Yangyu Gong

In contemporary society, gender expectations are deeply rooted in personal and workplace environments, influencing individuals’ behaviour, emotional expression and development opportunities. These societal expectations are often internalised through gender-based disciplines, so that people are unconsciously conditioned to follow a set of ‘taken-for-granted’ patterns of behaviour. 

Personally, I also felt this social pressure when I grew up, for example, being asked to “smile more” or be more approachable, and it was these experiences that prompted me to start thinking about how gender norms are shaped and reinforced. How can individuals actively question and challenge them?

While academic research provides an important theoretical framework for gender norms, there is a lack of opportunities for individuals to truly immerse themselves and experience them first-hand. Algorithmic Eden: Gender Breakout fills this gap with an immersive board game. Set in a dystopian future where an AI-controlled society rigidly enforces gender norms, the game requires players to assume roles opposite to their real-life gender identities. In doing so, they must navigate workplace challenges, societal expectations, and institutional constraints, making choices that either conform to or resist the AI-imposed gender norms.