Comments on: Tropes Against Video Games

By: Moiphy Pendleton

Moiphy Pendleton — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 22:07:46 +0000

Generally, games that involve lots of running away and that sort of thing exist to deconstruct the kind of fantasies humans naturally have. Those games are usually survival horror games, the goal of which is to unsettle the player and make them question themselves. It would seem that this kind of game would be the most appealing to Anita…except that some of the best have very prevalent themes of “sexual horror,” which I’m sure she would find some way to interpret as misogyny. Plus, something about the way she presents herself leads me to believe that she couldn’t handle a trip to Silent Hill.

By: Jesse Marczyk

Jesse Marczyk — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 22:51:03 +0000

I wouldn’t call that storyline sexist, nor would I say it is in any way unique to video games. In fact, I don’t know of any evidence, nor does Anita present us with any, to suggest it’s even particularly common there, relative to other mediums like movies or books (whether marketed towards men or women). Anita indeed asserts something along the lines of it making women seem powerless; she also asserts all sorts of other things, one of which being that there’s no difference in strength between men and women, which is patently false. I don’t find her assertions to be particularly compelling.

By: seymour

seymour — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 19:15:54 +0000

yes, but why is it so often men saving women in videogames? it really doesn’t have to be so, especially today. relying on sexist shorthand to justify game play is ridiculous.

anita points out that by having women so often as the saved and men as the savior creates a giant mosaic image of women as powerless which is false and unfair.

By: Jesse Marczyk

Jesse Marczyk — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:15:08 +0000

In the case of Mario, and many other games, I don't think the plot device is problematic in the first place, as it seems to have been added as a nearly-instantaneous way of giving players some reason, no matter how small, for the game play. I found this video on the subject to be an excellent response.

By: Anonymouse

Anonymouse — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:22:35 +0000

“Mario doesn’t rush into Bowser’s castle in order to reduce Princess Peach to a helpless object”

Aren’t you misrepresenting the argument here? Sarkeesian isn’t saying that the male characters are objectifying the female characters, but that the game’s designers are doing so.

The Mario games’ tendency to follow this trope would be much less of an issue if, for example, the princess repeatedly escaped at the end of each world and Bowser chased her onward to the next world’s ending, with Mario in pursuit the whole way. At least then her character would exhibit something resembling agency, instead of being just a static object at the far end of the game.

By: Jesse Marczyk

Jesse Marczyk — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 20:19:02 +0000

That is a very good point to make, though it's generally not all that specific to women. In the vast majority of video games, you'll see relatively young, attractive women being rescued by relatively young, attractive men. In other words, people who are often at or around the peak of their sexual desirability engaging in costly displays of mating effort. Yes, there are of course exceptions, where you play as slightly younger or older characters, but these are far less frequent (or so my anec-data suggest). Geoffrey Miller expressed a very similar idea in a number of places, but here's a good one: specifically, the section on "Darwinian demographics of cultural display" [EDIT]: I should add that, even if the story doesn't directly involve saving women (as many games and stories certainly do not), they also mostly contain costly, heroic, or otherwise dangerous acts (such as fighting off alien hordes, killing supernatural beings, killing other, very human, enemies, and in many cases, the ones doing the killing and being killed are both men), which can similarly be the result of sexual signaling. They can also be the result of other things, such as avoiding being killed oneself, but the point remains all the same in many cases; that is to say, not many games are entitled "flee from your attackers".

By: Horse Whisperer

Horse Whisperer — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:56:39 +0000

I think Mario wants Princess Peach’s eggs. He wouldn’t be so keen to rescue her if she was old and her ovaries were empty. A young virgin female full of eggs is a prize worth risking your life for.

By: Unending Improvement

Unending Improvement — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:13:56 +0000

Beyond all this, I would be willing to allege that Anita is not fulfilling the terms by which people donated money to her.

By: Unending Improvement

Unending Improvement — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:13:02 +0000

I think you’re missing the point. There would be nothing financially lucrative in Jesse posting videos.

On the other hand, there is plenty of money available to be donated to advance feminist causes.

By: Paula Wright

Paula Wright — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:29:33 +0000

I think he just did