Damsel in Distress and Effects

Anita Sarkeesian brought up issue that I had previously never thought deeply about until now – the issue of the damsel in distress constantly portrayed in video games and the effects that it may have on our culture. Personally, I believe I could argue both for and against the some of the comments that she had to make. In arguing against her proposal that the damsel in distress trope in video games needs to be monitored more carefully, I think it is important to point out the violence seen against women everyday on television shows and in films. Modern day films such as Batman: The Dark Knight Rises and Spider-Man 2 portray this. Needless to say, it is difficult not to see some type of action or suspense movie and not have some sort of spin on the victimized girl. Therefore, if the belief that domestic violence may stem from just these video games – I think that is shortsighted – this trope is everywhere in our culture today. However, I can also concur with her in the argument that these video games may produce real, physical violence against women. This, I believe, is due to immersive nature of interacting in the gaming world. When you play a video game, a part of you becomes and identifies with the character whom you are controlling, and with this increasing trope of damsel in distress portrayed through scenes such as wives being brutally murdered and daughters kidnapped, women asking for the men to pull the trigger themselves, and the entrapment of the dead women’s soul, I believe it could validly be argued that this produces masochist thoughts in whomever may be playing out the video game. We become the stories that we take in, subconsciously or consciously, we strive to fulfill these storylines out in our real life – and with a story such as this one, it can cause detrimental effects. All in all, as Erica stated, I liked how Anita presented these ideas and yet states that we don’t play these games, or even create them, with the intentions of stimulating these kinds of actions in real life. Games are that – just games, and should never be taken literally. Unfortunately, our culture may have reached a stage (with three women reported being murdered by husband or boyfriend a day) where these issues may need to be investigated more thoroughly.

Questions:

1.     Are there video games on the market that are less violent, yet incorporate the same plot lines as the damsel in distress that are as successful? Or is the damsel in distress trope only successful with a decent amount of blood involved?

2.     Anita stated that the reverse situation of a girl avenging the death of her husband/boyfriend is virtually nonexistent. If a game such as this were to be put on today’s market, do you think it would sell with the issue of feminism being more prevalent in today’s society?