Women and Sexuality in Classical Video Games
In celebration of International Women’s Day, in association with the University of Glasgow’s Games and Gaming Lab and the University of St Andrews
Friday 8th March 2024
Although the depiction of women as oversexualised objects is a common trope of video games, including those with classical settings (see e.g. Ciaccia 2022), modern games also allow for more varied explorations of female sexuality, particularly those games in the RPG genre (Lauteria and Wysocki 2015: 2). In games set in the ancient world, women’s sexuality finds itself represented in two major forms: as part of the depiction of NPCs, including historical figures such as Cleopatra, and as part of a player’s interactive experience within the game world, including as a way for them to create and shape their character. The representation of Greek sexuality including for the female protagonist, Kassandra, was singled out for discussion in video games media (e.g. Murnane 2019), and which characters are represented as “romanceable” and why, attracts significant attention from players and game media which also often works to see these romances within their classical contexts (see for example Corbett 2023, who saw the romance in Hades with Megaera as representing eros, whereas that with Dusa demonstrated philia).
This workshop will delve into the questions of how and why women’s sexuality is portrayed in classical video games, aiming to answer the following key questions. To what degree are representations of female sexuality shaped by the classical or historical context as it is represented in these games? To what extent can video games represent a different narrative about women’s sexuality to other forms of modern reception? How are the tensions between player agency and expectations and historical or mythological ‘accuracy’ negotiated in representations of women’s sexuality? In exploring these questions, we will continue to develop groundbreaking research in a key area of the still vastly understudied field of women in classical video games.
By ‘women’ we include all those who self-define as women, including (if they wish) those with complex gender identities which include ‘woman’, and those who experience oppression as women. By ‘women’s sexuality’ we include all ways in which women experience and express themselves sexually.
Please send abstracts (maximum 300 words) for twenty-minute papers to Kate Cook (kjc26@st-andrews.ac.uk) and Jane Draycott (Jane.Draycott@Glasgow.ac.uk) by Friday 12th January 2024. Event will be hybrid, with papers hosted at the University of Glasgow.
Works Cited
Ciaccia, O. (2022) ‘Opening Pandora’s Box: Aphrodite as the Representation of Women’s Sexuality in’, in J. Draycott and K. Cook (eds), Women in Classical Video Games (London) 128–44
Corbett, N. (2020) ‘Romances In Hades Represent 3 Ancient Greek Conceptions of Love’ [Online] Available at:
https://www.cbr.com/hades-zagreus-romance-ancient-greek-love/
Lauteria, E.W. and Wysocki, M. (2015) ‘Introduction’, in Rated M for Mature: Sex and Sexuality in Video Games 1–9
Murnane, K. ‘“Progress Can Sometimes Be Messy”: Romance And Sexuality in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’ [Online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinmurnane/2019/01/27/progress-can-sometimes-be-messy-romance-in-assassins-creed-odyssey/