games  anime  |  toys
This is a Dtoid readers's blog. For staff blogs click here. Confused? read this Create you own!  |   Members: Login now





Portal: The Ultimate Feminist Game
UMF Skibum | 6:29 PM on 02.20.2008 20 comments




WTF Wednesday is a weekly look at those shining pillars of the gaming community - forum posts, gadgets, articles and personalities - that just make you wonder "What the fu...?"
---------

Anyone that has taken a college-level lit class knows that people can – and will – read far too much into any given topic. People have long seen connections between Super Mario Brothers and socialism. The Bible and Star Wars have been seen as parallel stories. But one of the greatest examples I have seen recently comes from Joe McNeilly of gamesradar. His article Portal is the most subversive game ever distinguishes Portal as “feminist critique of the FPS genre.” You know you're in for a treat by the disclaimer that begins the article.

[Warning: The text you are about to read contains heady intellectual discourse and is not recommended for anyone made queasy by the discussion of feminist film theory or psychoanalytical signifiers.]

The four pages that follow delve into gender politics and feminist theory, discussing the meaning of everything in the game from the portals to the beloved Companion Cube. For people that don't want to take the time to read the article, here are the bullet points.

Guns in most FPS games: Penises. Guns are “... a phallic symbol of masculine agency, through which power is won and maintained,” something that is reinforced by the perspective of the player and the position of the “gun.” Every time you kill someone in CoD, you're actually destroying them with a cock.

GLaDOS: Your mom. A “maternal construct who administers the experiments,” GLaDOS represents “man's attempt to construct an idealized mother figure.” Makes you feel a little worse about [SPOILERS] destroying her, doesn't it? As a mother, GLaDOS is predictably cold, emotionally manipulative and kinda crazy.

Turrets: Men. The turrets “reintroduce the traditional masculine themes of guns and control,” and can be outsmarted by a capable woman who makes sixty cents for every dollar they earn at Aperture. Like most guys, they are incredibly threatening and easily outsmarted. Probably because they were distracted by the portals, which are ...

Portals: Vaginas. That's right, big quivering vaginas just waiting to be fingerbanged into submission by Chad Concelmo. Of course, the “oval-shaped openings [are] ... an image of the female sex organs: oval and receptive.” Mr. McNeilly goes on to compare the portals to birth canals, through which (and I am not making this up) “the protagonist is constantly being born into new trials.”

Companion Cube: Male Identity. Did you know your beloved Companion Cube was a dude? Like most of us males, the cube is “burdensome despite its usefulness” and must be carried by the female Chell. It is strictly utilitarian, and is basically around to hold down buttons and never ask for directions when it gets lost, even though its been driving around for hours. The eventual incineration of the Companion Cube represents “a mental unburdening from the need for approval from a father figure.” This very “Rule 34” (and probably NSFW) picture further suggests that the Cube represents a man.



Of course, overanalysis can be applied to any game. To his credit, Joe wrote an interesting and compelling article that challenges the way you may look Portal the next time you load it up. Or it is total psychobabble. Either way, enjoy.

Further reading can be found at Heroine Sheik's's Portal is for Lesbians, which includes the awesome quote “Vaginas you, a female character, have to enter/exit to solve puzzles. I don’t say this often, and almost never with so much support and enthusiasm, but that is so gay.”



Attached photos:

Photo Photo

Is this post awesome? Vote it up!

0


Comment with Facebook





Click connect and comment instantly!

Comment with Dtoid





New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds

19 comments | showing # 1 to 19

prev next

notdryad's Destructoid Blog
Portal is for Lesbians is an... interesting read. Just yet another silly person reading far too much into something.
HawtPawkitHero's Destructoid Blog
...what? no.
13thDragon's Destructoid Blog
I can't believe you found Portal hentai.
notdryad's Destructoid Blog
The whole companion cube as a male is just too much of a stretch.

The eventual incineration of the Companion Cube represents “a mental unburdening from the need for approval from a father figure.”

Uh, what? Yeah, sure, whatever. Remember, kids; psychobabble bullshit means you're smart.
taumpytears's Destructoid Blog
Either way to look at is portal is all about sex......
notdryad's Destructoid Blog
@13thDragon

That's rule 34 for you.
UMF Skibum's Destructoid Blog
@13th

Unfortunately, Rule 34 knows no bounds. I used the tamest picture I could from EncyclopediaDramatica's Portal page.
liam2015's Destructoid Blog
I like reading to far into things, it takes up an interesting hour of thought, but this is ridiculos.
Dead Movie Star's Destructoid Blog
I have walked in and out of vaginas for hours... awesome?
13thDragon's Destructoid Blog
Rule 34, sweeter than cake! lol
Tiff's Destructoid Blog
This article is entirely legitimate and I applaud the writer for extracting and interpreting the unique qualities of Portal's gameplay and narrative within a larger academic context. You guys have to keep in mind that the piece is about exploring ideas and theory... they're not saying outright that the companion cube EQUALS man.

From my personal experience of playing the game, the only thing I could think of doing after I finished it (other than eating delicious cake, of course) was how utterly attracted I was to Glad0s. I mean, I can't say that many adroid game personalities have spoken so intimately with my bathing suit parts before.
13thDragon's Destructoid Blog
"I can't say that many adroid game personalities have spoken so intimately with my bathing suit parts before."

That is a seriously EPIC quote right there.
UMF Skibum's Destructoid Blog
@ .Tiff

Of course, I don't mean to question the legitimacy of the article. As I said, Joe wrote a compelling, interesting piece that challenges the way you look at Portal while playing it. That being said, discussions of Mario as a socialist or Half-Life 2 as semi-sexual adolescent wish fulfillment are legitimate and often well-reasoned. All can incredibly entertaining as well as thought-provoking.
ceark's Destructoid Blog
the real question is do the developers themselves have these sort of ideas? If yes, kudos on a cool thematic analysis. If no, then yeah, it's just somebody readying way to hard into things again.
SourGr8pes's Destructoid Blog
Last time I was in a vagina, I ended up somewhere completely random, so I think this theory has merit.
Neonie's Destructoid Blog
@UMF

Thar be irnony in that Portal EPD page.
Wedge's Destructoid Blog
So Tiff is saying she's hot for her mom?
nopk's Destructoid Blog
I've read interviews with the development team over at Valve- and not to be too cynical, but I don't think they were trying to get these points across.

Like you said, the article was just a shining example of someone with a degree having too much time on their hands :)

Nice dissection though :)
Knives's Destructoid Blog
That sure is a unique way to look at it.

@ceark

Some people would say it doesn't matter if, while designing/writing the story, they meant it like that or not because it transcended their psyche and it's a representation of what they think.Yeah, it was something like that.


prev next


Comment with Facebook





Click connect and comment instantly!

Comment with Dtoid





New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds

Comments policy

Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?

Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!

 about me

Music Monday
Bob Ostertag's w00t
Versions - The Zelda Theme
The Advantage
Earthbound

Trailer Tuesday
Band Mashups
Black Mesa, Operation Black Mesa and Barney's Tales
Dig Dug

WTF Wednesday
Custom Pac-Man
Hand-Held DDR Pads
Chocolate Mii's
Portal: The Ultimate Feminist Game

Thirsty Thursday
Schneider Aventinus
Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stout
Dogfish Head 60-Minute IPA
Alaskan Smoked Porter

My brother and I got a NES for Christmas back in the early 90s, right at the end of its life cycle. One of my most vivid gaming memories is playing Super Mario World at Service Merchandise back in the day. Since then I've had a SNES (my favorite system), a N64, a Gamecube, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, DS, Wii, Xbox and 360.

Outside of gaming, I am an obsessive skier and an amateur beer homebrewer. I live up in the state of Maine, although I did spend a short stint living in Juneau Alaska. My favorite types of humor are those shown by Seth Rogen, Mel Brooks, Mitch Hedberg and Michael Showalter. I am also one of those kids that loves comics enough to go to the comic shop every Wednesday to pick up a couple of books. I used to host a radio show and love music, particularly The Clash.

Other than that, I guess the usual info...
Gamertag - UMF Skibum
Flickr - Joshy_in_Juneau
Youtube - umfskibum
BeerAdvocate - umfskibum

I'd end with a popular meme but I don't want this to be horribly outdated in about 27 seconds.

 xbox 360 gamertag
 friends' updates
Andrex's Profile Andrex
Half-Life Full-life Consequences: Free Man
Anthony Burch's Profile Anthony Burch
Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin': Uncharted 2
Banj's Profile Banj
A death on XBOX Live...
ceark's Profile ceark
I can't figure some things out and it's driving me nuts.
Chad Concelmo's Profile Chad Concelmo
The Memory Card .76: Brotherly love
Colette Bennett's Profile Colette Bennett
The Whispered World gets lucky at German Game Dev Awards
Dyson's Profile Dyson
Madness spreads to Playstation Network, Military style
EightBitMav's Profile EightBitMav
Friday's Destructoid Meet-Up: Or, Aborto and EightBitMav's fighter-spectacular.
Excremento's Profile Excremento
A Weird Kid's Top 10 -- NES Games That You Had To Leave on All-Night To Beat
MrSadistic's Profile MrSadistic
There's only one thing you need to know about me:
Nick Chester's Profile Nick Chester
Sonic costumes coming to LittleBigPlanet
NihonTiger90's Profile NihonTiger90
What'd You Get? - Valve Time Edition


 

 
  get involved

register or login
post a blog
post a forum
enter a contest
contribute a news tip
suggest a feature
be a guest editor
support

new member's guide
login assistance
tech support
report abuse
email our editors
read our dev blog
nuclear crisis?
keep in touch

RSS feed
Twitter
Facebook
Myspace
Flickr
Game nights
Meetup+play online
seriously

about Destructoid
advertising
terms of use
privacy policy
jobs at MM
buy our crap
our network

Tomopop
Japanator
Despingation?




Destructoid is an independently-run publication forged by our love of video games and the gaming community's need of accountable enthusiast press
living the dream since March 16, 2006