feminism
141 posts
Or… What would a game studies talk look like if I didn’t cite any hetero white cismen OR work from after 2006. Because when I say intersectional feminist game studies I also think part of the path forward is developing better inter-generational critical game studies.
Women as reward. It’s an unfortunately common sexist practice I see in many of the video games I have played and the video games I have seen marketed. Rewarding players with women, all women – not just those that are cisgendered, is equally problematic. While games use women and women’s […]
We got an e-mail last week about good games with troubling elements — so, basically, all games. But the question was: how do we choose the right way to handle games with problems? We have to play the games to understand them, and we want to support devs who are […]
This week, I was re-reading Donna Haraway’s “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perception,” and I had one of those revelatory moments that come only when you’ve read something a million times already, when you have absorbed and understood it and are free to […]
Every now and then the LEGO community will debate the lack of diversity in minifigs. Most minifigs have the generic iconic, yellow LEGO head, but occasionally, LEGO will go outside of that and try to create more realistic representations. These more realistic, (sometimes diverse) heads tend to be found in […]
In a recent article, “Apparent Feminism as a Methodology for Technical Communication and Rhetoric,” Erin Frost proposes a new methodology through which to understand the impact of technology and technological documentation: apparent feminism. Apparent feminism, she writes, “seeks to recognize and make apparent the urgent and sometimes hidden exigencies for […]
Bianca: In light of the election, the two of us have found ourselves returning to the conversations we have had on building feminist coalitions–that is, we have found ourselves reflecting on both the consistent, perpetual need for such work and the challenges that result from embarking on such work. Previously, […]
Five years ago as I sat in dr. b’s class, I kept noticing the NYMG sticker on the back of her laptop. I had no idea what it meant, and I was too shy to ask. I learned a lot in that class, and by the end of the semester, […]
A lot of Game Studies proper deals with representation in games, particularly surrounding things like race, gender, sexuality, class, and body type. That may seem like the most basic statement ever (like, duh!), but as I think more about studying games as Game Studies, I need to answer questions about […]
We’ve been grappling, the past couple weeks, with a game called Bound, and we’ve been particularly struck by the game’s ambiguous narrative and by its surreal landscapes. And something we continue to ask ourselves is–what is the purpose of the conversation between the two, between the narrative and the gameworld? […]
Later this week, I’ll also be at Games+Learning+Society with Alex and Kishonna, presenting a Well Played of my own on State of Decay. I’ve been such a strong advocate for the game through two releases (and DLC), but here I’ll finally be able to draw the various themes and lines of inquiry I’ve […]
Not long ago, I wrote about looking at some of the studies on how men see women (and vice versa, and how we see our own genders) from a game design angle. Studying what eye trackers reveal about how we look at bodies can tell us a lot about media, […]
Bianca: A couple weeks ago, Alisha wrote about feminist game scholarship, and since then, she and I have been talking a lot (and texting a lot) about feminist theory, game studies, and the intersection of the two. That is to say, we’ve been trying to work through, together, how to […]
Here’s a question I’ve seen time and again, asked of more mainstream individuals like Anita Sarkeesian, or whenever a new article, study, or book crops up: why are so many feminist academics interested in video games all of a sudden? Unpacking this question means separating the threads and assumptions: first, […]
Top image: part of artist Krista Hoefle’s Quest NYMGers Bianca Batti and Alisha Karabinus will be in Chicago, IL June 25th for a panel at Woman Made Gallery. The panel follows the opening night of Krista Hoefle’s Quest exhibition, and alongside the ongoing CODE/SWITCH and CODE/MIX exhibitions. Per the gallery’s […]