A TRU Proposal to the Ladies, through #selfcare, Mary Astell, and Xenofeminism

Abstract

Brie Code, the Creative Director of TRU LUV, explains the main aim of the studio is to create ―interactive experiences for your phone that leave you feeling calm, connected, and invigorated.‖ Code‘s goals are to create a digital space in which people, particularly women, are encouraged to explore personal connections and develop a sense of personhood in line with positive expressions of emotion. The first app released, #selfcare (TRU LUV, 2018), is a manifestation of Code's aim to create games that follow a 'tend-and-befriend' design framework, rather than 'fight-or-flight.' Just as this games studio proposes an alternative framework, and then presents an example of a working model, so have similar feminist philosophies over history.This paper aims to juxtapose #selfcare with the philosophies of Mary Astell and Xenofeminism in order to draw out the similarities and differences in feminist positions over history.