Anita Sarkeesian, whose video blog “Feminist Frequency” and YouTube series “Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games” have explored the often dubious roles of female characters in video games, appeared on “The Colbert Report” to discuss the, uh, effing terrifying threats women gamers face for having dissenting opinions, wanting change, and pretty much existing in general. Sarkeesian herself had to cancel a planned lecture at Utah State University after that venue received anonymous terrorist threats.
This violent misogyny is at the center of what's being termed GamerGate, and Stephen Colbert invited Sarkeesian to his show to discuss the roles of women both as players of video games and as playable characters in video games.
At first Colbert's contrarian, nyah-nyah approach on this topic wasn't working for me, but eventually he earned some good laughs as Sarkeesian dutifully offered up great insight. Love when he says, “Do you hear all that applause for a male-dominated space?”