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A podcast by students enrolled in Film Studies/Gender Studies 404. Students will discuss topics of gender and identity in In Sound Mind, What Remains of Edith Finch, and LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.
Hi, I'm Caleb. And I'm Johnny. And we will be just
analyzing Cyberpunk 2077. So do you want to tell
them about Cyberpunk 2077? I guess. Cyberpunk 2077
is a 2020 action role playing video game developed
by CD Projekt Red and published by CD Projekt Red.
It's set into a dystopian Cyberpunk universe. The
player assumes the role of V, a mercenary in the
fictional Californian city known as Night City. So
we're going to discuss the portrayal of gender and
gender roles within the game and also kind of the
impact that that has on audiences and players. I
want to include audiences too because not everyone
plays the game. They watch playthroughs. Yeah. So
the first thing that stands out in Cyberpunk is
the extensive customization options that it's
extensive to even the point of customizing your
own genitals. Yeah. You can choose what genitalia
you have and on top of that you can pick a design
for your pubic hair and a color. But at least for
us, we went through all of the customization
options and it took us over 30 minutes just to set
a character and make sure we looked at everything.
But there was over 50 hair options. A lot of hair,
there's like 20-ish or like 15 of the skin
options, but like a lot of the darker skin tones
also came off looking a little bit ashier than
that. Yeah, very grey toned and lifeless. Yeah,
which probably fits into that dystopian aesthetic.
But it's still like not the best. And then there's
also like the way picking your gender works is you
actually pick your voice and the voice you choose
corresponds with the pronouns. Your character will
have in the game. So like that's completely
separate from the physical body you create. But
there are only two gender options in those voice
options because one voice defaults to she her
pronouns and the other voice defaults to he him.
So it's definitely within the gender binary. Yeah,
and then going into like the actual gameplay,
there's like a good 45-50 minutes of just like
getting adapted to the world of the cyberpunk
aesthetic in minutes. The first like introduction
to like a like feminine character of power or like
who has like a little bit more agency is the
trainer. Yeah, so after like the kind of plot
setup, which pretty much exclusively involves men
unless you choose to play as a woman, then that's
the only woman. But after that, you get into a
little optional training module, which is like
kind of put into the game as a plot point, but
it's also a tutorial for first time players on how
to do things like hacking and combat. And the
person training you is like the first woman you
really come into contact with. And so like yeah,
she's in like a powerful authoritative role. But
then there's also the fact that she's a teacher
and in other missions like her whole job is like
she's on the phone with you telling you what to
do. So she has that like nurturing guiding role
that is kind of like stereotypical for women.
Yeah, and the thing that stood out for me with her
character because I wasn't with you when you were
initially playing the training part. And I walked
in during you know during one of the missions. And
I thought she was AI and how she was presented and
like how a lot of AI voices are gendered to be
more feminine. And they're like kind of like
service kind of way of like oh she's getting you
through. She's there to help you. Yeah, I think
that's also like the whole training part the way
it works in the game is like it's a VR. So like
you're playing the game so it's and it's not a VR
game. But the training module itself is like the
playable character V goes into a VR thing. And
then the trainer is just a hologram kind of
disappearing and appearing as needed. And you
really only realize she's an actual person when
you finish that and start doing your missions. And
she's kind of I don't know if it was an earpiece
or on the phone with you. Yeah, but she's giving
you directions and like not too much detail about
the mission that was given by the main side
character like a company character. I don't know
what we would call him. Jackie who just kind of
like does all of the quests with you at least in
the beginning. And it's like kind of just like
this close connection like the closest like friend
that's in the heart. So speaking on to like the
first real like actual mission that you do. You
take a lot of time going and like doing all this
shoot like there's a lot of fighting that gets and
like breaking into rescue a person and it's a
woman. And when we get to her she's found a tub
completely naked like cut up and like you know you
don't know what. So she has like typical you know
like cyborg body mods but she also has just some
mutilation on her body unrelated to like the
cyborg body mods that are all over the game. Yeah,
and then she was also found it wasn't just like
she was just in the tub by herself. She was found
in the tub with another guy. But like the one
thing that stood out for me was she had no clothes
on at all but he had some like little boxes on to
cover up which I found to be a little. A little
weird that they're both in the exact same
situation unconscious in a tub. But she's
completely naked and he is only partially naked.
Yeah, and then it kind of like feeds makes me
wonder who's who's that for like is it in the it
like in the hope like in the van of like this is
for the male gaze. Give them some like some some
boobs to look at and like you know it's it's it's
weird. Especially like yeah it's a rescue mission
so you're expecting you know someone injured and
like vulnerable. But just the nudity makes no
sense especially with the addition of a male
character who is not completely nude. Yeah, and
like talking about the male gaze there is that
whole Jennings reading we did where she talks
about shifting the gaze which can be done by you
know like creating gaze creating games in the
feminine gaze or playing games made in the male
gaze in a feminine gaze. And so in this to me it
reads like you can't even try to get rid of the
male gaze that's within that mission because it's
so deliberate and out there and like this
character does not speak to you. She doesn't do
anything she's just unconscious and you take her
out of the tub carrier to a balcony and medics
come and that's it. Yeah, I did find a quote from
a more a movie reading and it says women that
stand in patriarchal culture as a signifier for
the male other bound by a symbolic order in which
man can live out his fantasies and obsessions
through linguistic command by imposing them on the
silent image of a woman still tied to replace us
bear not maker of meaning. Yeah, that that but
that's obscene maybe think of that quote that mean
think of this reading because it's just like even
though that the male character did not have you
know any lines or anything you're just there. But
for me was like the fact that she was exposed in
such a way. Yeah, and he wasn't yeah, like they
both you don't interact with them other than
finding it. Yeah, but it still places him in a
very different position.
So then also another quote from the read and
reading I did and research for this. It was kind
of this reading on how men and women kind of
interact with stress in different ways and like or
severe extreme situations. And it was kind of
basically saying that women are more able to like
more likely to internalize their emotions and like
feel more like anxiety and depression. And that
made me think of how the female like authority
figures I use air quotes there. Like police
officers are portrayed in comparison to the male
police officer is in the same like yeah. Because
especially and I did a lot of like time working on
listening to the individual like NPC
conversations. And a lot of them were the theme
like one particular that stood out for me was the
female cop was very. It was very passive and how
her approach of you know pushing her authority on
like the characters around her versus how the
other care like we were watching one team where
the male police officer was like you can't get
through here. You're not allowed get away and go
which and then as you like drive up you talk to a
female officer and like Jackie you know male
companion of the player character is kind of
giving this whole like sob story not really a sob
story. But like definitely an emotional appeal to
her like talking about how his girlfriends waiting
for him and she's going to be really upset and he
just he needs to get to his girlfriend. And he's
like I guess trying to appeal to this woman's
sympathy and I think it's interesting that that's
the officer that was put in the game for him to
talk to. Yeah. And then like really quickly
another conversation that was I was listening to
was this one female officer was like she ran to go
help someone who is in need. And then I guess they
put the other officer kind of the danger or like
to make him look bad so thus he got mad at her and
was like why would you ever do that. Yeah. You
know you sit in like stand in place and you don't
like you know you have to follow orders and like
and he was like threatening her like putting her
in his subservient like. Yeah and like in a way he
like sees her doing her job as her undermining his
authority. Yeah exactly and it was kind of just
like while you're both officers of the law. Yeah.
But law in the air quotes again because dystopian.
Yeah and I mean it's pretty clear from earlier on
in the game that officers of the law aren't
actually upholding the law at all. They're just
kind of there. They're kind of pushing their own
objectives and yeah and there definitely is a lot
of corruption with I would say like the group in
the game. The Corpos kind of controlling the
police but yeah that's not exactly what we're
talking about with just some. Yeah context. Yeah
we'll get more into them in the next one because
we're going to talk about disability and less
impoverty as well. But just like to wrap it up a
little bit. I think the main questions we had in
our mind and like we kind of wanted to push like
think about when approaching other games too is
like how does the male gaze or feminine. Like how
does the male gaze influence you know the
production of the game and then how can we use a
feminine gaze to. Yeah. Approach it, play it, like
pick through like things that we wouldn't you know
normally pick out and just you know if you're just
like the general gameplay. I don't like I know
looking. So like kind of the role of gender in
this dystopian world. Yeah. And like with like you
know a dystopian world kind of not really having
any order. How is gender roles still being
reinforced in kind of a chaotic
I would say setting. Yeah and it's kind of
interesting we see that in some in many ways and
like many examples of it. Whether it may be like
you know like like sex workers. I think I'm
listening to a conversation from a sex worker in
the game as well. Yeah. And like there are
different examples of how they kind of their
gender role is or roles of gender are still in
play. And this world is still very much a even
though it's a dystopian universe where like think
rules and laws are very muddy. Yeah. The
patriarchy still doom and over it all. It's like
yeah you know no one really actually cares about
the law. There's no real respect for a government
or like many societal rules except for patriarchy.
It's no it's there it's there but yeah. But yeah.
It's been Caleb and Johnny and it's listening.
Join us next time to talk about disability and
wealth and poverty. Yeah. Sweet.