A Power Shrouded in Petticoats and Lace: The Representation of Gender Roles in Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation

Margaret Steenbakker

Abstract


This article explores the gendered narrative in the video game Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation. Using this game as its main case study, it addresses the question in which ways the game developers have conceptualized gender, race, and gender performance in the video game. It does so from an intersectional point of view. After establishing Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation as a prime example of the trend to include more female characters in games during recent years, I will argue that this game includes a complex rhetoric that not only perpetuates stereotypical notions regarding gender, but also fails to acknowledge issues regarding its main protagonist’s skin color in the historical reality the game wishes to emulate.


Keywords


gender, gender performance, video games, race, intersectionality

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/nh.2021.6.92-110
Date of publication: 2021-10-10 16:24:47
Date of submission: 2020-12-23 20:45:40


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