“How is it that Someone Like You: paragon, Damn Near Saint; Could Love this World so Damn Much but No One in It?”: Horizon Zero Dawn's Aloy and the Disruption of Hetero-Amatonormative Benevolent Sexism in Female-led Games
{"title":"“How is it that Someone Like You: paragon, Damn Near Saint; Could Love this World so Damn Much but No One in It?”: Horizon Zero Dawn's Aloy and the Disruption of Hetero-Amatonormative Benevolent Sexism in Female-led Games","authors":"M. Allen","doi":"10.1177/15554120231179511","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"While recent data from the Entertainment Software Association indicates there is close to a 50/50 split in gender identification of gamers between men and women, the environment created by stereotypical depictions of women in games as well as negative community interactions continue creating a hostile environment for women who identify as gamers. Since the 2010s, the presence of female playable characters in major studio games began to appear with polarized reception. Horizon Zero Dawn (2017) and Horizon Forbidden West (2022) require players to assume the role of Aloy, a female machine hunter and outcast without a male playable character option. Using Glick and Fiske’s concept of benevolent sexism and the three frames outlined in Schröter and Thon’s video game narrative analysis framework (narrative, ludic, and social), Aloy's narrative was analyzed to highlight how it disrupts amatonormative benevolent sexism in female-led games.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2023-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Games and Culture","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231179511","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
While recent data from the Entertainment Software Association indicates there is close to a 50/50 split in gender identification of gamers between men and women, the environment created by stereotypical depictions of women in games as well as negative community interactions continue creating a hostile environment for women who identify as gamers. Since the 2010s, the presence of female playable characters in major studio games began to appear with polarized reception. Horizon Zero Dawn (2017) and Horizon Forbidden West (2022) require players to assume the role of Aloy, a female machine hunter and outcast without a male playable character option. Using Glick and Fiske’s concept of benevolent sexism and the three frames outlined in Schröter and Thon’s video game narrative analysis framework (narrative, ludic, and social), Aloy's narrative was analyzed to highlight how it disrupts amatonormative benevolent sexism in female-led games.
期刊介绍:
Games and Culture publishes innovative theoretical and empirical research about games and culture within the context of interactive media. The journal serves as a premiere outlet for groundbreaking and germinal work in the field of game studies. The journal"s scope includes the sociocultural, political, and economic dimensions of gaming from a wide variety of perspectives, including textual analysis, political economy, cultural studies, ethnography, critical race studies, gender studies, media studies, public policy, international relations, and communication studies.