Quick Tropes vs Women Project Update
I recently shared a long update with our backers over on the Tropes vs Women in Video Games Kickstarter page detailing our progress on pre-production and game research as well as equipment, software...
View ArticleTelevision Interview about Harassment in Gaming
Recently, I was interviewed for a TV segment on Canada’s Global News about my experience and the wider epidemic of harassment women face in gaming spaces. Also interviewed were Grace from the website...
View ArticleTEDxWomen Talk about Online Harassment & Cyber Mobs
I was excited to participate in this year’s TEDxWomen in Washington, DC, an annual event organized by the Paley Center for Media. I presented a 10 minute talk about sexist online harassment, cyber...
View ArticleDamsel in Distress (Part 1) Tropes vs Women
This video explores how the Damsel in Distress became one of the most widely used gendered cliché in the history of gaming and why the trope has been core to the popularization and development of the...
View ArticleDamsel in Distress (Part 2) Tropes vs Women
TRIGGER WARNING: This video contains a handful of graphic scenes involving violence against women. Parents should preview the video first before sharing with young children. VIDEO DESCRIPTION This is...
View ArticleFull IGN interview with Anita Sarkeesian
A few months ago I was interviewed by Paul Dean for an article at IGN entitled “Tropes vs Women in Video Games: Why it Matters”. Our conversation touched on a wide array of topics, including my...
View ArticleMs. Male Character – Tropes vs Women
In this episode we examine the Ms. Male Character trope and briefly discuss a related pattern called the Smurfette Principle. We’ve defined the Ms. Male Character Trope as: The female version of an...
View ArticleWomen as Background Decoration (Part 2)
This is the second episode exploring the Women as Background Decoration trope in video games. In this installment we expand our discussion to examine how sexualized female bodies often occupy a dual...
View ArticleJade – Beyond Good & Evil
This episode of our series on Positive Female Characters focuses on Jade, the protagonist of Ubisoft’s 2003 action-adventure game Beyond Good & Evil. We examine how plot elements, gameplay...
View ArticleWomen as Reward – Special DLC Mini-Episode
This totally free supplemental add-on content pack for our Women as Reward video examines how women’s bodies are used not just as a reward for in-game actions but also, via paid downloadable content,...
View ArticleDamsel in Distress (Part 3) Tropes vs Women
This is the third installment in our three part mini-series exploring the Damsel in Distress trope in video games. In this episode we examine the rare Dude in Distress role reversal and then take a...
View Article5 Ways Men Can Help End Sexism
What role should men play in working towards an end to sexism? How much or how little should men be helping? In this video we will explore answers to those questions and share a few suggestions for how...
View ArticleLingerie is not Armor
This episode explores the ways in which female characters are frequently placed in wildly impractical, sexualizing outfits specifically designed to objectify them for the titillation of the presumed...
View ArticleAll the Slender Ladies: Body Diversity in Video Games
This episode examines the very limited range of female body types commonly seen in games, contrasting this with the much wider range of physiques that male characters frequently possess. We then...
View ArticleSinister Seductress
This episode explores how female villains in games very often function to demonize femaleness itself, drawing on patterns of female representation that have roots in creatures from myth and folklore...
View ArticleNot Your Exotic Fantasy
This episode explores the ways in which sexist, racist stereotypes about Black women and tribal cultures that date back for centuries are often still perpetuated today in representations of women from...
View ArticlePresenting the Tropes vs. Women in Video Games Curriculum!
The Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series has had a tremendous impact on the ways in which our culture thinks about and talks about video games, and the links between the values expressed in popular...
View ArticleQueer Tropes vs Video Games: Press ‘B’ To Hate Gay People
Throughout much of game history, from early Leisure Suit Larry adventures to the latest installment of Grand Theft Auto, gay and trans characters were rarely depicted at all except to serve as cheap...
View ArticleQueer Tropes vs Video Games: Are You Gay or Just Coded That Way
Video games have inherited a thing or two from the movies, including a troubling tendency to equate being gay with being evil. From The Legend of Zelda’s most flamboyant antagonist to a sadistic butch...
View ArticleQueer Tropes vs Video Games: Video Games’ Relationship Status – It’s Complicated
In this installment, we examine the complex history of gay relationships in games, from Fallout 2 in 1998 to much more recent games like Dream Daddy and The Last of Us: Left Behind. For a long time,...
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