Uploaded March 2011 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
mediaed.org
Returning Fire
Interventions in Video Game Culture
a film by Roger Stahl
Video games like Call of Duty, America's Army, Medal of Honor, and Battlefield are part of an exploding market of war games whose revenues now far outpace even the biggest Hollywood blockbusters. The sophistication of these games is undeniable, offering users a stunningly realistic experience of ground combat and a glimpse into the increasingly virtual world of long-distance, push-button warfare. Far less clear, though, is what these games are doing to users, our political culture, and our capacity to empathize with people directly affected by the actual trauma of war. For the culture-jamming activists featured in this film, these uncertainties were a call to action. In three separate vignettes, we see how Anne-Marie Schleiner, Wafaa Bilal, and Joseph Delappe moved dissent from the streets to our screens, infiltrating war games in an attempt to break the hypnotic spell of "militainment." Their work forces all of us -- gamers and non-gamers alike -- to think critically about what it means when the clinical tools of real-world killing become forms of consumer play.
mediaed.org
Returning Fire
Interventions in Video Game Culture
a film by Roger Stahl
Video games like Call of Duty, America's Army, Medal of Honor, and Battlefield are part of an exploding market of war games whose revenues now far outpace even the biggest Hollywood blockbusters. The sophistication of these games is undeniable, offering users a stunningly realistic experience of ground combat and a glimpse into the increasingly virtual world of long-distance, push-button warfare. Far less clear, though, is what these games are doing to users, our political culture, and our capacity to empathize with people directly affected by the actual trauma of war. For the culture-jamming activists featured in this film, these uncertainties were a call to action. In three separate vignettes, we see how Anne-Marie Schleiner, Wafaa Bilal, and Joseph Delappe moved dissent from the streets to our screens, infiltrating war games in an attempt to break the hypnotic spell of "militainment." Their work forces all of us -- gamers and non-gamers alike -- to think critically about what it means when the clinical tools of real-world killing become forms of consumer play.
![Asking For It - The Ethics & Erotics of Sexual Consent [Clip] - Coming Soon to DVD](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/V1rtQmDXfN0/mqdefault.jpg "Asking For It - The Ethics & Erotics of Sexual Consent [Clip] - Coming Soon to DVD
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Asking For It
The Ethics & Erotics of Sexual Consent
The line between sexual consent and sexual coercion is not always as clear as it seems and according to Harry Brod, this is exactly why we should approach our sexual interactions with great care. Brod, a professor of philosophy and leader in the pro-feminist mens movement, offers a unique take on the problem of sexual assault, one that complicates the issue even as it clarifies the bottom-line principle that consent must always be explicitly granted, never simply assumed. In a nonthreatening, non-hectoring discussion that ranges from the meanings of yes and no to the indeterminacy of silence to the way alcohol affects our ethical responsibilities, Brod challenges young people to envision a model of sexual interaction that is most erotic precisely when it is most thoughtful and empathetic. Ideal for classes in gender studies, communication, and sociology, and especially useful for extracurricular programs and workshops.
Harry Brod is Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at the University of Northern Iowa. He is the author of White Men Challenging Racism: 35 Personal Stories, Theorizing Masculinities, Hegels Philosophy of Politics: Idealism, Identity and Modernity, A Mensch Among Men: Explorations in Jewish Masculinity, and The Making of Masculinities: The New Mens Studies.")
