When I was young... this was way back when the Nintendo Entertainment System was new (yes, I'm old, get over it) there were very few games for girls. Most of the games wouldn't have main characters that were female. Females were mostly this pathetic little thing that sat in towers waiting for some big strong man to save them or had games that were frilly and boring. Both Princess Zelda and Princess Toadstool would constantly be getting captured by Gannon and Bowser. Link and Mario (or Luigi) would rush out to save these two, and be rewarded by maybe a kiss on the cheek. Somehow that made it worse for me... doing all that work to get nothing. Sometimes females would fight alongside the male characters but they'd often be weaker than their male counterparts.
Sure there were good games back then that had female characters as the main characters. Samus was one of the first in Metroid. This was nice, or would have been if you had known you were playing a female to begin with. Honestly, though, there is usually nothing that happens in Metroid that even makes a difference whether the mail character is male or female. This is generally what happened in those games. The main female character would be strong, but interchangeable with a male character. Ms. Pac Man was not only interchangeable with her male counterpart, but she was just a female version of Pac Man.
Female characters did get stronger over time. Princess Toadstool did a bit of fighting in some of the games, but always remained dainty. Zelda was really strong while disguised as Shiek but once she took off the pants she seemed to act just the same as always. And while I think that females in games have gotten stronger I don`t think by any means that things have gotten a lot better.
Today I can go out and probably buy 50 games with females as the main characters. I can get them with big breasts, shirt skirts, and willing to go out and create a blood bath. Don`t get me wrong, I`m glad that girls today can go out and buy a game where they can play a female character, but dont`t they deserve a little more than a character that`s eye candy? Where are all the real girls in games? Ones that don't have to wear short skirts, tight clothing, show cleavage or act dainty to be considered a reasonable character for video games.
What's wrong with having more main characters (and there are a few) that actually wear a normal amount of clothing? It doesn't even have to be that much, but let it be at least as much as the males are wearing in these games. More importantly why can't their be females as compelling as the male characters in games? Is there just not enough women writers in the industry? Yes, there are games out their that have stronger characters such as the females in Persona, Parasite Eve (though shower scene, ha!), the new Metroids (though still I have some issues with it). Often games that come from an anime also tend to have strong female characters, but not always.
I don't get to play video games that much any more. When I do I don't really get to play a female character, because often these games are too hard to find, or still not as interesting as the games targeted at males. I do have hope, because in the last 25 years games have come a long way, and I think they'll continue to progress... hopefully without so many short skirts and boring babes.
The video game and comic book world is dominated by men. It's the way it is. Girls who are into video games usually go for Halo or something like that. They don't really mind. I do like how in the later Fable games you can be a queen instead of a king. She fight and is basically amazing just like the guy would be. I don't know when Nintendo came out but I'm 19 and I used to play all those games. I still have the Nintendo 64 and a couple of games. A great favorite was the Star Wars one where you would race your... pods? racers? Anyways I think it's the same with manga too but girls in that crowd act a certain way and I don't they mind as much either if all the girls have big breasts. They are strong but still. Seriously you can feel the testosterone coming off of most of the games out there. It's getting better though.
ReplyDeleteThat princess outlook btw is what I want to avoid if I have children in the future. I will let my kids watch Mulan, Tangled, and The Frog Princess because the girls got some moxy to them. Later on I'll introduce them to the other princess movies/stories because I want to be able to explain how women should see themselves and how they are strong. If I have boys I'm doing the same thing. Why would I want my boy to fall in love with a flimsy little thing? So I got sidetracked and I may sound weird but I'm a new follower. Great post and thanks for following my blog :D
Thanks so much for your comments! It's terrible how the media in general is dominated by men. Even in movies and whatnot. I was going to go into that too, but goodness my post was long enough!
ReplyDeleteDisney is notorious for having such boring women. The only women in a lot of those movies who have moxy are the bad guys. Is it really that good for kids to cheer for the bad guys (even if we do)? I think if you give them enough of the good to go on, then they will know the difference when you show them the not so good. I know a lot of people who don't have good taste in movies, because they don't know the difference between the good and bad.
It's okay if you talk a lot on my blog. It's crazy how easy it is to do! Weird is just a point of view. What's weird to some, is great for me. Thanks for following my blog!
Disney can have some good women like I mentioned Mulan. I have loved Belle since I was a kid because I can identify with her but I see now being kidnapped isn't something to look up to her for.
DeleteTheir are actually a couple of bad guys I love (Loki in Thor and Moriarty in BBC's Sherlock Holmes) They are portrayed so well and they are so evil that you can't help but love them. I don't think I ever liked a bad guy when I was younger at least I don't remember. I thin as a child you know the basics of right and wrong so you root for the good guy. My mother or father would always tell me to close my eyes when a scene was coming up. I watched every kind of movie especially weird kinds thanks to having the older brothers I have. I don't know if that's a good idea or not because eventually I would be exposed to it... I mean you wouldn't want to be in the dark about something later on but you wouldn't want to know too much and destroy your innocence. I am thinking offhandedly so I doubt that last part made any sense.