The Broodmother as Monstrous-Feminine—Abject Maternity in Video Games

Abstract

This article examines examples of the monstrous-feminine in the form of abject maternal monsters in a selection of commercially successful and critically acclaimed mainstream video games using conceptual frameworks and textual analysis methods established in the work of Julia Kristeva and Barbara Creed. The Broodmother from Dragon Age: Origins (2009) and the Mother from Dragon Age: Origins—Awakening (2010) are considered as problematic examples of the abject monstrous-feminine which fall into a long tradition in horror media of framing the female body and the birthing process as something horrific and repulsive. Kerrigan from the StarCraft series (1998–2017) is examined as a possible counter-example, demonstrating that the monstrous-feminine can exist in a playable and potentially empowered form, though she is problematically empowered within a violent, militant framework. Overall, this article critically analyses the ways in which video games remediate tropes of gendered monstrosity and reinforce the misogynist norms and values of hegemonic heteropatriarchal ideology by forcing players to enact symbolic violence against transgressive female bodies.

Bağımsız dijital oyunlarda annenin temsili

“…Oyunların da bir parçası olduğu medya kültüründe, "anne"nin temsili tarihsel olarak kısıtlı olmuş ve genellikle belirli kalıplara veya klişelerin sınırları içine düşmüştür (Stang, 2019)…”

Postmodern Medusa: The Monstrous-Feminine in StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm

“…The former examines how video games center around male characters while often underrepresenting or perpetuating problematic tropes of female characters (Cassell & Jenkins, 1998;Chess, 2018;Kennedy, 2002;Murray, 2018;Sarkeesian, -2017Shaw, 2017;Walkerdine, 2007), while the latter explores female monstrosity in film and literature (Creed, 1986(Creed, , 1993Caputi, 2004;Halberstam, 1995;Pulliam, 2014). However, there is a growing confluence of these two fields that studies female monstrosity in games (Santos & White, 2005;Sarkeesian, 2016b;Spittle, 2011;Stang, 2018Stang, , 2019Stang & Trammell, 2019;Taylor, 2006;Trépanier-Jobin & Bonenfant, 2017). Kerrigan, then, is an important point of discussion in this growing body of work as a rare example of the playable monstrous-feminine.…”

“The Creature Itself Is Nasty, but Nothing Really Compares to The Building of Dread Before You Ever Get to It”: Online Player and Developer Commentary On Female Monstrosity in Video Games

“…Regardless of the ubiquity of monstrous enemies in video games, few game scholars have addressed the ways that monstrosity is interwoven with representation (Kocurek, 2015;Stang, 2018;Stang, 2019;Stang & Trammell, 2019). These studies have primarily used textual analysis to demonstrate how monstrosity functions as a tool of oppression-a label used to justify the ultra-violence enacted against certain characters and creatures by the player-character.…”