Tropes vs Women in Video Gaming - Damsel in Distress

The point that's being made isn't that the idea itself (supporting characters being helpless) is bad, it's that women in video games are almost always put in this position. What's problematic is that all of the characters who are helpless and cannot do anything to change their situation are overwhelmingly female.

There is a major difference between "helpless men" and "helpless women," which is what creates the problematic Damsel in Distress. Male characters who are shown as helpless almost never suffer from the inability to not do something. Even in your prior example of "Mario is helpless," he isn't; he's still running about and trying to change the future outcome of events. He's not powerless, which is what the DiD trope is showing. The point of this trope, as she's said in the video, is that you strip power from a female character. It's not just a one-off, either; you can have examples of characters who were 'strong' but suddenly become Damsel'd in their own ways. Here's a good example of a horrible game story that did this: Final Fantasy VIII. Rinoa starts off fairly weak and is shown as consistently stupid/naive (Quistiss also falls prone to this despite being intelligent, since she gets demoted from her original position; Selphie's obviously bat pomegranate crazy, especially when it comes to trains). Rinoa, however, becomes possessed (strips Rinoa's powers away, Damseling her); she then falls into a coma (strips more power away from Rinoa). These two plot devices (badly) aid Squall's push to 'do something,' because he's looking for a way to save Rinoa (not that anyone will ever know why, since this is a problem of story continuity).

That's what the trope is about. Men generally don't have power stripped from them; they have options taken away, but they're "creative" enough to figure out a new way to solve their problem. Or they're still able to continue their journey and accidentally solve the issue. (Or, if it's a particularly bad storyteller, they forget it all together.) Women, on the other hand, lose their power when Damsel'd; these characters become helpless, useless, powerless and have no opportunities to change their own story. Their strife and struggles are shown as a changing element to the wrong person. In fact, they almost never have anything to say/feel about their detainment/capture. That's the difference.

I have a problem with the critque of the industry because for every individual example we're either dealing with :

-One's particular creation and self-developed concept developing organically. That happens to use the trope. (More likely to be indie titles)

Or

- The game is built with certain concepts and demographics in mind and built around that. (More likely to be the usual AAA title)

I don't believe what any particular demographic wants has anyyy business influencing a person's natural creativity. People forcing out characters and plot paths they're not actually interested in is only going to create something watered down and bad. Which is exactly what happened to Star Fox Adventures. I'm against Peach and Zelda ever being radically changed unless the actual writers behind their games get a truly inspired direction for such a game. I just believe people's characters are theirs, you try too hard and you end up with annoying, poorly written tokens. Criticizing people for their personal tastes in game ideas just seems controlling.

However, the idea of telling publishers what they SHOULD throw down their money and take a chance on, i'm all for that. I'd love for any publisher to ignore 'what sells' to take more chances on game ideas/studios with active female protagonists. Money is pretty much what causes all innovative stagnation in the industry. The video doesn't account for that fact and loses a lot of points there.

Here's the thing: that's precisely the issue, and why i feel focusing on media is a problem: we're trying to blow away the smoke, when its not the fire. The thing is, they are successful because they are a product of our culture, and not vice versa. More guys just find the idea of being able to take on all challenges without help interesting. More women find a self-reliant guy more intriguing, not neccessarily attractive, but more valued. So they sell better, and those sales influence what a publisher will back next.

It's not even just an issue of feminism alone when you really think about this contrast in distressed characters: Its also because of society's generalization of helpless men: a man too weak to try to fight out of a circumstance isn't intriguing. A man that helpless is considered a 'loser' and not interesting enough to be the inspiration of a journey. It's 'weird' for a guy to be helpless to both genders. Its a double edged issue: not only is this so prevalent because using a female is culturally convenient. Its because males are culturally less convenient for the role as well; writers naturally feel a compulsion to give a distressed male some sort of edge so he isn't a total wimp.

Rather than burn energy critiquing the reflection in the mirror. I can't help but feel that encouraging those who DO have inspired strong female protagonists is a far better solution than criticizing other's creative works, which may very well be characters they care about a lot, it may not be progressive, but dear to them.

Also, continuing to actively encourage strong females, either physically or in character in real life in a positive manner is going to have a ripple effect: Think about it; the more comfortable and prevalent the female bodybuilder or active teenage girl is, the more inspirations and influences future game designers are going to have for great female characters. Honestly, using the 150k to PROMOTE books and small independent films starring heroic girls would have been a much better use of money than a super-long critique against established series. Hands down.

They are out there, help them get known.

If we want a better balance in the distressed character of interest trope: then there additionally should be some effort to encourage acceptance of males beyond their strength and usefulness to make them more interesting distress characters. So far, like you said, the only trait beyond that, to make a male character intriguing to the general market is to make him smart. Why can't the emotional support they've shown the protagonist, male or female, be the value in attempting to save them? Females are still more convenient and versatile for the role. The solution really is to start adding value to other traits in men aside from being able to 'git er done'.

Basically: culture decides what sells, there are plenty of strong females in gaming: its not even that those game sell badly just that the traditional outsells it big time. Contribute and influence a more open minded culture and the media WILL reflect it.