Lightning rod figure Anita Sarkeesian has published her newest video as part of the “Tropes vs. Women” series, this one focused on women as background decoration.
Ms. Sarkeesian’s series, part of her Feminist Frequency channel, is focused on highlighting the negative tropes specifically applied to women in gaming. A trope can mean a variety of things, from figure of speech to a cliché, and the series has touched on a couple including the Damsel in Distress and Ms. Male Character. The series is a good introduction to feminist commentary in games, and breaks the subjects down into 30 minute segments with plenty of video game clips and assorted content.
This video focuses on “women as background decoration,” and touches a lot on sexual objectification and women in sex worker occupations. She talks about content like missions that have you walk through brothels or changing rooms, the option to use women as camouflage in Assassin’s Creed 4, and sex worker mini-games in the Grand Theft Auto series.
If you’ve been interested in Anita Sarkeesian’s work in the past, or are interested in feminist game commentary it’s an interesting watch. Feel free to comment below with your thoughts on the video.
