Month: March 2023

Gone Home and The Riot Grrl Movement

Set in 1995, Gone Home is an understated interactive story game. You play as a young woman named Katie who has just returned home from overseas to find that your entire family is gone, leaving an eerie and deserted mansion for you to explore. Through letters and objects, you string together what happened to your family while you were away and the people they have become.

The part that stuck out to me most was the story of Sam, Katie’s younger sister. With Katie away, Sam, a shy type who relied on her older sister, attempted to make friends. She found friendship in Yolanda “Lonnie”, a JROTC cadet and lover of all things punk rock including the riot grrrl movement. Through a series of notes, it revealed that Sam and Lonnie have developed a romantic relationship. Sam and Katie’s parents are unsympathetic to Sam’s relationship and coming out, deeming it as ‘just a phase.’ Later, Lonnie was sent off to military service leaving Sam heartbroken but Lonnie made a last-minute decision to get off her bus and call Sam to tell her she wanted to be together. So Sam runs away to be with Lonnie just days before Katie’s arrival home, (which coincides with their parents being on a couples counseling trip) leaving their home desolate and in pieces. Sam’s story could be summarized and related to the theme of breaking away. Sam breaks away from her parents, and Lonnie breaks away from the military they both escape some sort of societal/traditional set of rules to be together.

Though I did not have time to personally play the game this week, I may play it over spring break to get the full experience. It reminded me of the original “Life is Strange” video game which I love dearly. Life is Strange is a lot more action-driven but it has similarities in that they both are an eirie-mystery that you have to put together… and both have WLW (woman-loving-woman) romances.

Throughout Gone Home, there are themes and visuals akin to the riot grrrl scene. Firstly, It centers on a woman’s narrative. The story revolves around Sam and you play as Katie; the plot is about as far as it can possibly be from a “damsel in distress.” The game serves as a reminder of the ongoing fight for gender equality and the power of female voices. Additionally, we see acts of rebellion against her parents and societal norms from Sam. She pursues her own interests, disregarding the desires of her parents. Lorde has a great quote about standing alone and transforming what makes us different into what brings us power.

Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society’s definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference-those between us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older- know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to stand alone, unpopular, and sometimes reviled…It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths.

Lorde, 1984. Found in Dill and Kohlman- Intersectionality

It’s not a coincidence that Lonnie is said to be involved in the riot grrrl movement. All that was previously mentioned can be contextualized by their actions. The riot grrrl movement is a rebellious and disruptive feminist subculture founded by female punk artists in the 1990s. The movement challenged societal norms (particularly those relating to sexism), rejected all forms of discrimination, and promoted female empowerment. I think it can be summarized with a quote from the  (1991), “Riot Grrrl Manifesto” “We are angry at a society that tells us Girl = Dumb, Girl = Bad, Girl = Weak.” When learning and researching more about this movement, my initial reaction was basically “where do I sign up?!” The DIY and subversive nature of it all really spoke to me, especially as an artist. It’s definitely a new interest of mine and will continue to research on my own time!

Audre Lorde (1977), “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action”

After a major health scare, Audrey Lorde writes about the power of language. Pain and suffering are inevitable whether it comes from the visibility of speaking out or otherwise. “We fear the visibility without which we cannot truly live” So why waste your life staying silent when there are so many things to be said? She urges us to speak out and break the silence, turning language into action and action into change for a better humanity.

“And I remind myself all the time now that if I were to have been born mute, or had maintained an oath of silence my whole life long for safety, I would still have suffered, and I would still die.”

“It is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.”

“Death, on the other hand, is the final silence. And that might be coming quickly, now, without regard for whether I had ever spoken what needed to be said, or had only betrayed myself into small silences, while I planned someday to speak, or waited for someone else’s words.”

 Audre Lorde (1977), “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action”

There were so many profound quotes from these short pages. I just kept collecting them so here are some of my favorites. I made connections to gone home because both the text by Audrey Lorde and gone home share themes of breaking free of something. Lorde, her silence and society, and Sam, her parents… and also society. I also think there’s something to be said about the silence of Gone Home. In moments, the game is eerily quiet. Additionally, there is little to no spoken conversation, just Katie stringing together the pieces.

3 ideas I might want to explore in My Research Essay

• Drag in Arkansas, Bill SB43– Arkansas has a rich history of drag but recently it has been under attack. Bill SB43 was proposed to ban drag in public and for those under 18. If passed the bill would have not only affected drag artists but trans and gender non-conforming people as well. How does this relate to the study of gender?
• Representation in children’s media- Throughout my adolescents I loved watching cartoons. My favorite was the cartoon network show: “Steven Universe”. If you know anything about the show you know that it is packed with LGBTQ+ representation. I genuinely attribute the show to helping my young self understand and accept my own sexuality. This topic would be abundant in cultural artifacts as there is no lack of children’s media I could talk about.
• Gendered housing- Should housing still really be required to be separated by gender? West hall on the UALR campus is and I’m trying to change that. I am advocating for a gender-inclusive living space for artWING residents and so I think this would be a relevant and helpful thing to study. I’m unsure of what my cultural artifact would be besides articles and such but am open to suggestions.

Check-in + Stress Relief

Dr. Londie mentioned ending this blog with a “check-in”; I didn’t realize how badly I needed this until I started writing. Life has been super duper difficult recently. I live on campus about 30 mins from my family and lately, I’ve spent every moment I’ve had to see them. This is partly due to my great-grandma being sick and unfortunately, she passed away last week. It hasn’t gotten much better either because since then, my grandma has been very sick too. This while balancing 2 jobs as a full-time student has been a major weight on my shoulders. Spring break could not come any sooner! This may be a bit personal for a check-in so I apologize, but I haven’t told anyone but my partner and close friends so it feels good for some people to know.

One thing that keeps me grounded and can relieve stress for me is working out. I like to lift weights most every day but just a moment to stretch and walk is also nice. Stress accumulates for me when I feel unproductive, so even if I’m being lazy, taking time to move my body and work on flexibility makes me feel a bit better.

I feel bad for saying it but I really did not enjoy Gone Home. I didn’t know it beforehand but the PC version of the game is not optimized well at all; it cannot keep a stable 30 fps even at the lowest settings, and the lag makes the already slow-paced game feel even more exhausting to sit through. The gameplay wasn’t really my thing, but the story itself wasn’t anything extraordinary to me. I could have missed some items because of the technical issues I had with this version of the game, but as far as queer stories go this one just felt very surface-level to me and didn’t really grab me. I thought the Riot Grrrl manifesto was interesting, and the tone of it reminded me of many of the previous texts we read such as “Feminism is for Everyone” and “Combahee River Statement.” It had a very “this is who we are, this is what we want, we will not be silent” tone that was reminiscent of the other texts.

I was also a little disappointed with the Damsel in Distress video about gaming because I felt it only highlighted the negative aspects of how women are often characterized in video games while not acknowledging how games have changed over time (although there was a Part 2 mentioned at this end of this video). I was extremely surprised when they were discussing D.K. and other Nintendo games that they did not mention Metroid, because the main character who fights the aliens (Samus Aran) is a woman. This game was made around the same time as these older games, so I felt like it was a missed opportunity to highlight some small victories for representation. I also thought it was incredibly ironic that the stock image they used for Princess Peach was from the game Super Princess Peach, where Peach goes on a quest to save Mario from Bowser. The game is an inversion of the discussed damsel in distress trope, yet they do not discuss it at all in this video. Lastly, I am mixed with how they talked about Princess Zelda’s role in the games. I am a fan of the Zelda series, and I do agree she can play into the damsel in distress role, but Zelda’s strength is not physical strength like Link’s. In the lore of the game series, Link has the Triforce of Courage, while Zelda has the Triforce of Wisdom. Her strength is not tied to physical combat like Link’s is, it comes from her intelligence and wit. I feel like making her into the role of a fighter would be out of character for Zelda, because that’s not who she is. I feel like making her a physical fighter like Link would cause her to lose her identity as a character, and make her seem just like a female version of him which would seem like shallow representation to me.

For my research essay I have considered: discussing the strengths of Sailor Moon in regard to gender or video games that feature strong female characters. The Sailor Moon manga has always been special to me because of the main character, Usagi Tsukino, and how her character strengths are made up of traits that have been considered to be “weak womanly” characteristics in other media. For video games, there are lots of games I play and I would like to highlight some good examples of how gaming has moved forward. I wholeheartedly disagree with the idea that the damsel in distress motif is a core part of game development (at least in the modern age) and I would like to show how that isn’t true today.

Keywords: Feminist Studies, Race, Multiracial Feminism

The article “Theorizing Difference from Multiracial feminism” something that sticks out to me are the racial profiling that was done back in the day. The quote that stuck out to me is ” U.S. multiracial feminism encompasses several emergent perspectives developed primarily by women of color: African Americans, Latinas , Asian Americans, and Native Americans, women whose analyses are shaped by their unique perspectives as “outsiders within”-marginal intellectuals whose social locations provide them with a particular perspective on self and society. Although U.S. women of color represent many races and ethnic backgrounds-with different histories and cultures-our feminisms cohere in their treatment of race as a basic social division, a structure of power, a focus of political struggle, and hence a fundamental force in shaping women’s and men’s lives,”(Zinn, Bonnie, pg.324). I agree with this quote because they shouldn’t be called outsiders based on the color of their skin and that women were not equally treated as good as the men were for they later on say say in this prompt. ” But socialist feminism’s concept of capitalist patriarchy, with its focus on women’s unpaid (reproductive) labor in the home failed to address racial differences in the organization of reproductive labor. As feminists of color have argued, “reproductive labor has divided along racial as well as gender lines, and the specific characteristics have varied regionally and changed over time as capitalism has reorganized” (Zinn, Bonnie, pg.325). Which to me this is just mind blowing they wanted women to carry the children’s but no paid time off due to labor that is mind blowing.

Keywords: Gender and Western Cultures

The article “The Prism Gender” this articles starts off explaining that in western culture, people grow up learning that there are only two genders, male and female. The western culture has developed what is called the quote on quote pink and blue syndrome in the article it stats that. “We are taught that a real woman is female -bodied , feminine , and heterosexual ; a real man is male-bodied , masculine , and heterosexual ; and any deviation or variation is strange , unnatural , and potentially dangerous” (Valentine, pg.3). I’m gonna say that this is true, this is the way of life but I will also kind of tie this with our song of this week “Androgynous by The Replacements” . In the song they say “Mirror image, see no damage See no evil at all Kewpie dolls and urine stalls Will be laughed at the way you’re laughed at now”. I personally feel like they are talking about gender revolution in the 1980’s which is something that wasn’t talked about much during that time, and that it was okay no matter what or who your liked same gender to trans-gender that people should respect it. I looked up the word Androgynous and it basically means the opposite roles of the western culture. What I mean is that men had women tendencies and women want to be more masculine if that makes any sense.

Question: Who are we to say that someone cant be accepted because of who or what they love in their peroneal life ?

The Combahee River Collective

“As Black women we see Black feminism as the logical political movement to combat the manifold and simultaneous oppressions that all women of color face.”

I think my main takeaway here was learning about an organization of Black lesbian women who work together to try and put an end to racist, classist, and sexist oppression. They talk about how they can face this among the Black community as well as outside of the Black community. This really connects for me into the other major text.

Audre Lorde’s “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference”

“These accusations, coming from the very women to whom we look for deep and real understanding, have served to keep many Black lesbians in hiding, caught between the racism of white women and the homophobia of their sisters.” (Pg 121-122)

From reading the Combahee River Collective to reading this, the idea that Black lesbian women face discrimination from their own peers really hit hard. I can’t imagine how difficult it is to feel racism from white people, then white women, on top of homophobia from potentially Black men as well as Black women. It solidifies the notion of intersectionality to me.

Ijeoma Oluo- So You Want to Talk About Race

“Everything is Whiteness” (24:07)

I found Oluo’s introduction and beginning speech extremely powerful. At Target, we had to receive training on how to treat POC customers. So when she mentioned in the beginning about clerks following her around the store, it made me remember that training. I feel like it was valuable training too. Because like Oluo says, it’s Black people who have the possibility of conversations ending badly, not white people (~21:29).

Nina Simone- “Four Women”

I honestly just felt the emotion behind the song. It encapsulates the different hardships Black women have went through from slavery to sexual assault, the exact things mentioned in the three major readings. Simone’s voice was alluring yet powerful. I’ve never heard this song before, but I’m glad I have.

Key Words: lesbianism, sexism, homophobia.

Question for the class: How can we improve our efforts to listen to those facing discrimination?

*I know you encourage us putting images and making these posts colorful, but how impacted I was by Oluo’s quote of everything being whiteness, I’ve decided to leave this post completely blank of color. Because unfortunately, everything is white*