Anita Sarkeesian released a YouTube video titled "Damsel in Distress: Part 1 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games" (which I would recommend watching, if only for the amount of buzz surrounding it.) This video sparked enormous controversy in the gaming world as it called to question the misogynistic and violent nature of many video games. The main point in the video is that a lot of video games undermine the power of women, for example putting them in the role of damsel in distress, in order to create objects for the "strong" male character to save and claim upon victory. Sarkeesian goes on to say that these misogynistic representations of women have real world consequences as men now feel superior to women who also feel a new sense of inferiority.
Personally, I think that the misogynistic nature of games does not create a misogynistic society, perhaps reinforces and certainly reflects that society, but rather misogynistic games are merely a product of a misogynistic society. In all honesty, any dislike for women that is produced from video games is created ten fold by women who complain about misogynistic aspects of those games. In regards to video games as a whole, some may claim that violent video games lead to violent tendencies, while supporters say that they inspire creative qualities in kids, but I find that both of these arguments deal with insignificant subtleties and that for those who really wanted to effectively attack video games, you could criticize their addictiveness and why that's bad. But here's my counter: fuck off, I need something to make this shitty existence more enjoyable.
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