Gender in the Oregon Trail Computer Game
The Oregon Trail computer game’s gender bias is narratively implicit, but visually explicit. Users control a character that is never textually referred to as a specific gender, however its visual representation is indisputably that of a male figure. In the game, the wagon leader makes the decisions along the journey and is presented as male, apart from the rest of the company. With his hand on the yoke of the oxen, it’s clear that the male is both leading the oxen and holding the gun. When hunting, the pixilated character the user controls can only be discerned as having a male appearance. While the user is able to choose the name of the character for him or herself, the visual representations of the game’s protagonist remain male.
Women only appear to have subservient roles and are pictured wearing pink dresses and bonnets; usually beside the children. They are absent from hunting, and infrequently appear throughout the game. By focusing on male-oriented jobs within the game, the role of females is erased (Bigelow 86). Along the journey, the user playing the game can choose to “ask for advice”, where another character in the game offers advice on how to get to Oregon safely, or shares his or her fears of the journey. The only time female characters are featured is to offer advice, for example, Aunt Rebecca Sims tells you:
I hear terrible stories about wagon parties running out of food before Oregon - the whole party starving to death. We must check our supplies often; we might not get there as soon as we think. Always plan for the worst, I say.
While she offers helpful advice along the trail, such concerns are consistently voiced only by female characters. The recurrence of female characters in this role portrays them as powerless and unable to contribute toward the journey. Conversely, men are portrayed as workers and decision makers on the trail. However, in 1848 and in preindustrial America when the game’s narrative takes place, there was no developed ideology of a “woman’s place.” Women often contributed to a family’s income and did physical labor on the farm (Faragher and Stansell 152). This role is wholly absent from the characterization of women in the game.
The ability for women to offer advice suggests certain leisure in their daily life which would allow them to socialize with others. However, the recent scholarship of New Western Historians suggests that this was not the case at all for women. With research done into diary entries from the Oregon Trail, it appears that women were often busier than men (Pascoe 41). While men were often able to enjoy periods of rest from their hard work, the work of women was structured around that of men (Bogue 224). In addition to duties such as preparing all the meals (which was a nonstop task) and taking care of the children, gender roles quickly became malleable once the journey West became underway. As the journey became harder, women would often have to drive the oxen, or even hunt, in addition to their other tasks (Faragher and Stansell 156). Despite their active and critical role on the Trail, women were both under and misrepresented in the Oregon Trail Game.
Another striking omission in the game is that of Indian women. While there are many times the user comes in contact with the Indians in the game, there is never any mention of Indian women at all. Their absence further reinforces the masculinity of the journey westward, and at the same time the male Indian character remains only a peripheral character in the narrative the game tells. The inclusion of Indian women would challenge the way the game’s narrative entirely. Not only are women insignificant in the game, but Indians are also. Additionally, if there were Indian women included in the game, there would likely be Indian families or tribes. These social groupings would complicate the relationship between Indians and Whites in the game.
Works Cited
Bogue, Allan G. “Frederick Jackson Turner Reconsidered.” The History Teacher 27.2 (Feb. 1994): 195-221.
Bigelow, Bill. “On the Road to Cultural Bias: A Critique of The Oregon Trail CD-ROM.” Language Arts 74.2 (Feb. 1997): 84-93.
Faragher, Johnny, and Christine Stansell. “Women and Their Families on the Overland Trail to California and Oregon, 1842-1867.” Feminist Studies 2.2 (1975): 150-166.
Pascoe, Peggy. “Western Women At The Cultural Crossroads.” Trails: Toward a New Western History. Ed. Patricia Nelson Limerick, Cylde A. Milner, II., and Charles E. Rankin. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1991. 40-58.
The Oregon Trail. Apple II. 1st ed. MECC, 1985.
Posted in Educational Computing, Gender, History, New Western History, Oregon Trail, Simulations
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