Anita Sarkeesian is an award winning media critic and the creator of Feminist Frequency, an educational nonprofit that explores the representations of women in pop culture narratives. Her work focuses on deconstructing the stereotypes and tropes associated with women in popular culture as well as highlighting issues surrounding the targeted harassment of women in online and gaming spaces. Anita earned her bachelor's degree in Communication Studies at California State University Northridge and her Master's degree in Social and Political Thought at York University. Anita lectures and presents at universities, conferences and game development studios internationally. She's has been a guest panelist at the United Nations and been a guest speaker at various fan, media and technology conferences including XOXO, The Media Evolution Conference, Women in the World and GeekGirlCon. Anita has been interviewed and featured in publications such as Wired, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Colbert Report. Anita was named one of TIME 100 most influential people in the world, was the recipient of the 2014 Game Developers Choice Ambassador Award, given the 2013 honorary award from the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers and was nominated for Microsoft's 2014 Women in Games Ambassador Award.
Good friend and comic book writer Sean T. Collins referred to Anita as "pop cultures most valuable critic" after Anita canceled a speech at Utah State University.
Earned a bachelors degree in communication studies at California State University, Northridge and a masters degree in social and political thought at York University.
Listed as one of TIME Magazines 100 Most Influential People alongside Kim Jong-un and Kim Kardashian West in their controversial 2015 issue. Her description in the list was written by her good friend Wil Wheaton.
She was awarded Harvard Humanist of the Year 2014. Previous winners include the founders of OkCupid, a dating website.
I sort of joke about how it was the most liberating thing that ever,happen to me and also the most frustrating for everyone around me,because like when you start learning about systems everything is,sexist, everything is racist, everything is homophobic and you have to,point it all out to everyone all the time, so there is a good year of,my life. There is a good year in my life where I was just the most,obnoxious person to be around. And then you settle into it, you start,to understand like oh people they can living within the systems and it,was just sort of liberating movement for me and you learn how to pick,and choose your battles and that sort of thing.
The power of pop culture stories should not be underestimated, and there is an enormous potential for inspirational stories that can have a positive, transformative effect on our lives.
