Representations of Gender in Video Games / departure talk

SUBOTRON academy

Prof. em. Dr.ⁱⁿ Uta Bran­des
Inter­na­tio­nal Gen­der Design Net­work, Cologne

We are body, we have a body, we may own a body. And this body as well as its image can be dis­tor­ted, rear­ran­ged, blur­red. This appli­es to both the body of fle­sh and blood and the vir­tu­al one. The idea of a natu­ral body of humans is as obso­le­te as it is for a vir­tu­al body, an ava­tar or cyborg.

Prof. Bran­des will posi­ti­on her long-term rese­arch on gen­der in design and its still high­ly ste­reo­ty­pi­cal ideo­lo­gy of soci­al­ly con­s­truc­ted male and fema­le roles towards gen­der repre­sen­ta­ti­ons in video games. In her lec­tu­re she will trans­fer human gen­der codes to the field of vir­tu­al cha­rac­ters and their body designs. In an exem­pla­ry way she will ana­ly­ze the appearance of gen­ders in most recent games.