Are video games the new fairy tales? “Damsel in distress gets rescued by big, strong, handsome man and lives happily ever after.” Not if some guys can help it.
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From our partners at Soletron
While watching the Avengers with my younger cousins this past July the Fourth, my youngest cousin Sarah turned to look at me halfway (right after Scarlett Johansson a.k.a Black Widow gets slammed into a wall) and asked, “Why doesn’t she have a superpower?” I turned back to look her, fully ready to divulge in intricate detail the origins of Agent Romonav, when my other cousin, John, snorted and went “It’s cause she’s a GIRL.”
Momentarily flustered, I retorted “No, it’s not… It’s cause. Well she’s a really good fighter!”
John proceeded to snort again and said, “So what? If you put her up against Thor, she wouldn’t even last ten seconds. If Thor had a fight with Iron Man or the Hulk, that would be a fair match. She needs to be Thor-Iron Man-Hulk-Captain America strong.” As the conversation quickly deteriorated into who would be the stronger superhero, it made me realize that he did have a point – Black Widow, in comparison to her male counterparts, did seem to be much weaker. It’s nothing new; in fact, it’s a phenomenon that we’ve grown up with – you see it in Cinderella, Snow White, Spiderman and scores of other movies. Damsel in distress gets rescued by big, strong, handsome man and lives happily ever after. While many female characters are now being portrayed as stronger, and more equal to their male characters (for example, Katniss in the Hunger Games – she’s got balls!), the prevalence of this damsel in distress scenario is still widespread – especially in pop culture.
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Mike Mika, a 39-year-old videogame developer in Emeryville, Calif., recently faced a similar problem while playing “Donkey Kong” with his 3-year-old daughter, Ellis. Ellis asked him why it is always the mustached Mario who saves Pauline, the female who gets kidnapped by a gorilla. After explaining to her that there was no option for Pauline to save Mario, Mr. Mika subsequently hacked the classic game’s software to make the damsel Pauline, save the mustached Mario. He published his version, called “Donkey Kong: Pauline Edition” which has been downloaded over 11,000 times.
Many games follow the similar damsel in distress format – girl gets in trouble, boy comes and saves the day. Since few of these games have been altered since its inception, many gamers with programming skills have been changing it to make the damsel the heroine instead. Some games are only altered slightly such as “The Legend of Zelda” becoming “Zelda Starring Zelda”, others are altered substantially by adding a pink color scheme, feminine fonts and the ability to turn into a mermaid for underwater fights.
Despite the recent changes to make these games more girl-centered, it is sad to see that these hacks have to be done in the first place. Since these games have been released, there have been few substantive female protagonists. Many game maker companies are now being challenged to make more female-focus games, or to at least make the game equal by having the option for a heroine to save the day instead.
It is gratifying to finally see a shift in this damsel in distress trend – and before you label me as a feminist for encouraging these modifications to these classic titles, I’m not saying that females should always be the heroines. I’m just merely saying that there should be that option, so that the next time my cousin asks why the female superhero isn’t as strong as her male counterparts, I won’t be left stuttering after my male cousin bluntly states the obvious. I would be able to tell her in glorifying detail that the Black Widow is a pretty kick-ass superhero, who is a world class athlete, gymnast, acrobat, expert martial artist, weapons specialist, accomplished ballerina and is extremely intelligent.
But then again, if her super powers were Thor-Hulk-Iron Man-Captain America strong, the conversation wouldn’t even be happening in the first place.
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photo: Neeta Lind / flickr
Lara Croft? And the villains aren’t all male either; I seem to remember there’s quite a formidable villaness in Tomb Raider 3 – there may be others – it’s been a while since I last played video games. There are plenty of other games with female protagonists but her success was the most phenomenal.
“Why doesn’t she have a superpower?”
Because she’s more like batman than superman.
“Because she’s more like batman than superman.”
Brilliant!!!
Thta’s the answer the author was looking for! 😀
I’m just merely saying that there should be that option, so that the next time my cousin asks why the female superhero isn’t as strong as her male counterparts, I won’t be left stuttering after my male cousin bluntly states the obvious. School your cousins on Hawkeye, who was in the Avengers movie as well, who has about as many super powers as Black Widow. (Iron Man is literally nothing without his advanced tech (and wouldn’t stand a chance against Thor in a true fight). Also if you want to show your cousins powerful women in comics go check out… Read more »
“Iron Man is literally nothing without his advanced tech” The question of “Hey, Iron Man, what would you be *literally* gets asked in the movie, by Captain America. And without missing a beat, Tony Stark replies: “a genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist.” (You can watch it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOrNdBpGMv8&t=73 if you’ve forgotten.) And Iron Man *doesn’t* get his armor taken away. I’m not too up on the comics, but I think if it happens there, he just builds himself some new armor. I agree that the X-Men have some damn powerful women… but then Jean Grey pays a terrible price for getting… Read more »
I mentioned that about Iron Man in the context of his capacity as a super hero. Even with no weapons Black Widow is a highly trained spy and excellent unarmed combatant. Okay the “literally” about Stark was too strong but what I’m getting at about Black Widow is that not having a super power isn’t some unique strike against women. And the movies focus pretty powerfully on Wolverine, Professor Xavier, and Magneto. One so wound up about his past he sometimes can’t think straight, a man whose mutant powers seem to be little more than “having a disability isn’t all… Read more »
Wolverine is stupidly powerful, people often forget this. He heals so quick that he can survive nukes, in the movies he is the ONLY one who could kill Phoenix and healed through the firestorm. Emma Frost, Storm, Rogue, Jean Grey/Phoenix, Wonder Woman, Psylocke, Scarlet Witch, Super Girl, marvel Girl, etc. Plenty of tough and super powerful super heroes. The thing about the more male strong/badass characters is that…THERE ARE FAR FAR FAR more male deaths too. People complaining of the lack of female characters might want to consider that over 95% of the beings dying in movies, games, etc are… Read more »
“but then Jean Grey pays a terrible price for getting “too powerful”,”
I haven’t read comics in ages, but from what I remember every time Ghost Rider summoned the demon, he lost part of his soul. That would be a terrible price for power too.
“and the villain is changed to a woman”
I’ve always wondered that. If you wanted true equality, why shouldn’t there be female villains? There seem to be limits to acceptable equality.
How do you think society would react if I made a movie showing onscreen torture of 20 women, in a movie where hundreds probably die and treat them JUST like the men in countless action movies? GTA and maybe MMO’s are the only games I know of with heavy female losses (and in GTA that is usually pedestrians).
@Archy: “GTA and maybe MMO’s are the only games I know of with heavy female losses” Your knowledge about videogames seems limited (and this doesn’t mean mine is much better): – In Carmageddon, female pedestrians are “expendable” as in GTA – In Half-Life 1 there are female assassins, killed by the player just like any other enemy – In Half-Life 2, the human resistance has female members NPC, and they die like anybody else – In Deus Ex there are several female NPC – In No One Lives Forever, several enemies are female – In Prey, female NPC are killed… Read more »
Great article. These tropes are sending messages to our kids that say “girls can’t be superheroes”, or “boys can’t be nannies”. On the one hand, it’s nice to see that things are changing, but they are changing slowly.