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Funded! This project successfully raised its funding goal on June 16, 2012.

FUNDED in the first 24 hours! New Stretch Goals

Update #1 · May 18, 2012 · 9 comments

Wow! Funded in the first 24 hours.  I'm honored and excited by all the positive feedback and support.  Thank you all so much! Wanna help expand the scope of this project? See expanded funding goals and new trope videos below!

When I was initially planning this project I came up with 10 tropes focusing on female characters in video games but I wasn't sure what the level of interest would be in this project so I narrowed it down to the 5 most common and easily recognizable tropes.  I figured I would do another Kickstarter later if this was successful to continue the series.

Since the funding has happened faster then I could have imagined and there seems to be an enormous amount of interest, here's what I'm going to do, for every $1,500 dollars I raise above my goal I'll do another one of the trope videos on my extended list.  Some of these additional tropes are a bit more complicated and will require some more time and finesse to explain clearly.  Check out the new tropes and goals below:

Stretch Goals

  • $7,500 - Voodoo Priestess/Tribal Sorceress (Tropes Video #6)
  • $9,000 - Women as Reward (Tropes Video #7)
  • $10.500 - Mrs. Male Character (Tropes Video #8)
  • $12,000 - "Ugly" = Evil (Tropes Video #9)
  • $13,500 - Man with Boobs (Tropes Video #10)
  • $15,000 - Special Video To Be Announced If Goal Magically Reached!

Comments

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      Creator Daniel Powell on June 12, 2012

      From TV tropes:
      "The "Men With Boobs" effect occurs when well-intentioned writers try too hard to make a female character with non-intrusive attributes with regard to her gender. This can be a side-effect of a writer trying to develop characters who pass the Bechdel Test as well as an attempt to invoke the idea that Real Women Never Wear Dresses, tropes that are not sure-fire indications of a multi-faceted and strong female character. De-feminizing (or even neutering) a character can certainly have its advantages, but when taken too far, the character can end up being implausible to readers. "

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      Creator Mkzamel on June 12, 2012

      Mrs. Male Character? I think I know what are you talking about here. (Thinking of Final Fantasy)

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      Creator Ross Wilson on June 10, 2012

      Bri: I suspect "Man with Boobs" is a shorthand description of the "strong female" (admittedly abundant in games) that is often cited as evidence that all is well for women in games. The problem is that these particularly strong females tend to be little more than the default macho male stereotypes adorned with superficially female window dressing (long hair, makeup, huge breasts); this propagates sexism for reasons I hope are obvious.

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      Creator Bri Lance on June 8, 2012

      I'll admit that, as a female-bodied genderqueer person, I'm a little nervous about where the "Man With Boobs" one could go.

      I'm really interested to see what you have to say about it, but would like to ask that you please keep in mind the wide diversity of gender expression and identity, when you're doing your analysis. Thanks!

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      Creator Laura Gamse on May 21, 2012

      20k here we come...

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      Creator Atarun on May 20, 2012

      What will you do if you get past $15k (which I hope you will and it doesn't seem all that unlikely for now)?

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      Creator Tori Hedden on May 18, 2012

      Oh my gosh, I can't wait for these videos. It's so bad- the project only just got funded and I'm already impatient to see them. Thanks, Anita!

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      Creator Alice Teague on May 18, 2012

      I'm hoping we'll reach 15,000+ so we can see all of the above!
      I'm glad that you are going to show examples of games that got it right, too, so that's not just about showing what's wrong, but also how to fix it/avoid these mistakes.

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      Creator Shira Macklin on May 18, 2012

      Very exciting. And they try to tell us that feminism is dead! Personally, I love the young energy of this new wave. Although "there are miles to go before we sleep", I am again filled with hope for a better future for my seven grandchildren.

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