'Tropes vs. Women in Video Games' is changing a bit
Shorter, more frequent episodes are the name of the game.
Culture critic Anita Sarkeesian has made some significant waves since launching her wildly successful Tropes vs. Women in Video Games Kickstarter over three years ago. But it wasn't without a heavy cost. In an update to the backers of her crowdfunding campaign, Sarkeesian reveals that she was dealing with a very serious case of burnout that was affecting both her physical and mental health last year after the scope of the project ballooned unexpectedly. Sarkeesian says she's been coping with depression her entire life, but the online harassment at her expense since launching Tropes, combined with the decline in her physical health, amplified it.
What this means for you is that future videos will change a bit. Along with the production team, she plans to wrap the series this year -- but the scope will narrow. "Instead of incredibly long videos that focus on one trope and deconstruct hundreds of examples, we are going to break it down into smaller bite-size pieces," she writes. "We're going to publish shorter, more focused episodes, by taking the theories and concepts from the remaining tropes and presenting them in 5-10 minute long videos around a very focused topic."
Speaking of which, season two's episodes will cover the following: lingerie is not armor, one size does not fit all, strategic butt coverings (embedded above), not your exotic fantasy, escape the fashion runway, fighting and f**king are different, women combatants and, lastly, gatekeeping cheerleaders.
Comparing that list against the first season, which spanned two years, it looks like she'll actually be producing more videos (not including the bonus episodes) in a shorter amount of time. But considering "Strategic Butt Coverings" moves along fairly briskly to reach its just over six minute-long conclusion versus, say, "Damsels in Distress," which spanned two episodes and almost 50 minutes, it seems like her workload may actually decrease. And good for her, because her voice is incredibly valuable -- it'd be a shame if we lost it.
[Image credit: Taylor Hill via Getty Images]
