Women and Video Game Tropes
I just want to clarify that I do not think one race or sex is superior to another and that when I play games I do not mind playing as the male or female characters. I am not going the Andy Kaufman route.
There have been many responses to Anita Sarkeesian’s project “Tropes vs. Women: Damsel in Distress” so I’ll try to make this the summary of most responses that are there as well as give my own perspective on the whole thing and my own view as a gamer.
Anita Sarkeesian is a feminist and a pop culture critic who has a Youtube series “Tropes vs Women” and started a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new series of short videos that would examine the gender tropes in video games, which she raised over $150,000. Now during all of this there has been a lot of hate going her way such as in the form of tweets, flash games of her getting beat up, and hijacking her Wikipedia page. There was also the fear that she might have ripped off the donators of her Kickstarter, but finally after many delays her first video came out on March 7th of 2013.
Now after watching it, I respect the fact that she gave her background and a somewhat good introduction to the project. However, I have many disagreements to what her video provides. She went over many games that were made during the “Golden Ages” of gaming, games from the 80’s to mid 90’s such as Super Mario Bros and Double Dragon and I agree that during that era of gaming, there weren’t many female protagonists besides Metroid’s Samus Aran. I don’t agree that the female character is only considered the “Trophy” or “The Ball” as she says in her video.
The narrator in THIS clip asks why cannot the female character be saved due to being the person the protagonist love? Would you not try to save the person you loved if they were male, female, boyfriend, girlfriend, or family member? During this era of gaming, the only way to show any background to just get up and play or that small 7 second introduction of some gang punching your girlfriend in the guy and you having to save her. You put your quarters in and then played the game or you turned on your Nintendo and hit start game. It isn’t the same as games that are made today where there is a 30 minute cut scene that gives us a back story on what the bad guy did and why you are going to beat him up. I mean who didn’t prefer Ms. Pacman over the original?
During her video, I felt she could have been unbiased and very informative yet she lacks much information and IS biased. She says that Princess Peach and Princess Zelda are powerless and simply pawns to the game, and goes on to say that even games where they are featured as playable characters, they do not count and they are not cannon to the story.
Now we there are Zelda theorists on debating the timeline, Princess Zelda plays a powerful role in the series of games, where she possesses one of part of the Triforce as well as playing an intricate role of the kingdom she rules and helping the protagonist Link in defeating the bad guy, Ganon. I’ve played the games and her silver arrows and even her alter ego, Sheik, helps you throughout the Ocarina of Time.
Regarding Princess Peach, she goes on to say that during the only playable role she has in Super Mario Bros. 2, she was only added in “by accident” because it was a different game with just pallet swaps of characters in the Mario universe. If she really did her research, she would have known that in the original game there were actually 2 female characters and they weren’t added in by accident. In fact, Peach even stared in her own game on the Nintendo DS, Super Princess Peach. The princesses possess bigger roles than just trophyie because when they are in trouble, their entire kingdom falls. Plus why discredit the other games where they are playable? Look at the sales of Super Smash Brothers Melee and Mario Kart Double Dash to Super Mario Sunshine
Super Smash Bros. Melee - $7.09 million
Mario Kart: Double Dash‼ - $7 million
Super Mario Sunshine - $5.5 million
Why discredit these games? Also if you ever played the Super Smash Brothers Series, Sheik and Peach are more popular and powerful characters compared to their male counter parts. Regarding Princess Peach, she goes on to say that during the only playable role she has in Super Mario Bros. 2, she was only added in “by accident” because it was a different game with just pallet swaps of characters in the Mario universe. If she really did her research, she would have known that in the original game there were actually 2 female characters and they weren’t added in by accident. In fact, Peach even stared in her own game on the Nintendo DS, Super Princess Peach. The princesses possess bigger roles than just trophyie because when they are in trouble, their entire kingdom falls. Plus why discredit the other games where they are playable? Look at the sales of Super Smash Brothers Melee and Mario Kart Double Dash to Super Mario Sunshine
Super Smash Bros. Melee - $7.09 million
Mario Kart: Double Dash‼ - $7 million
Super Mario Sunshine - $5.5 million
Check out the Grand Final games of the biggest Super Smash Brothers Tournament of the year.
Brawl Zero Suit Samus vs Meta Knight
Melee Peach vs/Marth
If these women were weak, how could they win the grand finals of the tournament?
I think that most of these games stay the same is because well, it’s marketing. Who are most videogames marketed towards? Males. Are the developers of these games sexist and think that women are weak and useless? No. Most people play a game because they want to be entertained and to feel that they are part of their universe.
In the video above, the narrator talks about female characters going out to save the day (Big fan of Aya Brea as well as Jill Valentine). Are these characters that she names sexual objects? Fuck No.
In these clip above and in this one HERE, she talks about a research paper in which she describes the characteristics of women in television who have show that traditionally masculine attributes such as rationality, cool-headedness and physical strength are superior and preferred over traditionally feminine attributes such as cooperative decision making, and being emotionally expressive and empathetic. Why is cooperative decision making a feminine attribute? Why cannot women be strong? CHUN LI IS THE STRONGEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD!!!!!!
She is the best character in Street Fighter III 3rd Strike. Cammy is top tier in Street Fighter 4. Phoenix is Back to Back Marvel 3 Evo Winners. Why would you think that these woman are trying to be men?
Why is it in Anita Saarkesian’s Feminist world, cooperation, being emotionally expressive, intuitive, and nurturing the only positive parts of being feminine? Why can’t they be independent, or self confident? Women are strong. Why do you think girls cannot be rational?
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| Diagram by Anita Saarkesian for further reference. |
Video games are something to enjoy and be entertained by. Developers are trying to make money, gamers are trying to get high scores, enjoy a story, or beat the other player next to you (or online). This is not to degrade women, treat them like objects, or say that they cannot be the hero.
Also I hope that she will allow ratings and comments on her videos. By not allowing this you are, in fact, acting as the damsel in distress. There will be trolls, after all this is the internet, but why not allow feedback? I mean there are other females that disagree with what you are saying, why not get feedback from them. I don’t think you are getting hate from because you are a female. I don’t think you are getting hate because you’re a feminist. I don’t even think you are getting hate because you are talking about “MY VIDEOGAMES!!!!1!1!!1BBQSAUCE”.
Also real talk, I didn’t need $150000+ to gain research on Super Mario Bros. You could have Emulated that shit or checked out Wikipedia.
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- Derek Klinke
https://twitter.com/iHateDerek_K
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