As the shouting match over the role and depiction of gender and sexuality in video games that's part of "Gamergate" fires up the blogosphere, Sweden's "government-funded innovation agency" Vinnova are, along with the country's video game association, developing a ratings system to track "sexist" content in games. Given our own country's history of slapping "voluntary" ratings (read: implemented under threat of government regulation) on everything from movies to comic books to record albums to TV shows to…video games, it probably won't be long before a "Rated S for Sexism" designation starts getting debated or enacted right here in the Land of the Free.
That's from my latest Daily Beast column, which looks at a new Swedish plan to rate video games based on sexist content. I also look at how past crusades against pop culture such as comic books and porn have been waged by left-wing and right-wing critics. Though starting from different places, both sides end up chilling speech and free expression.
