Gender and Gaming

Greetings my fellow earth creatures!

I have to say that every single time I hear "feminist" I automatically have a stereotypical image pop into my head of a strong, vegetarian, neo-Nazi female burning her bra with a very loud voice yelling at everything and everyone who disagrees with her particular point of view.

To start this blog post, let me start by saying I have the highest respect for womankind. My mother taught me compassion and how to care for others; my father taught me the old style of chivalry (i.e. ladies are always first, stand up when a lady enters the room, etc). I was taught these things not because women are helpless but because it is a way to show respect. I share this so that you all can understand where I come from and why I say the things I do.

Mr. Gonzalo Frasca's article on Super Princess Peach (found here) had some interesting things to say but overall, my personal assessment is that the game itself is ridiculous...seriously what is up with girls/women and the color pink?! Frasca points that out as part of the stereotype but I just finished up a study group with 3 other women....one had a pink hand bag and the other had a can of pepper spray which was in a pink container (no she wasn't threatening me with it).

Is Super Princess Peach a sexist game because it places so much emphasis in the color pink and all of the things Peach can do are the results of emotions instead of real-world attack moves (punch, kick, etc)? I would suggest and argue that the game itself is not sexist but it is a very good example of popular stereotypes which women in general have not done very much to change (pink peppers pray for crying out loud!).

Sexism is defined as "the belief or attitude that one gender or sex is inferior to or less valuable than the other". I would like to point out that this game is targeted toward women and girls...it would be very foolish to create a game whose target audience is being demeaned. Not only foolish but economically unfeasible....who would buy the game?!?! No, I proclaim that the game itself is ridiculous based upon the idea of what it is...a button-mashing, no-story, brain-numbing, stupid-making, pitiful excuse of a game which has been created with the sole purpose to try and capture a demographic that has been woefully under-estimated and under-marketed.

In the college class Media and Society (Journalism 100), there is a section where the topic discussed is how popular media reflects society and also how society reflects the popular media. As an example, who came up with the whole "white picket fence home" idea? Movies were created with the idea of the "perfect home" and that perfect home had a white picket fence. Thus, everyone thought their house should have a picket fence. This idea works both ways: media reflecting society and society reflecting media.

What I am getting at is that games, movies, books, literature, etc. in general reflect what is acceptable to the society. Let me repeat that this is a generalization and not to be taken as universal law. If there is something stereotypical or sexist and we're upset about it, then the strongest statement that could be made is how we will live our lives: do we take a stand? Do we join a rights-movement group? Do we speak out against the offending material? Do we teach our children through our actions the correct and proper way?

That last is the most powerful way to change things: Live our daily lives as examples to our children. Then it doesn't matter what trash Nintendo tries to pawn off on us or what neo-Nazi feminists scream as "the way it should be".

Personally, I’m deeply offended at the game Super Princess Peach on the grounds that it is a moronic, mentally defective attempt at freshening up a franchise because Nintendo can’t come up with better ideas.


Cheers!