Reviews WebVideo / Feminist Frequency

Technically, the gameplay vids aren't protected under fair use (in the US anyways) as Fair Use is a judgement call that can only be deployed by a judge in case the judge doesn't think the defendant was in the wrong.

Good to know actually. I don't think it would ever lead to anything but it's clear she did actually use someone else's footage....

Clear how?

Um. There have been a number of court cases that have worked to solidify what it means to claim "Fair use". It isn't always entirely clear, but there are certain guidelines. Saying it's a "a judgement call that can only be deployed by a judge" is patently false. I would assume Ms. Sarkeesian would claim whatever content she used as being Fair Use as "quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment", which is protected.

I would also like to ask the reviewer what exactly makes you say that Sarkeesian is sex-negative? I can't recall her ever saying anything that gave that impression.

I'd also like to add that the copyright status of Let's Plays in general is a matter of some debate. I find it kind of funny, actually, that people whose videos are (generally) sheltered by Fair Use are complaining about someone else citing Fair Use in using footage from their videos.

^ Are they complaining?

There's been this whole big hullabaloo about it recently, as evidenced by this article. Most are complaining about her violating a sort of Let's Player "Bro Code" that says she should have cited the videos, or saying it's evidence she didn't actually play the games, but there are plenty who seem to believe she has somehow violated copyright law, which is simply not true.

No, I mean how is it clear she's using someone else's footage?

The claim on the footage that I have seen came from this site http://victorsopinion.blogspot.be/2013/07/anitas-sources.html

For clarification, when I refer to fair use being used in court (according to US Supreme Court) Sony v Universal- SCOTUS decided fair use Harper and Row v Nation-fair use was a consideration the court looked at, not a defense Campbell v Acuff Rose- decided fair use is to be used for a court to analyze a work for how it transformed the copyrighted material. As far as I know, the only times fair use has held up in the supreme court is due to judges. That said, I now realize I have no idea if she is a resident of the US, so all of what I said could be moot.

I'd like if she clarified it herself myself, but from what I've watched she is often very critical of women who are scantily-clad and sees any kind of sexualized female as a negative representation. If she comes out otherwise, I'd be glad to edit that part out.

As for the second part - http://victorsopinion.blogspot.com/2013/07/anitas-sources.html

That said, the fact that she does use someone else's Let's Play footage is actually irrelevant to her point of sexism in gaming. But it is odd that she would not use her own footage or otherwise credit her sources, as this is supposed to be a researched and clearly cited academic presentation.

^ Hmm. That is something that it would be interesting to hear her address more directly, because I don't think that criticizing games for having scantily-clad, hyper-sexualized women is necessarily sex-negative if the main criticism is that the woman is being objectified for titillation purposes. It's certainly borderline, but I believe the idea of sex-positive feminism is more about not restricting sexual expression, whereas the sort of things going on in a lot of video games could more accurately described as sexual exploitation.

Right - and I don't disagree. But at what point is a woman objectified and what point is she empowered? I really like the Warriors Orochi series and will be the first to say that the women in it have no shortage of cleavage and male gaze shots, but the women are also all playable and given full autonomy and agency.

That's something I actually want to really see addressed in the future because it would give a lot more clarity into what Anita's personal positions are.

To bring it back to the above though, I do think the series could do with far more context and less broad-strokes tropes, as she still has a great deal listed to cover. The discussion the series is prompting in some circles of the gaming community is heartening and sans the trolls, fairly nuanced; the series itself... not so much.

Well, I think that for those of us who are interested in this sort of stuff, it can come across as "seen that a thousand times before!", but I do think there is a lot of use for this style of more "Gender Studies 101" sort of thing, because you will never fail to be surprised at how many people don't understand this stuff even on that basic level.

There's an interesting Watsonian Versus Doylist sort of argument to be had here, because ultimately those characters are the creations of a bunch of (likely male) game designers, so it's not like they have a choice in what they wear or anything. But at the same time, I don't think we necessarily should say such a thing is entire off limits, because maybe that's simply the personality of the character?

Well, Anita is a part of the Stop-Porn-Culture group, has expressed further hate towards PETA all because they were launching a free porn site, and has a negative opinion on Slut-Walks, so yeah, I think she does endorse a very Sex-Negative attitude, which is why I'm dreading her next upcoming video.

As for the Watsonian Vs Doylist-type of argument, while at first it seems fair, I think this argument is very problematic, because if you can blame the creator for how a character in a work of fiction dresses, then by extension you can blame creator for everything in a work of fiction; the setting and how it works, the characters and how they think, feel, act, and dress, and a story's morals and messages. If there's something in it that you don't like, even if the characters like it themselves, you can blame the creator for making it that way. It also gives the implication that the complainers are the ones who get to decide how a story should be written to hold any sort of "merit" to their standards, rather than letting the creator write a story the way the writer wants to write it.

Now on the subject of fictional women in revealing outfits, I think it ultimately comes down to who you're asking. There are women to simply don't like sexy outfits, and those who do like it or at least don't mind, and I believe that if it's possible for a woman in real-life who wants to be liked for both her body and personality at the same time(and it certainly is possible), then it should also be allowed in fiction. However, even the women who may like or not mind the sexy outfits do have a problem with how it's often executed; It usually comes in the form of a woman in sexy clothes but lacking a well-written personality/character arc to balance it out; it ends up making her into a flat character where her only virtue and worth seems to be her sex-appeal. Another problem would be the Male Gaze, where even if the woman in question has a well-written personality, the scenes and camera views tend to focus a lot on her curves that it seems to undermine her personality and make it look like her curves are more important. Again, I believe that it's perfectly possible for a woman to be liked for both her body and personality, but at the same time, the media often emphasizes too much on former at the expense of the latter. Third, after reading some articles before by women who have mixed views on sexy clothing in games, another problem would be the severe lack of variety and creativity. Again, while there are women to like or don't mind sexy outfits, there are still others who don't like them at all, and the problem is having sexuality being forced onto them instead of having a vast variety of options of what they want to look or dress like. With variety, female gamers are welcomed into designing their characters however they want, and choosing when they feel like being sexual in the games they play. And the last problem I believe is that this type of portrayal of sexuality, while not inherently bad in and of itself, is in vast overabundance in games and other forms of media, being done repeatedly, and coupled with the above problems I've listed, it's not too hard to see why some people would get irritated at this. The thing is that everyone is gonna express themselves differently, and that includes expressions of sexuality. Sexually expressing yourself by wanting to show off your body with revealing clothing a valid form of sexuality to have, the problem is that this type of sexual expression has been used so much throughout the history of gaming and is being continued to be used at the expense of the many other different forms of sexuality. Now, it's obvious to all of us that characters fighting or going on adventures in not only in sexy clothing, but also in extremely fancy clothing or overly detailed clothing requires some Suspension of Disbelief, there are those who want to see other forms of sexuality as well, and sometimes forms of sexuality that are more grounded in reality. So again, the problem is how very limited the expression of sexuality in fiction is when we only have one type in overabundance, and not enough of other types of sexuality.

That's my thoughts on the subject. Overall, I still like seeing women fight and kick ass in sexy clothing, and I believe they have every right to exist in games as almost everything else. However, I do think that the concept not only needs improvement by giving such characters more well-written personalities and avoidance of Male Gaze, and what we also need is more variety of options in character creations and customizations, and more variety of other forms of sexuality. I think this is something that game creators should take into consideration when making future games.

Well, Anita is a part of the Stop-Porn-Culture group, has expressed further hate towards PETA all because they were launching a free porn site, and has a negative opinion on Slut-Walks, so yeah, I think she does endorse a very Sex-Negative attitude, which is why I'm dreading her next upcoming video.

As for the Watsonian Vs Doylist-type of argument, while at first it seems fair, I think this argument is very problematic, because if you can blame the creator for how a character in a work of fiction dresses, then by extension you can blame creator for everything in a work of fiction; the setting and how it works, the characters and how they think, feel, act, and dress, and a story's morals and messages. If there's something in it that you don't like, even if the characters like it themselves, you can blame the creator for making it that way. It also gives the implication that the complainers are the ones who get to decide how a story should be written to hold any sort of "merit" to their standards, rather than letting the creator write a story the way the writer wants to write it.

Now on the subject of fictional women in revealing outfits, I think it ultimately comes down to who you're asking. There are women to simply don't like sexy outfits, and those who do like it or at least don't mind, and I believe that if it's possible for a woman in real-life who wants to be liked for both her body and personality at the same time(and it certainly is possible), then it should also be allowed in fiction. However, even the women who may like or not mind the sexy outfits do have a problem with how it's often executed; It usually comes in the form of a woman in sexy clothes but lacking a well-written personality/character arc to balance it out; it ends up making her into a flat character where her only virtue and worth seems to be her sex-appeal. Another problem would be the Male Gaze, where even if the woman in question has a well-written personality, the scenes and camera views tend to focus a lot on her curves that it seems to undermine her personality and make it look like her curves are more important. Again, I believe that it's perfectly possible for a woman to be liked for both her body and personality, but at the same time, the media often emphasizes too much on former at the expense of the latter. Third, after reading some articles before by women who have mixed views on sexy clothing in games, another problem would be the severe lack of variety and creativity. Again, while there are women to like or don't mind sexy outfits, there are still others who don't like them at all, and the problem is having sexuality being forced onto them instead of having a vast variety of options of what they want to look or dress like. With variety, female gamers are welcomed into designing their characters however they want, and choosing when they feel like being sexual in the games they play. And the last problem I believe is that this type of portrayal of sexuality, while not inherently bad in and of itself, is in vast overabundance in games and other forms of media, being done repeatedly, and coupled with the above problems I've listed, it's not too hard to see why some people would get irritated at this. The thing is that everyone is gonna express themselves differently, and that includes expressions of sexuality. Sexually expressing yourself by wanting to show off your body with revealing clothing a valid form of sexuality to have, the problem is that this type of sexual expression has been used so much throughout the history of gaming and is being continued to be used at the expense of the many other different forms of sexuality. Now, it's obvious to all of us that characters fighting or going on adventures in not only in sexy clothing, but also in extremely fancy clothing or overly detailed clothing requires some Suspension of Disbelief, there are those who want to see other forms of sexuality as well, and sometimes forms of sexuality that are more grounded in reality. So again, the problem is how very limited the expression of sexuality in fiction is when we only have one type in overabundance, and not enough of other types of sexuality.

That's my thoughts on the subject. Overall, I still like seeing women fight and kick ass in sexy clothing, and I believe they have every right to exist in games as almost everything else. However, I do think that the concept not only needs improvement by giving such characters more well-written personalities and avoidance of Male Gaze, and what we also need is more variety of options in character creations and customizations, and more variety of other forms of sexuality. I think this is something that game creators should take into consideration when making future games.

Sorry about the double-post. Something went wrong while I was trying to make my comment.

I don't think its illegal but it is lazy for her to take the work of others without their permission when its work she could do herself (its well within her ability to make her own recordings of her playing the game. She clearly has the ability to record and edit. She's made enough money off the Kickstarter that she can take time off and buy games and play them. Might even give her a basic understanding of the games she's criticizing but I don't hold out much hope for that.)