Can someone explain to me how Anita Sarkeesian is a 'moderate feminist'?

I wrote this somewhere else, but I think it applies:

As I see it (I'm most sypmathetic to anarcha-feminism and ecofeminism, so I may not be correct), liberal feminists are most concerned with legislation (social and business regulatory), integration into mass media (television, education, etc.), and representation in «important» organizations (corporate boards, legislatures, etc.). In essence, they're concerned with making sure that capitalist representative democracy is equitable.

This definition of liberal feminism applies to Sarkeesian because her focus is inclusion of positive/major feminine roles in mass media (especially video games) and the fostering of positive environments surrounding these media for women.

However, like most feminists do, she makes frequent use social scientific analysis in her work. This is characteristic of radical feminism as I say in the same comment:

[...] I see radical feminism as the movement that investigates how patriarchy is structured and exactly which forms of (structural) oppression can be (ultimately) attributed to patriarchy. This kind of tendency will inevitably produce a great breadth (and perhaps a great depth) of social scientific work. From what I can tell, radical feminists can have any combined political belief (liberal, socialist, even anarchist).

I wouldn't hastily exclude Sarkeesian from this tendency either. Perhaps, what is simply radical analysis of video games/other media and their subcultures is being mistaken for a broadening of liberal literature. Perhaps it's both. I'm not certain.


Nevertheless, Sarkeesian's work is compatible to both feminisms. Of course it's up to her to claim solidarity with whichever movement(s) she sees fit. However, you asked us what we think. From an extremely fallible third person perspective, I'd be comfortable with both labels, but, if forced to pick one, I'd be slightly more comfortable with the sole label «radical feminist»:

  • Liberal feminists are generally liberal both in their feminism and in general, whereas radical feminists simply have different feminist strategies and goals; they can have any separate political beliefs; and

  • Using «radical feminist» to label Sarkeesian vindicates the highly empirical and material analysis she uses in her work.

I understand the bad taste «radical [anything]» has in the mouth, but we have to be honest here.

/r/SRSDiscussion Thread