Damsels in Distress: my own regressive crap

Hello: this article is in place of the usual Friday New Year’s Resolution update. Next week will feature God of War, but in the meantime I thought I would write about Feminist Frequency, a new YouTube series that recently started up to dissect female tropes in video games.

Having witnessed the evolution of Anita Sarkeesian’s attempt to explore female tropes in video games, from her Kickstarter proposal and the rabid and quite disgusting response to same from the cesspits of the internet – attempts to get her removed from Kickstarter, vile emails and mini games encouraging the player to punch images of her –  to the uplifting message wherein sense and empathy prevailed, with Sarkeesian eventually achieving her target funding before exceeding it many times over.

It was a success story that I was glad to see emerge, especially considering the number of similar stories that begin with a woman making a comment about video games only to retreat due to rape and death threats. Not, as in this case, an inspiring TED speech.

Sarkeesian’s first video is now out, one year since her original announcement, and I have been seeing a lot of mixed opinions in response. The main non-stupid complaint – believe me, there are plenty of stupid ones out there – is that it appears to be a string of facts without much in the way of analysis, and besides these facts were already well known.

Yeah, it is the old boobs and butt in the same shot routine.
Yeah, it’s the old boobs and butt in the same shot routine.

Personally I thought that presenting the facts was a great entry-level introduction to video games and their skewed bias toward teenage males, and I imagine that I am not the only one who didn’t know that Dino Planet was originally planned with a female protagonist before she was replaced by a male.

Another criticism that is not completely invalid, on the basis that it isn’t a bunch of cis white male bullshit, is that Sarkeesian isn’t particularly passionate about her delivery. This is something that I feel is perfectly fine. She is attempting deliver news, not to be another blowhard on YouTube; as we all know there are enough of those out there.

A lesser point of criticism that has been brought up is that at one moment she does slip out of auditor/professor mode and refers to Double Dragon Neon as ‘regressive crap’.

Funnily this seems to have sparked the ire of a few people. Some are fans of the game; others that feel Sarkeesian’s statement is at odds with the message she is trying to convey. Further critical questions circle the latter, such as why is she trying to be funny, why is she stating an opinion, why doesn’t she stick to the facts, and why is my money being spent on this.

I don’t have a way to placate these critics, nor do I have answers for these points. I am sure that I could respond with something but I feel it would be better for Sarkeesian to address these comments herself if she feels that she needs to.

What matters to me is that this comment about Double Dragon Neon also sparked something inside of me that led to a moment of introspection, one that I found far more effective than anything else in the video.

The moment in which she casually, and perhaps in an unprofessional way, referred to Wayforward’s love letter to the Eighties video game featuring the Lee brothers as ‘regressive crap’, prompted an initial knee-jerk reaction to act on the defensive.

But on reflection the trope that Double Dragon exhibits – that the woman captured at the beginning of the game is a damsel in distress; an object to be fought over rather than being a person in her own right – is regressive crap.

In my head, for a moment, I excused the portrayal and perpetuation of this trope as being a direct call back to the original Double Dragon. It was acceptable because the game was based on something from an older time; this re-issue was just staying faithful to these roots.

Except that this argument doesn’t wash one bit.

Back in 2000 I introduced one of my female friends to the original Night of the Living Dead. At the time I considered it to be a horror classic that had set the template for modern zombie films; a template that had barely changed over the following sixty years. I felt it was also extremely progressive in its views, featuring a black lead and a commentary on racial segregation in the USA, so I was fairly convinced it was going to win her over.

We got as far as a group of people holing themselves up in a house and attempting to defend themselves from a zombie onslaught. I sensed that she was getting irritated and asked her what was up. She replied:

“The woman in this is dumb.”

Night of the dead

In the five or six times I’d previously watched this film I’d never noticed that the only female character was indeed dumb. While all the men made an effort to protect what was theirs she spent the entire time freaking out and being useless; a damsel in distress from almost the opening of the film.

I tried to defend the film but my friend had a point: the character was weak and only a plot point rather than a driver of her own story.

This was something that clearly affected Romero, the writer and director of the film, because when the film was remade in the 1990s – helmed by the special effects maestro Tom Savini – Romero rewrote the script with a stronger female lead; one capable of protecting herself.

I still think that the original film, despite its flaws, is a better film, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are some things which do not need to be repeated.

Sarkeesian’s video is good: it deserves to be widely viewed. This one moment in which she is less than formal will, I imagine, be something that people pick on as a means to ignore the rest of the good work in there. As so frequently occurs in the dissemination of an argument on the internet, rather than tackle the higher level points one minor issue will be drawn out, broken down and then used as a tool to debunk the whole. For me, though, that one slip was the most illuminating.


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10 responses to “Damsels in Distress: my own regressive crap”

  1. @RuthlessCult Avatar

    The video struck me as a bit 'Feminism 101' in that little analysis was offered. However, I thought she did an absolutely brilliant job of tracking the extent of that particular trope. By the end of the video you are left in absolutely no doubt as to a) the extent of Sarkeesian's knowledge of video game history and b) the fact that video games clearly have an incredibly poor record when it comes to depicting women.

    I admit, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of analysis contained in the video but I think this first video resoundingly answers the men who tried to silence Sarkeesian: Yes, she knows what she's talking about and Yes, we need to think about how video games depict women.

    1. badgercommander Avatar
      badgercommander

      Agreed, about the lack of analysis but I kind of like it like that. If it was a standalone video then I would be a little more bothered about it as it would almost feel like a 'Top ten' style list but with future episodes to go that is something that she may choose to address.

      As an introduction for some one like my mother it is invaluable.

  2. Harbour Master Avatar
    Harbour Master

    That slip didn't stick in my mind although I remember when watching it that "why drop the mask now?" I liked the matter-of-fact delivery. The sequence with all the "damsel in distress" moments stuck together was stand-out though.

    I see the historical part as a way of saying "here's where we came from" and leading up to present day and saying "look how far we haven't moved/look how far we have come". You can call regressive crap right now, but historically speaking, it's always tricky to go back and judge the past. Night of the Living Dead, Star Trek TOS and anything really – all products of their time. Some of it becomes unwatchable (some of those British sitcoms of the 70s), but some of them can still be appreciated as a cultural artefact of the age (Hollywood classics don't tend to treat women so well).

    1. badgercommander Avatar
      badgercommander

      I think the 'regressive crap' stuck out so much for me was because my first, fleeting reaction was to try and defend my precious video games from her statement much like my first reaction to my friend criticising Night of the Living Dead was to do the same. This is something that I imagine that a lot of people do, that first knee jerk reaction to lash out in some way to preserve the status quo.

      I seriously considered making this article a great deal longer as there is far more I wanted to talk about and explore. The thing is I am being besieged on all sides by responsibilities that don't really give me the time I want to do this article more justice. So, instead, I thought it would be a fun vignette that would lead to more discussion. To get two great responses in such a short period of time means that it kind of worked!

      Now, back to work having not really addressed the second part of your response.

  3. Princess Elizabeth Avatar
    Princess Elizabeth

    What an intelligent reasoned analysis. It's about time. I have long had an uneasy feeling about the games my son plays, but not being a player, couldn't comment with any knowledge. I am thrilled that Anita is taking up the baton.

    1. badgercommander Avatar
      badgercommander

      Wow, you came to this article without prior knowledge of the video?

      If you liked that then you will be happy to know that she is doing more of them. I believe that the second part of this one promises to show good examples of females in similar scenarios.

  4. Minh T Avatar
    Minh T

    I'm not sure I quite get the video. It seems pretty biased and one-sided. I mean, sure she talks about Pauline, and Princess Toadstool, but it feels like she's ignoring the existence of strong female main characters like Samus Aran (Metroid), Terra (FFIV), Lightning (FFXIII), Faith (MIrror's Edge), etc?

    or is this about the lack of gentlemen in distress?

    1. ShaunCG Avatar

      A trope is a recurring motif (or cliché) and isn't something that is disproven by the existence of different tropes or non-recurring characters or symbolism, unless it is something deliberately designed to undercut the original trope (e.g. Samus Aran is kidnapped by some villainous figure but frees herself as she is a character who possesses agency).

      You might however take issue with the way an understanding of a given trope is projected into a wider understanding of female representation in videogames (I probably wouldn't, though ;).

      If I were to use an analogy I might say that the existence of Gina Rinehart doesn't undercut the fact that, around the world and in every country (to my knowledge), women are paid significantly less on average than men when performing the same or a similar job. :)

  5. Edd B Avatar
    Edd B

    Aha, I'll have to watch the video when I get home. I was also very interested and horrified by her announced plans and 'the internet's reaction to them during the Kickstarter phase, but hadn't been keeping up to date with her progress for the last couple of months. I probably should have watched it before reading your comments but there's only so much I can do in my lunch break :) I'll attempt to keep track of future episodes as they come out too!

    1. badgercommander Avatar
      badgercommander

      Edd have you now watched it? Would be interesting to see what you think.