Psychological research on prejudice against homosexuals distinguishes between old-fashioned (traditional) and modern (contemporary) homonegativity, which differ with regard to their content, correlates, and consequences. The current research offers evidence for the validity of old-fashioned versus modern homonegativity distinction in the post-communist, East European context. In Studies 1 and 2 (Ns = 295 and 327, respectively) the Polish adaptations of the non-gendered and gendered Homonegativity Scale (Morrison, Parriag, & Morrison, 1999) and the Modern Homonegativity Scale (Morrison & Morrison, 2003) were developed. Furthermore, divergent (discriminant) validity of traditional and contemporary anti-homosexual prejudice was demonstrated. Old-fashioned and modern homonegativity exhibited differential relationships with social distance and support for same-sex couples' relational rights.
While among game journalists and developers the term ‘cozy games’ has recently been gaining popularity, the concept still rarely is discussed in detail in academic circles. While game scholars put more and more focus on the new types of casual games that concentrate mostly on starting discourses on mental health, trauma and the experiences of marginalized people (often referred to as ‘empathy games’), the discussion would benefit from the introduction of the concept of coziness and the use of more precise definitions. The article discusses cozy aesthetics, showing that their popularity correlates with sociopolitical changes especially in Europe and the United States. First, cozy games are defined in the context of feminist and inclusive design. Second, it proposes three types of application of coziness in games depending on their relationship with functionality: coherent, dissonant and situational.
No abstract
It is still common for video games to be classified as a predominantly male pastime. Five years after #GamerGate, women and non-binary people still meet with the harassment, sexism, and aggressive behavior (Fox and Tang 2017) and in mainstream games the number of male characters still overshadows the number of female playable characters. While the non-binary and transgender characters are hardly ever present, women characters are often pigeonholed as a narrative tool, mostly as a trope of "Damsel in Distress", that is a victim whose death is to be avenged or the heterosexual love interest (Ivory 2006, Beck at al. 2012, Huntemann 2014). The parallels can be drawn between the over-sexualization of the playable action protagonists in digital games (Behm-Morawitz and Mastro 2009) and the disagreement over overt expressions of female masculinity in society (Halberstam 1998). Drawing on Halberstam's work I will offer an analysis of Fetch, a protagonist of Infamous First Light (2014)-a standalone additional content to a video game franchise developed by Sucker Punch Productions.
While video games unquestionably became more diverse and inclusive in the past decade, there is still a striking underrepresentation of characters whose bodies do not conform to the heterosexist concept of normativity, including those perceived as fat. My article begins with the introduction of fat studies as the interdisciplinary field concerned with the ways media construct fat people as unattractive, undesirable, and asexual. Next, it discusses how these prejudices are reflected in a medium in which fat has been historically coded as villainous and monstrous. The last part includes two case studies of positive fat representation: Ellie from the mainstream game Borderlands 2 (Gearbox Software 2012) and the eponymous character from the independent title Felix the Reaper (Kong Orange 2019). Their gender performances are coded equally as non-normative.
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