#Feminism Is A Collection of 34 "Nanogames" From Designers Around The World

Pelgrane Press, known for its narrative games like Hillfolk and its collection of story-games, Seven Wonders, is releasing an anthology of 34 mini-RPGs written by feminist authors from 11 different countries. These "nano-games", collected in the book #Feminism, are typically playable in under an hour, making them ideal for one-shots. Pelgrane has kindly sent along some previews of the book, which you can see below. With games like Mentioning the Unmentionables by Sweden's Kajsa Greger ("Three games about the anatomy of women: "Dances With Vulvas", "Dying for a Cup of Coffee", and "Just Put Some Salt on It"), Shoutdown to Launch by America's Jason Morningstar ("In this game about gendered interruption, a bunch of engineers need to fix a problem with a rocket engine in the dwindling time before launch. It won’t go well."), 6016 by Norway's Elin Nilsen ("In 6016 the only historical source of the 21st century is a collection of clips from the soap opera Love, Lust and Lack of Trust."), and First Joyful Mystery by Ireland's Cathriona Tobin ("Players examine the impact Ireland’s prohibitive abortion laws have on people who find themselves pregnant."), each game has an intensity rating from 1-5.

#Feminism is a 96-page softcover available for pre-order; those who do so get the PDF version immediately.

One of the anthology's writers, Emily Care Boss, spoke about her thoughts when writing Ma, Can I Help You With That?, which came out of her own process of aging and seeing others supporting their parents. The game investigated the was relationships become strained, and how men and women tend to interact with the process. Jason Morningstar, who wrote Shoutdown to Launch, talks about how his job in academia helped highlight some of the gender ratios and power dynamics, while quietly honouring engineers like Katherine Johnson and Galina Balashova.

With 34 different nano-games, a whole range of subjects are covered. Tour of Duty by Moyra Turkington looks at women in the US military; Her Last Tweet deals with a campus shooting event; and in President, the goal of the game is to draft the first female president of the Akhaian Empire's press statement. There's a full list of the games below the images below!



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First Date
Katrin Førde
A game about a date gone wrong and a rant about the orgasm gap.

Flirt Agata Swistak
Flirt is an attempt to deconstruct the game almost everyone is playing — the game of hook-ups, crushes, and scoring!

Spin the Goddesses Karin Edman
A kissing game of lesbian witches.

Willful Disregard Anna Westerling
A love story.

Manic Pixie Dream Girl Commandos Lizzie Stark
A military unit undertakes its last whimsical mission before retiring to civilian life.

6016 Elin Nilsen
In 6016 the only historical source of the 21st century is a collection of clips from the soap opera Love, Lust and Lack of Trust.

Tropes vs. Women Ann Eriksen
Explore well-known movie clichés and tropes about women in a fun and not too serious way.

Lipstick Kaisa Kangas
Sofia hesitates about whether to wear lipstick to a TV debate on feminism.

You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby Julia Ellingboe
A game about gender, cultural, and ethnic representation in the movies.

Restrictions Frida Karlsson Lindgren and Sofia Stenler
A non-verbal game on how we are and aren’t allowed to move together, as two genders.

Mentioning the Unmentionables Kajsa Greger
Three games about the anatomy of women.

#Flesh Frederik Berg, Rebecka Eriksson, and Tobias Wrigstad
A physical game about the objectification of women or how women’s bodies are butchered into parts.

Selfie Kira Magrann
An intimate game about feelings in images.

So Mom I Made This Sex Tape Susanne Vejdemo
Different generations of feminists argue it out about sex, porn, and what the main point of feminism really is.

My Sister, Malala Elsa Helin
A game about freedom of thoughts and ideas for girls in Pakistan.

A Friend in Need Muriel Algayres
A nano-game about street harassment, victim-blaming and friendship. After a bad encounter on the street, can Ella get over victim-blaming with the help of her friends?

Driving to Reunion Laura Simpson
An intergenerational game about four Black women trying to understand each other, as they drive back for college reunion.

Catcalling Tora de Boer
Street harassment feels different depending on whether bystanders support the harasser or the victim.

How to Be Ava White Eva Wei
At a board meeting, parts of Ava White’s personality decide how to make her the perfect woman.

Shoutdown to Launch Jason Morningstar
In this game about gendered interruption, a bunch of engineers need to fix a problem with a rocket engine in the dwindling time before launch. It won’t go well.

“Something to Drink with That, Sir?” Evan Torner
A woman flight attendant performs emotional labor to serve three different male passengers.

“Ma, Can I Help You with That?” Emily Care Boss
A game about family, age and the gendered nature of care-giving.

Glitzy Nails Kat Jones
A freeform scenario about intersectional feminism, interactions between women, and nail salons.

Stripped Dominika Kovacova
A game about stripping off the stigma.

President Kaisa Kangas
The war-waging Akhaian empire has elected its first female president, a very successful lady general, and feminists with conflicting agendas are trying to draft a press statement together.

Curtain Call Sarah Bowman
A larp about the experiences of a woman in the music industry over the course of four decades.

The Grey Zone Siri Sandquist
A larp about the grey zone between rape and consensual sex in a relationship.

Family Planning Clinic Baptiste Cazes and Leïla Teteau-Surel with Laura Guedes
A game about women’s health where players will play short scenes from the daily life of a French family planning clinic inspired by real stories.

First Joyful Mystery Cathriona Tobin
Players examine the impact Ireland’s prohibitive abortion laws have on people who find themselves pregnant.

Girl: A Game for Boys Livia von Sucro
A small exercise about empathy, designed for cis gendered men to take a glimpse of what it feels like to be a victim of violence against women.

Her Last Tweet Rowan Cota
A microgame exploring being a potential victim of a campus shooting event.

Tour of Duty Moyra Turkington
A freeform nano-scenario about what it’s like to serve and defend as a woman in the US Military.
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There’s a quote at the end of Joanna Russ’ The Female Man that runs along the lines of… “there may come a time when you laugh at how quaint and outdated the concerns of this book are, that the principles are taken for granted.” That was written in 1975, and while we’ve come a long way, we are not there yet. And that is sad.



A fascinating project but also horribly depressing that it needs to exist.
 

-Wing-Zero-

First Post
i just read a game where they want you to lick words off the other players and no one seems to have mentioned that.

this isn't feminism, this is some weird political litmus test. no one could realistically stomach this without some pretty strong peer pressure.
 



-Wing-Zero-

First Post
Yup, that didn't take long. sigh.

i assume these comment fields are meant to be used. it's not like i've been mean or anything. i love women and the rest of humanity as well as games.

episodes of Dora the Explorer have more maturity and subtlety than this.
 

ArchfiendBobbie

First Post
Okay, review time...

First Date- Orgasm gap? Seriously? Someone please tell me this is a joke. This seriously sounds like a MRA parody of the wage gap. Please tell me that this is a very, very late April Fools joke and someone just needs to buy a calendar.

Flirt- This is a party game. Adult party game. Inevitably, one that'll end up played by teenagers.

Spin The Goddesses- This entire description reads like an entry in the fantasy section of an adult story site. Or the description of a video on a porn site. Even as much as I back LGTB rights, the implications of the title combined with the description make me think this does women in general and lesbians in specific a massive disservice.

Willful Disregard- Okay, I'm curious.

Manic Pixie Dream Girl Commandos- This sounds awesome, actually.

6016- Is the description for it intended to make us want to play it, to warn us against playing it, to critique how bad the writing is, or just someone snarking about the author of it?

Tropes vs. Women- Okay, I'm leery. Does this include the positive tropes, the tropes that contradict other tropes, or what? I need more information. This could be good, or could be awful.

Lipstick- The description makes it sound like a short story, not a roleplaying game. If I want to be railroaded, I'll play Railroad Tycoon. At least then I can decide where the tracks go.

You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby- This is trollbait.

Restrictions- Considering how pitifully uneducated most people, including most self-proclaimed feminists, are about human psychology... This game is trollbait.

Mentioning the Unmentionables- I'll have to check these out. It's amazing how massively uneducated women are about their bodies, and I'm hopeful these at least serve to cover that.

#Flesh- This game is trollbait. Even feminists frequently fight over this topic.

Selfie- This game is trollbait. Humans are actually terrible at reading emotions through images. There's been a number of studies on this.

So Mom I Made This Sex Tape- This game is trollbait.

My Sister, Malala- This game made me facepalm. If you are so concerned about the freedom of girls in Pakistan, then why did you turn it into a &*%^ing game instead of trying to do something about it? It's almost like you're intentionally mocking women in Pakistan just because they happened to be born in the wrong country! (Note: The author is from Sweden.)

A Friend in Need- Could be interesting, could be trollbait. I'll have to check it out.

Driving to Reunion- This sounds like a good game, and it probably is. It's also unintentional trollbait, and a great way to destroy an interracial RPG group. Because, basically, unless the group is all African American, you'll have people doing the RPG equivalent of blackface. I would advise the author, the next time she makes a game like this, to stop and ask if she really wants to see what would result if it were played by a bunch of white people.

Catcalling- This game is trollbait.

How to Be Ava White- This game is possibly trollbait.

Shoutdown to Launch- This game is trollbait.

“Something to Drink with That, Sir?”- This game is trollbait.

“Ma, Can I Help You with That?”- If this is well-done, it would actually be a good game to play. If it's not, it'll be trollbait. Given the nature of the rest of the list so far and my growing pessimism that feminism had anything to do with these games? I'm going to go ahead and call this one trollbait.

Glitzy Nails- This game is trollbait. Trust me, if you've ever been in one of the intersectionality arguments, you'll understand why this is trollbait.

Stripped- This game could actually be good, depending on how it's made. I'm honestly curious enough to give this one a read.

President- This game is trollbait. Also, a great way to destroy friendships between feminists.

Curtain Call- LARP? A live-action roleplay? Seriously? Given how many of them were forcibly addicted to drugs or far, far worse... Does the author realize how offensive this game is? Do the people who put that selection of games together realize it? This is the kind of LARPing that should get people tossed in jail!

The Grey Zone- Okay, this makes the game where people will be LARPing rape for certain. Maybe, just maybe, the authors of this games could talk with some real feminists and find out why setting up a situation where people act out rape is a bad thing. Even GTA games draw the line at this, and those are intentionally offensive.

Family Planning Clinic- This sounds like it could be interesting. I'll have to check it out.

First Joyful Mystery- This game is trollbait. Both because of the abortion aspect, which is increasingly an argument within feminism itself, and because of the inevitable Irish stereotypes that'll crop up.

Girl: A Game for Boys- This game is trollbait. I've both tried this and been part of experiments where it's been tried. There are a surprising number of men, and even a number of women, who don't actually see what the big deal is about most of it. And a surprising number of men I've had try this who didn't see any difference between the game and stuff they encountered in their daily lives. Inevitably, the result is gender arguments and most people not learning anything at all.

Her Last Tweet- This game is offensive.

Tour of Duty- I would normally give this one a pass, but considering the ones where people will inevitably have to act out rape? Nope, sorry. This game is trollbait.

The games I marked as trollbait are the ones guaranteed to cause arguments, hurt feelings, and possibly even lost friendships. They will likely break most groups, even groups made of feminists.

Basically, feminism had nothing to do with these games being made. A number of the game authors don't seem to understand some of the basic tenants of feminism, or the idea that maybe feminist divisions go much deeper than simple differences of opinion. There is a reason why "feminist" is an umbrella term and not a singular movement. I would advise these developers to get out in the real world, learn about real feminism, and embrace that it's not something they can learn just by reading a couple of articles online.
 
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