Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Male Action vs. Female Inaction

2015; Volume: 12; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

2765-3390

Arielle Miranda Goldberg, Alexis Pulos, Seungcheol Austin Lee,

Gender Studies in Language

Video game characters are overwhelmingly male; most female characters in games reaffirm problematic gender ideologies through their designed performances and semiotic representations of gender. The present study employs semiotic analysis, underpinned with Butler’s theory of gender performativity, in order to uncover the gender ideologies represented by Tifa Lockhart in Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy VII and Princess Zelda in Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The authors contend that these female characters reflect and reify historical Japanese gender ideologies in which men are taught to be strong and dominant, while women are taught to be reserved and subservient.