For the moment, let's ignore that pretty much the entirety of gaming media seems to want to forget Super Mario RPG ever existed - Nintendo and Square are doing their collective damnedest to scrub it out of gamers' heads as anything more than a "retro game", it seems.
Her strength in the Paper Mario games is in NO way a solid ground to stand on. Peach is pretty solidly a damsel in distress in Paper Mario Sticker Star, and I've certainly heard nothing suggesting she's in a different position in Super Paper Mario, despite having never played it. One could even argue that her presence in Thousand Year Door was little more than to be kidnapped and ogled at by a sentient AI, objectifying her worse than in the normal games. Oh, and then she's possessed by the final boss, further objectifying women as evil.
If you want to bring up Peach's strength in Paper Mario, that's one thing. She's proactive, cunning, and can hold her own when need be, in that game, even if she finds herself unable to openly attack foes like Mario does. If you want to bring up strong female characters in Thousand Year Door, the game's full of 'em, between all of the various female (or feminine, in Vivian's case) partners.
But I think the series as a whole is doing its damnedest to iron her back down to that normal "status quo" of being the Obligatory Damsel In Distress.
Then there's the fact that Super Princess Peach actually reinforced more negative stereotypes than it did positive - yes, Peach had nearly superhuman powers in it and saved the men, but it furthered beliefs that women are disproportionately overemotional, bursting into tears or flying into rages with the push of a button. Right idea, reeeeally bad implementation.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2013-04-01 11:43 am (UTC)Her strength in the Paper Mario games is in NO way a solid ground to stand on. Peach is pretty solidly a damsel in distress in Paper Mario Sticker Star, and I've certainly heard nothing suggesting she's in a different position in Super Paper Mario, despite having never played it. One could even argue that her presence in Thousand Year Door was little more than to be kidnapped and ogled at by a sentient AI, objectifying her worse than in the normal games. Oh, and then she's possessed by the final boss, further objectifying women as evil.
If you want to bring up Peach's strength in Paper Mario, that's one thing. She's proactive, cunning, and can hold her own when need be, in that game, even if she finds herself unable to openly attack foes like Mario does. If you want to bring up strong female characters in Thousand Year Door, the game's full of 'em, between all of the various female (or feminine, in Vivian's case) partners.
But I think the series as a whole is doing its damnedest to iron her back down to that normal "status quo" of being the Obligatory Damsel In Distress.
Then there's the fact that Super Princess Peach actually reinforced more negative stereotypes than it did positive - yes, Peach had nearly superhuman powers in it and saved the men, but it furthered beliefs that women are disproportionately overemotional, bursting into tears or flying into rages with the push of a button. Right idea, reeeeally bad implementation.