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Comment by itafroma | Hacker News Reader

Donkey Kong was highlighted as one of the first examples of Nintendo's overuse* of the "Damsel in Distress" trope in the first episode of Anita Sarkeesian's series on the portrayal of women in video games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6p5AZp7r_Q

Very cool to see a parent help try to correct that for their kid as they introduce them to video games.

*changed wording for clarity

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Overused? This is the first Nintendo game that ever used that trope. Mario wasn't even called Mario before this point, and there was no princess. It was just Jumpman (renamed to Mario starting with this very game, who got his name from one of Nintendo's landlords at the time), Pauline (who got her name from the wife of an employee, but just "Lady" in the J version), and Donkey Kong.

I'm not sure what you're taking exception to: I said it was one of the first examples (wasn't sure if it was the first, so thanks for clarifying that).

While in the video Sarkeesian goes through its overuse in general as mturmon mentioned, Nintendo did go on to overuse it themselves, with Donkey Kong being the first of many times Nintendo went to that well. The linked video goes through several examples.

It's kind of hard to overuse something the first time you do it...

That said, I think that the "overuse" and the reasons for it in this case is in the mind of the beholder. Are we just calling this into question because it's now hip to call anything and everything to question on the grounds of some percieved slight to gender "equality"? Or are we having a larger conversation about the overuse of specific tropes in general in media?

I didn't say Nintendo, at the time Donkey Kong was created, had already overused the "damsel in distress" trope. What I said was of the set of games Nintendo has developed or published in the past 30-odd years that ostensibly demonstrate their overuse of the "damsel in distress" trope, Donkey Kong was the first.

Ah, gotcha. I just misread the first sentence.

Ah, I can see how it could be misread. I adjusted the wording from "Nintendo overusing" to "Nintendo's overuse of" to clarify that.

Overused in the sense of storytelling more generally, not Nintendo in particular.

Although they have certainly overused it since, Nintendo's two main franchises (Mario and Zelda) are "Damsel-in-distress" based.

I would argue that Zelda I is "explore this cool world"-based, with a bit of "damsel-in-distress" and "evil overlord" and "find the magical macguffin" bolted on.

Yes. Overused. This is one example of dozens from the Mario franchise that use this trope. Further, Nintento has pushd mario harder than most other franchises.

I really don't understand how you take issue because this game was the first, it seems disingenuous. It's like me saying "this is the first example of a digital computer. Digital computers changed, even revolutionized the world", and you saying "that was the first computer, it added some stuff it didn't revoultionize anything". Pure, unadulterated, disingenuous crap.

It's a very abstract game that simply takes imagery from the classic King Kong movie.

At this point trying to read more into it is a tad paranoid IMO.

This has nothing to do with paranoia. Because it's not about what Nintendo meant to say, it's about what effect it actually has.

Actions (and speech is a type of action) do not exist in some magic circle where a good intention protects them from doing harm.

That's a nice link. (A little bit of "gotcha" media critique in that series, but generally well-deserved gotcha's -- her Lego two-parter is also worth a watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrmRxGLn0Bk)

Before watching that, I had not known that Nintendo tried to get the rights to the Popeye characters for video game purposes (see around 6:30 in the linked video). Besides the obvious King Kong character parallel, there is also a loose parallel to Popeye (Maiden = Olive Oyl, Mario = Popeye, Ape = Bluto).

It's nice to see the difference between someone who sees something wrong and actually does something about it just because and someone who asks the Internet for money and deliver a video 9 months later.

Also, for something that took 9 months and loads of money, there isn't really anything new there that hasn't been said before.

I agree that the first of the Tropes vs. Women laid out some pretty standard feminist theory applied to game culture, but if she's not rocking the boat by doing so, why all the death and rape threats?

Also, the idea that criticism or commentary is inaction compared to creating the content or media being commented on is a fairly common anti-intellectual meme that really has an awkward place in comments thread of an article.

"It would be nice to see someone who hears about something interesting and actually writes an article about it rather than someone who writes a comment in the thread attached to that posted article."

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