Perils of the Princess

Sharon R. Sherman conducted an interview with boys and girls and wrote about her findings in Perils of the Princess: Gender and Genre in Video Games. The goal was to see if male and female children were able to see and understand the sexist themes that could be present in the video games they play. This is an older study that was conducted in 1997. The hypothesis she made in the beginning of the study is that gender stereotyping will be present. Her reasoning behind this is that male gamers are already aware of the “male hero saving the damsel in distress” plot from films and literature. She watched and observed the children as they played the games and asked them questions before, after, and while they played.

The main game series that she focused on is the Super Mario series. Princess Peach was seen as the female counterpart of Mario because she is what he lacks. In Super Mario Bros. 2, the gamer has a choice of four characters (Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach) to choose to play as. Every girl said that they would choose the Princess. The boys were split between Luigi and Toad. When asked about the option of playing as Princess Peach in Super Mario Bros. 2, the boys saw it as strange while the girls saw her as strong and a heroine. One boy even replied, “Now she’s helping you instead of creating the problems, sort of”. The only reason any of the boys used her is because she has the ability to float in the air.

Moving on to other games, Sherman asked the boys about why they didn't find Samus from Metroid “strange” and their response was that it might be the fact that she’s an alien. One boy said “I picture it as an it”. Girls on the other hand, thought that Samus was male because of the helmet and armor.

Another game she asked the children about was Double Dragon. The girls did not like this game because as one girl says, “It never interested me. It was two guys and they were just killing things”. Boys did like the game, but reinforced the theme of damsel in distress that was present, just like in the Super Mario games.

Sherman says that after looking over the research, she believes that children are conscious and aware of the sexist themes and messages. There was actually one boy who admitted that he saw the games as sexist. The reason the boy gives is that life used to be the same way the games portray. He goes on to say that men could do everything and women could only do certain things, which he calls traditional sexism. Girls were also well aware of sexism. At the end of the interview, one girl added that Game Boy could be seen as sexist because it’s called Game “Boy” even though girls enjoy it just as much, and that the commercials for the product, only show boys. I wonder if these games create sexist thoughts in the children’s head, or if they just see it as harmless, like in a movie or a book. I honestly don’t believe that any of these games made any of the children sexist, so the question that remains is if the sexism has any sort of impact.