A quick study of Portal

In one of my other classes in a tangent, we started talking about the Valve game Portal as an area of strong feminist critique. The main thing that Portal does, which ties closely to Mary Flanagan's "Hyperbodies" essay, is force the player into a female position, unlike games that either make you a male (Gordon Freeman in Half Life) or give you a choice of avatar that is unessential to gameplay narrative (Alex D. in Deus Ex 2). But unlike games like Tomb Raider or Parasite Eve, Portal does not offer a 3rd person distanced perspective, but collapses the identity of the player inside the female, creating a narrative not of godlike control but of being a female in imminent danger from the crazed GLADoS. Following Half Life's philosophy of never interrupting game environment with cutscenes that disrupt the illusion of control or shock the player awareness outside the game character, there is never any distance from player relation and character control. Gender only appears objectified or apparent when you "mirror" yourself by staring through a portal pointed towards you, creating a sudden disconnect in the player at the sudden surprise (the game in fact forces you to do this during the opening sequence). Add a deserted, non-violent and puzzle environment with no monsters or aliens, but an invisible omniscient female technological beast, and there's something very atypical of Portal's gender dynamics and placement.

I'm ranting a bit aimlessly right now, but we can delve more into this: instead of weapons that "pierce" and "kill", like the childish AI gun turrents, you have a weapon that only creates spaces (spaces that keep you safe), or "orifices", if you will. The final deranged boss fires a giant laser, which you use your portals to redirect it back onto itself then grab the "ball" nodes and throw them into a fire. And you aren't "superhuman" or "superhero", the only real superhuman thing you can do is fall from great heights without getting hurt, which is narratively explained by scientific fancy footsprings. The narrative is more closely not of the male blasting through the alien base, but female in the deserted horror house of the abandoned science facility, absent of monsters but full of dangers in a masculine technological space.

Is this a revolution in gender gaming? Or is it somehow troubling that the non-sexualized, non-objectified mainstream female protagonist must inhabit a different space than the male, where she is not allowed to shoot aliens but navigate through a dangerous environment that she cannot shoot at, but create portals (or perhaps femininize the space with orifices?) to navigate and essentially gain control over? And Glados is a female computer. Just saying.

EDIT: Consalvo - "For example, the original Donkey Kong (1981) game featured the player as the male plumber Mario attempting to rescue Princess Zelda from the giant male ape."
Princess Peach, not Zelda.

Also, one thing that immediately pops out to me is that Consalvo is forgetting there is a very strong difference between the construction of gender in Japanese video games and American. There's more of a sterilization of sexual promiscuity I feel, the "hentai" or overtly sexual being marginalized off of the mainstream, and the "romantic" aspect of FF9 is something I feel of a Japanese response to girl gamers in Japan, but in a very troubling way. Final Fantasy has always been very concerned with narrative, and fantasy has always had a gendered appeal to females (just take my word for it). Are they just throwing a little "for-the-girls" add-on? I notice a lot of similarities with some FF storylines and girl anime. Furthermore, Consalvo's arguement about the feminist masculine portrayal of Zidane fails to take in account of Bishouju, or "pretty boys", who in Japan are somehow "more masculine" or attractive by being long haired, overly romantic, somewhat girly (by American standards), and "pretty".

I think that Consalvo's erotic love triangle argument is a little weak in a cultural context, but then again in America there is a very different reception of Japanese gaming narrative norms. I don't know how many gay jokes have been made about Marth (the Nintendo Super Smash Bros token Bishi), since there have been so many. There is a huge slash culture surrounding other FF characters like Cloud and Tidus (FF9 never really caught on), and the homoeroticization of Japanese video game protagonists are there. It's just that I'm not sure Consalvo has the right take on it.

The newest Final Fantasy game features a female central character. Before the game has come out though, (American) gamers are accusing her of simply being a "Cloud with a Vagina". Hmmmmm...

EDIT EDIT: By the way, this isn't my one page analysis of Portal. Just a response to this week's post.