Games
Politics of Reproduction
Queer Critique
Bootstraps
Bootstraps: The Game of Hard Work and Determination (but mostly luck) is a tongue-in-cheek board game. It satirizes the absurdities of behavior modification programs in welfare along with the rhetoric of laziness and poor morals as the cause of poverty. The game further attempts to point out the structural issues that actually make it more likely for some people to be on and stay on welfare than others.
Creators: Ashley Simons, Izzy Hartnett, Marie Vasitas, Olivia Miller, Zoe Keskey
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Course: Politics of Reproduction Fall 2017, Middlebury College
CPC Quizzes
This series of quizzes ("CPCs: The Bad, the Bad, and the Ugly;" "Who Said it: CPC or Abortion Clinic?;" and "Choose Your Own CPC Adventure!") translated a few texts that focused on expounding how Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) impede people's access to accurate information about abortion. They each inform and familiarize participants with the tactics CPCs utilize. In addition to the quizzes, this group created a Twitter account that translates these arguments into a social media grammar by form of memes and informative tweets. The account also serves as a space to publicize these quizzes.
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Creators: Nell Sather, Erin Hoynes, Maria Bobbitt-Chertock, Ethan Reilly
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Course: Politics of Reproduction Spring 2018, Middlebury College
Crisis
Crisis recreates the popular board game, Clue, turning it into an educational resources about the tactics, goals, and origins of Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) and the detrimental effect they have on women's reproductive life and health. Each of the tools, characters, and rooms in this game draw upon various texts to illustrate the ways in which CPCs coerce clients into "choosing" to carry their pregnancies to term.
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Creators: Julia Desmarais, Becca Brown, Drew Buchser, Michael Gao, Tori Koontz
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Course: Politics of Reproduction Spring 2018, Middlebury College
The Game of "Choice"
The Game of "Choice" is designed to highlight the lack of true reproductive choice in our society. Using the pro-choice versus pro-life debate on abortion as a backdrop, this game argues that reproductive decisions are always chosen within the context of access to resources and accurate information. Thus, rather than focus on reproductive choice, the government should shift towards expanding reproductive access.
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Creators: Tiffany Martinez, Kendal Pittman, Julia Keith, Tatum Braun
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Course: Politics of Reproduction Spring 2018, Middlebury College
The Jane Collective Mystery Game
The Jane Collective Mystery Game is a direct adaptation of the original mystery game, Clue. This game aims to inform players about the Jane Collective in a a creative and approachable way, with the understanding that the story of the Jane Collective itself offers many lessons for thinking about abortion politics, and women's liberation.
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Creators: Chandler Nemetz, Claire Crowley, Abbie McCeney
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Course: Politics of Reproduction Spring 2018, Middlebury College
Operation X
Operation X seeks to facilitate conversation on the complicated case of Ashley X specifically, and the place of disability in a feminist reproductive justice politic in general. Ashley X is portrayed on an operating table and cavities in her body are filled with aspects of her case that players will "examine" upon successful removal. Examinations include the consideration of different people's perspective on each aspect of the case, and at the end players will find out whose perspectives they most agree with.
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Creators: Lexie Massa, Sara DiCenso, Abby Blyler
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Course: Politics of Reproduction Spring 2018, Middlebury College
So You Want to Bang a Feminist?
So You Want to Bang a Feminist? is a trivia game that allows you to test your knowledge of current factors important to the reproductive justice movement. The game was created to make the messages and arguments from academic texts into something more accessible— trivia cards! This game will hopefully inform players about reproductive justice and inspire them to learn more.
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Creators: Emma Patch, Liza Tarr
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Course: Politics of Reproduction Spring 2018, Middlebury College
Cards For Performativity
Cards for Performativity is a parody of Cards Against Humanity, but in this version of the game, the goal is to reflect on the production of gender. One is not born a certain gender but rather becomes that gender through repeating, reiterating, and reproducing gendered acts. That is, this game shows (1) how gender is a verb because we do it and (2) that compulsory heterosexuality relies upon the naturalization of ideas about sex and gender. This game hopefully encourages players to think about the role they play as the subjects and objects of gender.
Creators: Jake Camarillo, Kelsie Hoppes, Vishawn Greene
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Course: Introduction to Queer Critique Spring 2018, Middlebury College
Discursive Jenga
Discursive Jenga is a spin off of traditional Jenga that articulates Michel Foucault's arguments against the repressive hypothesis. This game focuses specifically on challenging what we think of as transgressive acts and the production of discourse.
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Creators: Allison Dammann, Luke Kikukawa, Matea Mills-Andruk, Noah Sauer, Will Kelley
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Course: Introduction to Queer Critique Spring 2018, Middlebury College
Lesbians & Ladders
Lesbians and Ladders aims to disrupt the view of history as a progress narrative in order to challenge the assumption that mainstream LGBTQ activism is always effective in aiding the goal of queer liberation. Further, this game highlights how much of what is considered mainstream progress occurs within oppressive structures and therefore excludes many marginalized queer people.
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Creators: Sadie Housberg, Rebeccca Wishnie, Rayna Berggren, Paolo Gonnelli
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Course: Introduction to Queer Critique Spring 2018, Middlebury College
Operation: Medical Gayz
Operation: Medical Gayz uses the format of the popular game Operation to expose LGBTQ activist and LGBTQ rights organizations to offer a critique of the scientific study of sexuality. These critiques focus on flaws in the methodology used in such studies and the politics that use these studies to argue that gay people are worthy of rights and respect.
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Creators: Sean Flanagan, Joana Salievska, Haley Jordan
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Course: Introduction to Queer Critique Spring 2018, Middlebury College
Toilets & Tribulations
Toilets and Tribulations is a queer board game that challenges you to navigate the space around
you - unless you pee yourself first! As players "travel" through a familiar library, they are forced to navigate both the socio-political context and certain aspects of the physical environment that make these existing bathrooms inaccessible. This game acknowledges that the bathroom is both a public and political space. It aims to provide insight into the politics of bathrooms and the necessity of addressing social issues through broad scale coalition building.
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Creators: Avery Travis, Alexis Levato, Tate Serletti
Course: Introduction to Queer Critique Spring 2018, Middlebury College