Anita Sarkeesian is a media critic, blogger, and feminist activist famous for her video blog “Feminist Frequency”. Sarkeesian is also famous for starting a kickstarter to help fund her video blog “Feminist Frequency”. The feminist activist also made her way to fame off the video “radical feminist” shaming the media for its portrayal of feminist as radical, man hating, belligerent women. She is an important rhetor because she is a rhetor who fits the description of two other rhetorical concepts: Ethos and Social Power.
Ethos is defined as “that which is ‘in the character of the speaker'” also “the character of a rhetor performed in the rhetorical cat and known by the audience because of prior interactions.” (152) Anita Sarkeesian fits this description because she is known for her discussions and talks on feminism and game design. Also she uses ethos as a way of convincing the audience that her arguments are sound because she is a credible source of information. Another example of her ethos can be found that she has won a few awards because of her topics about women in the media. In the book Rhetoric and Civic Life “ethos is developed both prior to and within a rhetorical act.” (152) Meaning that Anita’s years of focusing on her topics and her works with media and social media before becoming famous for her videos also is a part of her ethos which contributes to her “Social Power” .
Social Power “is the influence that people possess within a particular structure, and that enables them to induce others to act.” (163) In Anita Sarkeesian’s case, she was able to use her social power to help fund a Kickstarter to fund her blog “Feminist Frequency” and have a platform to talk about her harassment and the harassment of other women in video games. In fact her social power has recently increased tremendously after the videos The Bechdel Test for Women in Movies and Ms. Male Character videos. Both videos are great example of Anita’s social power, because these two videos helped become her platform for discussing media and feminism topics as well as discuss the plans for her Kickstarter.
So how does this relate to the rhetoric of feminism and game design? Anita Sarkeesian demonstrates two things that every rhetor needs to create change: social power and ethos. Without ethos, anyone arguing for a specific side or viewpoint (specifically feminism and game design) wouldn’t have a platform to stand on. As the common saying goes “a man is only as good as his word”. In relation to rhetoric, it means that you word is a part of your reputation. And without that good reputation, it is easy to dismiss a rhetor’s argument. Also it goes along with Social Power.
In relation to feminism and game design, social power is used as a way to spearhead into a community as a voice for reformation. Social power is needed because without it the rhetor is a small voice within a big pool of people. It’s hard to hear a sound argument from someone without social power, because there is someone else with a bigger voice and bigger pull within a community. In the case of rhetoric of feminism and game design, a rhetor speaking on gender bias and gender roles in gaming would need some type of pull in the community to be heard. But ethos and social power only applies to rhetors making an argument and speaking. Also agency and Identification only apply to understanding the target audience and controlling the message being sent to the audience. To make a sound argument, the rhetor needs two other rhetorical concepts: Deliberative discourse and exigence.
(This post is an objective look at Anita Sharkeesian unrelated to recent incidents and gamergate. If you want to address that in relation to social power and ethos, let me know in the comments.)