Damsel in Distress: Part 2 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games
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0:03 - 0:05"Beatrice!!!"
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0:25 - 0:28Welcome to the second episode in our multi-part series
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0:28 - 0:31exploring the roles and representation of women in video games.
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0:31 - 0:38This project examines the tropes, plot devices and patterns most commonly associated with women in gaming
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0:38 - 0:40from a systemic, big-picture perspective.
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0:40 - 0:45Over the course of this series, I will be offering critical analysis of many popular games and characters,
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0:45 - 0:49but please keep in mind that it is both possible and even necessary
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0:49 - 0:52to simultaneously enjoy a piece of media
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0:52 - 0:55while also being critical of its more problematic or pernicious aspects.
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0:56 - 0:59I just want to caution viewers that, as we delve into more modern games
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0:59 - 1:05we will be discussing examples that employ some particularly gruesome and graphic depictions of violence against women.
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1:05 - 1:09I'll do my best to only show what is necessary but this episode does come with a trigger warning.
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1:09 - 1:15It is also recommended that parents preview the video first, before sharing with younger children.
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1:15 - 1:19In our previous episode, we explored the history of the Damsel in Distress
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1:19 - 1:23and how the trope became so pervasive in classic era games from the 80s and early 90s.
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1:23 - 1:30We also explored some of the core reasons why damsel characters are so problematic as representations of women.
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1:30 - 1:34So, if you haven't seen it yet, please check that one out before continuing to watch this one.
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1:34 - 1:38As a trope, the Damsel in Distress is a plot device in which a female character
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1:38 - 1:42is placed in a perilous situation from which she cannot escape on her own
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1:42 - 1:49and then must be rescued by a male character, usually providing an incentive or motivation for the protagonist's quest.
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1:49 - 1:53Now it might be tempting to think that the Damsel in Distress was just a product of its time
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1:53 - 1:56and now, surely, the trope must be a thing of the past.
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1:56 - 2:00Well, while we have seen a moderate increase in the number of playable female characters
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2:00 - 2:02the plot device hasn't gone away.
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2:02 - 2:06In fact, the damsel in distress has seen a bit of a resurgence in recent years.
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2:07 - 2:09[Screams]
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2:09 - 2:10[Screams]
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2:10 - 2:12“Rygar!”
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2:13 - 2:14“Silence!”
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2:15 - 2:16“Nooo!
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2:16 - 2:18[Muffled screams]
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2:19 - 2:20[Screams]
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2:20 - 2:22“You’ve got to get me out of here”
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2:23 - 2:24[Screams]
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2:24 - 2:26[Laughter]
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2:26 - 2:27“Come and get her”
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2:27 - 2:29“Alex!”
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2:30 - 2:31[Screams]
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2:31 - 2:32“He’s…He’s hurting me”
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2:35 - 2:39[Screams] “Alice?!”
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2:43 - 2:46“Help, Please!”
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2:46 - 2:47“Bullet in her head!”
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2:47 - 2:50“What a dear little bird you are”
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2:52 - 2:54And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
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2:54 - 2:58Suffice it to say, the trope is alive and well, even today.
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2:58 - 2:59“Let her go!”
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2:59 - 3:04And since the majority of these titles still focus on delivering crude unsophisticated male power fantasies
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3:04 - 3:07developers are largely unwilling to give up the damsel in distress
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3:07 - 3:12as an easy, default motivation for their brooding male heroes, or anti-heroes.
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3:12 - 3:16Remember, that as a trope, the damsel in distress is a plot device
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3:16 - 3:20used by writers and not necessarily always just a one-dimensional character type
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3:20 - 3:23entirely defined by victimhood.
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3:23 - 3:27Now and then, damselled characters may be well written, funny, dynamic or likeable
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3:27 - 3:35“I’m just trying to set you on fire through this stupid hat!”
“What a delightfully mean little brain you have.” -
3:35 - 3:40However this extra character development, tends to make their eventual disempowerment all the more frustrating.
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3:40 - 3:43Damsels on the more sassy end of the spectrum, may struggle with their captors,
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3:43 - 3:44“Get away from me!”
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3:44 - 3:47or even attempt an escape on their own.
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3:47 - 3:50But inevitably, their efforts always prove futile.
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3:50 - 3:53Occasionally they may be allowed to offer the hero a last-minute helping hand
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3:53 - 3:56or to kick the bad guy while he is down
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3:56 - 3:59but these moments are largely symbolic and typically only happen
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3:59 - 4:03after the core adventure is over or the danger has passed.
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4:03 - 4:07These token gestures of pseudo-empowerment don't really offer any meaningful change to the core of the trope
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4:07 - 4:11and it feels like developers just throw these moments in at the last minute
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4:11 - 4:16to try an excuse their continued reliance on the damsel in distress.
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4:16 - 4:19Periodically, game developers may attempt to build a more fleshed out relationship
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4:19 - 4:24or emotional bond between the damselled character and the male protagonist.
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4:25 - 4:29In the most decidedly patronizing examples, depictions of female vunerability
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4:29 - 4:35are used as an easy way for writers to trigger an emotional reaction in male players.
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4:36 - 4:39As we discussed in our first episode, when female characters are damselled
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4:39 - 4:44their ostensible agency is removed and they're reduced to a state of victimhood.
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4:44 - 4:48So narratives that frame intimacy, love or romance as something that blossoms from,
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4:48 - 4:54or hinges upon the disempowerment and victimization of women are extremely troubling
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4:54 - 4:57because they tend to reinforce the widespread, regressive notion
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4:57 - 5:04that women in vulnerable, passive or subordinate positions are somehow desirable because of their powerlessness.
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5:04 - 5:08Unfortunately, these types of stories also help to perpetuate the paternalistic belief
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5:08 - 5:15that power imbalances within romantic relationships are appealing, expected or normal.
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5:16 - 5:19OK, so we know that the damsel in distress is alive and well in gaming
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5:19 - 5:21but that's not the full picture.
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5:21 - 5:24There's an even more insidious side to the story.
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5:24 - 5:28Over the past decade, game companies have been desperately searching for ways to stand out
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5:28 - 5:32in a market increasingly over-saturated with very similar products.
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5:32 - 5:37As a consequence, we've seen a dramatic increase in the number of games attempting to cut through the clutter
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5:37 - 5:40by being as dark and edgy as possible.
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5:40 - 5:43So we've seen developers try to 'spice up' the damsel in distress cliche
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5:43 - 5:47by combining it with other tropes that involved victimized women.
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5:47 - 5:50I've identified a few of the most common of these trope cocktails
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5:50 - 5:54which join together multiple regressive, or negative representations of women,
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5:54 - 5:59including the disposable women, the mercy killing and the woman in the refrigerator.
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6:00 - 6:03The term 'women in refrigerators' was coined in the late 1990s
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6:03 - 6:05by the comic book writer Gail Simone,
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6:05 - 6:11to describe the trend of female comic book characters who are routinely brutalized or killed off as a plot device
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6:11 - 6:14designed to move the male character's story arc forward.
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6:14 - 6:19The trope name comes from Green Lantern, Issue No. 54 in which the superhero returns home
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6:19 - 6:23to find his girlfriend murdered and stuffed inside the refrigerator.
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6:23 - 6:27This trading of female character's lives for something meant to resemble male character development
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6:27 - 6:30is, of course, part of a long media tradition
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6:30 - 6:35but the gruesome death of women for shock value is especially prevalent in modern gaming.
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6:35 - 6:40The women in refrigerator trope is used as the cornerstone of some of the most famous, contemporary video games.
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6:40 - 6:46It provides the core motivational hook behind both the Max Payne and the God of War series, for example
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6:46 - 6:48“My wife…my child…”
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6:48 - 6:51In each case, the protagonist's wife and daughter are brutally murdered
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6:51 - 6:57and their deaths are then used by the developers as a pretext for the inevitable bloody revenge quest.
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6:57 - 7:00It is interesting to note that the reverse scenario,
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7:00 - 7:05games hinging on a women, vowing revenge for her murdered husband or boyfriend
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7:05 - 7:07are practically non-existant.
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7:07 - 7:16The gender role reversal is so unusual that it borders on the absurd.
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7:16 - 7:20Which is one of the reasons why this scene from Disney's Wreck It Ralph is so humourous.
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7:20 - 7:23I could do a very long video just exploring this one trope in gaming,
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7:23 - 7:28but today I want to look at how the women in refrigerator is connected to the damsel in distress
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7:28 - 7:33and specifically the ways games developers have found to combine these two plot devices.
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7:33 - 7:37One popular variation is to simply use both tropes in the same plot line
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7:37 - 7:41so as to have the male protagonist's wife stuff in the fridge, while his daughter is damselled.
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7:41 - 7:45In Outlaws, your wife is brutally murdered and you then have to rescue your daughter.
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7:45 - 7:47“Who did this?”
“They’ve taken Sarah” -
7:48 - 7:52In Kane & Lynch, your wife is brutally murdered and then you have to rescue your daughter.
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7:52 - 7:55“I’ll find them all before they find Jenny”
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7:55 - 8:01In Prototype 2, your wife is brutally murdered and you then have to rescue your daughter.
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8:01 - 8:05In Inversion, your wife is brutally murdered and you then have to rescue your daughter.
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8:05 - 8:07“Leila, where is she?”
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8:07 - 8:11In Asura's Wrath, your wife is brutally murdered and you then have to rescue your daughter.
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8:11 - 8:12“Save her.”
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8:13 - 8:18In Dishonored, the Empress is brutally murdered and then you have to rescue her daughter,
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8:18 - 8:21'though it is heavily implied that she is your daughter too.
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8:21 - 8:24“Find Emily. Protect her!”
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8:24 - 8:29It is no coincidence that the fridge plot device and the damsel plot device work in much the same way.
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8:29 - 8:33Both involve female characters who have been reduced to complete states of helplessness
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8:33 - 8:37by the narrative, one via kidnapping, the other via murder.
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8:37 - 8:42The two plot devices, used together, then allow developers to exploit both revenge motivation
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8:42 - 8:45and the good old-fashioned save-the-girl motivation.
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8:45 - 8:49Believe it or not, there is another, more insidious version of this particular trope hybrid,
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8:49 - 8:52which I call 'The Damsel in the Refrigerator'.
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8:52 - 8:56Now, you may be asking yourself, "How can a fridged woman still be in distress?",
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8:56 - 9:02since, by definition, bring fridged usually sort of requires...being dead.
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9:02 - 9:04Well here's how it works.
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9:04 - 9:07The Damsel in the Refrigerator occurs when the hero's sweetheart is brutally murdered
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9:07 - 9:11and her soul is then trapped or abducted by the villain.
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9:11 - 9:16This 'Oh so dark and edgy' twist provides players with a double dose of female disempowerment
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9:16 - 9:21and allows developers to again exploit both the revenge motivation and the saving the damsel motivation.
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9:21 - 9:25But this time, with the same woman, at the same time.
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9:25 - 9:28This trope combination can be traced back to old school side scrollers
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9:28 - 9:31like Splatterhouse 2 and Ghouls and Ghosts
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9:31 - 9:36but the Damsel in the refrigerator has definitely become a more popular trend in recent years.
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9:36 - 9:40In Medievil 2, your murdered girlfriend's soul is stolen and you must fight to save her.
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9:40 - 9:42[Screams]
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9:43 - 9:47In The Darkness 2, your murdered girlfriend's soul is trapped in hell and you must fight to free her.
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9:48 - 9:52“Her soul is mine!”
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9:52 - 9:56In Shadows of the Damned, your murdered girlfriend's soul is trapped in hell and you must fight to free her.
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9:56 - 9:59“Yes, help her!”
[Screams] -
9:59 - 10:05In Dante's Inferno, your murdered wife's soul is trapped in hell and you must fight to free her.
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10:05 - 10:12In Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, your wife's soul is trapped on Earth and you must fight to free her.
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10:12 - 10:17The damsel in the refrigerator is part of a larger trend of throwing women under the bus
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10:17 - 10:24in increasingly gruesome ways, in an apparent attempt to interject what are loosely referred to as "mature themes".
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10:24 - 10:29Developers must be hoping that by exploiting sensationalized images of brutalized women
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10:29 - 10:34it will be enough to fool gamers into thinking their games are becoming more emotionally sophisticated.
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10:34 - 10:37But the truth is, there is nothing mature about most of these stories
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10:37 - 10:40and many of them cross the line into blatant misogyny.
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10:41 - 10:45Since what we are really talking about here are depictions of violence against women
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10:45 - 10:48it might be useful to quickly define what I mean by that term.
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10:48 - 10:54When I say "Violence against women," I am primarily referring to images of women being victimized
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10:56 - 11:00or when violence is linked specifically to a character's gender or sexuality.
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11:00 - 11:07Female characters who happen to be in violent or combat situations, on relatively equal footing with their opponents,
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11:07 - 11:12are typically exempt from this category because they are not usually framed as victims
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11:12 - 11:17as I mentioned in our last video, the Damsel in Distress doesn't always have to be accompanied by an heroic rescue.
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11:17 - 11:25“Here I was again, with all hell breaking loose around me, standing over another dead girl I had been trying to protect”
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11:25 - 11:28Sometimes the hero fails to save the woman in question,
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11:28 - 11:33either because he arrives too late or because, surprise twist, she's been dead the whole time.
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11:34 - 11:39“Nicole has been dead this whole time”
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11:40 - 11:46“No! Kaileena!”
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11:46 - 11:51“All my powers…and I couldn’t do a thing”
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11:58 - 12:01“Kill me”
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12:02 - 12:06Or in the case of the 2009 version of Bionic Commando
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12:06 - 12:11not only has your wife been dead the whole time, but it turns out she's actually a part of your bionic arm.
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12:11 - 12:19“I never wanted you to be involved in this”
“It’s okay, I’ll always be by your side” -
12:19 - 12:24Yes, you heard that correctly. His wife is his arm.
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12:28 - 12:31But the most extreme and gruesome variant of this trend
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12:31 - 12:35is when the developers combine the damsel in distress with the mercy killing.
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12:35 - 12:38This usually happens when the player character must murder the woman in peril
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12:38 - 12:39"for her own good".
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12:39 - 12:43I like to call this happy little gem the "Euthanized Damsel".
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12:43 - 12:47Typically the damsel has been mutilated or deformed in some way by the villain
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12:47 - 12:51and the only option left to the hero, is to put her out of her misery himself.
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12:52 - 12:56We can trace this one back to the original 1980s arcade game Splatterhouse
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12:56 - 13:01in which your kidnapped girlfriend is possessed and the player is forced to fight and kill her.
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13:01 - 13:05After saving his bitten beloved in Castlevania: Lament of Innocence,
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13:05 - 13:10the hero must then kill her to gain the power to defeat the vampire lord.
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13:10 - 13:12“Thank you Leon"
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13:14 - 13:20In Breath of Fire 4, Elina has been turned into a hideous monster and then begs you to kill her.
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13:20 - 13:25In Gears of War 2, Dom is motivated to rescue his captured wife Maria.
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13:25 - 13:29When he finds her, she has been starved and possibly tortured into a catatonic state
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13:29 - 13:31and so he shoots her.
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13:31 - 13:33In Tenchu: Shadow Assasins
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13:33 - 13:35"Do it. You must"
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13:35 - 13:38The princess meekly asks the hero to cut her down to get to the villain,
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13:38 - 13:40which he does.
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13:40 - 13:43A particularly egregious example can be found in Grand Theft Auto III
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13:43 - 13:48when after your rescued Maria Latore, it is implied that the protagonist suddenly shoots her
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13:48 - 13:51because she is talking about stereotypically "girly things".
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13:52 - 13:59“I broke a nail, and my hair is ruined! Can you believe it? This one cost me $50!” [Gunshot]
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14:00 - 14:04The writers deliberately wrote her character to annoy the player, so in the end
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14:04 - 14:08the violence against her becomes the punchline of a cheap misogynist joke.
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14:08 - 14:12Sometimes these killings happen via cutscene
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14:12 - 14:16while other games as the player to participate directly by pulling the trigger themselves.
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14:17 - 14:22In the Castevania: Dracula X Chronicles remake, if you don't rescue Richter Belmont's beloved Annette,
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14:22 - 14:24she will turn into a vampire, and you'll then have to kill her.
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14:25 - 14:34“Oh my God, Annette, I’m so sorry I didn’t save you. But you know what I do to vampires. What I have to do.”
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14:34 - 14:37“No! I’ll make you mine forever!”
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14:39 - 14:43The captured women in Duke Nukem 3D beg you to kill them throughout the game.
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14:43 - 14:48This misogynist scene is regurgitated and actually made worse in the 2011 follow up,
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14:48 - 14:52Duke Nukem Forever, developed by Gearbox.
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14:52 - 14:58Another popular Gearbox game, Borderlands 2, also uses this plot twist when Angel asks the player to murder her
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14:58 - 15:01as a way to try and thwart the villain's evil plans.
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15:01 - 15:11“Destroying the iridium injectors that keep me…alive…will stop the key from charging and it will end a lifetime of servitude”
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15:11 - 15:16The end of Alone in the Dark gives the player the choice between killing your girlfriend yourself
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15:16 - 15:21“Chose quickly, carrier. Kill her or let her live. You alone can decide!”
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15:21 - 15:26or letting Satan kill her by being reborn in her body.
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15:31 - 15:35The Wii game Pandora's tower includes one ending, in which Elena begs you to kill her
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15:35 - 15:38before she completes her transformation into a monster.
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15:39 - 15:45"Please. I beg of you."
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15:57 - 15:59"Help me"
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15:59 - 16:00"I'm so afraid"
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16:00 - 16:04In the 2006 shooter Prey, when the hero finally reaches his abducted girlfriend
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16:04 - 16:08she's been hideously mutilated and fused with a monster
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16:08 - 16:11which you must fight while she screams for help, over and over again.
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16:11 - 16:20“Get away from me, Tommy! She wants me to kill you! I can’t stop it!" [Screams]
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16:21 - 16:23After being incapacitated, she begs you to kill her.
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16:23 - 16:30“Please, Tommy, let me go”
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16:30 - 16:33And the player can't advance in the narrative until you shoot her in the face.
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16:33 - 16:42These damsel'ed women are written so as to subordinate themselves to men.
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16:42 - 16:48They submissively accept their grisly fate and will often beg the player to perform violence on them,
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16:48 - 16:51giving men direct and total control over whether they live or die.
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16:51 - 16:54Even saying, "Thank you" with their dying breath.
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16:54 - 16:58In other words these women are 'asking for it', quite literally.
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16:59 - 17:03The Euthanized Damsel is the darkest and edgiest of these trope hybrids
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17:03 - 17:06but it is also an extension of a larger pattern in gaming narratives
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17:06 - 17:12where male protagonists are forced to fight their own loved ones, who have possessed or brain washed by villains.
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17:12 - 17:16When Kratos finds his mother in the PSP game God of War: Ghosts of Sparta,
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17:16 - 17:20she morphs into a hideous beast, forcing you to fight and kill her.
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17:22 - 17:25And afterwards, she thanks you with her dying breath.
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17:25 - 17:30“Finally, I am free”
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17:30 - 17:35After your girlfriend is turned into a green ogre in Grabbed by the Ghoulies,
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17:35 - 17:37she chases you around, trying to get a kiss.
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17:37 - 17:41Later, you must beat her unconscious, before she can be returned to normal.
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17:41 - 17:45The final boss in Shadows of the Damned, turns out to be your own girlfriend.
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17:45 - 17:48“Where is my freedom?!”
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17:48 - 17:51Who you must shoot down.
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17:52 - 17:56Similar scenarios are replicated in dozens of other titles as well.
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17:56 - 17:59“Get that device off her chest!”
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18:05 - 18:10Although the narratives all differ slightly the core element remains the same.
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18:11 - 18:15In each case violence is used to bring these women back to their senses.
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18:15 - 18:20These stories conjure up supernatural situations in which domestic violence
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18:20 - 18:24perpetrated by men against women who have lost control of themselves,
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18:24 - 18:31not only appears justified, but is presented as an altruistic act, done for woman's own good.
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18:31 - 18:37Of course if you look at any of these games in isolation, you'll be able to find incidental narrative circumstances
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18:37 - 18:42that can be used to explain away the inclusion of violence against women as a plot device.
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18:42 - 18:47But just because a particular event might make sense within the internal logic of a fictional narrative
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18:47 - 18:50that doesn't, in and of itself, justify its use.
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18:50 - 18:56Games don't exist in a vacuum and therefore can't be divorced from the larger cultural context of the real world.
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18:56 - 19:03It is especially troubling in light of the serious, real life epidemic of violence against women facing the female population on this planet.
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19:03 - 19:07Every nine seconds a woman is assaulted or beaten in the United States,
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19:07 - 19:13and on average, more than three women are murdered by their boyfriends, husbands or ex-partners, every single day.
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19:13 - 19:18Research consistently shows that people of all genders tend to buy into the myth
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19:18 - 19:21that women are the ones to blame for the violence men perpetrate against them.
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19:21 - 19:25In the same vein, abusive men consistently state that their female targets
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19:25 - 19:29deserved it, wanted it or were asking for it.
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19:29 - 19:36Given the reality of that larger cultural context, it should go without saying that it is dangerously irresponsible
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19:36 - 19:43to be creating games in which players are encouraged and even required to perform violence against women in order to save them.
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19:43 - 19:48Even though most of the games that we are taking about don't explicitly condone violence against women
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19:48 - 19:55nevertheless, they trivialize and exploit female suffering as a way to ratchet up the emotional or sexual stakes for the player.
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19:55 - 20:00Despite these troubling implications, game creators aren't necessarily all sitting around
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20:00 - 20:06twirling their nefarious looking moustaches while consciously trying to figure out how to best misrepresent women
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20:06 - 20:08as part of some grand conspiracy.
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20:08 - 20:13Most probably just haven't given much though to the underlying messages their games are sending
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20:13 - 20:17and in many cases, developers have backed themselves into a corner with their own game mechanics.
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20:17 - 20:20When violence is the primary gameplay mechanic,
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20:20 - 20:23and therefore the primary way that the player engages with the game world
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20:23 - 20:26it severely limits the options for problem solving.
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20:26 - 20:30The player is then forced to use violence to deal with almost all situations,
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20:30 - 20:33because it is the only meaningful mechanic available.
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20:33 - 20:37Even if that means beating up or killing the women they are meant to love or care about.
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20:37 - 20:42One of the really insidious things about systemic and institutional sexism,
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20:42 - 20:49is that most often regressive attitudes and harmful gender stereotypes are maintained and perpetuated unintentionally.
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20:49 - 20:55Likewise, engaging with these games, is not going to transform players into raging sexists.
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20:55 - 21:00We typically don't have a 'monkey see, monkey do' direct cause and effect relationship with the media we consume.
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21:01 - 21:04Cultural influence works in much more subtle and complicated ways.
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21:04 - 21:11However, media narratives do have a powerful cultivation effect, helping to shape cultural attitudes and opinions.
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21:12 - 21:22So when developers exploit sensationalized images of brutalized, mutilated and victimized women over and over and over again,
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21:22 - 21:27it tends to reinforce the dominant gender paradigm, which casts men as aggressive and commanding
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21:27 - 21:30and frames women as subordinate and dependant.
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21:30 - 21:35Although these stories use female trauma as the catalyst to set the plot elements in motion
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21:35 - 21:37these are not stories about women.
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21:37 - 21:44Nor are they concerned about the struggles of women navigating the mental, emotional and physical ramifications of violence.
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21:44 - 21:49Instead, these are strictly male-centered stories in which, more often than not,
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21:49 - 21:55the tragic damsel's are just empty shells whose deaths are depicted as far more meaningful than their lives.
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21:55 - 22:02Generally they are completely defined by their purity, innocence, kindness, beauty or sensuality.
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22:02 - 22:07In short, they're just symbols meant to invoke the essence of an artificial feminine ideal.
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22:08 - 22:09“Help me!”
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22:09 - 22:14In fact these games usually frame the loss of the woman as something that has been unjustly taken from the male hero.
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22:14 - 22:26“So now I take from you”
“Jackie, this is not your fault”
[Gunshot] -
22:26 - 22:30The implication being, that she belonged to him, that she was his possession.
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22:30 - 22:36Once wronged the hero must go get his 'possessions' back, or at least exact a heavy price for their loss.
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22:36 - 22:40On the surface, victimized women are framed as the reason for the hero's torment
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22:40 - 22:45but if we dig a little deeper into the subtext, I'd argue that the true source of the pain
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22:45 - 22:50stems from feelings of weakness and/or guilt over his failure to perform his socially proscribed
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22:50 - 22:53patriarchal duty to protect his women and children.
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22:53 - 22:58*“And I hated myself for allowing this to happen to her, and our little girl”*
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22:58 - 23:03In this way, these failed hero stories are really about the perceived loss of masculinity
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23:03 - 23:08and then the quest to regain that masculinity, primarily by exerting dominance and control
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23:08 - 23:11through the performance of violence on others.
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23:13 - 23:19Consequently, violent revenge based narratives, repeated ad nauseum, can also be harmful to men
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23:19 - 23:22because they help to further limit the possible responses men are allowed to have
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23:22 - 23:25when faced with death or tragedy.
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23:25 - 23:30This is unfortunate because interactive media has the potential to be a brilliant medium for people of all genders
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23:30 - 23:33to explore difficult or painful subjects.
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23:33 - 23:37So to be clear here, the problem is not that fact that female characters die or suffer.
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23:37 - 23:43Death touches all of our lives eventually and, as such, it is often an intergral part of dramatic storytelling.
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23:43 - 23:46To say that women could never die in stories would be absurd,
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23:46 - 23:50but it is important to consider the ways that women's deaths are framed
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23:50 - 23:53and examine how and why they are written.
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23:53 - 23:59There are some games that try to explore loss, death and grief in more genuine or authentic ways
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23:59 - 24:02that do not sensationalize or exploit victimized women.
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24:02 - 24:10Dear Esther, Passage and To The Moon, are a few indie games that investigate these themes
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24:10 - 24:15in creative, innovative and sometimes beautiful ways.
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24:16 - 24:22These more contemplative style games are a hopeful sign, but they are still an exception to the rule.
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24:22 - 24:26A sizeable chunk of the industry is still unfortunately trapped in the established pattern
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24:26 - 24:31of building game narratives on the backs of brutalized female bodies.
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24:31 - 24:38Violence against women is a serious, global epidemic, therefore attempts to address the issue in fictional contexts
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24:38 - 24:43demands a considerable degree of respect, subtlety and nuance.
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24:43 - 24:48Women shouldn't be mere disposable objects, or symbolic pawns in stories about men
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24:48 - 24:53and their own struggles with patriarchal expectations and inadequacies.
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24:53 - 24:56The 'dark and edgy' trope cocktails that we have discussed in this episode
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24:56 - 24:59are not isolated incidents, or obscure anomalies,
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24:59 - 25:04instead they represent an ongoing, recurring pattern in modern gaming narratives.
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25:04 - 25:09In most cases, the Damsel'ed characters have simply gone from being helpless to being dead.
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25:09 - 25:12Which is obviously not a huge improvement from her perspective.
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25:14 - 25:19I know this episode has been a little bit grim, but please join me next time for the third and final installment,
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25:19 - 25:25covering the Damsel in Distress, where we will take a look at some titles that attempt to flip the script on the Damsel
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25:25 - 25:30and then we'll go on a quest to find examples of the elusive 'Dude in Distress' role reversal.
- Title:
- Damsel in Distress: Part 2 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games
- Description:
-
TRIGGER WARNING: This video contains a handful of graphic scenes involving violence against women. Parents should preview the video first before sharing with young children.
VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
This is the second in a series of three videos exploring the Damsel in Distress trope in video games. In this installment we look at "dark and edgy" side of the trope in more modern games and how the plot device is often used in conjunction with graphic depictions of violence against women. Over the past decade we've seen developers try to spice up the old Damsel in Distress cliche by combining it with other tropes involving victimized women including the disposable woman, the mercy killing and the woman in the refrigerator.Watch Damsel in Distress Part 1: http://www.feministfrequency.com/2013/03/damsel-in-distress-part-1/
For more examples of the Damsel in Distress see our Tumblr for this series:
http://tropesversuswomen.tumblr.comABOUT THE SERIES:
The Tropes vs Women in Video Games project aims to examine the plot devices and patterns most often associated with female characters in gaming from a systemic, big picture perspective. This series will include critical analysis of many beloved games and characters, but remember that it is both possible (and even necessary) to simultaneously enjoy media while also being critical of it's more problematic or pernicious aspects.This video series is created by Anita Sarkeesian and the project was funded by 6968 awesome backers on Kickstarter.com
More information plus a full transcript available at http://www.feministfrequency.com/2013/05/damsel-in-distress-part-2-tropes-vs-women
Captions and Subtitles coming soon!
SPOILER WARNING LIST: Major plot points or endings in the following games:
· Bionic Commando (2009)
· Borderlands 2 (2012)
· Breath of Fire IV (2000)
· Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (2007)
· Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (2003)
· Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (2010)
· Dante's Inferno (2010)
· The Darkness II (2012)
· Dead Space (2008)
· Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs The Soulless Army (2006)
· Double Dragon Neon (2012)
· Gears of War 2 (2008)
· God of War: Ghost of Sparta (2010)
· The Godfather: The Game (2006)
· Grand Theft Auto III (2001)
· Hotline Miami (2012)
· Ico (2001)
· Infamous (2009)
· Inversion (2012)
· Kane & Lunch: Dead Men (2007)
· The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006)
· MediEvil 2 (2000)
· Ninja Gaiden 3 (2010)
· Pandora's Tower (2011)
· Prey (2006)
· Resident Evil 5 (2009)
· Shadows of the Damned (2011)
· Tenchu: Shadow Assassins (2009) - Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- Feminist Frequency
- Duration:
- 25:41
femfreq edited English subtitles for Damsel in Distress: Part 2 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games | ||
femfreq edited English subtitles for Damsel in Distress: Part 2 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games | ||
femfreq edited English subtitles for Damsel in Distress: Part 2 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games | ||
femfreq edited English subtitles for Damsel in Distress: Part 2 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games | ||
femfreq edited English subtitles for Damsel in Distress: Part 2 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games | ||
femfreq edited English subtitles for Damsel in Distress: Part 2 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games | ||
Phil235 edited English subtitles for Damsel in Distress: Part 2 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games | ||
Phil235 edited English subtitles for Damsel in Distress: Part 2 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games |