Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Peach is a bad role model for little girls

I said in my post about Dixie Kong that there is nothing wrong with having a female character that likes pink, make up or dresses. Sometimes people can be so anti-princess we reject the idea of little girls embracing anything feminine at all. And that's dumb. The thing about Dixie that makes her a good character is she is not just a cookie cut out of a female character. Yes she wears pink and has long blonde hair but she can also fly, attack enemies, and has a unique personality. She is not just a token female. You want to play as Dixie because she has abilities that no other player has and Dixie is rarely a damsel in distress.

Peach is a bad role model for little girls not because she is plays the role of the damsel in distress but because she is a bad and unoriginal and lazy stereotype of what it is to be female.

Peach exists to be kidnapped and for Mario to rescue. We know that she is the ruler of the mushroom kingdom and that she joins Mario and his friends in the Mario Kart and sporting games. And that's it for her character development. We know nothing about her personality, what she is like as a ruler, or even what her relationship with Mario is really like. Her character is a lazy creation. She is more of a plot device than a fleshed out character. The fact is all we need to know about her is that she is a princess, that she's been kidnapped, and that Mario has been tasked again to rescue her. Her likes, dislikes, personality...none of that is relevant to the game. She is the ball that starts the game. She is the prize. And that wouldn't bug me so much if she wasn't a cookie cut out of a princess. The pink puffy dress, the umbrella, the smile...it's all a cliche. She is an example of the passive weak female that needs a man to rescue her.

I like Peach the best in the Mario Kart games when she rides a motorbike because she wears an awesome pink body suit instead of her usual big dress. She looks awesome and bad ass. Look at her!

She's almost a completely different person! The look of determination on her face, the focus... why can't she be like this in the Mario games? Peach's worst appearance in a game was in Super Princess Peach which might be the most sexist game of all time. In that bloody terrible game Peach's "powers" is her female emotions. Behold the ugly...

When she cries her tears become a river and wash enemies away. Cause female mood swings are powerful...amiirite? In Super Mario 3D World Nintendo makes up for that terrible game by giving Peach the same powers as Mario and the others and she is actually my favorite character in the game because of her floating ability.

Peach could be a good character if she was expanded upon to be something other than a victim. We got a glimpse of her potential in Super Mario 3D world. Hopefully she will be included in future games in a similar fashion.

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