Childfree

Vision

Childfree was born from the disturbing ascertainment that even though larps about voluntary termination of pregnancy weren’t generally designed in an anti-abortion perspective, by presenting abortion as part of the parenting process, not of the contraceptive process, and by emphasizing on the potential − and rare − trauma, they nurtured conservative views about abortion. This larp is, thus, a political manifesto: it is radical in its premises, and hopes to carry across a critique of the social order. Particularly, it aims at pointing out the ways in which the society appropriates the female body as an instrument to reproduce itself, denying the female-bodied persons mastery over their own bodies.

Structure

This game is radical, queer, and feminist, and can be played with or without a facilitator. The absence of outside facilitator is also a structural choice, destined to encourage horizontality, autonomy, and collective responsability. It was written for 5 to 7 players and lasts 4 hours, all included. To organize it, reading through the game document suffices: it doesn't require any prior preparation.

A chair in a dark room, lit by a spotlight (or regular lamp with cardboard to limit the lit area) is enough to play the game. A device on which to play an alarm is also necessary to set the gametime.

Media coverage

Childfree was cited and its author interviewed in an article by Laura Hudson in The Guardian, titled The female game designers fighting back on abortion rights. Read the article

This game was written during a larp-writing week-end among Fennoswedish larpers in Oravais, Finland. It led to the author being interviewed about that game in a local Swedish-speaking newspaper Vasabladet by the journalist and larper Fredrik Westblom. Read the article (in Swedish)

Other mentions:

• In Italian on Lettera Donna
• In Bosnian on Vox Feminae