Episode 37: “Whoa V*gina: Lollipop Chainsaw, Tomb Raider, and the Need for Sarkeesian’s Cultural Critique” (“Save As” to download or head over to iTunes to subscribe)
This week we segue from last week’s episode to this week’s by talking about rape imagery in the new Tomb Raider trailer, our playing of Lollipop Chainsaw, and Anita Sarkeesian’s Kickstarter financed cultural critique project.
Links of Note:
2 thoughts on “Episode 37: Whoa, V*gina!: Lollipop Chainsaw, Tomb Raider, and the Need for Sarkeesian’s Cultural Critique”
As a white male 28 I wouldn’t identify myself as your typical listener and I’ll be honest here I would have found this if it wasn’t for the whole Anita Sarkeesian fubar.
Now I’ll make this clear in no way do I support the action and the depths people took to hurass, deface and defile Anita. I just don’t see how any of her video’s have address the problem of tropes, other then saying look here is a trope.
For example her video on Lego. Basically covers the history of how Lego stopped marketing gender neutral to gender split to boys. It doesn’t really offer a solution to the problem and we cant point the finger at Lego blaming them for it. All Lego did was fallow the money and as company its what you do. Until people start to talk with their wallets and sending these companies letters we won;t see change. My fear is the hate machine called the Internet has created a martyr out of Anita, a sort of self fulfilling prophecy.
While the cause is worth while and the problem is as clear as day. Five to Ten videos posted on internet the hate machine wont change a $17 Billion industry (2011 profit in the US) because they don’t address the real issue, that being us. I cant help and feel she is the wrong person for this task and the funding could have been spent on real change planting the seed of the future, not just point out a problem exists.
I will leave this video from 1998 brenda laurel on making games for girl. If we can change the culture not just gaming culture we can change the games we produce.
http://www.ted.com/talks/brenda_laurel_on_making_games_for_girls.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6FT80ZoVJY
I would like to think that you are one of our typical listeners. We are looking for and at all gamers, not just women. We see ourselves as a part of the community as a whole and its the community we are hoping to make better. That being said, Sarkeesian has a wonderful opportunity here. I am hopeful that the Kickstarter money that she has received will give her the time and the resources to take an in-depth look at the games and the tropes that she is targeting. There is a lot of interesting work to be done out there. I see this work in progress all the time in my interactions with graduate students and game theorists that I meet up with at conferences and such. I know that the recent Destructoid interview and follow up article left some folks a bit doubtful, but it can be hard to give in-depth answers on the fly if you are not used to being asked to do so. This is usually something that happens when you are used to speaking in public and having spontaneous conversations. This is something that I don’t think that she is used to doing because she usually has time to think through and draft her thoughts. But then again, maybe its just me being hopeful. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and wait for the first round of videos.
Thanks for commenting and I really hope that you stick around!
-Samantha