She’s not as dumb as she was developed
Games with horror elements have their fair share of women in peril. Although (in my opinion) occurring less frequently than a female protagonist, horror games’ damsels in distress tend to be cute (Ellie fromDead Space 3, Alice Wake fromAlan Wake), already dead (Mary fromSilent Hill 2), or useless (Little Sisters fromBioShock, Ashley Graham fromResident Evil 4) (no offense).
For some horror games, kidnapping, killing, or maiming their women is an easy, indeed horrific way to gross players out and motivate their male protagonists.
Makes sense, but I always thought it was unrealistic that male video game characters are simply revved up by all the sexual violence, dead parents, and blood (sure, Ethan Mars fromHeavy Rainkills himself and James fromSilent Hill 2literally loses his mind, but, uh, you know…) while damsels in distress are destroyed by it.
[Source:Steam Community]Come on, video game developers, don’t you know that women are historically more equipped for chaos demons and physical manifestations of guilt than men are?
Here’s what I’m thinking: get rid of horror games’ damsels in distress because women’s history won’t allow for it. This is true in all sorts of ways. Women have been celebrated asancient mystics, persecuted as anti-Protestantwitches, and sold branded tarot decks by annoying lifestylesites. They have spoken to Godand cried, spoken to murderers andsurvived, made up stories about ankle slashers just fora sick thrill. When I was 16, I made my friend drive to the real Amityville Horror house just “to see it.” In college, another friend took me on a walk through the graveyard so she could collect rainwater for “her altar.” For my birthday this year, I was given rose quartz and a candle to focus my energy during the next full moon.
Women wade and thrive in the occult and gruesome, we run blogs about Ted Bundy and rejoice in telling each other stories about this bad boyfriend, this painful childhood experience (all for better or worse). Maybe it’s because we learned to master it or maybe because we’re vicarious creatures and masochistic; women love fear and the things we don’t know. Men, on the other hand, tend to watch horror movieslessoften than women, associate with religion or spiritualityless frequentlythan women do… maybe men are more comfortable doling out the unknown than preparing themselves for the unknown to happen to them.
[Source:Rely on Horror]But in horror video games, all that happens to men is the unknown — ghost wives, hallucinations, gore. Unlike distressed women characters, they walk past all that’s gruesome while focused on some stray daughters the game needs them to save.
But let’s be realistic, horror games just don’tneeddamsels in distress, especially when thehorror game genreis otherwise (in my opinion!) dominated by capable female protagonists. Men in distress? Now that checks out. Some women have been waiting their whole lives to kick a zombie in the head.
