It wasn't until I read Brad Hilderbrand's editorial, "Are Games Gay Enough?" that I realized that Kombo was the perfect place for me to take a step in a more theoretical direction when it comes to video game studies. That's right, you read correctly, a theoretical approach to video game studies.

I'm not really writing this piece as an extension or retort to Brad's interesting thoughts. I encourage you to read Brad's article (linked above) for the thought provoking pile of words that it is. This is something slightly different. This is something that I've been kicking around ever since I started on my Film Theory degree in college. Video games are a medium not too much unlike that of film. It's fairly common knowledge, and an often shared opinion, that video games are a lot like long, interactive flicks. I don't mean to lump the entire medium into one convenient package, but for the intents and purposes of this article, you'll have to let me do just that.

So, continuing under the assumption that video games can and should be supported by the same theories and applications as film making and film studies, perhaps you'll join me as I step out into the realm of critical thought and undressing. I intend to approach the concept of the role of female characters in video games through the perspectives of respected and often cited film theorists. These theorists, as is normal in the field of Film Theory, lean on the psychoanalytical methods of Sigmund Freud and the theories of Jacques Lacan. As we encounter these theories throughout this article, I will try and add enough insight and information at each juncture so that those without a background in Film Studies can feel extremely welcome. With a little elbow grease, I intend to provide a gamut of reasoning for females being portrayed the way they are, and have always been, in most titles within my favorite medium.

I would like to slide this disclaimer out in front of you readers just so that I can quell any early senses of anger before we proceed. I may say some things here and there that place the female sex and gender into a position that's well below the politically correct norm. I want you to know that while I may be using these viewpoints and positions in order to further prove my argument, I know as a human being and a member of society that women are equal to men. My goal with this article is to dismantle the accepted image of females in video games and educate those that may look at their typical portrayal as normal and commonplace.

So, on we go...

Super Mario Brothers (NES)

It doesn't take an avid gamer to realize that women have often been portrayed in gaming as the damsels in distress. We've been given a princess that needed rescuing since the beginning of video games with a narrative plot. That's right, the first game to institute and, thus, perpetuate the modern conception of female characters in video games is Super Mario Bros. for the NES (I am dismissing the likes of Donkey Kong, as its plot structure can't really be considered solid enough for my purposes). I don't even think I really need to continue with my explanation but, just in case, I will. SMB is all about rescuing Princess Peach from Bowser. You quest from castle to castle in search of the fair maiden, and when you finally get her, you get a kiss on the cheek.

So what's wrong with this portrayal? Well, logically speaking, it puts the female character in a position of weakness. It takes you, as a male, to rescue her from a situation that she herself cannot escape from. But the quest to see her, the quest to rescue her and, most importantly, the earning of a kiss from her all put the female role in video games at an extreme disadvantage.

Laura Mulvey wrote an essay concerning the role of females in narrative cinema, and it's there that I'd like to draw support for my thoughts regarding the princess in SMB. We'll start with the perspective of the game. Players are situated facing and controlling Mario (or Luigi). This first and seemingly simple step is what sparks the series of events that places Princess Peach in the realm relegated to the lower female gender. So, all gamers are assumed, from the beginning, to be male. If they are not already male, then they are females controlling a male. Since Mario is placed front and relative center of the screen at all times, he is the focus and thus the landing place of our look and projection. We watch Mario, we control Mario, we are Mario...

In her essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," Mulvey looks to Freud and Lacan in order to explain a series of "gazes" in cinema. Lacan's theory states, extremely basically, that children are born without a recognition of self. At a young age, kids cannot tell themselves as existing as a separate piece of the world. They are merely part of the world, but their sense of "I" has not formed yet. It is when they look into a mirror for the first time (i.e. Lacan's Mirror Stage) that they develop the situational sense of "I" and "otherness" and realize that they exist independently in the world. Mulvey takes the concept of the Mirror Stage and places it onto the silver screen. When viewers watch a film, according to Mulvey, they start to narcissistically involve themselves with the main character on screen. They revert back to the moment when they had no sense of self. They see the big character in front of them as an extension of themselves and, sometimes, as themselves entirely. For instance, I watch Indiana Jones fighting jungle natives, Indiana Jones is the center of my attention, Indiana Jones becomes me, I am Indiana Jones.

I'd like to contend that video games develop an even stronger sense of connection with the main characters as we, the players, not only watch them on the screen, but we control them in their narrative and, thus, become more intrinsically involved with them. Instead of simply watching and projecting ourselves onto the characters, we're becoming involved with the goals and objectives of the main character. We adopt these goals and objectives as our own. Mario wants to save Princess Peach from Bowser, we watch Mario, we control Mario, we are Mario and therefore we desire to achieve Mario's goals and save Princess Peach from Bowser.

Therefore, it is with that instant connection to Mario as being "me" that we start to view women as lower and weaker in form and capabilities. We have become Mario. The Princess obviously can't save herself from Bowser because she is too weak, so we, as a man, have to save her from Bowser ourselves.

Finally, with SMB at least, I'd like to tackle the game's end reward for saving the Princess, the supposed kiss. I say supposed because it does not actually happen on screen. We've seen the kiss in the SNES remake of SMB on Super Mario All-Stars, but the NES version leaves that bit out. We will, once again, have to assume it is implied in order to achieve full effect for this argument. Mulvey looks to Freud in order to get a grasp on the concept of sex and making love on screen and why it is that we, as viewers, find the moments so pleasurable. According to Freud, almost every member of the human race could be considered scopophiliac. We get pleasure from looking and watching, and we get pleasure from imagining that we are what we are watching.

Now, I realize that the 8-bit version of Princess Peach is far from sexy. You could never logically consider her an object of sexual desire in her NES state.



But I would like to demonstrate that what she represents in the game is a prize of sexuality.

You romp through the Mushroom Kingdom facing bottomless pits and giant turtles in order to save her, and you're implied to be rewarded with a kiss. You are given a piece of her sexuality as a female for saving her from her demise. It is right here that Nintendo forms the first moment of females as sexual objects in the narratives of video games. Princess Peach is the trophy and the kiss she'll give you is the champagne at the end of your journey, she is the coveted sexual prize, she represents females in gaming. I will definitely be returning to the following quote again as these articles move forward, but I'd like to take this chance to prove my point of sexual objectivity with a tiny excerpt from Mulvey's essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema."

"In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed…Women displayed as sexual object is the leit-motiff of erotic spectacle: from pin-ups to strip-tease…she holds the male look, plays to and signifies male desire. Mainstream film neatly combines spectacle and narrative. The presence of woman is an indispensible element of spectacle…" -- Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"

I'll point to this exceptionally not safe for work song for pop proof.

What SMB did for video games is that it built a narrative into their structure. Games now had plot lines. What it also did for the role of females in video games, through the desire and kiss of Princess Peach, is force them into the position of erotic spectacle. And that's only the beginning of the downfall of females as characters in gaming.

I intend to continue these articles on a regular basis. Do not expect to see them occur every week. I will write them as often as I can while still remaining thorough. They also won't last forever. I'll continue to work on them until I feel I've done what I set out to accomplish.