Found Feminism: “Peach and Zelda Catch Up” on College Humor
Oh dear. This is another “is it, isn’t it?” Found Feminism.
"I go for a walk and just head straight for the dark world!"
I’m actually quite interested in the muddy waters of “well, is it feminist?” because I think it helps us understand the wide representation of ideas over the project. Anyhow, on with your selected submission. I picked up this one whilst engaged in other nerdy pursuits and it’s a comedy sketch of a meeting between 80s-to-the-present computer game heroines Princess Zelda and Princess Peach talking animatedly (see what I did there?) about their lives, loves and future aspirations.
Clicky to watch: Zelda and Peach
I love the concept, especially the foregrounding of previously “invisible” women, the implied critique of “woman as quest object” and the way that the conversation renders passive kidnappees into active participants.
However, I am less keen on the inane “all girls love a bad guy” undercurrent. Perhaps it would have been better if rather than simply switching from one (stereo)type of man to another, the two of them had decided to go off and do something for themselves?
- Found Feminism: an ongoing series of images, videos, photos, comics, posters or excerpts – anything really, which shows feminist ideas at work in the everyday world. What’s brightened your day? Share it here – send your finds to [email protected]!
To be honest, I didn’t understand the clip very well, but it didn’t seem to me to carry any noticeable feminist agenda. I’m not even sure that it even passed the Bechter test. It has two named female characters, who talk to each other, but I suspect that they’re talking about men. (Aren’t they?) I wasn’t entirely certain on this last point because the clip contains many references that mean nothing at all to me. I suspect that it has to do with computer games, a form of entertainment(?) to which I’ve never taken.
Having grown up with Amiga and PC instead of Nintendo, I didn’t get most of the references either.
Can’t decide if it’s feminism. Definitely shows the way the two girls ONLY exist to be kidnapped and rescued by men, but not sure the alternatives they’re proposing are much better…
*warning: heavy levels of background geek radiation are active in this post*
I don’t think the video is particularly feminist in the way it presents Peach and Zelda. However, in Zelda’s case, I don’t think it’s particularly accurate either. Before I go any further, it’s correct to say that there are potentially layers of meaning no-one even comprehends in both the Zelda and Mario series; it’s also correct to say that they are incredibly simplistic. Suffice it to say that there have been about a million different incarnations of Zelda. Let’s zoom in on the most popular one, however: the lovely lady from Ocarina of Time (easily the most popular Zelda game, and one of the greatest games ever made). Zelda most emphatically does not spend most of that game kidnapped. As I recall, there is a brief bit of kidnapping at the beginning, then Link (as mentioned in the video) goes to sleep for ten years. Well, he kinda goes back and forth between the past and the future but let’s ignore that for sanity’s sake. Zelda spends the rest of the game not kidnapped at all, but in fact in disguise as a man called Sheik, who assists Link on his epic quest by generally being a complete badass. She gets kidnapped again very briefly right at the end, and is then instrumental in helping Link beat Ganondorf (see: the evil baddie). Of course, she’s not the main protagonist in a game in which she is the titular character, and that is left up to an ostensibly male character (although Link is rather androgynous and asexual throughout), so one can make of that what one will. However, Zelda is a much stronger, more active character in every one of the Zelda games that I’ve played than this video makes out.
Peach, of course, spends all of her time being kidnapped, but that’s because the Mario series is a communist allegory about the nature of war and the class system (Upper-class ruler requires support of working-class “plumber” hero in order to cement rule over own kingdom and defeat invading, militarised aggressive nation; Mario collects “coins” but never spends them, symbolising the futility of the capitalist system; most of the enemies simply walk towards Mario rather than behaving in any threatening manner: they’re just people doing their jobs, like him).
….I am open to the possibility I am reading too much into essentially silly games, yes.