I am very passionate about how Portal is a very feminist game. I see a lot of people say that Portal is progressive because it could’ve had a protagonist of interchangeable gender, and that Chell being a woman affects nothing. But it completely does! Chell being a woman is inherent to the plot and theming of the narrative! Portal is progressive because it depicts corporate exploitation of women and actively shows a woman perservering and overcoming that abuse!!!
The misogyny Chell puts up with is ungodly. It’s GLaDOS’s insults about your appearance and clothes, Wheatley’s constant condescending and assumption you’re incompetent, the way Cave Johnson talks about Caroline and takes away her agency, Wheatley’s adoption of GLaDOS’s insults towards Chell once he’s in power, all of “The Itch” section, it’s even embedded in the company culture of Aperture :
The implications of this poster given that Wheatley is currently in charge at this point in the game drive me insane
"If I die before you people can pour me into a computer, I want Caroline to run this place." "Now she'll argue. She'll say she can't. She's modest like that. But you make her."
It's really chilling how the entire series was kickstarted by this one misogynistic and ego-driven man. Even though Wheatley is technically the main villain, I think Johnson serves as a pretty compelling thematic antagonist.
