“Good morning! Isn’t it a beautiful day to be a woman? It’s time to get up and go about your business doing lady things, but you can’t do that it your pyjamas – you need some clothes! “
So begins an Internet game created by Alyson Macdonald in Scotland. You choose what you want to wear and where you’re going, but… then see what happens as you try to go about your day as a woman (hint: street harassment).
She kindly wrote to me about the game and where the idea for it came from —
The original idea came to me after reading an article about some ridiculous internet games about hair care and facials that are aimed at women. The idea of “women’s interests” – in magazines, games, or anything else – really annoys me because it lumps all women together as a homogeneous group who are only interested in gender stereotyped activities.
The women I know aren’t like that. Yes, some of my friends do enjoy having their nails done or own a huge collection of eye make-up, but that’s one tiny part of who they are. So I decided on a whim that I wanted to parody these games about Lady Things with a game about experiences which are common to most women.
The idea of making an unwinnable game about sexual harassment pretty much appeared in my head fully formed, and even though I’d never actually made a game before, this idea made me want to give it a go. I did a bit of online research and discovered a piece of software called Twine, then a couple of days later I was releasing my first game on the internet.
The reactions so far have mostly been positive, from both feminists and indie game enthusiasts (and the two aren’t mutually exclusive). A couple of anti-feminists have left comments telling me to “man up” and stop treating women as if we’re too delicate to cope with being catcalled or groped. But I’m not saying that women can’t cope with harassment, what I’m saying is that we shouldn’t have to.
Alyson Macdonald lives in Edinburgh and has been a feminist since the day she heard a teacher explain what the word means. She is a co-editor of the blog Bright Green and tweets as @textuallimits.
