Since the appearance of my “Women Monsters and Monstrous Women” article, there’s been some hubbub on the site - and, let’s admit it, some name calling - but mostly just come clashing of ideas. Of course, everyone’s free to express their own views, but I (and therefore my articles and my posts) have a very particular approach in mind, and I thought this might be a good opportunity to explain that approach, so we can all understand each other better in the future.

I’m a gamer and a journalist, but my background and my primary interests are in the realm of literature. Therefore, you’ll often find me investigating games as if they were texts. That’s not to say I think that games are books. But I do think that games are works of narrative art, which can (and should) be analyzed on the level of critical theory - that they deserve to be explored intellectually, academically, and not just appreciated as an entertaining medium or a social mirror (Although, of course, you’ll often see me comment on the social side of things as well).

This attitude is relatively uncommon in the video game world. People are only slowly coming around to the idea of video games as art: not just in the “We should appreciate games more” way, but in the way that books and paintings and movies are considered “high” art, art worthy of continuous reevaluation, art that should be explored and dissected in the most respected venues, and in the most open-minded ways, our society has to offer.

I don’t mean to sound self-important. Certainly, this form of analysis is no better or worse than the analysis that’s done, let’s say, by a reviewer. But it’s different; it’s theoretical. It’s meant to provide a novel way of looking at things. And, though gaming is very much about a player’s individual feelings, critical theory isn’t necessarily negated by individual response. It’s one way of reading - and attempting to understand - a game. It can exist side by side with lots of other reactions and opinions.

Also, it might be helpful to know my own stance on what’s commonly called “feminism”, i.e. female empowerment. Personally, as a sub and a trouble-maker, I’m very interested in the reinvention of female power - in finding strength in things that don’t fit into the “constructive” values of society, like otherness, monsters, and (above all) masochism. So, if my suggestion don’t always seem to account for “positive” female role models, it’s because, for me, part of fun is being suspicious of that very thing.

All of which isn’t to tell you how to think, it’s to explain to you how I’m thinking, so we can be on the same page when talking about the thing we all love most: games.

In other, unrelated news, I’ve acquired Nintendogs and Sims 2 within 24 hours of each other. If you don’t hear from me for a while, it’s because I’ve become a vegetable. Cheers!

Just an interesting cultural, female monster-dom to point out, since we’re on the topic (See the comments for Nov. 1’s post if you’ve missed the recent chatter.).

So, we all know the story of Beauty and the Beast - mostly as brought to us by our old friend Disney (Note the multi-tiered sarcasm.), but also from translations of popular text versions, such the Grim Brothers’. Of course, long before anyone wrote the thing down, Beauty and the Beast, in one form or another, was an oral tale. The first written version, however, was put together by a Frenchman named Charles Perrault in the seventeenth century. Therefore, when we think of the piece in its original form, we have to think of it in French.

And, obviously, the French title wasn’t “Beauty and the Beast”. Instead, it’s “La Belle et La Bête”.

Now, for those of you who know the smallest bit about French (and who remember what kind of crazy, gender-obsessed site you’re hanging out on), the first thing that should come to your attention is the presence of not one, but two, feminine definite articles. Granted, the word “bête” is itself feminine. But that doesn’t negate the implication of its gender. French has plenty of other nouns that could stand its place. Clearly there are reasons why time (and Perrault) decided on this particular word.

If you’ve ever seen Jean Cocteau’s film version of the tale (It’s a bit strange, but he was a damn cool surrealist, so he can get away with it.), Beauty always calls her captor/lover “La Bête”, as opposed to just “Bête”. And she says it over and over and over: “La Bête, La Bête, La Bête”. Lady - you feel like saying - we get the idea. But maybe that’s the idea. Maybe we don’t.

There are lots of new insights and possible meanings that a reevaluation of the gender roles in Beauty in the Beast - a tale we normally assume describes so straightforwardly an encounter between the gentile feminine and the violent masculine - could unearth. On the surface level at the least, the feminizing of the Beast speaks to a certain inherent femininity of monster-dom: That which is outside of society is female; that which is female is outside of society.

Or, perhaps, instead of being a story about the two opposing human humours, masculine and feminine, this is really an allegory about the two sides of femininity - the tamed, loving, beautiful Belle, and the wild, violent, fearfully sexual Beast.

Naturally, in our accepted version of the tale, the “healthier” form of womanhood (namely the highly-socialized, non-intimidating form) wins over the cruder, more powerful form, and literally transforms her. In alternative readings though, such as Angela Carter’s haunting retelling, “The Tyger’s Bride”, it’s the wild side that takes over the civilized one - as “each stroke of his tongue ripped off skin after successive skin, all the skins of a life in the world, and left behind a nascent patina of shiny hairs. My earrings turned back to water and trickled down my shoulders; I shrugged the drops off my beautiful fur.”

Apologies for the dramatic title, but yesterday was Halloween, and the topic for today is horror.

A piece of mine, “Women Monsters and Monstrous Women: Representing the Feminine in Survival Horror”, went up today at The Escapist, as part of an entire Girl Power issue dedicated to, well, women and games. I highly suggest you check it out - the issue itself, that is. I know that’s how I plan on spending my morning.

As some of you may know, women monsters in games - and the larger concept of the horrible female - is something of a favorite topic for me, so I’m quite glad to have a few words out there. If you’re interested in other such wonderful-ness outside the medium of game, I recommend Heart of Darkness, or “Ghost in the Shell 2″. Yup, women sure are scary.