Anita is a writer.
She makes videos about games. She talks about women in games. Some people were not kind to her. But many people helped her. This work matters to many. Do you like video games?
Anita is a media critic.
She makes videos about stories. She looks at how women are shown in games.
She started a group called Feminist Frequency. This group helps people talk about media. She also made a video series. It looks at women in video games.
Some people were not kind to her online. They sent mean messages. This made many people pay attention. Many others sent money to help her work.
Her work helped change the games industry. Now, games have more diverse characters. This includes more positive women.
Anita has spoken to many groups. She wants games to be for everyone. She still makes videos about history today.
Anita Sarkeesian is a media critic.
She studies how women are shown in stories. She was born in Canada. She later moved to California.
In 2009, she started a group called Feminist Frequency. This group makes videos about pop culture. One of her main projects was a video series. It was called Tropes vs. Women in Video Games.
This series looked at how female characters act in games. It looked at common patterns, like the "Damsel in Distress." This is when a woman is helpless and needs a hero to save her.
In 2012, Anita faced a lot of online harassment. Some people sent her very mean and violent threats. This caused many people to talk about how women are treated online. Many people wanted to help her. They sent her money to fund her work. She raised over $158,000 for her project.
Her work helped change the gaming world. Many games now have more diverse characters. This includes more positive women.
Anita has spoken to many big groups. She wants games to be a place for everyone.
Anita Sarkeesian is a media critic who studies how women are shown in stories.
She was born near Toronto, Canada, to Iraqi Armenian parents. She later moved to California and became a Canadian-American. She studied communication at California State University, Northridge, in 2007. Later, she earned a master's degree from York University in 2010. Her studies focused on strong women in science fiction and fantasy television. She uses her work to look at how culture shapes our ideas about gender.
In 2009, she started a nonprofit website called Feminist Frequency.
She wanted to make feminist media criticism easy for everyone to find. One of her most famous projects was a video series. It was called Tropes vs. Women in Video Games. This series looked at common patterns, or tropes, in video games. For example, she studied the "Damsels in Distress" trope. This is when female characters are passive and need a hero to save them.
Sarkeesian's work became a major topic of discussion in 2012. She started a Kickstarter campaign to fund her video series. She originally wanted to raise $6,000 for the project. However, she received many mean and violent threats from people online.
These threats caused many people to pay attention to her work. The campaign ended up raising $158,922. This was over 26 times her original goal. The extra money allowed her to make her project much larger.
Her videos had a real effect on the gaming industry. Some writers noted that games began to show more positive women and diverse characters. In 2015, the company Intel even partnered with Feminist Frequency. They wanted to help promote more women in technology and gaming. Sarkeesian also made a series called "Ordinary Women" about historical figures. This series featured women like Ida B. Wells and Emma Goldman. She wanted to show how these women defied history.
Sarkeesian's life and work show how much media can matter. She has spoken at the United Nations and at TEDxWomen events. Even though she faced hard times, she continued to make new series. In 2022, she started a new show on the streaming service Nebula. It is called "That Time When," and it looks at history. In 2023, she announced that Feminist Frequency would close. She said she felt exhausted from her long work. Still, her videos remain online for people to watch and learn.
Anita Sarkeesian is a Canadian-American feminist media critic.
She studies how popular culture portrays women and gender. She is the founder of Feminist Frequency. This is a nonprofit website that hosts videos and commentary. Her work analyzes social and cultural gender structures in media. She uses these tools to examine how stories shape our ideas about people.
Sarkeesian began her career by creating accessible media criticism. In 2009, she launched Feminist Frequency while studying at York University. She partnered with Bitch magazine in 2011 to create the Tropes vs. Women series. This series examined common tropes, or repeated patterns, in media. She specifically looked at how science fiction portrays women. She also applied the Bechdel test to films nominated for the 84th Academy Awards. This test measures how female characters interact with each other.
One of her most significant projects focused on the video game industry. She was inspired to start this work after speaking with developers at Bungie. In May 2012, she launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a video series. The series was titled Tropes vs. Women in Video Games. It examined gender tropes specifically within gaming. The first video in this series was released on March 7, 2013.
The project faced intense challenges due to an online harassment campaign. Following her Kickstarter launch, Sarkeesian was targeted by misogynistic attacks. These included threats, hacking, and doxing. Doxing is the act of sharing someone's private information online without permission. The harassment became a major news story. It placed Sarkeesian at the center of discussions about online behavior. In 2014, she had to leave her home due to the volume of threats. She also faced threats regarding a planned lecture at Utah State University.
Despite the harassment, the Kickstarter project was a massive financial success. Sarkeesian originally set a funding goal of $6,000. The project reached this goal in less than one day. Ultimately, the campaign raised $158,922. This total was over 26 times the original amount requested. The extra funds allowed Sarkeesian to expand the scope of her work. She used the resources to create more detailed and large-scale video productions.
Sarkeesian's work has had a measurable impact on the gaming industry. Some observers noted a rise in positive women and minority protagonists in games. This coincided with a decrease in the tropes she discussed. In 2015, Intel announced a partnership with Feminist Frequency. This was part of a $300 million effort to increase diversity in technology. She also created the Ordinary Women series. This series explored the lives of historical figures like Ida B. Wells and Emma Goldman. In 2019, she released a series on Queer Tropes in Video Games.
In recent years, Sarkeesian has moved toward different types of media. In 2022, she began a series on the streaming service Nebula called That Time When. This show examines moments where pop culture and politics collide. It covers topics like the Hollywood blacklist and the racial politics of Star Trek. In August 2023, she announced that Feminist Frequency would close. She cited exhaustion and burnout as the reasons for ceasing operations. While the nonprofit closed in early 2024, her previous work remains accessible online for students and researchers.
Where will your curiosity go next?
🖼️ Images & Media (3)
More to explore
✨ What else?
Related topics you might enjoy
🪜 Step back
Simpler topics to build understanding
What is Nepedia?
A free, ad-free encyclopedia for children. Every article is written at five reading levels, so the same page works for a five-year-old and a fifteen-year-old — use the level switcher above to see this one change. No account needed to read.