Anita Sarkeesian is of the dwindling ilk of feminists who feel that they’re making the world a better place for women by insisting that, no, no, no! our society continues to be abusive and oppressive for women. Anecdotes to that effect are in themselves no more indicative of reality than are reports of car accidents indicative of apocalyptic mayhem, gore, and twisted metal on our commutes to and from work. That Sarkeesian’s obsession with male oppression is targeting the bow in Ms. PacMan’s hair is a bug in her fiction, not a feature.
Along with insisting that the story for women in this society is one of attack and oppression (rather than of people — men and women, getting along, and pretty much living their lives just fine), Sarkeesian is balking at what we all intuitively know to be true: simplified, stereotypical, and yes, often caricaturish depictions of women have correlates with actual gender differences.
Or is it equally common for men and women to wear stylistic and beautifying accoutrements such as, oh let’s see… large hoop earrings?
Sarkeesian wants to push as hard as her predecessors did, and that’s a commendable impulse, I guess. But to push against the notion that men and women are not the same is to push against one of the unanticipated successes of feminism: that women are free to be women. In an irony that Sarkeesian and my fellow progressives should identify as an irony, Sarkeesian sees gender difference — both its existence and its depiction, as itself an oppression.
For further reading on horrifyingly non-progressive observations such as these, see Steven Pinker’s The Blank Slate — A Modern Denial of Human Nature.
Sarkeesian’s pushing against the notion and depiction of gender difference is an indication of how relatively little pushing there is for her to do. That is a triumph of the feminism of her predecessors (and certainly not hers).
Anita, the greater part of your feminist struggle today is this, and to take it on is the true tribute to your feminist predecessors: take a deep breath, and get on with the joy and work of living the life of equity and freedom that is, in fact, available to you in this society.