Sarkeesian Speaks on Women in Video Games

By: Nolan Stout

On April 3, media critic Anita Sarkeesian delivered a lecture at High Point University on the misrepresentation of women in video games.

“The vast majority of games are made for straight white men,” said Sarkeesian. “The vast majority of games also either completely ignore women or treat them hostile.”
            Sarkeesian began her presentation by giving background on her own life and experience with video games. As a young child she played the original Gameboy.

            As she got older, Sarkeesian began to question the representation of women in video games in her online video series “Feminist Frequency.” Her critique of video games brought much backlash to her life. She was attacked in online forums by many in the gaming community that were angered by her views.

            “This intense and violent hostility is common in video game society,” said Sarkeesian. “There seems to be a pre-existing hatred for women in video games.”

            According to Sarkeesian, women are represented in a variety of ways in modern video games, few of which are positive.

            Among the many portrayals of women in video games, some of the tropes Sarkeesian discussed included the “Damsel in Distress,” “Women in Refrigerators,” and the “Smurfette Principle.”

            Each of these, according to Sarkeesian, robs women of the chance to develop their character or be a hero in video games.

            One of the few positive representations of women Sarkeesian mentioned was Samus Aran from the Metroid game series. Samus is a female in full body armor that is not sexualized in any way.

Placing more armor on women and allowing their characters to be played in first person are some solutions that Sarkeesian gave to fixing the misrepresentation of women in video games.

Sarkeesian’s talk was well received by students at HPU. The room was packed with people sitting on the steps and floor. In the back, a few chairs were set up, but it was mostly standing room for those that arrived late.

Junior Michael Leone thought the talk was very informative.

“That was a really great lecture,” said Leone. “I play all sorts of games and never really thought about the way women are portrayed in them. All of that stuff is true about a lot of games.”