Lunch and Learn: Sorry, but the Princess is in Another Castle – Controversy, Women and Video Games

Professor Kristi Sholten will be presenting a Lunch and Learn on Thursday, November 10th entitled “Sorry, but the Princess is in Another Castle: Controversy, Women and Video Games.” During her presentation, Professor Sholten will define the movement of ‘Gamergate’ and why it has surfaced in the gaming community. Below is a description of their Lunch and Learn.

“On May 17, 2012, Feminist Frequency Blogger, began a Kickstarter campaign to create a vlog examining gender tropes in video games. It became a campaign of note when it reached its funding goal within 24 hours. Journalists from Slate & The New York Times reported that shortly after this launch Sarkeesian was emailed pictures of herself being raped by popular video game characters, and a general campaign of hate mail – to her Twitter, Google, YouTube and Facebook accounts began. Some respondents even started awarding points to other respondents for particularly creative and heinous forum abuse. And this was before she even made the videos. One Anita-hater created an Internet game called BEAT UP ANITA SARKEESIAN…you can probably guess at its content. In August of 2014, several female gaming journalists and game developers were targeted with a hate campaign using the Twitter hashtag #Gamergate, as well as on websites such as Reddit, 4chan, and 8chan. Harassment campaigns were coordinated through these forums and included doxing threats of rape, and death threats. Many of those organizing under the Gamergate hashtag argue that they are campaigning against political correctness and poor journalistic ethics in the video game industry. Many commentators dismissed Gamergate’s purported concerns and condemned its unethical behavior. This presentation explores Gamergate and asks: What is it about Anita and other women in the industry that threatened these self-identified gamers so much?”

To learn more about gender’s role in video games, please join us for the Lunch and Learn on Thursday, November 10th from 11:00am till 11:50am in Pickell’s Conference Room. As usual, pizza from Jets pizza will be provided for those who sign-up beforehand to attend. Please make sure to sign-up before noon on Wednesday, November 9th by emailing .

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