Invisible Female Support Figures: Construing Patriarchal Representations of Gender Performativity, Agency, And Male Centrality in US Western Anglophone Military-Themed Interactive Narratives

Sergio Yagüe-Pasamón

doi:10.18172/jes.7041

Authors

Sergio Yagüe-Pasamón Centro Universitario de la Defensa Zaragoza https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4134-6011

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18172/jes.7041

Keywords:

Interactive video game text, female agency, Western Anglophone patriarchies, military video games

Abstract

This article analyses the representation of female agency in Wolfenstein: The New Order (2014) and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020), two influential military-themed interactive narratives in contemporary Anglophone digital culture. From a qualitative-interpretative perspective and a close-reading approach, the article identifies narrative and mechanical patterns that naturalise male centrality as a structuring principle of socio-political organisation. Within this framework, female figures are positioned as subordinate agents who care for, assist and validate male protagonists. The apparent modernisation of the imagery of military video game narratives by including female characters in military plots operates as a superficial gesture of inclusion. As observed in the confinement of Anya Oliwa, Caroline Becker, and Helen Park to private and combat-free environments, US top-selling military interactive texts reproduce the ideals of Western Anglophone patriarchies. The salvific mission as the male hero’s providential task and women’s voluntary alignment with male heroic agency displace female characters from victory, recognition, and the legitimation of power.

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