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Latest revision as of 06:25, 26 March 2017
The Feminist Frequency Kickstarter backlash was a widespread harassment campaign directed at Anita Sarkeesian and some of her supporters and defenders. It followed a fundraising project launched by Sarkeesian in May 2012 to fund her Feminist Frequency video project.
Harassment
The goal of the Kickstarter to raise funds for Sarkeesian to produce videos outlining tropes about women in computer gaming.
Sarkeesian documented widespread harassment on her blog in response to the fundraiser. Sarkeesian was the subject of a torrent of hostile Youtube comments, and of manipulated photographs portraying her as a victim of physical violence.
Eventually an amateur video game was produced allowing players to simulate beating Sarkeesian. The game, called "Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian", was discussed in the Huffington Post. Since the username of the creator Ben Spurr was the same as his Twitter username (@bendilin), feminist Steph Guthrie confronted Spurr on Twitter and subsequently received death threats.
Documentation
Sarkeesian's harassment
Sarkeesian documented harassment on her blog:
- harassing Youtube comments
- vandalism of her Wikipedia page
- creation of pornographic and violent images, and a violent game, featuring her likeness
Other coverage:
- Huffington Post describes "Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian"
- On Sarkeesian's harassment and the need to discuss sexism in video games
Guthrie's actions against Spurr's game
Threats against Guthrie
Funds raised
The Kickstarter campaign was enormously successful, raising its initial goal of $6000 inside 24 hours, and eventually raising nearly $159000, allowing Sarkeesian to work on the project full-time.
Videos
See Feminist Frequency for details of Sarkeesian's project and videos.
External links
- Feminist Frequency homepage
- Kickstarter campaign page
- Sarkeesian's TEDx Women talk in late 2012 (Sarkeesian has provided a transcript)