Jane Friedhoff is a riot grrrl game developer. What does that mean? She creates power fantasies for women that let them tell the status quo to fuck right off -- through the joy of unadulterated play.
Her latest title, Lost Wage Rampage, essentially reappropriates the hyper-masculinity of Grand Theft Auto,replacing the aimless male rage of the original driving game with the very real rage women feel after realizing they're being paid less than their male coworkers.
"It's a game about gender inequality wrapped up in an '80s-action-movie-comedy-fairytale," described its animator and artist, Marlowe Dobbe.
SEE ALSO:How a ridiculous game uses jousting dicks to interrogate toxic masculinityWhile organizations like Time's Up are bringing the harsh realities of the gender wage gap to light, Lost Wage Rampageoffers something different: a shameless revenge fantasy. Commissioned by the Peabody Essex Museum, the game is now part of their PlayTimeexhibit, exploring the shifting role of play in the arts and culture.
It's also exactly what we needed right now.
"I’m interested in creating games that allow us to viscerally experience power that we don’t have [as women], or power that we may have lost," said Friedhoff. "That sounds really serious at first, but all I really mean is that I like making games that are, essentially, that Thelma and Louisemoment where a catcaller messes with them, so they blow up his truck."
Aside from Thelma and Louise, Friedhoff was also heavily inspired by the iconic mall chase scenein Blues Brothers. "I love how weird and surreal and sillyit is. It’s so over the top and indulgent! It's so long, and so destructive, and so ridiculous," she said.
GTA, for women who are pissed about the gender wage gapCredit: JANE FRIEDOFF, PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUMSo those were the feelings she set out to recreate for women players in Lost Wage Rampage. Instead of just adding to the plethora of necessarily serious meditations on the gender inequity, "I wanted to make candy."
And that's what's so great about playing Friedhoff's games.
While the rest of the world is finally reckoning with the existence of the gender wage gap, most women are left saying, "Well, fucking duh." There's no catharsis in it for those who've been forced to deal with it their entire life. Which is where Lost Wage Rampagecomes screeching in.
At first, Friedhoff wondered whether she should concern herself with making the game educational for people (read: men) who might not be entirely convinced about the reality of a pay gap.
But, she realized, "I’m less concerned with educating someone who doesn’t know or believe this stuff, and more with giving folks who door havedealt with this shit a fun way to talk about and play with it."
SEE ALSO:This sex-positive indie game is basically Nintendo meets pornPractically every woman who's ever joined the workforce understands the experience of having their work undervalued. So for Freidhoff, "I’d rather make something for them that skips the didactic stuff -- something that’s funny, and cheeky, and lets you stomp all over it instead."
That unadulterated raging against the machine is what defines Friedhoff's games.
In Lost Wage Rampage,two shop girls take back what's theirs by stealing and wreaking havoc on the place to reclaim the profits that the store made from underpaying them.
In her previous game, Slam City Oracles, you play as two similar female avatars who destroy environment around them through the sheer force and power of their bodies.
To those who have been told to take up as little space as possible, to stop raising a fuss, to complain less -- the feelings that Freidhoff's game worlds permit are simply intoxicating. And that sensation of liberation continues to act as her North Star while designing.
Slam City Oracles lets you take up space, and take names while doing itCredit: jane friedhoff"I knew I had hit onto something good with Lost Wage Rampage when, every single time I described it to a woman, each one -- no matter how quiet and demure they were regularly -- threw their heads back and cackled," she said.
She was particularly inspired by the uniquely American, romanticized ideal of gunning "down the open road, into the great unknown, with all the freedom in the world," she said. "It’s an escapism a lot of us are looking for right now, particularly in the current political climate."
"It’s not often that women get to see themselves in media acting out ridiculous power fantasies," Dobbe said, agreeing. "And it’s nice as a woman to feel that the side of me that loves action movies and campy fantasies is being catered to, because I don’t get that as often as I’d like."
SEE ALSO:This intimate iOS game about love is the perfect way to spend Valentine's DayWomen deserve to have their own silly, impossible, pleasurable power trips -- in video games, movies, or TV shows. Especially when every new Time's Up or #MeToo story brings on wave after wave of both empowerment and distress.
In a world where we feel starved for female power, fantastical or real, Friedhoff's games don't just stand out. They bring you joy as you face the most demoralizing truths of our oppression. They offer a virtual space that we can use as a refuge -- or at least a shortcut -- from the power imbalances of a patriarchal system.
"If my games can help even one of those people fighting the good fight blow off steam from a shitty world by giving them a couple minutes of subversive fun, then I’m happy," Friedhoff concluded.
You can play both Lost Wage Rampage and Slam City Oracles for free.
TopicsActivismGamingSocial Good
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