Ageism and Gender in Indie Video games: The Cat Lady

Abstract

Introduction. Video games, like other media, have represented female characters according to traditional gender stereotypes. However, in the last decade, demands from the female gaming community have driven an evolution in these characters, making them more diverse and complex, with greater weight and agency in the action. The video game The Cat Lady (Harvester Games, 2012), starring a middle-aged woman with mental health problems, is one of the indie games that reflect this. Methodology. This article carries out a qualitative analysis focused on the design of the video game (MDA Model) based on the GEB (Gaming Educational Balance) methodology and whose theoretical horizon is located in Game Studies and Gender Studies. Objectives. The aim is to elucidate the extent to which games far from the mainstream propose new representations of gender, in such a way that the study reveals that The Cat Lady not only articulates an interesting protagonist who is physically far from the norm, but also raises eminently feminine issues such as gender roles, male violence, feminicide and even class issues such as job insecurity. Results and conclusions. The Cat Lady presents a hostile world for women, where men are a threat as perpetrators of extreme violence. Sorority, understood as an alliance between women, is established as a strategy to win. The video game functions as a story about depression as a process, about helping and being helped, leaving the past behind and finding the will to live.