WARNING - MAJOR SPOILERS
A game about the female experience
Despite the fact that this genre is about universal human experiences, most coming of age stories have male protagonists. As discussed in my earlier posts, the reason for this is that men are considered the “default” or “neutral” in our culture.
Life is Strange is a refreshing change in that it’s about the female coming-of-age experience. The game is not a story in which the protagonist has been written with a male character in mind and then switched genders. Instead, the story deals specifically with the female experience, including, for example, jealousy and rivalry among teenage girls, insecurity about appearance and popularity, a close female friendship, and potential romantic relationships.
Remarkably, the game developers of Life is Strange appear to all be male. While someday I hope the studio and the gaming industry in general achieve more gender equality, DONTNOD should still receive recognition for creating a great game about the female experience.
While doing some reading for this review, I came across the Developer Diary in which DONTNOD explains that they received a lot of pressure from publishers to change the main character from a girl to a boy (see video above). Clearly, publishers believe that the gaming community is not interested in games dealing with female experiences, and are actively trying to exclude female-centered games. No wonder, then, that most game protagonists continue to be male.
The publishers that demanded that DONTNOD change the protagonist must be kicking themselves now. Life is Strange received strong reception and sales, and won a series of awards. Publishers are wrong for trying to ask game developers to only offer male protagonists.
Something else, however, has to be noted. Might one reason we have a female protagonist in the game be because female protagonists "fit in" better in games about relationships, instead of games about fighting or survival? According to gender roles, women are associated with nurture and emotion, whereas men are associated with aggressiveness. So while Life is Strange is a feminist success in general, some aspects of the focus on female characters may still be related to traditional gender roles.
Slut-shaming and bullying
The second way a game can be feminist is by dealing with feminist issues in its story themes--for example, by showing us a story in which gender equality is not achieved, but characters try to overcome existing gender issues.
Life is Strange directly deals with some feminists issues, including slut-shaming, which we see with the character Kate Marsh. Kate receives shaming from all directions. As we see when we investigate her room, she comes from a very conservative Christian family. A poster on her wall encourages waiting until marriage before having sex, and emails from her family warn of her not “bringing shame” on them through promiscuous behavior. The message here is that sex and sexuality can have no place in her life, and that any sexual behavior will make her unacceptable to her family and God. With these beliefs, Kate must feel extreme pressure to maintain perfect behavior at all times. No wonder, then, after she is drugged and violated through no fault of her own, she receives shame from her family, loses her sense of self-esteem, and sinks into a deep depression.
On the flip side, Kate is severely bullied for her religious beliefs and her promotion of abstinence. She is seen by her peers as prudish. For them, Kate is not sexual enough, and her personal beliefs are unacceptable. Nevertheless, when she is drugged at a party and seen kissing multiple guys, her peers turn on her even further. They post videos on the internet and leave her taunting messages. For them, Kate went from being too prudish to too promiscuous.
Through Kate’s example, we know that all of the female students at Blackwell Academy walk a very fine line of behavior, and when they go too far, the consequences are very serious. It’s unfortunate that the students can’t find a way to accept each other’s different lifestyles and beliefs. It shouldn’t matter to them what personal sexual choices Kate makes, since she is not hurting anyone.
Slut shaming is a problem not only at Blackwell Academy, but also in real life. Life is Strange reminds us through storytelling how important it is for us to be accepting of other people’s personal sexual choices, no matter what they are. No one deserves the treatment that Kate Marsh faces.
Class issues
Chloe Price’s family faces all of the hardships of poverty and life in a town controlled by the rich and powerful. Chloe’s mother works at the diner as a waitress, signaling that the Prices are a working-class family. In the alternate timeline when Chloe becomes disabled, the medical bills are so significant, and so burdensome to the family, that they become a motivating factor in Chloe’s suicide. The devastating effect of medical bills are a sad reality in America.
Chloe is also on the receiving end of David Madsen’s angry abuse. David Madsen has emotional problems due to his time in the military (PTSD is suggested) and it causes him to lash out at his family. In America, due to factors such as PTSD, veterans are disproportionately affected by poverty and homelessness.
One of Chloe’s alternate deaths occurs when Nathan Prescott shoots her after they have an argument about their drug-dealing. As we learn later in the game, Nathan Prescott’s behavior has been allowed to escalate since his rich and powerful family threatens the school if he receives any disciplinary action. Chloe, with little money or connections, has turned to drug dealing and blackmailing, and becomes Nathan’s victim.
Chloe had at one time been a Blackwell Academy student, but had to drop out due to poor grades. Children of low-income families struggle more with grades, since they don’t have the benefit of expensive tutoring or help from overworked parents.
Class is an important issue not just in Arcadia Bay, but in real life, and the way it connects with other social problems makes it fertile ground for intersectional feminism. A game could easily ignore this uncomfortable aspect of society, but Life is Strange chooses not to shy away from it.
Rejecting stereotypes (mostly)
Max is completely fooled by Mark Jefferson’s good looks, impressive resume, and smooth demeanor. On the other hand, she’s convinced that David Madsen and Frank Bowers are the real evildoers in Arcadia Bay, as they superficially appear to be angry and violent. However, after learning more about each character, she realizes that they are actually very loving, caring people, though they have serious hardships. Eventually she, and the player, end up sympathizing with them.
I’ve seen some comments online arguing that Life is Strange portrays all its male characters all as negative male stereotypes. Given the number of men in the game with violent tendencies, this is actually a valid point. As discussed in my earlier posts, violence is associated with the male gender role. In the vast majority of games, the image of masculine men adheres to this association. Even in this progressive game, the association remains. But fair representation of women shouldn’t come at the expense of fair representation of men.
However, I think there is one positive aspect to the way this game deals with male characters. On the surface, many of the male characters appear to be violent brutes. But as Max eventually realizes, they are misjudged by the people in Arcadia Bay. David Madsen seems to struggle under the male gender role, as he has been trained in his career to deal with problems with violence, but in the Price family he must be the opposite--a provider and a parent. He seems to have difficulty navigating these competing social pressures, and everyone around him seems to fear and judge him for it. David Madsen has serious personality problems he needs to overcome, but I ended up feeling sorry for him, and I felt he was a victim of gender stereotypes in many ways.
An open approach to sexuality
The game therefore presents sexuality in a fluid way, which fits with Max’s uncertainty about who she is and what she wants to do in the world. It is also inclusive of alternate sexual orientations in a way that’s interesting for the player. Instead of having to check a “gay” or “straight” box for the character, both are freely integrated into the story choices. Like it is just a normal part of growing up.
Depicting sexual and gender violence with seriousness
There are countless types of suffering and trauma out in the world that could be used instead in a story. However, sexual violence against women is a popular trope because it safely fits into gender norms and stereotypes. When a story depicts a man committing violence against a woman, it plays into our basic beliefs about what men’s and women’s roles are. The violent man makes sense to us because in our culture we see men as inherently violent and lustful. The victimized woman makes sense because we see women as weak and needing protection. It makes sense, then, that sexual violence is used to motivate characters and the audience to try to protect a female character.
When sexual violence against women is so common in media, the effect is that these gender stereotypes get stronger, and we feel that rape is inevitable human behavior, and that it is not very serious. If we don’t think critically about rape imagery, we risk internalizing the stereotype that all men have a strong natural urge to rape but keep it under control with willpower. We may start to equate masculinity with sexual aggression.
In Life is Strange, the story culminates in a scene that strongly suggests rape. Max finds herself drugged and restrained in a basement by Mark Jefferson, who wants to take pictures of her suffering and dying. He talks about capturing her “innocence.” We find out that Mark Jefferson only targets teenage female students.
However, this is an example of the subject matter of sexual violence being handled well. Over the course of the game’s story, we slowly learn about all of the pain and suffering caused by Mark Jefferson’s actions. Then, at the end of the game, Max experiences his violence directly, which causes the player to have to experience it as well. The scenes fit with the game’s overall serious tone, alongside long, introspective scenes about death and suicide. So we can see that games can depict sexual violence against women in an appropriate and effective way.
On the other hand, I asked myself while playing if that type of sexual violence was necessary to the plot and characters, or whether it was just being used for shock value. It doesn’t fit into the game’s larger themes about Max’s choices with her friends, and fixing her mistakes with her time powers. Mark Jefferson’s evil violence just doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the thematic subject matter in the game.
Furthermore, the game strongly alluded to rape, but failed to fully commit to it. Instead, Mark Jefferson specifically explains that he never raped the girls. But he still drugged them, harmed them, and violated them, all because they were innocent young teenage girls. If Life is Strange wanted to explore such a serious subject, and convey such a serious violation, why was it afraid from going all the way and dealing with rape directly? This choice prevented Mark Jefferson’s seemingly sexually-motivated violence from being as seriously explored as it needed to be.
Needs more diversity
To make sure there is more diversity in their games, developers should try to ask themselves, with each white character, why they are making that character white. If the answer is that there is no important reason, and it was just the default way they imagined the character, they should consider changing the character’s race.
However, I appreciated that the game had some body diversity. I know that it is not easy to include such different body types in a game, and it’s rare to see in most games. But I was also left wishing there was a little more body diversity in the game, or that characters explored their feelings about it more.
Other aspects
I'm impressed any time game developers are able to create gameplay around something other than combat. The time-rewind mechanic in this game was really clever. Nevertheless, it wasn’t executed very well, and it was sometimes very tedious. Rewinding time to collect bottles and stop objects from falling off shelves is not that exciting, and it’s not a full realization of the time-traveling fantasy. Furthermore, for a game that was about rewinding in order to explore different choices, it was strange that you were stuck permanently with any decisions made at the end of a scene.