Zoë Antoinette Eddy, ORCID

Department of Integrative and Global Studies, The Global School, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA

https://doi.org/10.1080/14735784.2024.2336451

Pages 212-240

Published online 29 May 2024

​

Abstract

This paper examines pleasure and combat in the context of North American East Coast boffer combat larp. Based on ethnographic research conducted in US East Coast larping communities, I investigate how live-action role-players (larpers) use larp to explore fictional violence and the experience of the imagined combatant. I demonstrate how, through collaborative play and performance, larpers explore not only the tragedy of war but the pleasures of teamwork, community, and individual self-worth. I further explore how women and underrepresented genders make spaces for themselves by challenging sexist notions of physical fitness, capacity for violence, and leadership. I show how these interactions foster networks of personal and communal pleasure that depend on a/n (re)imagining of warfare, strife, and death: combat, creativity, and collaborative play generate complex relationships between violence, community, and the imaginary world of fictionalised battle. However, within this discussion, I ultimately suggest that ‘(role)playing at war’ creates spaces of camaraderie while simultaneously normalising violence. I problematise larp violence as an activity that resists generalised definitions of violent play and pleasure.

​​

Back to Militarisation and Pleasure

​​​​​