I know this has been slow to arrive, but life is life and death is death, and there’s been a lot of both of those for me to cope with, among other things. This is the third installment of my A New Masculinity series, focusing on gender and identity in video games, specifically through the lens of Wolfenstein: The New Order. In this series, I focus on The New Order, and in this post, I’ll talk specifically about the women in that game. This will be a slightly shorter post due to there only being three characters in The New Order who are truly highlighted.
This post will contain SPOILERS for Wolfenstein: The New Order and potentially SPOILERS for Wolfenstein: A New Colossus or Youngblood. Read with this in mind.
Content Warnings: Nazis, white supremacy, trauma, physical violence, disability trauma, ableism, sex, sexual content, fascism, homophobia.
The women of Wolfenstein are really amazing, even though they are less represented than men in the game. There is a lot to be said for how the game presents women as leaders, decision-makers, and powerful individuals even if they aren’t formally recognized by any organization or power. The further installments of Wolfenstein continue to develop this, but I want to focus just on The New Order because I think that some of what is explored in The New Colossus and onward is far beyond my ability to address – and I hope that someday I can invite other creators to talk about those topics.
While I will talk about Anya Oliwa and Caroline Becker alongside Irene Engel, I want to be clear that I do not, and this blog does not, support Nazism, white supremacy, racism, ableism, or any bigoted ideology or cruelty perpetuated by Irene Engel or the types of real life individuals she represents. Engel is not an aspirational character, and while I will discuss her traits honestly, that does not mean I endorse her or her beliefs or any like them in real life.
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The first major woman character we encounter in Wolfenstein: The New Order is Anya Oliwa, who is a nurse at the facility where B.J. Blazkowicz is recovering from a brain injury. Her parents run the facility. She had been pursuing a doctorate before the war (at age 16!), but had to abandon that pursuit because of the violence. During a visit at the facility from Nazi soldiers, she tries to intervene to prevent them from executing patients, but is struck by one of the soldiers and her parents are killed while trying to protect her. She escapes the facility with B.J., who she later repeatedly saves from various danger as well. After she and B.J. escape, they visit her grandparents, and then travel to Berlin and join the Resistance. As part of the Resistance, she does a lot of strategic and communication work, guiding B.J.’s travels and helping to make major decisions. Along the way, she initiates a romantic and sexual relationship with B.J.
I’m going to talk about this a little more because how this is handles is hands down one of my favorite depictions of a romantic relationship in media. Anya initiates most of the relationship – B.J. is absolutely engaged and interested, but she takes the lead. The sex scenes that feature them are actually sexy, and feature Anya on top in the first scene. She also initiates kissing him later at the Resistance base, and is shown as enthusiastic in the later scene (a scene in which B.J. is fantasizing in part about having a safe, happy home with her and their hopeful children while they’re having sex – it’s truly uncharacteristic of what I have seen in media depicting heterosexual framed relationships!). She is shown as very in control of their interactions, and that’s something I appreciate.
Anya is also especially interesting because before she was a nurse, a journal she reads to B.J. that seems to have been written by her under a pseudonym includes her history as “The Matawies Serial Killer” – drawing Nazi men in with sexual and romantic overtures, then killing them. Anya states that some of the things happened to her in the journal, implying that potentially some things are fabricated or the stories of other women. She even details how she chose to have an abortion when she accidentally got pregnant by a Nazi. It’s a difficult and terrifying part of her story, things that happened when she was very young and in the crisis of the war. I appreciate that the game does not frame her as a villain for these things – while she does seem to struggle with the violence she did, it’s framed as something she did that is no different than the violence B.J. does to seek freedom.
When we meet Anya in The New Order, I think it’s important to note that she is 37. A lot of video games center younger women, and they’re often very sexualized. Anya is absolutely beautiful, but she’s a grown woman and she’s not framed in the same way love interests are often framed in other games. If we see her through B.J.’s eyes, it’s with a holistic love, not just her sexual aspects, but not ignoring the beauty he appreciates, either. This is just something I really appreciate. Anya is shown to be an extremely competent, intelligent woman who has autonomy in her relationship with B.J. and who has made difficult decisions. Considering how her story continues in The New Colossus (as a mother and in direct line of fire), I feel like she has a really rich story in spite of not being the lead.
The other major competent, intelligent woman who is represented in A New Order is Caroline Becker, who has been featured in past Wolfenstein installments. Caroline created the Kreisau Circle, which I’ve referred to as the Resistance, after her father was killed. She uses a wheelchair as she’s been paralyzed from the waist down (from being shot). While in she does gain access to a power suit that allows her to walk and gives her super strength and agility, that’s not featured until the end of The New Order. I have a lot of feelings about changing disabled characters to super characters that discard their disability, but it is important to note that Caroline remains disabled and the suit is just a mobility aid used for combat & missions.
Caroline is shown to be a brilliant strategist, and has been running the Resistance for a long time. She’s well respected, and like the other disabled characters in the series, she is not treated as any less valuable, capable, or important because of her disability. She’s also dressed in styles that show her utilitarian preferences while not hiding her form or desexualizing her in any particular way. She runs the missions, gives orders, and makes really important decisions. She is a strong leader.
Caroline is also 40 at the time of The New Order, having spent many years as the leader of the Resistance. It is clear that B.J. and many others have massive respect for her and love her as a leader. While I personally struggled with what happens to her in The New Colossus, I appreciated her character and how she was always framed as a powerful person who was worthy of trust and admiration in The New Order.
Finally, I want to address Irene Engel. Like my previous posts in this series, I want to spend minimal time on fascists. Irene Engel is an authority in the Nazi party who is particularly cruel and abusive, not just to her enemies, but also to her daughter (depicted in The New Colossus). She is racist, homophobic, ableist, a eugenicist, and a fascist. There are a few problems with her depiction. One, she is framed as rather masculine, which could be interpreted as somewhat transmisogynistic (in the way that we queer code villains, when we code a villain who is a woman as masculine or a man as feminine to show that they’re somehow bad or evil or not “pure” in their gender, that is problematic and should be examined). Secondly, she has a huge age gap with her partner Bubi (Hans) who is extremely dedicated to her but she mostly uses for sex and appearances. Third, she’s an abusive mother (The New Colossus).
Because she is a villain, these things are considered further weight to justify her evilness. However, she’s already an abusive, toxic fascist. They were kind of unnecessary things to include (and may not have been used for a villain such as Deathshead, because men are not expected to stick to a “pure” gender role like women are). I would say that the greatest point of breaking down of the more positive masculine perspective in Wolfenstein is how Engel is presented, and in part due to this, it remains important to me that we look at how we frame our villains as well as our heroes when we approach game design.
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That’s it for this installment of A New Masculinity! If you haven’t read the previous posts, please check them out and share them with your thoughts! Remember to check out Thoughty’s ko-fi to support more posts about game design and theory!