Tweeting this meme pushed angered/anonymous male gamers to threaten game developer Brianna Wu with violence and to share Ms. Wu’s home address on messageboards.
Yesterday in class we talked about the multifaceted #Gamergate, and the problems facing women in the video/computer gaming space. We watched some news footage and a few interviews with female game developers that have been under attack by a niche segment of males in the gaming community, and we also watched part one of Feminist Frequency’s Damsels in Distress video series hosted by Anita Sarkeesian. Beyond merely contextualizing the sociological disruption happening in gaming culture illustrated by brave females fighting for their right (and their digital protagonists’ rights) to empowerment, Sarkeesian’s video presents a superb example high level video production, and appropriate use of high quality copyrighted assets for purposes of education (fair use). Thursday we will be learning how to frame similar video posts using a green screen, Gimp-constructed assets, and Blender.
FOR NEXT TUESDAY:
Watch
and
Write a 200 word response and include one screenshot that contextualizes your commentary. Submit as an HTML file by midnight on Tuesday.
I was waiting for the day somebody would put out this very powerful and in-depth analysis of the gaming industry in general and the overall perception of women as second class citizens. I wish this point of view was vulgarized and spread around the world.