Lecture By Anita Sarkeesian: Tropes Vs. Women In Video Games

Part of our year-long lecture series, "Sexing Science, Gendering Technology: Rethinking Sex and Gender in Science, Technology and Medicine" Abstract of the Lecture It’s no secret that the video game industry boasts portrayals of women that are sexually objectified, stereotyped and downright oppressive. In this talk, Anita Sarkeesian explains why. She will give a broad overview of the culture that sustains harassment, exclusion, and objectification in gaming, from the dynamics of sexist cyber-mobs to recurring tropes in video games that reinforce sexist conceptions of women, before concluding with a look at a few games that manage to get it right. Speaker’s Bio Anita Sarkeesian is a media critic and the creator of Feminist Frequency, a video webseries that explores the representations of women in pop culture narratives. Her work focuses on deconstructing the stereotypes and tropes associated with women in popular culture as well as highlighting issues surrounding the targeted harassment of women in online and gaming spaces. Anita earned her bachelor’s degree in communication studies at California State University, Northridge and her master’s degree in social and political thought at York University. Sarkeesian regularly lectures and presents at universities, conferences and game development studios internationally. She has presented at various fan, media and technology conferences and has also facilitated and taught multi-day filmmaking workshops. She has been interviewed and featured in publications such as Forbes, Wired, The Guardian, and The New York Times. Her videos are freely available on the Feminist Frequency YouTube channel and widely serve as educational tools in high school and university classrooms. For more information contact: Magdalena Grohman 972-883-4940 972-UTD-ARTS