And then you have Chell, where it just doesn’t matter. She’s wearing a bright orange jumpsuit the whole time. It’s a first person perspective. Her storyline is that she’s going to fuck shit up until she gets free. There’s no bullshit, they never make it weird, it’s never a Thing, there’s no reason for the player character to be a woman apart from the fact that half the people on earth are women. A male protagonist would have worked just as well without changing anything, and that’s why Chell as the protagonist was such a good thing. Gender was completely irrelevant in the setting, so the game never bothers to justify having a female protagonist. Why is the player character a woman? Because she is, now grab your portal gun and get testing.

“master glass blower and stained glass artist Loren Stump in california has created a “loaf” of glass, called murrine, out of carefully layered glass rods that, when sliced, reveal a painstakingly detailed work of art in cross-section.”