Anita Sarkeesian Shuts Down Feminist Frequency

Video Games

Remember Anita Sarkeesian, the activist who became famous for railing against video games and the guys who play them for being misogynistic and then feigned surprise when these people decided they wanted her out of their hobby? She’s bowing out of the debate she essentially created. In a recent blog post, Sarkeesian announced that Feminist Frequency, her non-profit activist organization, will be shutting down. She says this is because she is “exhausted” and wants to improve her “mental health and wellbeing,” but Bounding Into Comics suggests there may be more to it than Sarkeesian wanting a break. They’ve looked at the numbers Sarkeesian’s YouTube videos have drawn lately, and they indicate that people are losing interest in Feminist Frequency.

“Despite having roughly 213,000 subscribers, the last twelve months have seen the channel average around 1,000 views per upload, with recent episodes of Feminist Frequency Radio regularly dipping into the 500s.”

“In this same period, only five of Feminist Frequency‘s 36 subsequent videos have managed to break this de facto view ceiling – and not by much.”

“Overall, these views represent an engagement rate of only 1.4% from the organization’s audience.”

That does paint a bad picture of the state of Feminist Frequency. Even the overall subscriber number isn’t what you’d expect for an organization as ever-present as it once was in the media; Geeks + Gamers has significantly more subscribers to its main YouTube channel. But perhaps this is a recent development; you never hear about Sarkeesian anymore unless Razörfist uses her as a punchline. (Razörfist also has many more subscribers than Feminist Frequency.) It’s not surprising that people tuned out and that even those who are still around don’t pay attention. Sarkeesian thanks her supporters in her blog post, which is the right thing to do, but there’s no mention of how many she actually has. She also says the podcast Feminist Frequency Radio will continue to air, with its co-host Kat Spada running it, so I guess it’ll maintain some limited presence for those interested. But effectively, it’s a dead brand, if it was still alive at all.

If you still don’t remember who Anita Sarkeesian is, she’s the person who infamously said this:

I think we need that “And nothing of value was lost” gif from The Critic.