In this episode, Janine talks about the hit video game, Red Dead Redemption 2. She recounts and explores a few missions in the game that deal with environmental and women’s issues.
Welcome back
Janine welcomes listeners back and introduces the topic of this week’s episode. She also reminds listeners of her Youtube channel and Patreon page.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Janine explains a few of her favourite things in RDR2. She also introduces a few missions in the game that deal with environmental and women’s issues.
Hunting a Bison with Charles
Janine talks about the first mission in the game that deals with an environmental issue – poaching. She walks listeners through the mission first. Janine then explains how this mission presents a critique of poaching in the twenty-first century.
Arcadia for Amateurs
Janine moves on to a discussion of the next mission – helping a photographer. She runs listeners through all four parts of this mission in the game. Janine also comments on the fact that these missions don’t give you any rewards.
Janine then focuses on the third part of this mission, which involves crocodiles. She explains how this mission similarly presents a critique on the conservation of nature. Janine also indicates how this is relevant to contemporary society.
On the island of Guarma
The next mission Janine chats about is the one that takes place on the island of Guarma. Janine explains how this mission shows the exploitation of people doing sugar farming.
Another interesting part, Janine mentions, is how this mission critiques violence. She explains how RDR2 is self-reflective in terms of violence in some ways. Janine also mentioned how the game critiques capitalism and consumerism.
Women’s issues
Janine moves on to chat about how feminism is addressed in RDR2. She expresses her surprise at the game’s inclusion of women and feminism.
Further Questions of Female Suffrage
Janine explores one character, Sadie Adler, and a few missions that feature her. She first gives some background on first-wave feminism and suggests a movie about it.
Janine then chats about Sadie’s missions and her representation. She concludes by noting how this came comments on contemporary feminist issues.
Voting rights for women
The final mission Janine discusses is where Arthur helps the women’s suffrage movement. Janine wraps up by recounting misogyny towards this mission on YouTube. For Janine, this reveals a lot about the current state of sexism in video games.
Wrap up
Janine thanks listeners and wraps up the episode.
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The theme music is "Dashboard Light" by One Two Feet, and is licenced by Holosuite Media through Epidemic Sound.
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