Revealing the ignorance of my youth here, but who is this and what is she known for?
Anita Sarkeesian, feminist who interpreted media under a feminist lens. She did a series about video games and she was the subject of targeted harassment. That was the start of gamergate
Minor correction, the start of gamergate was based around a different reporter, Zoe Quinn, but they were both absolutely violently threatened over their involvement in video game criticism and development. A hate campaign was started by Quinn's ex-boyfriend when he wrote a post falsely accusing them of dating video game journalists in order to receive positive reviews on their own game, Depression Quest, which led other bad actors to accuse all women in the industry (Zoe identified as female at the time) of perceived sexual immorality. Anita Sarkeesian's brilliant Youtube series Tropes vs Women in Video Games (which everyone should watch, right now) sparked a particular nerve for criticizing popular games of killing and/or victimizing any important female character (there is a CHILLING bit that borders on ludicrous where she describes the plots of a seemingly endless parades of games as "In [title], [male player character's] wife dies, and you then have to rescue [his] daughter."). That series did actually make a huge change in the industry, especially when touted by progressive legacy developers like Tim Schafer (Monkey Island, Psychonauts), who went on to expand hiring in his company to front women and minority voices, but the shift didn't really show for a long time and echoes of the sexism that plagues the industry at its core are still rampant.
Thanks for the correction! I was like 8-10 years old when this all went down (2014-2016) so I only know vaguely about it. I’m still learning about this.
Zoe Quinn also has a book called Crash Overdrive, which I feel should be required reading for literally anyone using the internet in any capacity, especially as more and more things get moved to online spaces, and especially for people who use the internet for their livelihoods. It's a fairly short read (I read the entire book in a single day, although I will note this was during and for grad school, so actual reading time may vary for normal, non-grad-student readers), and can be a bit depressing--Quinn details the years of harassment they received due to gamergate, it's not a pleasant read, but I do think it's an absolutely necessary book to understand what happened and why and how, and Quinn has a surprisingly resilient sense of resolve come the end of the book, which details all the safety measures someone can and should take with their online activity.
If you can't get out to your local library to borrow the book, you can also find it here on the Internet Archive (though it looks like the lending is limited? it doesn't appear to be an open text at least, so a library might be your best bet if you can't purchase the book). Of all the books I was required to buy and read for college classes, this is probably the most important and impactful, and it's the only one I'd strongly encourage everyone to read for themselves.
