Moving Pixels Podcast: Femininity and the Female Body in Video Games

This week the Moving Pixels podcast is a couple men down, but blogger Kris Ligman fills in as our guest for a discussion of femininity and the female body in video games.

The female body has been historically exaggerated in video games and questions arise about whether femininity is authentically represented at all in characters that very often appear to be reskinned versions of men. We consider why this might be, what sorts of characters might be more positive representations of women, and what messages female representations send to players of video games.

Join us next week when we turn the discussion around and consider masculinity and the male body in video games.

This podcast is also available via iTunes.

Additional discussion of feminity and the female body:

Chun-Li’s Thighs by G. Christopher Williams

The Mother of War: Metal Gear Solid 3 by G. Christopher Williams

What Portal Did and What Mirror’s Edge Didn’t Do (or: The Female as Exotic) by Kris Ligman

Elegant Tramps: The Bodies of Lara Croft and Rubi Malone by G. Christopher Williams

Spectacular Voyeurism: Bayonetta and Hyper-Spectacle by G. Christopher Williams

Our podcast contributors:

G. Christopher Williams is the Multimedia Editor at PopMatters.com. You can find his weekly updates featured at the Neuromance blog.

Kris Ligman contributes frequently to the Moving Pixels blog at PopMatters.com, and she also serves as an editor for The Hathor Legacy.

Nick Dinicola is also a regular contributor to the Moving Pixels blog.