Tropes vs Women Part 3 Concludes Damsel in Distress Series

Anita Sarkeesian rounds up discussion of the damsel in distress trope in video games with Part Three of the series. In it, she discusses attempts to subvert the trope and what indie games in particular have had to say about it. This one clocks in at 23 minutes, so you will want to grab some popcorn.

As a short rundown, in the first video, Anita traces the popular use of the damsels in distress trope in classic games like Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. She explains how that trope went on to pervade much of the classic gaming era, enforcing stereotypes already existent in other media.

In the second video, Anita explains how the break from older to more modern games in the 3D era did not prompt an end to the use of said trope. In fact, as storylines attempted to become more adult, taking on heavier themes, use of the damsels in distress became even more commonplace, more nuanced, and more demeaning. We'll embed the video below but you can skip even further down for a brief summary.

In this video, Anita explains that attempts to subvert the trope, such as making a Dude in Distress, or employing ironic sexism, do not really go far enough to break with it. She points out that many indie games make reference to and use the trope, partly as a homage to older games that helped perpetuate it. She also explains that ironic use of the trope, based on the presumption that people no longer take the trope seriously, actually fail to comment on or really subvert it, and only serve to propagate it further.

Anita concludes that distressing dudes or attempting to parody is not a satisfactory way to go beyond the trope. Instead, she posits new games should be made that should make the damsel herself the playable character, allowing her to defy expectations and really overcome all the assumptions made with said trope. She ends this discussion of the damsel with a hope that future games will create new gender paradigms.

In the weeks leading up to this video's release, Anita has been tweeting that she's been receiving threats on Twitter, but when she contacts the company they have been ignoring her complaints.

I've reported numerous rape threats to @Twitter. This is how they respond: "The account is currently not in violation of the Twitter Rules"

— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) July 28, 2013