Peering through the male gaze of the damsel in video games

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6p5AZp7r_Q&list=PLn4ob_5_ttEaA_vc8F3fjzE62esf9yP61&index=1

“Tropes vs Women in Video Games: Damsel in Distress”

In this video it is part 1 of 2 in looking at the cliche video game plot of the damsel in distress as well as a brief origin and influential areas into how it was incorporated into video game culture. She starts off the video by talking about this great game that no one got to play that featured a female lead character battling her way through the story. However before the release of the game, the developer kept the same story in place but re animated the game over to have it be another installment in their franchise with a male lead and the original female lead (Krystal) being now reduced to a non playable character as a damsel in distress for the main protagonist to save. The video does a great job of discussing some of the origins of the damsel in distress trope like coming from the 1933 movie King Kong which inspired the Donkey Kong games and hence the damsel in distress in that game. 

This video has definitely made me more aware of how prevalent the damsel in distress is as a plot line in video games. A lot of times while playing these games it’s not really something I think about, but it is a fair critique of how overused it is in the gaming industry. It was also a great explanation into understanding where the damsel comes from and how it is a translation from an old french expression that we have “stolen”. As well as how the damsel in distress can be traced all the way back to Greek mythology with the story of Perseus and then carrying through the middle ages with tales of Knights going on quests to save mistresses to prove their bravery and chivalry. It was all great background into better understanding how the damsel in distress role isn’t anything new or specific to video games, but is a larger plot line for several different mediums of pop culture throughout human history.

This video was another great explanation into the “male gaze” aspect of video games and plot lines that was also outlined in Robin James’ article from this week about how the “male gaze” is in film, this shows how it is in video games. It shows it, by how female characters in popular games such as Super Mario Bros. are not playable but are instead the target or object by male protagonists for saving which for all these types of games portrays to, as she says in the video, the male power fantasy. Which comes back to how video game plots are told through the eyes of male audiences and oftentimes reduce female characters down to nothing more than objects/desires to their male counterparts and male players.