Gender Tropes In Video Games

Violence in violent video games had remained to be a major concern in society. In addition to the controversy of VVGs, a new subject emerged when gender activists began to enter the discussion and industry. While studies of videogames using sociological and gender theories had existed before, these issues had been highlighted by many organizations in most recent years. One of the more prominent activists is Anita Sarkeesian. She is a Canadian-American feminist (owner of the YouTube channel "Feminist Frequency") who analyzes the gender tropes (more specifically the portrayal of women) in videogames through her video series Tropes vs. Women in Video Games. In this series, Sarkeesian utilizes many sociological and feminists theories to analyze female tropes in pop culture media (in this case, video games), highlighting how these tropes contribute to harmful and sexist towards women. Many others (i.e. gender activists and feminists) believe that 'harmful' tropes and stereotypes of women in video games can alter the perspectives of male …show more content…
GamerGate, a term coined by Adam Baldwin, refers to a consumer movement/revolt against certain parts of games news sites; however, is widely known to be an online harassment movement/campaign. The goal of journalistic ethics of GamerGate is viewed by the media as an excuse of the online harassment made towards various women in an attempt to remove them from the video gaming industry. The rise of the movement and the mass publicity associated with it resulted in public backlash towards the proponents of the GamerGate movement. Very prominent individuals began to condemn GamerGate as well as gamers overall. Many media sites took notice of this and began writing articles, attacking gamers and claiming that "Gamers are Dead"; all written in (or shortly after) August 28,