"Whoever controls the media, controls the mind": why representation matters - cancelled

Forget the ‘bad ass’, infallible woman on TV. I have never identified with her. No matter how successful I become, the awkward girl — especially the Black ones — own my heart. They are the unsung representations of an authentic self that often hides behind the inflated chests (both senses of the term) we see on social media. They are not shy, but decidedly uncool. For that, I celebrate them.

There is a wealth of research and popular feminist critique which argues that women are hyper-sexualised in video games. However, this background research usually focuses on the visual aspects of games. This talk explores the language of video games and how it is used to represent gender. Through computer-assisted linguistic methods, I answer questions such as: ‘what adjectives are used to describe female characters?’ and ‘what characters are more likely to be the recipient of a verb?’. I argue we need to look beyond visual representations and challenge gender norms across communicative modes.