Tropes vs Women

[Yeppoh]

To answer your question, I think people project their own ideas about what she is saying based on knowing beforehand that she's a feminist and she's critiquing their one true love (gaming and gaming culture). It was very obvious to me this was the case when watching LimpingFish's video. There were a lot of points in which Thunderf00t's arguments boiled down to "some feminists say this, so this is what Sarkeesian thinks and says. She is so stupid".

Well. That surely explains it about the dectrators' side. Though I also saw the other type of misinterpretation where there are people who interpreted it has a true sign that video games using the Damsel in Distress trope are the cause why women are downgraded, the cause of domestic violence or all the ugly things that are done to women.
Or I also saw that some people are considering that any game using that trope is automatically lazy and/or bad.
And this despite the fact that Miss Sarkeesian never said such things. But I guess the psychology behind this kind of misinterpretation is the same.

While these types of games are a refreshing departure from the standard formula, and something I'd generally like to see more of, the focus is still squarely on the male characters and so at their core these games are really deconstructing the player's assumptions about the traditional hero archetype. A true subversion of the trope would need to star the damsel as the main playable character. It would have to be her story. Sadly, there are very few games that really explore this idea.

I will be a bit pedantic about some details on that part. It won't dismiss her point, but there are some little mistakes that are mostly semantic. The first part of that quote isn't really a deconstruction ('Shadow of the Colossus' is more of a deconstruction than the situation with Elaine); it is mostly accepted as a true subversion. What she calls a "true subversion" is actually an inversion and, depending on how it's written, it can jump into a different trope that isn't contained by the Damsel In Distress one. More details on this page about how to play with that trope.
But again, the point stands.

[LimpingFish]

Do you agree with this video, LimpingFish? Or are you playing devil's advocate?

Sorry, I over-looked your post earlier.

As to your question, no I don't, and yes I was, in so much as I was offering an alternative point of view. I don't subscribe to either argument, as they stand. I do however think that Sarkessian may have an agenda, perhaps even a self-serving one, which may result in her over-egging the sexism pudding, and lead to her painting a slighty misleading portrait of the game industry and of game players.

And that's...just not cricket.

[dactylopus]

Great post, Nefasto, and thanks for the link to the TV Tropes page.

It seems that there are many ways in which this trope can actually work, and some in which I feel its use is completely justified, but I think you'll find that Sarkeesian would only like to see the inverted trope.  This makes sense, since her real goal is to see more strong female characters in the main protagonist role of video games.

[waheela]

I do however think that Sarkessian may have an agenda, perhaps even a self-serving one, which may result in her over-egging the sexism pudding, and lead to her painting a slighty misleading portrait of the game industry and of game players.

And that's...just not cricket.

Interesting. Could you explain in more detail? I'm not sure I follow you completely.

[dactylopus]

I believe that what he's getting at is this:

Anita's agenda is to see more games with positive female protagonists, and possibly also to see less games that victimize women.  To pursue this agenda, she has made this series of videos to illustrate how women are negatively portrayed in video games.  His argument is that she has perhaps stretched these claims as far as she can in the pursuit of these goals, and that this has somewhat misrepresented the severity of the situation.

That's not to say that she doesn't have points, but that she's taking these points to the extreme in hopes of achieving her goals.

I'm not sure I would completely disagree, because while I support most of her arguments, I do think that sometimes she seems to be finding problems where the issue may be somewhat negligible.  She also seems dismissive of (or unwilling to discuss) any games that treat the trope fairly without providing a strong female player character, which is her agenda.