After 15 years, Anita Sarkeesian has introduced that her media criticism and nonprofit business useful resource middle Feminist Frequency is shutting down.
The group’s largest venture, the Video games and On-line Harassment Hotline, will formally shutter on the finish of September, whereas the rest of Feminist Frequency is deliberate to conclude its work by the top of 2023.
In a press launch saying the information, Sarkeesian defined why she was shuttering the initiative:
“I began this venture to fill a necessity that was lacking within the media criticism and video video games house,” Sarkeesian stated. “Over the previous decade and a half, together with a useful staff of workers members and business companions, we’ve completed a lot to be pleased with. Feminist Frequency grew into one thing I by no means might have anticipated when it started all these years in the past. At this level, I believe it’s essential to share that exhaustion and burnout—not unusual within the nonprofit world—have taken their toll. The work we’ve finished to impact change within the business made a distinction, and all of us at Feminist Frequency and the Video games and On-line Harassment Hotline are hopeful to see enhancements proceed to be made. However the time has come to shut this chapter and relaxation earlier than beginning the following part of my skilled life.”
Whereas Feminist Frequency could also be winding down, the director of the Video games and On-line Harassment Hotline Jae Lin will preserve ReSpec, an accountability assist house spun off of the Hotline. The Hotline web site will stay on-line to offer a hub of sources to the business as nicely. Feminist Frequency co-host Kat Spada will proceed to provide free episodes of the Feminist Frequency podcast, and previous episodes will stay on-line.
Sarkeesian launched Feminist Frequency in 2009 as a devoted house for feminist media criticism, and expanded it through the years to incorporate notable efforts such because the video collection Tropes vs. Girls and one other animated collection known as Unusual Girls: Daring to Defy Historical past. The Video games and On-line Harassment Hotline launched in 2020 as a useful resource for people in gaming and on-line areas searching for assist from harassment and bullying. Per the press launch, it has since fielded 650 inquiries, and “dozens of firms” have sought assist to enhance their inside work cultures – an effort we spoke to Sarkeesian and Take This head Eve Crevoshay about earlier this 12 months.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Received a narrative tip? Ship it to [email protected].
