Heavy Metal

Riot Grrrls Wanted

Finding Our Inner Riot Grrrl

She wants me to go to the mall
She wants me
To put the pretty, pretty lipstick on
She wants me to be like her
She wants me to be like her
I want to kill her
But I'm afraid it might kill me
- Bikini Kill, "Alien She"

Modern videogames themes include the exploration of alien planets, the horrors of war and the idiosyncrasies of capitalist philosophies, but they have yet to ever meaningfully investigate the experience of being a woman in a world that is still significantly controlled by men.

I can tell you what it's like for me sometimes. It's like living as a prisoner in an alien society - you know that story - only your real enemies are your fellow prisoners. At best, the society doesn't know what to do with you and, at worst, it wants your body, because it can't survive without you. But when the machine isn't trying to eat you, the other prisoners are. They hold up the machine, are addicted to it, opt out of it, fight it - or worse, some of each, alternating at random. They fight dirty, with words and mind games, until you long for something as simple and easy as "I hate your guts and I want to kill you." But they don't fight that way, because they know you need to be one of them or the whole thing might come crashing down. You love them, even though you don't want to, because they're prisoners and because they're you. You lose who you are, if you're lucky enough to get there in the first place.

This is the stuff of the darkest science fiction. Maybe if a game exploring what it feels like to be a woman were made, it would scare the shit out of us because it would feel too real. But it's within the power of the medium to explore. Besieged by AAA games that seem to grow only more empty of important issues as time goes on (Bayonetta, I'm looking at you), there has never been a better moment for revolution.

The experiences of women may not be easy to portray in the aggressive world of videogames. If such a game is made - and I hope it is - it will be because its creators demanded to be heard. It will be created because women made it.

We know that there are women playing games. We need more women making games, and we need them to create from their hearts, not from what they're told by publishers or anyone else. We need a girl riot, and we need it now.

Erin Hoffman is a professional game designer, freelance writer and hobbyist troublemaker. She moderates Gamewatch.org and fights crime on the streets by night.