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Sex sells. Whether it be through music, films, advertisements or video games, it is clear that the portrayal of women has become skewed. Ads that incorporate sex appeal do it to attract a particular group (including women) to their products. What the company doesn't realize is that the way society views women is changing, and that women are becoming regarded as objects and commodity. This is true in video games as well, in which the portrayal of women is extremely exaggerated and idealized; to the standard of the game designer. Even the behavior of the women in games is frivolous, and quests given by them can result in running errands or beating up their lovers. It is the high level of sexuality that I'm interested in, and I intend to explore the themes of sexual violence, danger, and the idea of woman as commodity in Fallout 3, by Bethesda Softworks, and A Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. While the sexual violence is not as strong in the original, unmodified Fallout 3, the hints of it are overwhelming, as is the reality that it becomes an entirely different game once modified.
Fallout 3 is a post-apocalyptic computer and console semi-open ended, action role-playing game developed and published by Bethesda Softworks as the third installment in the Fallout series and a sequel to Interplay's Fallout and Fallout 2. It was released on October 28, 2008 in North America. The game takes place in the year 2277, 200 years after the Great War, on the East Coast of what used to be the United States of America, mostly in Washington, DC, Southwest Maryland, Eastern Pennsylvania and Northeast Virginia. The game play features include real-time combat and first or third person perspective. i The game begins in an underground safe house called a Vault. Vaults were created before the Great War to house those wanting refuge from the impending atomic apocalypse, or in the case of the main character (the Lone Wanderer), was Vault 101.“For on the fateful day, when fire rained from the sky, the giant steel door of Vault 101 slid closed... and never reopened. It was here you were born. It is here you will die. Because, in Vault 101: no one ever enters, and no one ever leaves.” ii After the Lone Wanderer escapes from Vault 101, they are plunged into the remnants of what used to be sociey, called the Capital Wasteland, where they must fight for survival against mutations (both animal and human), ghouls, raiders, and the environment itself, which is full of radiation and scarce of sustenance.
The game is set in the future, but has a 1950s style in its illustrations. This creepy, atomic-blasted, seemingly innocent and naive 1950s exterior sets the stage for a less innocent and much more dangerous experience. This isn't to say that the game is using the 1950s look for the innocence, but that the 'happy go lucky, everything is just grand' ideals of the 1950s have been ripped out of their original contexts and transformed into a disturbing and unsettling venue for the apocalypse. The images and phrases create the sense of a childlike hope and unwaveringly positive world view. Some posters exclaim helpful tips on how to survive the atomic bombings, such as the image advertising for Vault-Tec, which features cartoon-like graphics that make light of the situation (see illustration 1).
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| Illustration 1 - There won't really be a nuclear war - right? |
But what does all of this have to do with women? Under the facade of a happy go lucky era, Fallout 3 is opening eyes to what life could be like after an atomic war. Life becomes the game of survival, of reaching the top of the food chain and defending your property. Property, as one bar owner (Colin Moriarty) in the game would consider, that includes women. In “real life,” times of disaster and war show an increase of sexual abuse and control of women. This abuse includes “sexual slavery, slave labor, abduction, assault, amputation, forced pregnancy, disembowelment of pregnant women, torture, trafficking, mutilation, theft and the destruction of property. Rape and sexual slavery were committed almost exclusively against females.iii There is a semblance of order in new towns that are created, but in a land where paper money is no longer valuable and food and resources are scarce, you can see how the idea of procreation would become an issue. Finding a healthy woman to keep the species going would be a difficult task, let alone finding a willing woman with whom to 'recreate.' It is not surprising that there would be an increase in the sexual violence against women in such a time, especially when everyone is fighting for what is “theirs.” Bethesda doesn't come right out and say these things, but it is implied in interactions and plot lines.
One such interaction is found in Vault 101, where a gang called the Tunnel Snakes is cornering a girl the Lone Wanderer knows. The leader says he can show her a “real tunnel snake” before the Lone Wanderer character steps in to either brawl or convince them to walk away. Another is the slavers that roam the Wasteland. Several quests feature slavery as some point of the mission, and the Lone Wanderer can even capture people to sell to slavers and own a slave named Clover. Clover is described as “brainwashed into being absolutely loyal to her master and will do almost anything for him or her.” Regardless of the sex you play as the Lone Wanderer, the slave is still a female. Eulogy, the character that owns her before she is purchased by the Lone Wanderer, “claims that she is one of the craziest girls he's ever seen which makes her perfect as a bodyguard because she's 'Crazy in love with whoever holds her leash.' Clover doesn't get along with Eulogy's other female bodyguard because she sees her as competition and wants Eulogy's attention all to herself.”iv
Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's Tale talks about these same things. The book is set in a dystopic future in which fertility is a rare and coveted thing, due to chemical spills and pollution. There is a coup on the government, and the Republic of Gilead, after assassinating the president and congress, takes over. They create new laws forbidding women to own property or have jobs. Pornographic materials are destroyed, as are all lingerie and costumes. Birth control and abortions are looked down upon and eventually unavailable because of the waste of human life. While society is in an uproar at this time, no one is capable of fighting back, and those who do are severely punished. The main character of the story, only known as Offred, tries to escape the United States and cross the border with her husband Luke and her child. They are caught, and she never sees her family again. The government dissolves her marriage to Luke, saying that it was invalid because he had been divorced. This makes her a single woman, since she's never been married, and she is a candidate for becoming a Handmaid. The term handmaid is used for fertile women who, despite pollution and other factors, can still reproduce. After they have been trained, have their names and identities stripped away, and are reduced to no value other than reproduction, a handmaid will be sent to a powerful family who has trouble conceiving. These families consist of a husband, called a Commander, and his Wife, who is only recognized by the term 'Wife.' They also have other servants that take care of the household. The Wife is in charge of the household, while she herself does nothing but knit or gossip with other Wives.
Women are no longer allowed to read, and universities have shut down. In order to shop for the household, handmaids must use images of the object they intend to buy. Women aren't allowed any access to words, and can be killed for having them in their possession, although they aren't allowed any of those either. Fertile women are collected and turned into handmaids, infertile women become things called “unwomen,” where they are sent to highly polluted areas called Colonies. In these colonies, they are made to clean up pollution and spills without any protective gear. They only exist to die, much like the crows from the plague state that Foucault talks about in his Panopticon. It is here that handmaids are sent if they are unable to conceive after attempting with three different families. People in the Colonies die slow, painful deaths because of overexposure to radiation and damaging chemicals. Women that are not sent to the Colonies go to a place called Jezebel's, which is essentially a whore house for the elite males. Scavenged lingerie and Halloween costumes are collected and put on the women. This is a major risk on their part, because outfits that adorn the women are outlawed and punishable by death. No wives are allowed in, and all the women that live there must go through a procedure that ensures they are infertile, to ensure the embarrassment of pregnancy outside of the Commander's marriage doesn't happen. Ironic, considering what they do with the handmaids.
Training of a Handmaid takes place in the Red Center, which is located inside an old high school. Training consists of steadfast prayer, routine walks, limited interaction with others, and brainwashing. All this is done and controlled by other women called Aunts. These women are incapable of conceiving, and are put into the leadership roles because they either believe everything they teach, or because they want what limited power they can still get. They carry cattle prods on their belts, and are quick to use them on any woman they think is misbehaving. The Aunts monitor the every move of the handmaids, guiding them on walks around the school yard and taking them to the bathroom. These women are also in charge of the safety of the handmaids. The Aunt in charge of training Offred gives speeches “extolling Gilead's beliefs that women should be subservient to men and solely concerned with bearing children. Aunt Lydia also argued that such a social order ultimately offers women more respect and safety tan the old, pre-Gilead society offered them.”v
While sexual abuse like those mentioned above is almost nonexistent, there are new dangers for women that weren't in the pre-Gilead society. Such as being sent to the Colonies, being sent to a different home if she doesn't conceive, being punished by death if reading or owning any reading material, smoking, drinking alcohol, conceiving the child of someone other than a Commander, and so on. Every aspect of the handmaid's life that becomes uniquely hers is something she can be punished or killed for. If a handmaid does conceive and bring a baby to term, she is only allowed to keep it long enough to give it nutrients from her breast milk. After that time, the baby is taken care of by the household, and the Wife is able to claim the child as hers, as if she had given birth.
The Handmaid's Tale creates a disturbingly believable world in which women are treated as objects for the sole purpose of reproduction, and only have value as long as they are useful and functional. Just as Fallout 3 creates a believable view of what the U.S. Could be like after a nuclear war. Both use existing human faults and exploit them.
The Handmaid's tale does a better job at explaining the whole idea of women as commodity, however, than Fallout 3. The entire Gileadean society is based on the trade and use of women, and this use determines the future. Women are no longer seen as having individual identities, but become a “natural resource” with which to perpetuate the human race. In Fallout 3, there are suggestions that women are being used as sex slaves, but their use does not seem to determine the future or success of the species. Instead, women in Fallout 3 seem to exist for pleasure and trade. Because there is so much emphasis on the sustainability of the species in Handmaid's Tale, the sexual exploitation of women as a commodity seems practical to the Republic of Gilead. It only makes sense that when trees are being cut down faster than they grow to plant more trees. Except they apply this idea to humans. While the handmaids supposedly enter into this contract 'willingly,' they are forced with that choice or going to the Colonies. Self preservation seems to take control of them, and the women are prepared to endure the unwanted sex with the Commander. Offred says this act isn't rape, because “nothing's going on here that I haven't signed up for.” Even if signing up was forced, she “is not a concubine or a geisha girl,” meaning her purpose is not to be a prostitute, but to be a vessel for procreation. Because her identity is removed and she takes on the name of the Commander she serves (Of Fred = Offred), she is no longer a person but a “two legged womb.”
The sexual violence is stronger in Fallout 3, despite the unwanted sex (that isn't rape) in Atwood's book. There are no overt images of sex in the game, except for those that players want to see.
In fact, there are game mods that players can add to Fallout 3 that allow rape and sexual encounters unintended by the game designers. Mods, which is short for modifications, are add-ons for games that change the way the game is played. This can be through additional weapons, customization, changing of stats, enhancing different aspects of a character to make it more powerful, or to make the game more interesting. Not surprisingly, there are mods that boost the sexuality of a game and make it more sexually stimulating. One mod for Fallout 3 shows animated sex scenes, such as those with Nova, the prostitute in Moriarty's bar, instead of just fading to black and showing Nova asleep on the bed next to you. Other characters are also now available to have sex with, all of which show the sex acts. Afterwards, the naked male, if the player has created one, will run around in a continued state of arousal during battle and other excursions. There is great emphasis on genitalia, although the animations are crude and described as “rag dolls” being thrown around. vi Another rape mod allows opportunities for a male character to rape women in the game, and if you are playing a female, it is possible for you to be raped. The option to rape can also happen while in melee combat, and female characters have can be raped at random during combat, including a female character you play. She can be raped by humans, dogs, animals, and other mutant enemies that exist. If she does get raped, the enemy will continue attacking during. In the forums, several people complain that it is hard to play with this mod, because it is so easy to die. There are also many other mods that make the women more attractive to look at, allow full customization of the armor, allow the character to be played in lingerie, or even in the nude.vii I cannot speak first hand to these, but many forums exist that discuss these mods if you want to know what other depravity is available.
The Handmaid's Tale features strong sexual violence as well, only through control, rather than exploitation. Women no longer have a say about what happens to their bodies; what they consume, drink, and do is dictated by law to 'protect' the woman. Offred was a smoker before the Republic of Gilead took over, and had a strong addiction to nicotine. She mentions throughout the book how much she longs for a cigarette, and tries to inhale the smoke when she gets the chance. Because her body is now prized only for its womb, she is not allowed to do anything that would damage her chances of having a baby, or of damaging the baby if she conceives. The only time she manages to get a cigarette is when the Wife, gives her one after convincing her to sleep with another man in order to have a child (which is against the law and all involved can be killed). The cigarette is like a prize for the handmaid for consenting to the Wife's request. Sex is extremely controlled, and the men who were not married before the Republic took over do not get to have a woman. It is only if they rise in ranks do they become allowed to marry, or to own a handmaid. Because of this, the handmaids are ogled everywhere they go, and are aware of the effect they have on the men. This is not because they are attractive, per se, but because of what they represent. Their red cloaks mark that the woman under it is fertile and open for sex, to whomever may own her. One might think that rapes would increase due to the lack of women and pornographic material to ease their suffering, but rape is punished with death by handmaids. A man caught or accused of rape is taken to a ceremony called a Salvaging, where group marriages of female children of the elite families take place and handmaids are executed. The man convicted of rape is put into the middle of a circle of the handmaids, who beat him to death.
Despite no animations of sexual acts or sexual violence in the un-modded Fallout 3, there is still an air of danger that exists toward women. The environment perpetuates this idea, and as a female gamer, I tend to be highly aware of the way the environment is portrayed. Partially due to post apocalyptic movies that share a theme with Fallout 3 in which women are kidnapped, tortured and raped in brutal ways. The color of the environment is the same in each of these atomic wastelands, no matter if it is game or film or book for that matter, where the land is described as sandy and barren. As a child of media and film, I have grown to recognize what this land symbolizes, and what is associated with it: death, anarchy, and rape.
No matter what medium the post-apocalyptic wasteland is portrayed in, I have been trained to know what the formula is for the plot. A war of some sort has destroyed the land, society has crumbled, there is no longer a ruling body so there will be a power struggle. The good guy of the story will be trying to keep himself or a family alive, and will encounter a powerless female that he will take care of, be it from his family, someone he rescues, or someone that follows him around. This will eventually draw attention from someone who thinks they are powerful, and who will try to take what is theirs. This usually leads to murder, kidnap, and rape, until the good guy can take out the bad guy.
I know what to expect in these stories, and so when I put Fallout 3 into my Xbox, I have an idea of what to expect from the game. I am constantly on guard, aware of the danger I have put my female avatar in. I understand the dangers women face, not only from pre-made formulas created by Hollywood, but because of the daily life I live. I am fortunate not to be in constant danger of this, but I have been taught how to avoid bad situations and what to do if I end up in one. As a woman, I know that paying attention to my environment and questioning peoples' intentions is important. This is not to say I walk around paranoid, but every woman, even from a young age, is taught the ploys that might be used against her. It becomes second nature to me to be aware of who is walking behind me, to judge how quickly they are walking, and how to nonchalantly check out my surroundings. Just as one learns to cross the street and the rules for it, I have been taught preventative measures for protecting myself. Some women go further, and learn to protect themselves if they are unable to prevent the encounters. We have access to mace, firearms, and our own bodies to protect ourselves. We know that you can't scream HELP or RAPE because no one will come for you. You have to make the situation affect the safety of the public before a helpful response is made. Yell FIRE instead. If this holds true in a populated area where society is at its 'finest,' what hope do women have if they are caught alone in a wasteland, with limited ways to protect themselves and no help to come for them?
It is these daily, routine preventative measures that I am aware of when playing a female character. I don't know what to expect from the game because they are often stepping away from reality while keeping just enough reality for you to be comfortable in. This changes the dangers that women face, and they become unknowns. I do know what each place in the game could mean for a woman, though, and I only the associations from my real life to operate on. Even if walking down a dark alley in the game yields no dangerous interaction, I have been on alert throughout the entire walk. I am hyper sensitive and aware of my surroundings in games such as these, because I hate to put my female character in danger. Dangerous interactions aren't the only cue for me to be on the alert, because dialogue plays just as much a role in that. If what a male character says is threatening or hints at something that could become a bad situation, I become suspicious and wonder what they could possibly do later in the game. I do not trust these characters, unless they do something redeeming for themselves. One such instance of this is the Tunnel Snake interaction with Amata that I mentioned before. The gang corners and surrounds her, displaying intimidating body language and propositioning her with offers of seeing a “real tunnel snake.” My distrust of the offending males increases, and I am sure to watch out for what they are doing around me. It is not until the Lone Wanderer must escape from Vault 101 that the leader of the Tunnel Snakes can (possibly) redeem himself. His mother is trapped and is being attacked by mutant cockroaches, called Radroaches, and he needs your help. You have the option of saving her or escaping. Should you choose to rescue her and do so in time, the leader, Butch, will take on a much kinder role, thanking you profusely and giving you his jacket. To me, Butch is no longer a threat. However, should you ignore him or let his mother die, he threatens you again and will continue to stay a threat as long as you are in the Vault. His dialogue indicates his actions toward your character. Another sketchy encounter with a dangerous male is the Stranger in Moriarty's bar. While his dialogue with you is the same if you are male or female, it is the suggestive nature of his threats that make me even more cautious. Should you refuse his offer of blowing up the town of Megaton and tell the Sheriff, they will fight. If you aren't there to help the sheriff, the Stranger will kill him. He will then find you and tell you that you better watch your back. From this encounter, I am lead to believe that I will see him again, and his intentions toward me will be less than friendly.
Even if there is no danger specifically aimed at women in the game, I will usually choose to play a male character instead. If the environment indicates it will prove to be dangerous to women like the other films and books do, I want to be in a role that doesn't put me in inherent danger because of my sex. I feel that a male character doesn't have to be as careful in his environment and can get by without the tiptoeing and hesitancy that comes with playing a female character. The danger of rape and the implied rape in the game are no longer a concern, and I can relax and focus on my enjoyment of the game, instead of the discomfort that I usually have when encountering a post-apocalyptic environment.
My choice of playing a male character to avoid female specific danger is not something that is consistent through each game that I put in my Xbox. It is entirely dependent on the possible danger that is available in the game. If I am playing Skyrim, for instance, I will happily play a female character. This is because she is safe from the dangers the women in Fallout 3 face. Her world is one where she can attain power and respect, without the fear of being captured and killed and raped. It may be that society hasn't completely shut down that reassures me of this. There is a governing body, guards and jail time for those who break the law. I am not afraid to take my character out at night, even if there are bandits. There is none of this in Fallout 3, where there is no government or punishment for what you do. While Skyrim does have a lot of sexuality, it is not portrayed as sexual abuse and sexual danger, unless, once again, you mod the game.
Although males are not exempt from sexual abuse, I have yet to see a game that portrays men as susceptible to the dangers that women are. Therefore, I am comfortable going to places in the skin of a male that I wouldn't take my female character. The raider hideouts are no longer a sexual threat, so I am much more prepared to go in. I cannot stress enough that I realize there is no overt sexual threat to women in Fallout 3, but it only takes implication to cause discomfort. This is also not to say that the male character is stronger than the female character, because you can have the same S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats as a male character that a female character has; it doesn't change how well either does in the game. The choice of playing as a male or female seems to be purely aesthetic. You rarely see the character him/herself once the armor is put on, and the avatar can take on a sexless identity. For me, the choice of male or female is made depending on the environment and the dangers that could specifically be aimed toward playing a female.
Fallout 3 is more on the end of implied danger toward women, and the Handmaid's Tale is definitely on the end of actualized danger. The Handmaids are constantly threatened with death, and have no reason to live except to produce babies for elite families. Atwood creates a believable society that allows the use of women, and even encourages it. The daily dangers toward women are believable because they are based on dangers that exist in real life. If a woman even owns a piece of reading material, it is viewed as rebelling against the Republic, and she can be maimed or killed for having it. Offred is nervous about a pillow that is in her cell at the Commander's house, because it has the word faith stitched onto it. She questions what will happen to her if someone outside the household sees that, and wonders if the fact that it was in the room before she was will absolve her.
While is is safe for women to go shopping in the streets without fear of sexual abuse, the fear of being an taken away by the silent van that belongs to the Eyes is a real one. The Eyes are spies for the Republic of Gilead, and can be handmaids, interpreters, someone from the household, or any other person on the street. If an Eye discovers a treasonous act, they are allowed to take the offending person away, and nothing can be done for them. The people taken in the van are never seen again. On walks to town and during shopping trips, it is not uncommon for the Eyes to come take someone off the street. The only thing said about this is spoken through Offred's thoughts: “I'm just glad is wasn't me.”
The danger of being less than human is also one that women face under the rule of the Republic of Gilead. If a woman refuses to submit to their doctrine, she is deemed an “unwoman” and is sent to die in the Colonies. Handmaids that fail to conceive after three different families are sent here, since they are barren. In the Republic of Gilead, only women are considered fertile or infertile, and the man is not to blame for the lack of a child. The term “sterile” has become outlawed, even though many of the men seem to be sterile due to environmental effects as well. It is a fear of the handmaids to become unwomen, because while they may just live to be a womb on two legs, they still value their lives. If a woman does conceive and it turns out to be a healthy baby instead of an “unbaby,” which is a mutated or stillborn baby, she will be given a short time to rest and then will be sent right back into the breeding grounds again. This will be her life, until she dies during childbirth or some such cause, or until she is deemed an unwoman and sent to die a radiated death.
The idea of women as commodity is not a new one, and both Fallout 3 and The Handmaid's Tale show what life can be like if this becomes accepted practice. Even in today's world, women are more and more objectified and treated like objects of desire, instead of human beings. If exploiting the sexuality of a woman helps sell a product, there is no hesitation on behalf of a company to play on this to boost sales. This leads to an increase in the way women are portrayed in video games as well, where the options for sexual violence are readily available. If a game does not already include over sexualized women and sexual encounters, players have figured out how to mod games to include it, with as much detail as they please. The need for this sexualization of unsexualized things is baffling, and seems to all stem from the fact that sex sells. Sex sells games, movies, products, and boosts the interest of a consumer. Why not utilize that? Sexual violence, specific danger toward women and the idea of women as a commodity has become rampant, and unless we stop to examine these ideas closely, we could end up in a society like that in The Handmaid's Tale or Fallout 3.
iiFallout 3 quote, Narrator
iii Nirit Ben-Ari and Ernest Harsch, Sexual violence, an 'invisible war crime', http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol18no4/184sierraleone.htmhttp://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol18no4/184sierraleone.htm
ivClover description and quote – falloutwikia.com/wiki/Clover
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