The Academic Blog Post 09
Representation of Race and Gender in The Witcher Series
Figure 1: Race and Gender in The Witcher Series
The Witcher series from CD Projekt Red is a fantasy series that in fact frequently uses the topics of race, gender, and power to depict the positions of people of all races and genders, in a medieval fantasy world. Each of the presented video games and all the episodes of the selected Netflix series presents different approaches to these problems, as well as mirror actual social issues like prejudice, exclusion, and injustice. In the series, race is constructed through the portrayal of non-human races such as elves, dwarfs, and sorcerers, who in this series are portrayed as marginal and exoticized just as according to Orientalism by Edward. These major characters are described as the outside at some times and even deviants within the concept of the programs which makes them socially marginal and deny their human-like status while their relationships with the human characters deal with the elements of the race.
Figure 2: Yennefer’s Transformation and Gender Representation
Yennefer and Triss are examples of characters who take on roles that are forbidden within the game and its society and use magic to modify their position in staggering ways. The social relations in The Witcher particularly for the part of females are also not very easy, but quite wide, for instance, the character of Yennefer and Ciri is very tough. Hence, Judith Butler's gender performativity can be used when unraveling how these characters perform and subvert gender roles. These female characters have faced challenges of conventional feminity in terms of their energy, thoughts, and self-independence, whereas, the series is also tough to a certain extent in militaries and colonial relations of Geralt with the Yennefer and Ciri (Brough, 2021).
References:
The Daily Fandom. (2020). The Surprising Feminism Of The Witcher Franchise. Retrieved from The Surprising Feminism Of The Witcher Franchise • The Daily Fandom.
Screen Rant. (2020). Yennefer’s Origin and Powers Explained. Retrieved from https://screenrant.com/witcher-yennefer-origin-powers-look-hunchback-explained/. Brough, M. (2021). Cyberpunk 2077 and the Representation of Marginalized Identities. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 13(1), 45-62. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00029_1.