Tag Archive for "video games"

Posts Tagged video games

Tech and video game industry sexism: bathroom lines and rape jokes

Apple and Microsoft are both currently throwing big conferences, one for tech industry developers and one to sell video games. The conferences of these two giant companies are giving us an eye into some common-place sexism.

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is currently taking place in San Francisco. Yesterday Dan Ackerman tweeted this photo from the conference, which says a lot about the gender imbalance in the tech industry:

Meanwhile, Microsoft is hosting E3, their annual gaming expo, in Los Angeles. It’s easier for consumers to fight sexism in games than for us to push for the gender dynamics of the tech industry to change, because businesses want to satisfy their customers. Microsoft should want to cater to non-misogynyst gamers, should ...

Apple’s Worldwide ...

By Alexandra Brodsky • 11 years ago

Damsels in Distress: First installment of “Tropes vs Women in Video Games”

Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency has posted the first installment of her “Tropes vs Women in Video Games” project. In this video, she explores the role, history, and forms of the damsel in distress in popular media from military recruitment ads to silent film to Donkey Kong. Most importantly, Sarkeesian talks about how women’s portrayal in video games affects the way we as consumers approach gender IRL.

As fun as the video is, it’s important to remember what terrible harassment Sarkeesian has been subject to since the announcement of the project. Yet, despite the efforts of thousands of misogynists, the video up.

Transcript (via Feminist Frequency) after the jump.

Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency has posted the first installment of her “Tropes vs Women in Video Games” project. In this video, she explores the role, history, and forms of the ...

By Jos Truitt • 12 years ago

Deus Ex: Human Revolution offers old school racism with your gaming fun

I know next to nothing about video games – I’m a huge geek, but I have no hand/eye coordination, so me attempting to play video games is really just flailing around on the couch to the amusement of my friends. Apparently Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a new hit game. I hear the women and characters of color in the game aren’t the best. But what’s really getting attention is the character of Letitia, a black woman you find picking through the trash who you can pay for information with beer, and who talks like the most extreme racist stereotype from a blackface minstrel show.

You can check out what I’m talking about in this video originally posted at ...

By Samhita • 12 years ago

Sex is inappropriate for minors, but violence is a-OK

When I was in the 7th grade and studying German our teacher brought in popular mainstream German magazines to aid us in our second language education. I don’t remember much German and I don’t really even remember which magazines, but I do remember they were filled with nudity, including the infamous picture of a naked David Hasselhoff (ew) covered in puppies. Our teacher had blocked out all the nudity in the magazines to avoid getting in trouble with the school administration and in response to this he daringly made one point–in Germany, he said, they censor violence, not sex. In Germany, like the US, a country with a very violent history.

In a similar vein, this week the US Supreme ...