of that fear. The Shining sequence in the OASIS, then, is a representation of Halliday’s perception of women during the time that he designed the game – and it is hideous. It is the illustration of a man projecting all of the blame for his own self-loathing onto women, with the result being initial beauty and seduction, hiding an ugly, diseased, mindless creature that is dead, inside and out, and focused only on the violent destruction of others. It is the externalisation of his own fear of new experiences.

When viewed through a feminist lens, the overall problem with Ready Player One is that, in building itself as a celebration of pop culture minutiae, it perpetuates the misogyny of pop culture. In delivering a derivative plot, with derivative characters, it perpetuates the misogyny of...

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