Shrieking, biting, and licking: The monstrous-feminine and abject female monsters in video games

Abstract

This article examines examples of the monstrous-feminine in the form of abject female monstersin a selection of critically acclaimed and commercially successful video games. Various female monsters from CD ProjektRED’s The Witcher series (2007-2015), and Santa Monica Studio’s God of War series (2005-2013)are considered as examples of the abject monstrous-feminine which fall into a long tradition in horror media of making the female body and body movementsinto something horrific and repulsive. These female monsters use shrieking, biting, licking, and spreading disease as weapons against the male protagonist, who must slay themto progress in the games.This article concludes that these games contribute to a long popular culture tradition of framing the empowered female body as monstrous and threatening, and calls for more scholarship on female monstrosity in games.