Recently I got into a small debate regarding Anita Sarkeesian, and her campaign to change the gaming industry to end the scantily clad female character "troupe".

Her kickstarter page received $158k in funding. Her goal was $6k. So, keep in mind her budget had an immediate excess of $152k.

Clearly people agree with her. And that is totally OK. Being critical of things you dislike, and getting massive support shows that there is indeed a segment of the gaming market who doesn't like the lack of strong female characters who aren't displaying their breasts. I get it.

But if someone doesn't like another entertainment form, they simply don't take part in it. Nobody says to Michael Bay, "I don't like movies with explosions and action, could you not make those kinds of movies anymore? Maybe do a drama with a lot of emotion and dialogue. Maybe a good love story". No. Because that's not how art works. You can criticize it, and plenty do. But if your goal with that criticism is to change the movie industry to eliminate certain story lines, or character types, you'd be laughed at.

But that is precisely what Anita is doing. I looked at the Wikipedia page discussing her kickstarter projects. As well as looked at her kickstarter. Admittedly I have not viewed her videos, and without a mirror I will not do so.

But a quick rundown on the stats: she set a goal of 6K to produce videos on 12 sub-topics designed to illustrate her point. Two years ago her kickstarter was not only funded, but received $152K MORE than her goal. So, you'd think in two years we would have those 12 video blog style YouTube videos, right? Wrong. She has produced 6 videos, following her sub-topics as laid out on her kickstarter. Though, she has only covered 3 topics. I am guessing she isn't finished yet, as they have all been released in a slow trickle. We know for a fact that within the MRA community there are vloggers who produce a video a month, at least. I feel one year, a video a month, is what she should have delivered, at minimum. Failing to do so, in my eyes, hurts credibility, and validity of the mouthpiece for this movement... Or accurately reflects the demographic supporting her.

Her message aside, why is she so well regarded? Two years and $152K beyond what she set as a goal, and she hasn't completed 12 video blog topics? Why such a delay?

With 152k, and her ability to promote a solid kickstarter (and now with even more notoriety) couldn't she do more than complain?

Here is an idea for them: use a portion of the excess funds from the original kickstarter to start a project in which young women coders could be hired, and paid a small fee to produce game patches which allow for better female characters laid into current popular games, ones that fit their ideal. With her notoriety, a second kickstarter to pile on to the original funds could expand the project even further. They could setup a website to allow voting on all aspects to produce what the supporters of the movement want, as far as which game, and the characters. This would promote female coders, and open a bridge to showing game producers that this is, in fact, what people want. It would elevate women as gamers and as coders, etc. All while giving people what they are asking for, and communicating the same message to the industry.

But she didn't do any of that. She instead has produced 6 videos covering 25% of her outlined topics, over two years. That is a video every 60 days on average, and she had her pockets stuffed with $158,000.00 from people who wanted to see her affect some serious change in the gaming industry, again, not by building anything up, creating what they want to see as an example, but instead by demanding that the industry change what it produces. I haven't seem anything about any victories of this movement, just lots of complaining.

She has the notoriety and funding to do something productive and positive, instead of something negative and critical. She has the funding to easily accomplish the goals she laid out to get the funding, and she has not accomplished that in two years. Her supporters seem to just eat up her non-sense, and ignore that she could be doing so much more for her cause. Or at least live up to the promises she made the people who gave her 158,000 dollars.