By Alexandra Brodsky • @azbrodsky • 10 years ago

Watch: Feminist Frequency’s Damsel in Distress episode, Part 2

Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency has debuted the second part of her “Tropes vs Women in Video Games” episode on damsels in distress.

The script’s use of repetitive language is particularly powerful, exposing the unoriginality of misogynistic plots. Sarkeesian also does a good job of explaining how this violence affects our analog world for those disinclined to believe any connection. It’s disappointingly easy to recognize what points she makes in response to sexist critics, promising them they can still enjoy their games and professing confidence in designers’ motives, and I hate that Sarkeesian has to soothe them to get her point across: even if game creators just haven’t put a lot of thought into gender, as she suggests, I still think they’re culpable. At the same time, though, she makes the video emotionally accessible for skeptics, allowing them to abandon their defensiveness, without substantively compromising her position. That’s a remarkable feat.

Unsurprisingly, the video was briefly removed by YouTube due to user complaints–Sarkeesian has faced harassment for challenging sexism within gaming culture since she started fundraising–but it’s back online now. You can watch the video below and read the transcript on Feminist Frequency. For background, make sure to catch up on our coverage of the first episode and our Feministing Five with Sarkeesian.

Trigger warning for violence against women.

Washington, DC

Alexandra Brodsky was a senior editor at Feministing.com. During her four years at the site, she wrote about gender violence, reproductive justice, and education equity and ran the site's book review column. She is now a Skadden Fellow at the National Women's Law Center and also serves as the Board Chair of Know Your IX, a national student-led movement to end gender violence, which she co-founded and previously co-directed. Alexandra has written for publications including the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Guardian, and the Nation, and she is the co-editor of The Feminist Utopia Project: 57 Visions of a Wildly Better Future. She has spoken about violence against women and reproductive justice at campuses across the country and on MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, ESPN, and NPR.

Alexandra Brodsky was a senior editor at Feministing.com.

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