Phil Salvador interviews Dr. Stephanie Harkin, lecturer at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) School of Design Games Program in Australia, about her research on femininity in gaming, particularly in girls’ lifestyle magazines. Dr. Harkin discusses her journey from media studies to focusing on feminine games. She highlights her findings on the lack of representation of feminine games in traditional gaming magazines and her discovery of Girl Gamer magazine, which promoted Nintendo games in a lifestyle format. We explore the coverage of games in magazines like Total Girl and the broader cultural context of game representation.
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Mentioned in the show:
Girl Gamer cover: https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/e6beceaa-f36f-46d7-bc2a-f4599773e10e
MCV pink issue: https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/39c2181c-d395-44b7-9e64-2f1c8333a922
K-Zone: https://archive.org/details/K-ZoneJanuary2006
Imagine Magazines: https://archive.gamehistory.org/folder/6187132e-315c-4be5-8498-8c55ac478ebe?sortField=date&sortDir=asc
Pokémon Personality Quiz:
Pac-Man Nail Art:
Big Bowser House (mistakenly referred to as “Donkey Kong Big Brother House”):
See more from Dr. Stephanie Harkin:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/saharkin.bsky.social
Games Exhibition: https://www.feminineplay.org/
Upcoming book: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/isbn/9783111560939/html
Video Game History Foundation:
Email: podcast@gamehistory.org
Website: gamehistory.org
Support us on Patreon: /gamehistoryorg