So. Anita Sarkeesian.

For those of you who DON'T know about her, this is her.

Anita is a Youtube personality and media critic, born in Canada with a BA from California State University. And according to some people on the internet, she's worse than Justin Bieber, Bryan Adams and Cher combined if the comments she got on her Kickstarter are any indication. And then there's the comments on her YT video telling people she was gonna start her Kickstarter program...

I mean JESUS BLOODY CHRIST.

See, here's the thing. Anita wanted to start up a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign so she could take a deep, long look at video games, point out examples of sexism and chauvinism and misogyny. To analytically examine games with a critical eye. If you so wish to look at her videos, here's the Youtube Link: www.youtube.com/user/feministf…

And if you think it was JUST disgusting comments...there was also the HORRIFIC Wikipedia vandalism they did to her page.

Pretty f--kin' awful, huh? This I have a problem with. A big problem. You DO NOT TREAT WOMEN LIKE THIS. EVEN IF YOU DISAGREE WITH THEIR POINTS!

There is, however, other controversies surrounding her.

1. She evidently stole footage and did not credit the people who took the gameplay footage.

2. There's a video of her showing a remix video of Flight of the Concord's "Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor". In which she says it's not a video of a fandom, she's playing video games, "I'm not really a fan of video games, I've had to learn a lot about them", she told the class, and that she'd LOVE to play them except for the fact that she doesn't wanna go around shooting people or cutting their heads off. No. Really. That's what she said. Evidently she's making the generalization all video games involve graphic and fatal violence. AND she seemed to think the song was being serious. Again! REALLY.

3. Her research on the games is really...really bad. For one, games like "Mirror's Edge" and "Beyond Good and Evil" which STAR female protagonists who aren't sexualized and who are very, very kickass? Not really touched on. The famous and very good "American McGee's: Alice" game? Not mentioned at all. And "Bayonetta"? Well, she DOES mention her...in a video that was SO missing the point I couldn't BELIEVE it. For one, she said ‘everything about her is offensive, except the fact that she is a single mother". Except she's NOT. So she couldn't even get that right, not seem to get the heavily satirical point of the game and the fact that Bayonetta was strong, powerful, skilled and smart without needing any real kind of male assistance. What she DID do was brought up an ad campaign in Japan that involved people taking post it notes off the wall. She said the "Super Princess Peach" game involved showing women's PMS symptoms as a woman's skills...where the game is all about how the evil Lord Bowser stole a wand that steals and takes control of emotions on an island all ABOUT the power of emotions, "Vibe Island". EVERYONE in the game is using an exaggerated emotion, not JUST her. The only reason she's able to control hers the way she does is because she's the princess and has experience. Yes. She is literally the ONLY ONE IN THE KINGDOM in PERFECT control of her emotions. But instead Anita chalks this up to PMS on display and essentially making a crack at women.

4. Her research on TV shows is flawed too. You might remember the Powerpuff Girls episode in which a straw feminist named "Femme Fatale" pops up and basically tricks the girls into being rude towards men and neglecting their superhero duties by letting her off free because we "girls gotta look out for each other". The problem is that Femme didn't want to be treated equally. She wanted special treatment. And as it was said at the end of the episode by Ms. Bellum: "Girls, she's right about one thing— there is injustice in this world, but that's why we need you to protect the rights of everyone." The girls also get introduced to three women Femme Fatale has wronged, showing she wasn't really trying to help all women; and showing positive feminist female role models in the story. It calls out false feminists while praising a real one like Susan B. Anthony, who's story the girls tell when they finally stop Femme Fatale. This is never mentioned in Anita's video. But what IS mentioned is the..."Mrs. Male" trope.

5. Her idea of what a feminist is has...this is the big one. This is a quote from her "I'll Make A Man Out of You" academia paper for her college class, her official thesis paper. "While there are instances of female ‘braniacs’ and scientists, and of sensitive women who help devise plans, or are good wives, daughters, mothers or teachers, these traits are often reserved for supporting characters, not starring roles." So this comes off as basically saying women have to be wives, daughters, moms and teachers to be truly feminist.

But that's not ME saying this. This is from her actual thesis paper. Look:

This is what she wants. This is her idea of a better television landscape. She evidently feels women cannot be self-confident, cannot be strong, cannot be independent. That these are MALE traits, not feminine. And that men cannot be "emotionally expressive" or "nurturing". This is really very insulting.

I could go on, but you get the point. There's just so many flaws in her methodology.

Now. Has the damsel in distress trope been overused? Have women been overly sexualized too often? Do both these things make women feel uncomfortable playing video games? Don't we want games where women are treated equally to men and shown just as competent, skilled and valuable?

ABSO-FREAKING-LUTELY.

And I'm not gonna pretend that there's not still serious sexism to worry about and fix in our world. But Anita, if you wanna be a true force for positive good, one, acknowledge the leaps and strides we've made, don't refuse to allow votes and comments on your Youtube videos, that's pretty stuck-up, and don't say things like, and I quote from your woefully misinformed Bayonetta video, "“there should be separate subway cars for women only that men aren’t allowed on like there is in Japan”. That's called "segregation". You DO know separate isn't equal, right?

Anita just makes it hard for me to defend her because of how incompetent she comes off, and how insulting her idea of feminism truly is. I don't honestly think she's a good role model for women.