Why We Need Anita Sarkeesian

Back in the day (like "I aim with arrow keys" back in the day) I read about women entering competitive FPS gaming during Quakecon. "Cool!" I thought to myself. "I always thought that only boys played games, but it's really neat that girls do, too." As I look back on that childhood moment, it seems like it was a world away. Women were welcomed, if unevenly, into the gaming world in the 90s and early 2000s. Games like No One Lives Forever weren't ridiculed for having female protagonists and competitive shooters such as Quake 2 and Unreal Tournament included female models as an industry standard.

Much like my formative feelings on girl gamers, that time seems lost in the misogynistic tornado of YouTube trolling, Twitter death threats, and impotent developers of today. At the blustering inception of this sweeping storm of #notallmen’s and #gamergate’s, there emerged a burgeoning voice of gender equality: a woman by the now infamous name of Anita Sarkeesian.

Anita ran a relatively small YouTube channel called Feminist Frequency that was originally dedicated to critiquing movies, shows, and books. It was tied to Bitch Media, but has since dropped the sponsor's watermark as Anita forged her own path in videogame criticism. Now she zealously crusades within the videogame industry and has become one of the most recognized (and reviled) figures in the gaming community. Through this position she has galvanized many camps and been unfairly elevated to the position of sole recognized voice of feminism within videogames. She's not perfect, but I will say this: we need her now more than ever.

Anita is the eye of the storm in the debate over the place of women in videogames. Her position is unique in that it attracts and concentrates the ire of gamers who want to keep feminism and diversity out of videogames. Before her meteoric rise to internet stardom, the gaming community's sexism was spread out. There was criticism and there were people in the community who wanted to improve their virtual spaces, but they never attracted the sheer volume of attention and vitriol that is the new norm.

Tropes vs Women in Videogames presented a pointed threat to the frothing psychosis of future Quinspiracy theorists and men's rights activists. They struck out wildly at the woman who they thought was the architect and extension of a digital gynarchist conspiracy that sought to take their videogames away. Like rabidly sexist Fox Mulders they seek to expose the "truth" of Anita's supposedly zionist, misandrist, and/or fascist agenda. In a fashion unique to the information age, a culture war was started with Feminist Frequency at its center. While I can't say I enjoy reading about the latest Twitter death threat against a female developer or journalist, I believe that though gaming has become regressive in some ways, I am glad that it is now a battlefield.

Sexism is a tumor that leeches vibrancy and joy out of gaming. I'm not happy that it exists, but I'm thankful that it is more visible than ever before. After all, you can't fix a problem you don't know about. By attracting such a strong reaction from the right wing elements of the gaming community, Tropes vs Women in Videogames has illuminated a problem in our network of players, developers, and commentators that can't be ignored.

That is why Anita is a crucial figure in the gaming community. She is the lightning rod for debate and discussion, however caustic it may be. Her personal contributions to the debate are almost irrelevant now. When she speaks out on an issue, everyone knows that she will address it with basic concepts found in Feminist Studies 101. Hell, she could say "GTA V has male characters" or "I like X-Com" and there would be a war of retweets and hashtags that would make headlines.

What Anita says is eclipsed by what she represents: the destruction of the "boys only" club of videogames. When she makes a video, she draws a line in the sand and the community takes notice. We line up on either side brandishing our many and varied digital weapons and that's a good thing. Now more than ever before we are discussing a problem in our shared identity that needs addressing. Developers are being held accountable, women are speaking out on their challenges as workers in the industry and as players at home, and representation issues are seen as legitimate. We have a long way to go for gender parity and while Anita Sarkeesian is far from perfect, having her as a focal point for debate and discussion is what we need right now.