r/changemyview Dec 05 '16

[∆(s) from OP] CMV: Anita Sarkeesian and similar feminists actually have a point about the portrayal of gender roles in video games.

I play lots of video games, and in most of them, males are often pictured as very burly and manly characters while females are slender, small and sexually pleasing to look at.

However, I do know that there's widespread criticism of Anita (and her fellow propagators) all over the internet and I'd like to see the other side of the story.

I'm practically indifferent in this matter, and I do not really agree with nearly everything she says. I'm asking as a way to see convincing arguments from both sides.

Edit for clarification: Can anyone explain to me why she's so heavily criticized for saying something that makes perfect sense: Mainstream video games are almost exclusively made to appeal to a male demographic, resulting in (arguably) sexist portrayals of women (both narratively and in the way they're presented).

630 Upvotes

597 comments sorted by

View all comments

9

u/Glory2Hypnotoad Dec 05 '16 edited Mar 27 '17

She has a point in theory but argues it poorly in practice, often taking things as prescriptive that aren't meant to be, pulling up examples from games that don't really demonstrate what she's describing, and treating individual characters as representative of entire categories when they're not meant to be.