# Anita Sarkeesian Anita Sarkeesian is a media critic and creator of the Feminist Frequency video series who became widely known in 2012 after her Tropes vs. Women in Video Games Kickstarter triggered a coordinated online harassment campaign from gamers. The backlash pushed her original $6,000 goal past $150,000 and made her a central figure in early debates about misogyny in gaming. ## Overview Anita Sarkeesian is the founder of Feminist Frequency, a video series that analyzes tropes about women in pop culture and video games from a feminist point of view[1]. Her name became a widely recognized internet reference point in mid-2012 after a Kickstarter campaign for a new series called Tropes vs. Women in Video Games set off one of the earliest well-documented coordinated harassment campaigns targeting a woman for talking about games[3]. Her earlier videos covered television, film, and pop culture patterns like the Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype, and were mostly known within a smaller feminist media audience before the 2012 project pulled her into the wider gaming conversation[5]. The response to the Kickstarter, described by outlets like Wired and Kotaku as intense and personal, included YouTube comment floods, Wikipedia vandalism, rape and death threats, and organized flagging of her fundraising page[1][3]. ## How It Spread Sarkeesian launched the Tropes vs. Women in Video Games Kickstarter in mid-2012 with a modest $6,000 goal to fund five videos[1]. Within days, the YouTube promo was flooded with thousands of hateful comments, including slurs and rape threats, along with mass reports asking YouTube to pull the video as terrorism[3]. Her Wikipedia entry was vandalized with pornographic images and text, and for a stretch the top Google result for her name read "Anita Sarkeesian is a feminist video blogger and cunt"[3]. Coverage from gaming and general tech press flipped the effect the harassers intended. Wired ran a profile framing the attacks as a warning sign for women in gaming, and The Mary Sue published a widely shared piece calling the abuse depressingly familiar and comparing it to earlier incidents involving BioWare writer Jennifer Hepler and the Cross Assault fighting-game controversy[1][2]. Support poured in and the Kickstarter closed with 6,968 backers and over $150,000 raised, expanding the plan from 5 videos to 12[1]. After the funding closed, Sarkeesian announced she would extend the timeline and open the series with an episode on the Damsel in Distress trope, targeting a late fall or early winter 2012 release, a schedule change some critics tried to spin as her failing to deliver[6]. Gameranx and other outlets pushed back on those attacks and walked through the actual update timeline she had posted to backers[6]. From that point on, Sarkeesian's name was attached to almost every subsequent flashpoint in the gaming culture wars, well before the term GamerGate existed. ## How to Use Sarkeesian is a real person rather than a template, so her name mostly appears online in two contexts. Supporters cite her as shorthand for the argument that mainstream games have a sexism problem, often linking directly to the Tropes vs. Women in Video Games episodes on the Feminist Frequency YouTube channel[4]. Detractors used her name as a rallying tag during the 2012 backlash and later gaming controversies, typically pointing to the Kickstarter or specific tropes videos to argue against her analysis[3]. The clearest way to engage with her actual work is to watch the original series on feministfrequency.com or her YouTube channel rather than the meme-ified secondhand versions[4]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Anita Sarkeesian? She is a Canadian-American media critic and the creator of Feminist Frequency, a video series that analyzes gender tropes in pop culture and video games[1]. ### Where did Anita Sarkeesian come from? Her first Feminist Frequency video was posted to YouTube on May 20, 2009, discussing Fox's decision to renew Dollhouse while canceling Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles[7]. ### What does Anita Sarkeesian mean as an internet reference? Online her name is shorthand for feminist critique of video games and for the 2012 harassment case that made her the center of an early gaming culture war[2]. ### How do you use Anita Sarkeesian in memes or discourse? People typically link to her Tropes vs. Women in Video Games episodes on YouTube, either to back up a critique of a game or to argue against her analysis[4]. ### Is Anita Sarkeesian still popular? Feminist Frequency stayed active as a media project after the 2012 Kickstarter, running follow-up series and later launching a games-focused harassment support hotline[4]. ### How much money did the Tropes vs. Women in Video Games Kickstarter raise? It closed with 6,968 backers and over $150,000, dramatically past the original $6,000 goal[1]. ### Why was Anita Sarkeesian harassed? The attacks started after she asked for funding to make critical videos about women in video games, before any of the videos had actually been produced[1]. ### What was the first Tropes vs. Women in Video Games episode? Sarkeesian told backers the series would open with the Damsel in Distress video, aimed at a late fall or early winter 2012 release[6]. ### What is Feminist Frequency? It is the web series and later nonprofit media organization Sarkeesian founded to publish feminist criticism of pop culture, including her games work[4]. ### Did Wikipedia get involved in the harassment? Yes, her Wikipedia page was repeatedly vandalized with pornographic content and slurs until editors locked it down for protection[3]. ### What was Sarkeesian's first video actually about? It was not about games at all, it was a 2009 clip criticizing Fox for renewing Dollhouse and canceling Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles[7]. ## References 1. [https://www.wired.com/2012/06/anita-sarkeesian-feminist-games/]() 2. [https://www.themarysue.com/the-all-too-familiar-harassment-against-feminist-frequency-and-what-the-gaming-community-can-do-about-it/]() 3. [https://kotaku.com/awful-things-happen-when-you-try-to-make-a-video-about-453100881]() 4. [https://feministfrequency.com/]() 5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/anita-sarkeesian]() 6. [https://gameranx.com/updates/id/9168/article/what-s-going-on-with-feminist-frequency-s-tropes-vs-women-in-video-games/]() 7. [https://feministfrequency.com/video/dollhouse-renewed-why-not-terminator-sarah-connor/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/anita-sarkeesian Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library