The third video in Anita Sarkeesian’s Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series is out and she speaks in this one primarily about the role that gender generally takes in games and how the video game industry is doing a poor job of “growing out of” the last century. This is the third in a series that her original Kickstarter and the resulting backlash led her to produce.

As usual, her videos are focused on the portrayal of women in video games and how, in general, women do not have a strong or bold role in many. In her critical examination she does bring to light games from the last 20 years that present women in a fashion that gives them agency and character fitting to respectable roles—including two of my favorites of all time Beyond Good and Evil and Primal. She also goes into how these roles are rare, few, and far between; but that the eponymous role of her series “Damseling” is extremely common.

The video is a mixed bag of looking at yet-more games that attempt to subvert the trope with “Dude in Distress,” and how games making homage to retro games tend to instill the “Damseling” trope as if it were ironic—or comedic—and why that’s not actually helpful to the media in general. She also goes into how lampshading sexism in games—for comedy or irony—doesn’t function as a reversal either, just another way of pretending a bad depiction away instead of a social criticism.

As usual, Sarkeesian makes the point during her critique that it’s important to remember that we as gamers can separate how much fun and enjoyment out of these games while simultaneously understanding the cultural issues or negative stereotypes being paraded around. As gamers it’s possible to be a part of the community who participate in the ups, the downs, and enjoy the media—but that doesn’t mean we cannot also be critical of it at the same time.

Gender bending remakes

One of the more interesting modern inventions that caught my eye during this episode is discussions of how gamers looking back on their own nostalgia have seen early games and hacked the ROMs to change the gender of the main character. In this both Donkey Kong—where dad Mike Mika hacked the ROM to make the Mario character into the Pauline character—as well as the original Legend of Zelda—where animator/hacker Kenna W. took the game and switched Link and Zelda, making Zelda (the imminent “damseled” sleeping princess into the main character)—and even The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker—where another dad, Mike Hoye, gender-switched Link with an emulator.

This is one of the reasons that mods and moddable games have always been an interesting element of hacker and maker culture—especially when it comes to gaming—since it means that gamers therefore can take hold of their own media to make social commentary about the state of their industry. Often, gamers are held hostage to the shifting whims of the intended or apparent market and that includes minority gamers who otherwise might be alienated due to the positioning or roles given to elements of their identity.

Watch The Damsel in Distress Part 1

Watch The Damsel in Distress Part 2