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Acknowledging this, Anita Sarkeesian, media critic and the creator of Feminist Frequency, recently launched a new project dubbed Tropes vs. Women in Video Games.

The video series examines the plot devices and patterns often associated with women in video games from a big-picture perspective. Her first video focuses on the damsel in the distress trope and the importance of its cultural context.

“We have to remember that these games don’t exist in a vacuum—they’re an increasingly important and influential part of our larger social and cultural ecosystem,” Sarkeesian says.

“The reality is this trope is being used in a real world context where backwards sexist attitudes are already rampant. It’s a sad fact that a large percentage of the world’s population still clings to the deeply sexist belief that women, as a group, need to be sheltered, protected and taken care of by men.”

Upon its release last Thursday, the video received quite a bit of negative attention. Criticisms ranged from her choosing not to enable comments on YouTube to truly helpful advice like: “Play the new Tomb Raider and f*** off, Anita. Also, you are wearing pink and have ridiculous earrings. Big no no for an ultraliberal feminazi like yourself.”

The backlash is less surprising if you remember Tropes vs. Women In Video Games as the Kickstarter campaign that incensed some gamers so much that they targeted Sarkeesian with extreme online harassment, much of which is chronicled by Helen Lewis at The New Statesman. (Warning: It’s pretty vile.) To cite a few examples: there were malicious edits on her Wikipedia page, violent and sexist comments made about her on YouTube (and just about everywhere else online), rape and death threats sent her way, and someone even made a game on Newgrounds in which you could punch her in the face until she was bruised and bloody.