A while back there was a bit of controversy over a Kickstarter set up by Anita Sarkeesian to fund a series of videos examining gender discrimination in video games.
The first video in the series, dealing with the Damsel in Distress trope, is up now.
It's a good watch, and highlights some of the more notable examples of discrimination in early video games. That said, it does ignore some classics such as the Golden Axe and Streets of Rage games, which always featured a lead female character fighting right alongside the men. Still, I think it's worth a watch just to see how readily game developers have jumped to the quick and easy plot device of a weak female in need of a strong male to save her.
Mar 14, 2013
Damsels in Distress
Paul Anthony Shortt believes in magic and monsters. In ghosts and fairies. The creatures that lurk under the bed and inside the closet. The things that live in the dark, and the heroes who stand against them. Above all, he believes that stories have the power to change the world, and the most important stories are the ones which show that monsters can be beaten.
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Paul--Interesting! Sounds like the gaming industry has really made some headway with gender discrimination recently, though.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It was always a topic I was interested in, but I've become much more aware of it lately and I love finding more and more examples of gender equality in games.
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