Generational Curse for Women in Silent Hill F

cr: Silent Hill F

The suffering of a generational curse turned into a classic, traditional Japanese nightmare. Unlike other Silent Hill series, Silent Hill F offers players the chance to enter the nightmare of Hinako, who endured the trauma of society’s expectations towards women wrapped in Japanese folklore.  The psychological hallucination in Silent Hill F serves as a key image for players to see how difficult it is for Hinako to deal with her life problems. She is forced to choose between sacrificing her life to get married or continuing her life and disappointing her parents.

Hinako, who was originally an ordinary girl, had to fulfill her parents' wish for her to marry a wealthy man in order to raise her parents' social status. With all the turmoil in her heart, she unleashed her imagination, which centered on the manipulation of a fox. The fox in Hinako's story is depicted as someone manipulative, tormenting, and soothing all at once. The horror of the fox depicted in Hinako's imagination is the man she is married to. At first, he seems soothing, but gradually, the man becomes violent and treats Hinako as an object he can control.

The generational curse faced by Hinako is the social expectation that women can be treated like inanimate objects, dead, without thought or voice. Considering that Silent Hill F is set in 1960s Japan, society still believed that a woman's destiny was to marry and that she had no other choice. The curse led Hinako's parents to sell her to a wealthy man to pay off their debts. To make matters worse, as a mother, her mother also felt that this was a woman's destiny, to marry even if it was to a man she did not love. With such thinking ingrained in her mother, it would be difficult to change this habit. This had become a collective understanding in society, resulting in the doctrine that women deserved to be controlled because they do not have a mind of their own.

Oppression of women's rights affects women's mental state, as experienced by Hinako. Through this frightening game, players can grasp how Hinako's mental state deteriorated and became terrifying. Women who are subjected to violence may question their rights to the point that they lose their sanity. Violence that begins with manipulation influences thinking so that the brain records attitudes that should be recorded as violence as something normal or even affectionate, especially in the 1960s. Many women are unaware of the importance of expressing their aspirations.

With endings that depend on the player's choices, Silent Hill F does not diminish the issue of female oppression that Hinako experiences. The endings of Hinako's story vary, with some even depicting Hinako coming to terms with her situation and choosing her own destiny. This shows that Silent Hill F still provides an optimistic ending for players to enjoy. However, in the tragic ending, Hinako falls into the cycle of domestic abuse also experienced by her mother. Breaking the curse requires draining the soul and body.

It is not easy to eradicate the oppression of women that has been going on for generations. Changing it requires mountains of effort, vocalizing opinions, yet it must also be supported by the environment. From the terrible tragedy that befell Hinako, it is important to pay attention to how bad the ideology of a society that is still not supportive of women is.