This is an older post from my old Blogger site. If you can get to DeclanFinn.com, you might be able to find it… if you can get past the malware alerts.
What? There’s a reason I moved to Substack.
Anyway, I’m going to add a little bit of updated context to all this, but much of this will be dissecting the original BS of the creature known as Anita Sarkeesian.
In case you are unaware, the creature known as Al Sharpton made his career by extortion.
Sharpton made his bones by going up to businesses—hotels, restaurants, pick a business—and going “Nice place you have here. I see you don’t have enough brothas on staff. If you don’t want me picketing your place, you’re gonna pay me off.” There’s no coincidence that he was eventually arrested for tax evasion. It’s how they get every other organized crime thug.
What does this have to do with Anita Sarkeesian? We’ll get there.
Who is Anita Sarkeesian? As Vox Day put it, “Genocide doesn’t work. We know this because the Turks attempted a genocide of Armenians, and yet the Kardashians and Anita Sarkeesian are still with us.”
It’s mean, but Anita …
Beware, the following blog is going to have a lot of stupid. LOTS of stupid.
And plenty of video game blood.
Given current events in the world of video games, taking a whack at #GamerGate’s easiest target, Anita Sarkeesian — the smirking brunette you see in the video below.
Why “easiest”? Because this pseudo-academic makes so many statements that proves she doesn't play video games, it would embarrass anyone who had even an inkling of shame.
Luckily, Sarkeesian doesn’t have any, which is why I’m doing this blog.
When you look at the attached video, there’s a statement of Anita’s at the one-minute mark that has her stating out loud that she is “not a fan of video games,” while at the same time portraying herself as an “honest critic who is also a fan.”
No one buys it … except for one group of people, and you can tell. We’ll get there.
While I’m here, this is going to be a little bit of a writing blog. Mostly insofar as I’m pointing out standard, basic writing devices that have been used all over the place, and yet have been presented here as something only done to women.
And some of these claims? Some of these are not only stupid, but slanderous.
You do not *have* to watch the following video, but if you do, be warned, there will be CGI blood and violence.
So, if you've watched the video, you might have figured out part of my problem — that the BS presented as a phenomenon that happens to “only women” is nonsense not just because of video games, but in terms of story in general.
Either way, let’s have a conversation.
One of the things Sarkeesian uses in this video is the term “women in refrigerators,” coined by Gail Simone after the Green Lantern Kyle Raynor found his girlfriend stuffed in a refrigerator by the primary bad guy. The concept is “murder girlfriend, motivate hero.”
The problem is that this is a standard writing trope. It’s a cheap writing trope, given that it was a primary staple of 80s action movies.
Stop me if you've heard this one: The Hero’s long-term best friend / partner (who has wife and /or kids at home, and is only X-days away from retirement) is horribly and brutally murdered, leading our hero to go on a killing spree.
Hell, that’s the plot of the bond movie License to Kill, with Timothy Dalton — his CIA friend Felix had been FED TO A SHARK …
And Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves …
And Rambo III …
And the opening of The Searchers (a western with John Wayne and Jeffery Hunter)…
Hell, Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were blown up in A New Hope.
And oh, wait, how much of Back to the Future was driven (no pun intended) by shooting Doc Brown at the start of the movie?
Heck, the end of a bizarre cop movie with Charlie Sheen and Clint Eastwood (The Rookie) had all of act three go like this.
But no, only women suffer from this syndrome. Uh huh. Right.
And of course, women are never motivated for revenge in movies, right?
… Oh, wait.
Red Sonja.
Hannie Caulder.
The Quick and the Dead.
Hell, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, did Willow’s girlfriend Tara serve any purpose outside of being a victim of something in order for Willow to have character development? Hell, see the end to Buffy season 6. Or the second half of Season 5. Part of the “Yoko Ono effect” near the end of season 4. I can't say season 3, because Tara wasn’t on the show then.
Hell, weren’t there people whining about Agent Carter being defined almost solely by Captain America's death?
How about we look at the history of Wonder Woman? Mostly how Steve Trevor was the damsel in distress. (Seriously, watch the Linda Carter TV show.)
And wasn't the entire first act of Return of the Jedi rescuing a damsel named Han Solo?
Madam Sarkeesian ... have you ever seen a movie? Read a book? These things pop up all over the place. Even in Star Wars. Have you even seen Star Wars?
Part of the video addresses a trope of a “euthanized damsel,” wherein someone is begging to be put out of their misery?
Um … wasn’t that The Fly? Either version.
Or Starship Troopers (the movie).
This was even the end of Terminator II: Judgement Day, where Ahhh-nuld had to die in order to save the future.
Seriously, madam Sarkeesian, wake up and smell the 80s. Seriously, were you asleep in that decade? Or were you not born yet? If the latter, please go and take a look.
And let me think about the next trope. Have we ever seen a scenario where “a loved one or best friend was forced to fight a loved one turned evil”?
Aside from every zombie film? Vampire film? Alien film? A quarter of the episodes of Buffy (season 2 finale, Xander at least once a season, Giles twice, Willow twice, Anya at least once, Angel for half a season)?
Hi: did anyone see any Avenger film? Like Hawkeye vs. everyone? Age of Ultron perhaps? Hulk vs. Stark?
Hell, is there a single hero in any comic book universe who has NOT been turned into a tool for the bad guys at least once? They've made entire storylines out of that — Civil War for Marvel, Injustice for DC, Hush for DC.
Nerds call it Kirk vs. Spock (It was done in Star Trek at least three times).
Thirty Dates of Night ends with (SPOILER) the husband murdering himself in sunlight, sacrificing his humanity and his life to save the town and the wife he loved so much.
These are standard writing tropes. Basic writing devices.
Hell, you want to go to my own stuff, the Love at First Bite books. One way to send either of my leads is to threaten one in front of the other. Neither one is exactly a wilting flower. One is murder machine, the other is a vampire.
At the end of the day, this list of tropes in films and television I’ve given? These are examples I've come up with off the top of my head at one in the morning at the end of a long weekend.
One of my family’s laws is simply: Never attribute to malice what can be equally attributed to stupidity. Personally? I don't see how Sarkeesian could even feign ignorance about these tropes — either in video games in particular or writing in general.
How relevant is Sarkeesian today? Nowadays, she’s a consultant. For video games. To make sure they have enough feminist content.
“Nice place you have here. I see you don’t have enough women on staff or in your games. If you don’t want me calling you a sexist online, you’re gonna pay me off.”
The hustling never changes. No matter who’s doing it.
If you’re new here, please feel free to check out my books. If you’ve been around a while, please check out my kickstarter for my sequel series to Love at First Bite, Honeymoon from Hell.