heavilyonionated

[heavilyonionated]

okay but can we talk about the super mario series for a sec???

okay, before i write a text wall let me just say:

YES GUYS, i know that this is not the biggest thing to complain about. like yes, things like bayonetta and streetfighter and all that are seemingly a way bigger issue, but nobody is writing about super mario and i think we need to talk about it

anyway, so it’s to no one’s surprise that the video game industry is full of sexism, hypermasculinity and hyperfemininity, all of that. but it seems to me that everyone is just focusing on the big obvious stuff. like, dead or alive paradise, grand theft auto, the two other games i listed above, and millions of other ones. and yet no one is talking about super mario. let’s discuss how:

- it perpetuates the idea that women are helpless

          like, seriously??? it is 2017, you would think that we’d be kind of over the whole damsel in distress thing. and you know, super mario has been doing a lot better in comparison as of late, but that mobile app game.. geez. like, nintendo moved back 20 years with that release.           i’m pretty sure that princess peach can hold her own if you’d just let her, nintendo.

- where are feminine characters on the covers?

          despite the fact that, you know, princess peach is in most every game, she is on so few of the covers. did you know that out of the first 34 games in the super mario franchise, peach was only on the cover of one of them? yeah. i know, i can’t believe it either. 

          also, i’m just going to lightly mention how up until more recently there were like, no feminine characters on the covers, especially the sports-related ones. like mario kart 64? yeah, donkey kong, bowser, wario, and mario on the cover. the three biggest “toughest” dudes in the game, plus mario. and it’s the same with tennis, and most of the other sports games. oh, let me guess, because if you put feminine characters on the game it wouldn’t sell as well cause it would look like a weak wimpy toddler’s game. yeah, i see you, nintendo, you’re not fooling me.           also that ad for super mario strikers? it’s so sexist and speaks for itself; i’m gonna stop before i make myself vomit over this unbelievable shit:

- believe it or not, yes, there is sexism and the male gaze in it

          i know, you’re probably like “but onion-san, it’s super mario! it’s such an innocent game!” and i hate to be the first one to burst the bubble for you, but it’s actually not as innocent as you think           for example, paper mario, more specifically, the thousand-year door, because i was cleaning out the garage and found my brother’s box of video games, and i remembered watching him play the game everyday after school to completion. yeah, the style of the game is all cute, the characters are so cutesy, everything is just so this and that. and i get it. there’s a big fanbase for that series in particular of the franchise.           but like, are we gonna just ignore madame flurrie? does no one remember how sexualized her character was? she literally had jiggle physics. it’s a paper mario game. like, are you serious? and you know, i really wanted to do my research with this post and find the details my memory might have forgotten, like, gee i don’t know, the fact that she has a move where she literally sucks the opponent as a move. call me extra, but that’s gross. and they knew what they were thinking and what they were doing. bad on you, nintendo.           besides that, also, the scene where peach has to take a shower in front of a camera for you to progress?? like, actually what the fuck?? 

          so if you have never played the game, basically you have to take a shower as peach in some weird place she’s being held hostage at, and you cant progress until you do. then, doors start opening for you and it turns out that the AI computer led you in there, and he tells you (upon peach asking why), and i quote exactly:

“I am unsure. An unusual program deviation occurred when I observed you earlier. My higher-brain circuitry malfunctioned and nearly overheated at your image. Also, an unidentified impulse sped through my processors. These events are new to me.”

          that is gross. like, i cannot believe, even to this day, that that is in the game. “unidentified impulse sped through my processors”??? that is fucking gross. i am in disbelief that nintendo put out a game where peach is being watched showering, and then a male voice computer tells her that was hot and bothered by her body, and then came. 

          and you know what? nintendo couldn’t have peach be like “gross what the fuck!!!!” like, you know, a woman would say, or literally anyone for that matter. instead, she’s like “oh, maybe you’re in love with me!!! <3<3<3″ as if that is any way to say you’re in love with someone. you know, that’s why so many little girls think they need approval from boys, and soon enough grow up thinking they need approval from men, and they think any attention is in love and not other intentions. and that is heartbreaking. 

          anyways, sorry that i just ruined probably half of your childhoods. the game is cool and all that, but we cannot deny the shit i just brought up. nintendo did not have to have any of that in there, and i still cannot believe while writing this that they thought that was okay.

          just when you though there was a video game that didn’t promote subordination and sexualization of female characters :/