Damsel In Distress Trope Analysis

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Recommended: Gender roles and video games

Videogames as a creative media platform has grown greatly in the past 20 years. However as video games grow in popularity, it’s expected that they will develop age old stereotypes along the way. Women in particular are often targeted by video game stereotypes; one of the most popular and well recognized of said stereotypes is the damsel in distress trope. The damsel in distress trope is when a female character is placed in a dangerous situation from which she cannot escape on her own and must be rescued by the protagonist who is usually a male. This plot device can occur in several different ways in video games, whether it be through kidnapping or possession. This cliché acts as a plot device providing a core incentive or motivation for the hero of the story to continue in their perilous quest.

One of the most notable and prominent examples of a damsel in distress is Princess Peach (or Princess Toadstool) from the Super Mario Bros Series developed and published by Nintendo. Princess Peach is a dainty, feminine figure who is frequently kidnapped by the main antagonist of the Mario Franchise, Bowser. In fact, out of 15 games of the main Mario series, Princess Peach has been kidnapped in 13 of them often only appearing at the very beginning and end of each game. Super Mario Bros 2 for a long time was the only main series Mario game in which Peach was a playable character. However, keep in mind that Super Mario Bros 2 was just a reskin of a pre-existing game and that the only reason why Peach was included was because Nintendo needed an extra model. It would be almost 25 years before the next game Peach was a playable character in was released; Super Mario 3D World the only other main Mario Series game in which Princess Pea...

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...wever does that mean companies should continue promoting the stereotype? Of course not, by continuing to add the trope to games we will only make the gamer audience that more close minded, in order to reach a more diverse and branched out audience, companies should be publishing more games with a strong female lead. A lead which doesn’t rely on sex appeal, but instead has a defined personality that surpasses the “I am a girl, that is what makes me interesting,” trope. The belief that women should always be the damsel is wrong, but the thought is reinforced when women are continuously portrayed as frail, fragile, and vulnerable creatures in a media such as Video Games. So while I’m not saying that video games created the sexism trope and should be blamed accordingly, I believe that these fictional worlds should move on from such biased thoughts as the real world has.

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