A non-profit dedicated to fighting sexism in the video gaming community in the wake of the “GamerGate” incident — and its famous founder — suddenly seem to be running out of cash.
Anita Sarkeesian is a prime figure in the social justice warrior crusade against what she and other declared feminists believe is a culture of rampant sexism within video gaming, from the companies that design, develop, and manufacture popular video games, to the thousands upon thousands of people who take part in online gaming and e-sports.
Her group, Feminist Frequency, has been instrumental in bringing the sexism gripe mainstream and forcing video game companies to “acknowledge” and “confront” sexism in game design, hire feminist game consultants, and build games for women — even if most women gamers aren’t bothered by sexy video game avatars and are perfectly happy with the range of games currently available (or, at least, are concerned with the same things male gamers are).
Sarkeesian’s fame stems from her response to “GamerGate” — a controversy over sexist online bullying that expanded into an all-out social justice war on male gamers, and represented some of the far left’s first attempts at declaring “anti-feminist” speech as “hate speech,” doxxing, and deplatforming.
It looked, for quite a while, as if careful avoidance of sexism — and the complete embrace of radical feminism and its representatives — was the direction video gaming was going. Feminist Frequency had a lot of early successes and Sarkeesian, who produced a series of popular YouTube videos on the subject of sexism in gaming, became a household name for gaming companies looking to diversify their offerings and make their games more palatable to radical feminist female gamers.
But, Hot Air reports, in recent months that gravy train seems to have dried up. Fewer gamers seem concerned with scantily clad female avatars and “feminist” games haven’t commanded the market-share video game companies were promised, and, reportedly, Feminist Frequency is feeling the pinch.
“According to those reports (see video below) Sarkeesian’s group, which had two employees plus a producer, has raised and spent about $1.6 million over the past five years,” Hot Air reports. “But it seems that is coming to an end. A lengthy profile of Sarkeesian published by Polygon this week reports that earlier this year she laid off her two employees and stopped taking a salary.”
Feminist Frequence is now “mainly focused,” Polygon says, on a seldom-downloaded podcast, instead of Sarkeesian’s once-wildly popular YouTube videos explaining how women are affected by sexism in the gaming industry. The group no longer has employees, and it seems to operate separately from Sarkeesian’s consulting gig, which also seems to be struggling.
Hot Air’s John Sexton points out that Sarkeesian now responds regularly to major video game companies, like Electronic Arts, on social media, asking, if somewhat covertly, why they haven’t hired her to help guide them, and why they refused to fund Feminist Frequency.
Sexton found examples dating back to last year, when EA introduced a female character in their FIFA World Cup game, and a more recent example of Sarkeesian complaining about the forthcoming Cyberpunk 2077, which is now the talk of the gaming community after the company behind it cast Keanu Reeves as a lead character.
Hey @CDPROJEKTRED, I’m always available for consulting cause it sure sounds like you might need it before the whole of the internet drags you for what sounds like some potentially sexist representations… which we all know you’ve struggled with in the past https://t.co/MZmcUDhLR0
— Anita Sarkeesian (@anitasarkeesian) June 16, 2019
It does not appear that CD Projekt Red took her up on her offer, and despite SJW complaints, Cyberpunk 2077 remains one of the most highly anticipated games of the year (it launches, officially, in April of 2020).
That’s quite the tough break.