Video games are presumed to be a man’s world. VGChartz’s global numbers for 2013 show that only one of the main characters in 2013’s biggest games was female.

Although women make up nearly half of the people who play video games, according to the Entertainment Software Association, women are continually underrepresented and undermarketed in this supposedly overwhelmingly male-dominated industry.

Calling attention to this, apparently, is not acceptable. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the case of Anita Sarkeesian, of Feminist Frequency.

Sarkeesian’s “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games” project looks at how women are portrayed in video games from a wide-angle lens. The project was funded in less than 24 hours on Kickstarter on June 16, 2012. Since then, the project has received $152,922 more than the initial $6,000 goal.

Since the project was first posted on Kickstater, Sarkeesian has received major backlash from a host of internet followers, who have taken to social media to rail abuse at her critiques and supporters.

On Aug. 28, Soraya Nadia McDonald of the Washington Post reported that Sarkeesian had been driven out of her home by an individual who made death threats against her and her family.

“We are witnessing a very slow and painful cultural shift,” Sarkeesian told Mother Jones.com. “Some male gamers with a deep sense of entitlement are terrified of change … So this group is violently resisting any movement in the direction of a more inclusive gaming space.”

What’s terrifying about this particular case is that Sarkeesian has received threats over the past few years that might have shut down another person, and this is the first instance that this has been widely reported.

Sarkeesian told Mother Jones that she has endured a “loosely organized campaign of death threats, rape threats, and attempts to collect and publicly distribute personal information such as my home address and phone number” over the past year and a half, and yet it is only now that we are seeing national attention directed at the issue.

The most recent video, “Women as Background Decoration” part two, posted on Aug. 25, examined non-playable female characters who Sarkeesian described as adding “edgy, gritty or racy flavoring into game worlds.”

Geek icon Joss Whedon supported Sarkeesian on Twitter after the newest video was posted, and this year’s Game Developer Choice Ambassador Award went to Sarkeesian.

Despite this high-profile support, the backlash against Sarkeesian is confusing and disappointing. Our women in video games shouldn’t have to measure abuse in degrees of severity, or at all.

[email protected]