Femininity is a complex subject. What it means and what it is and how it’s created is a subject women much smarter than I have analyzed and commented on. Feminists are usually portrayed as being against femininity, but in my experience, feminist are against the idea that femininity is essential or ideal for proper womanhood.

Any female gamer who has played multiplayer Halo or Quake can attest to the fact that some men simply don’t believe women can play Halo or Quake. Only men, the argument goes, posses the prerequisites necessary to play these games because the ability to use a keyboard and mouse (or gamepad) while tracking objects on the screen comes from deep within the testicles. If a woman is playing a FPS, it’s because she’s 1) not really a woman, or 2) not really playing.

I’d suggest that femininity isn’t the problem; insecure assholes are the problem. Insecure dudes feel the need to devalue women and femininity, and it’s very easy for non-traditionally feminine women to fall into the trap of blaming femininity when others devalue them. ‘If this standard didn’t exist,’ goes the thinking, ‘others wouldn’t measure me by it.’ True, they’d measure you by a *different* standard and you’d still fail. A woman who plays against an insecure guy will always fail in his estimation whether she wins or loses, whether she wears a pink dress or a t-shirt and jeans. When it comes to those types, the only way you can win is to be sexxxy and not challenge him. (Apply to non-gamer topics as needed.)

As I quoted in my previous post: “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less."”

In this post, when I say femininity, I do not mean womanhood (the physical, mental, and emotional attributes of a grown woman). I do not mean being stupid and shallow. I do not mean naïve or suffused with a delicate and virginal purity. I do not mean rushing to the department store to buy pink handbags for your Chihuahua to ride around in.

I want to talk about femininity as aesthetic and feminine elements in video games. What does that mean?

Hell if I know.



I hope you’re not surprised here. I am Lesbian Stripper Ninja not Lesbian Artist Scholar. The newest Prince of Persia inspired this post. From the first time I saw the Breathe Me trailer, it struck me as strongly feminine.

I played the game, and everything felt feminine to me.

Why did it do so? I wracked my brain for another game that felt feminine and it spit out the oddest thing: Silent Hill 2.

Those of you who have played Silent Hill 2 may be wondering where they can get some of the high quality pot I must be smoking. For those haven’t, I pity you but will explain. Silent Hill 2 is a horror game in which a man searches for his dead wife after receiving a letter from her. You don’t gun down zombies; in fact if you want to survive, you quickly learn to run from fights when possible. It’s pure psychological horror.




In order to create an abstraction of feminine aesthetic, it seemed a good idea to compare these two and see where they overlapped. I could also have a few examples of non-femininity in video games. Given enough of these examples of feminine and non-feminine, and I could conjure up a definition, or at least a set of identifiable traits.

Sounds like a plan.