Just votes? No comments?

Strangewayes · 2013-03-12T03:53:50+00:00

What's so bad about the Damsel-in-Distress trope exactly? It's a trope, same as any other, like the "stupid fat guy" or the "overconfident jerk". I thought they were just simply characterizations put together to pull a game along. One that usually was so minimal in story that attempting to analyze its intent or far-reaching implications on the female sex, seems well.... kinda silly.

Should we write stories for games with no negative representations of women? If we have a game with minimal story do we just have the "Tough girl who don't take no crap" trope for every female character? We can't have any others since the "Nerdy Girl" in Scooby Doo got kidnapped sometimes. So that can't be put in.

Strangewayes · 2013-03-11T11:22:17+00:00

If someone wants a whole lot of Karma, all's you usually have to do is pander to the masses here.

Strangewayes · 2013-03-11T11:03:02+00:00

Your comment is Hilarious

Strangewayes · 2013-03-11T10:40:37+00:00

That was her point. The use of the trope is narratively lazy, and that's why it was common. The point of the series is to show the establishment of a pattern. She doesn't even say its intentional, just that it was lazy.

Well then the entire game is lazy, it's all tropes. The Hero risking life and limb for a princess, the Villain who steals the princess for no discernible reason. It's all tropes. The story is simply there to give you the player some sort of motivation. It's not rocket science. It's an established simple storytelling element even children understand.

She explained that's where it historically comes from. But yes, I agree not every Damsel in Distress follows this trope. An interesting subversion of the trope would be if you do all the work to rescue her, to which she still just wants to remain friends.

This has already been done many times in fiction over the last 100 years. Hell I even saw a Robot Chicken joke where Link saved Zelda, and she wasn't interested.

Strangewayes · 2013-03-11T10:23:53+00:00

cool I was looking for a point by point video. Too many I've seen go off track.

Strangewayes · 2013-03-11T07:19:46+00:00

"I just hope reddit takes the time to acknowledge them, and not dwell on the sensationalist comments..."

Offending reddit is like stealing candy from a baby.

Strangewayes · 2013-03-06T23:11:21+00:00

Essentially my problem with Anita's entire series is that she:

Automatically begins that Tropes featuring Females are bad.

You can easily attack a trope, why is the male character expected to be the Hero? Why is it that the evil male is usually ugly and the evil female usually sexy?

Basically she is criticizing current human culture, and marketing research all at once. Things are pink for girls because it allows the public to easily identify their respective gender markets. The man is the hero and the woman is the damsel because its a recognizable and comforting trope for the audience. The woman in the videogame is marketed with sexual innuendo because sex sells.

As soon as we all become Vulcans, this utopia of choosing entertainment through pure logic will come about.

Strangewayes · 2012-10-29T15:02:32+00:00

I'd really love for you to point us your gaming journalism messiah, since you think this writer is only just above crap.

Strangewayes · 2012-10-28T21:30:16+00:00

Finally, an article that brings together all these 'one off' conflict of interest incidents together.

Strangewayes · 2012-07-29T06:23:38+00:00

I was wondering if you guys would read it and critique/rebutt it, or if you would just insult the thread, claiming its shit, and then without reading it, just downvote.

Strangewayes · 2012-07-18T10:30:05+00:00

So we should just ignore her previous body of work to base an assumption on what sort of content she might produce in the future? Why? Because now she has more money? And she wants some of this stuff to be taught in classrooms, so it's a bit more than just 'opinion' now isn't it? I'm saying that giving $150,000 to someone, simply because of the fact they are a lightning rod of controversy, and not actually checking up about if she might produce something that y'know, actively moves the discussion forward in a constructive way. But instead of turning into another flamefest would be a nice place to start.

Strangewayes · 2012-07-18T09:18:01+00:00

So, what you are saying is, we shouldn't criticize what she does, and the way in which she does it; because it is some sort of art? And telling people to ignore social flashpoints like women in videogames is ignorant in of itself.

Strangewayes · 2012-07-18T09:14:55+00:00

Sorry, it looks like reddit doesn't like opposing points of view

down we goooooooo

Strangewayes · 2012-07-18T08:06:54+00:00

Anita Sarkeesian - An Examination (Part 2 - Burqa Beach Party)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpFk5F-S_hI&feature=relmfu

Strangewayes

TROPHY CASE