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A Female Gamer’s Perspective on Anita Sarkeesian

A Female Gamer’s Perspective on Anita Sarkeesian

Anita Sarkeesian makes feminists look bad; her most recent video titled, All the Slender Ladies: Body Diversity in Video Games is yet another example of why. In this video she attacks Overwatch, League of Legends, Ultra Street Fighter IV, Dota 2, Fat Princess, Dead Rising, Life is Strange , and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate . These games, according to Sarkeesian, are guilty of lacking female body diversity. She goes on to explain that this lack perpetrates the idea that women’s bodies are supposed to look skinny and sexy all the time. She then claims that causes all men to turn into horrible misogynists who just don’t know any better. Sarkeesian then goes back to her examples, elaborating that these skinny women are generally quite young in comparison to their much older male counterparts. To all of this, her conclusion is that games should have more characters like Mei and Zarya from Overwatch to represent female body diversity.

There are a lot of things wrong with Sarkeesian’s argument, but I’ll confine this article to the two major ones. First of all, all her examples save two are combat-heavy games. Second, very few gamers are misogynistic assholes as a result of the female body types represented in games. Both of these undermine her argument to the point of making it moot.

Using mostly combat games as examples of a lack of female body diversity is so ignorant that I strongly question whether or not Sarkeesian has played a video game in her life. These are combat centred games. Women in these games are going to be built like they can fight. If you want a real life example, here’s a picture of women in the Canadian military. Anybody bigger than our dear Tracer from Overwatch is about 1 in 5 and they are all over thirty. In this case, Saarkesian would be right when she talks about age but not in body diversity. Nonetheless, the majority of these ladies are the human variation of women about Tracer’s size. Let’s clarify “human version:” every video game has an art style, every artist has a tendency to smooth out imperfections when they’re designing certain characters. You might notice that video game characters have a distinct lack of bad hair cuts, pimples, and birthmarks. Everything a game character possesses is there to express who they are, be it worn-torn war hero or sly spy. Regardless, combat ready women are generally a certain body type for a very good reason, just as men are. Clearly Sarkeesian is missing a great deal of context here, undermining her own argument.

A Female Gamer’s Perspective on Anita Sarkeesian

Furthermore, I’ve met my share of gamers who think women are meant for the kitchen, children, and nothing else. I guarantee the reason they’re like that isn’t because Metal Gear Solid V has Quiet or League of Legends has Evelynn. That might be a small part of it, but definitely not the root cause like Sarkeesian is trying to imply. Video games are but a fraction of the larger popular media that tells men (and women) that women need to look like Tracer. Media too, is part of a larger sociological whole centred on culture: how you are raised and what kind of women you encounter in life are but two examples of such. To not at least engage in these problems is a huge hole in Sarkeesian’s argument.

Anita Sarkeesian addresses issues that need to be addressed, but I truly wish she didn’t have so many damn holes in her arguments. Accusing combat heavy games with the exception of two (more or less) indie games makes it quite clear that Sarkeesian does not understand the full context of these women. Or, for that matter, thinking that all of these beautiful women are the source of misogyny in male gamers. These are but two major holes in Sarkeesian’s argument. I invite you to find the rest – it’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

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