0:00:00.076,0:00:05.687 "Honey dontcha know, I'm more than Pac-Man with a bow" 0:00:24.224,0:00:27.188 In this episode we're going to shift the discussion away from plot devices 0:00:27.188,0:00:33.025 to focus on a pattern in character design and conceptualization which I’ve decided to call the Ms. Male Character. 0:00:33.025,0:00:37.332 As always it’s important to keep in mind that it’s entirely possible to be critical of 0:00:37.332,0:00:41.710 some aspects of a piece of media while still finding other parts valuable or enjoyable. 0:00:41.710,0:00:49.668 Let’s begin our examination of this trope by traveling back in time to 1980 and the creation of one of the most famous characters in the history of gaming. 0:00:49.668,0:00:57.020 Initially called Pakku-man in Japan, the name was later changed to Pac-Man when the game hit arcades in the United States. 0:00:57.020,0:01:04.584 Incidentally Toru Iwatani, the creator of Pac-Man, has stated in numerous interviews that the game was designed to appeal to women because, 0:01:04.584,0:01:06.963 and I'm not kidding about this, he said, 0:01:06.963,0:01:13.427 "When you think about things women like, you think about fashion, or fortune-telling, or food or dating boyfriends. 0:01:13.427,0:01:19.513 So I decided to theme the game around “eating” — after eating dinner, women like to have dessert." 0:01:19.528,0:01:25.575 Luckily Iwatani’s regressive personal or cultural notions about women are not reflected in the finished game itself. 0:01:25.575,0:01:31.833 Pac-Man went on to became an international sensation and remains one the most recognizable pop culture icons today, 0:01:31.833,0:01:38.589 but probably not because women are genetically predisposed to "like eating desserts” more than humans of other genders. 0:01:38.589,0:01:43.145 "Hi I'm Lily Tomlin. I'm a Pac-Man freak. 0:01:43.145,0:01:46.498 It's alright, I can talk about it now. 0:01:46.498,0:01:48.721 'Course there was a time when I couldn't." 0:01:48.721,0:01:54.931 The next year, a group of MIT students created a mod for the original Pac-Man arcade cabinets called Crazy Otto 0:01:54.931,0:01:58.772 which featured 4 new mazes and a new male hero with little legs. 0:01:58.772,0:02:04.405 The idea was to sell this “enhancement kit” to arcade owners so they could breathe new life into older Pac-Man machines. 0:02:04.405,0:02:10.661 But because of a separate lawsuit settlement with Atari, they decided to try and sell Crazy Otto directly to Midway 0:02:10.661,0:02:13.415 the US manufacturer of Pac-Man cabinets. 0:02:13.415,0:02:20.281 As luck would have it, Midway was anxious for a follow-up to Pac-Man and worked to transform the mod into an official sequel. 0:02:20.296,0:02:24.851 In an effort to continue appealing to female gamers, Crazy Otto was briefly changed to Pac-Woman, 0:02:24.851,0:02:29.476 then to Miss Pac-Man before finally becoming Ms. Pac-Man. 0:02:29.476,0:02:36.263 An 11th hour move designed to avoid potential backlash for the 3rd cutscene which features a child born out of wedlock. 0:02:41.247,0:02:45.696 The game hit arcades in the United States in 1982 and was an immediate smash hit 0:02:45.696,0:02:51.070 becoming the most successful American-made coin-operated arcade cabinet ever produced. 0:02:51.070,0:02:55.289 Like her predecessor, Ms. Pac-Man quickly achieved widespread cultural prominence 0:02:55.289,0:03:00.580 and it wasn’t long before she was turned into a special marshmallow and added to Pac-Man’s cereal. 0:03:00.580,0:03:04.801 “Pac-Man cereal's got a new surprise. When you look inside- it's shocking! 0:03:04.801,0:03:08.512 Shocking pink! It's new Ms. Pac-Man marshmallow! 0:03:08.512,0:03:10.678 She's got a shocking pink bow-Oh!” 0:03:10.678,0:03:14.183 Ms. Pac-Man was not only one of the first playable female characters, 0:03:14.183,0:03:19.587 but she also holds the distinction of being the original Ms. Male Character in video games. 0:03:19.587,0:03:21.606 I describe the Ms. Male Character trope as: 0:03:21.606,0:03:25.233 A female version of an already established or default male character. 0:03:25.233,0:03:29.779 Ms. Male Characters are defined primarily by their relationship to their male counterparts 0:03:29.779,0:03:35.137 via their visual properties, their narrative connection or occasionally through promotional materials. 0:03:35.137,0:03:36.845 "Hello!" "Hello!" 0:03:36.845,0:03:40.760 This trope is of course part of a long tradition in visual storytelling. 0:03:40.760,0:03:48.430 The process of creating Ms. Male Characters out of preexisting male heroes has been especially popular in animation and comic books over the past century. 0:03:48.430,0:03:53.933 When the female spin-off is an exact duplicate, she is sometime referred to as a Distaff Counterpart. 0:03:53.933,0:03:57.190 Even though the Ms. Male Character did not originate with video games, 0:03:57.190,0:04:00.580 developers have made generous and frequent use of the trope over the years 0:04:00.580,0:04:04.078 especially in games marketed towards young people and general audiences. 0:04:04.078,0:04:05.404 "It's Mr. Arcade! 0:04:05.404,0:04:06.693 And Ms. Arcade! 0:04:06.693,0:04:08.367 Ms. Arcade? Wow 0:04:08.367,0:04:09.671 Eat those dots, Ms. Pac-Man! 0:04:09.671,0:04:10.702 Into the tunnel! 0:04:10.702,0:04:11.786 That couple's in love! 0:04:11.786,0:04:13.199 Yeah, with Ms. Pac-Man!" 0:04:13.199,0:04:16.704 Let’s explore this trope in a little more depth by asking a simple question. 0:04:16.704,0:04:19.625 How do we know what gender a particular character is? 0:04:19.625,0:04:26.170 Other than their names, how do we know that the collection of pixels on the right signal male while those on the left indicate female? 0:04:26.170,0:04:34.219 Well, in order to differentiate Ms. Pac-Man from her already world-famous counterpart, her creators added a series of stereotypical design elements. 0:04:34.219,0:04:38.726 With only a few pixels to work with, designers built on top of the original Pac Man template 0:04:38.726,0:04:44.864 adding a red bow, red lipstick, an eye with makeup, long lashes and a mole as beauty mark. 0:04:44.864,0:04:48.414 Even though Ms. Pac-Man is essentially a personified shape, 0:04:48.414,0:04:54.935 in promotional materials she is presented in high-heels with long legs, jewelry and sometimes a feather boa. 0:04:54.935,0:05:00.987 The design elements that were used to transform Pac-Man into Ms. Pac-Man are referred to as feminizing gendered signifiers 0:05:00.987,0:05:05.782 the bow, the makeup, the long eyelashes are all specific stylistic choices; 0:05:05.782,0:05:11.827 they are all part of our culture’s visual vocabulary intended to convey information about gender to the viewer. 0:05:11.827,0:05:18.712 Game designers use these stereotypical attributes as a sort of shorthand to quickly identify a given character as female. 0:05:18.712,0:05:23.385 Childlike hair decorations are by far the most frequented accessory used for this purpose. 0:05:23.385,0:05:28.142 It’s standard practice for creators to, just, put a bow on top of anthropomorphized animals 0:05:28.142,0:05:33.333 or personified objects in order to communicate that a character is not male. 0:05:33.333,0:05:35.909 The Bubble Bobble series stars heroes Bub and Bob 0:05:35.909,0:05:41.207 who are charged with rescuing their female counterparts and respective love interests, Peb and Pab. 0:05:41.207,0:05:46.293 Lala is the feminized version of the male hero Lolo in the Adventures of Lolo series. 0:05:46.293,0:05:50.998 MeeMee’s fills this role as the main protagonist’s girlfriend in the Super Monkey Ball games. 0:05:54.390,0:06:01.105 In Disney’s popular Where’s My Water mobile games, we know that Allie is female because she is the only alligator who wears a bow. 0:06:04.184,0:06:08.857 The Adult Swim game Giant Boulder of Death takes the trope to ridiculous extremes 0:06:08.857,0:06:17.036 by gendering a pink boulder with a giant pink bow before she’s stuffed in the refrigerator to motivate the blue boulder to seek revenge. 0:06:19.664,0:06:24.294 Now the interesting thing is that these gendered signifiers are really quite arbitrary and abstract. 0:06:24.294,0:06:28.910 There’s nothing about a bow in and of itself that is intrinsically or essentially feminine; 0:06:28.910,0:06:31.342 it’s just a piece of colored fabric, after all. 0:06:31.342,0:06:38.331 But our society currently assigns a very specific, socially constructed and strictly enforced meaning to that piece of fabric. 0:06:38.331,0:06:43.695 It’s a symbol that conveys the concept of female (and invokes the idea of girlhood.) 0:06:45.398,0:06:47.902 The indie game Rogue Legacy has an interesting system 0:06:47.902,0:06:52.441 whereby you can be randomly assigned the choice of either male or female heirs to play on each run. 0:06:52.441,0:06:59.572 The characters are essentially identical both mechanically and aesthetically (except for a very minor difference in their breast plate styles). 0:06:59.572,0:07:07.863 So far so good, but all the female heirs also have a strangely conspicuous and completely unnecessary lavender colored bow on top of their armour. 0:07:07.863,0:07:10.916 This is a classic example of put a bow on it! 0:07:16.315,0:07:20.932 The colour-coding of characters is another frequently used visual element to signify gender. 0:07:20.932,0:07:25.311 Typically the dominant color used in the design of the female variant is bright pink 0:07:25.311,0:07:28.857 (although sometimes a purple or pastel palette may be used). 0:07:28.857,0:07:34.816 In the 1985 NES classic Ice Climber, player 1 controls Popo who wears a blue parka. 0:07:34.816,0:07:39.222 If you have a 2nd player they can control Nana who wears a pink parka. 0:07:41.268,0:07:46.759 Amy Rose was designed to be a pink female version of Sonic, especially in her early incarnations. 0:07:48.529,0:07:53.334 CommandgirlVideo is the female version of CommanderVideo in the Bit Trip Runner indie game series. 0:07:53.334,0:07:56.509 Her dominant color is purple, she sports a giant bow on her head, 0:07:56.509,0:08:00.201 and in Runner 2 she is suddenly and conspicuously busty. 0:08:01.695,0:08:09.317 The most commonly used gendered signifiers or feminizing accessories are bows, lipstick, long eyelashes and the color pink, 0:08:09.317,0:08:14.779 but there are a whole host of other design elements that, in combination, serve the same purpose. 0:08:14.779,0:08:21.617 Other signifiers used to differentiate women from men are pigtails, high-heeled shoes, painted nails, pronounced makeup 0:08:21.617,0:08:30.127 (especially blush and eyeshadow), midriff baring outfits, exaggerated breasts with exposed cleavage, and a heart motif in their design or powers. 0:08:30.127,0:08:35.297 Pretty Bomber is the protagonist’s adversary and sometimes love interest in the Bomberman series. 0:08:35.297,0:08:38.886 And just to make absolutely clear there is no confusion about her gender, 0:08:38.886,0:08:44.763 she is decked out in pink, has a giant heart attached to her head and also throws heart shaped bombs. 0:08:47.899,0:08:52.189 Gendered signifiers are not mandatory for the Ms. Male Character trope to be in effect 0:08:52.189,0:09:00.149 but these type of stereotypical attributes do serve to “mark” female characters as decidedly different by virtue of their feminine presentation. 0:09:00.949,0:09:08.345 Now just to be clear, there’s no inherent problem with the color pink, makeup, bows or high heels as design elements on their own. 0:09:08.345,0:09:12.899 And of course people of all genders may choose to wear any of them from time to time in the real world 0:09:12.899,0:09:15.529 and there is nothing necessarily wrong with that either. 0:09:15.529,0:09:23.586 However, when designers choose to use the Ms. Male Character trope and its associated visual stereotypes to specifically distinguish female characters 0:09:23.586,0:09:28.461 from the rest of the cast in a fictional context, it has a few negative consequences. 0:09:28.461,0:09:36.595 One repercussion of constantly relying on feminizing signifiers for character design is that it tends to reinforce a strict binary form of gender expression. 0:09:36.595,0:09:41.803 The gender binary is an entirely artificial and socially constructed division of male and female 0:09:41.803,0:09:45.351 into two distinctly separate and opposing classes of human being. 0:09:45.351,0:09:53.942 The gender binary also erases the continuum of gender presentations and identities that fall outside of the rigid masculine/feminine false dichotomy. 0:09:53.942,0:09:59.452 And within that strict binary women are “marked” while men get to remain largely “unmarked”. 0:10:05.528,0:10:09.349 In the Mario franchise, the Koopalings were originally described as Bowser’s seven children, 0:10:09.349,0:10:12.876 all of them are male except for one named Wendy O Koopa. 0:10:12.876,0:10:20.121 We know she is female because her designers used practically every hyper-feminine frill and accessory available to separate her from her male siblings. 0:10:21.136,0:10:28.462 Wendy’s six brothers, by contrast, are “unmarked” by gendered identifiers which means they get to be presented in a variety of creative ways. 0:10:28.462,0:10:31.498 Ludwig's design communicates intelligence and arrogance, 0:10:31.498,0:10:33.767 while Lemmy's reveals his playfulness 0:10:33.767,0:10:37.381 and Iggy's makes him seem maniacal and a little unbalanced. 0:10:37.381,0:10:42.699 Sadly, Wendy's identity is limited by the fact that she is covered in superficial gendered signifiers. 0:10:42.699,0:10:46.981 One look at her and you know she's female, but not much else. 0:10:50.204,0:10:54.898 As with many Ms Male Characters, her defining characteristic is her gender. 0:10:54.898,0:10:59.975 Wendy also suffers from a parallel condition I like to call “Personality Female Syndrome” 0:10:59.975,0:11:03.940 wherein female characters are reduced to a one dimensional personality type 0:11:03.940,0:11:07.659 consisting of nothing more than a collection of shallow stereotypes about women. 0:11:07.659,0:11:11.160 She is vain, spoiled, bratty and quick to anger. 0:11:11.160,0:11:13.330 "I don't care! 0:11:13.330,0:11:17.874 I want America for my birthday! 0:11:17.874,0:11:23.188 I want it, I want it, I want it!" 0:11:23.188,0:11:27.100 When female characters are “marked” by obligatory stereotypical identifiers 0:11:27.100,0:11:35.435 it actively limits the range of available options by enforcing a narrow, restrictive and monolithic model for the portrayal of femininity. 0:11:35.435,0:11:42.859 Meanwhile, since male characters are allowed to be unmarked it permits a much wider array of possibilities for their designs. 0:11:42.859,0:11:49.032 I should note that even though pink and purple are strong gendered indicators when combined with other feminizing visual markers 0:11:49.032,0:11:51.702 those colors are not the exclusive domain of women. 0:11:51.702,0:11:56.050 An expanded color-palette is something we do see applied to men on rare occasions 0:11:56.050,0:12:00.748 as with Kirby, Bomberman or Roy Koopa but they are the exception to the rule 0:12:00.748,0:12:05.760 and are typically only found in colorful childlike (and extremely male dominated) worlds. 0:12:10.944,0:12:17.556 But if a bow, lipstick, eyeshadow or heels are placed on an otherwise male-identified character the intention, 0:12:17.556,0:12:22.525 or at least the result, is typically a homophobic or transphobic joke. 0:12:22.525,0:12:24.823 "Heike Kagero! 0:12:25.531,0:12:27.115 Fight!" 0:12:29.654,0:12:36.447 There are a few optional design accessories for men like neckties or baseball caps but they don’t hold the same significance. 0:12:36.447,0:12:46.570 They are not ubiquitous or strictly enforced, and are never really used to “mark” men as “not female” in larger fictional universes dominated by women. 0:12:46.570,0:12:49.622 Maxwell is the hero of the popular Scribblenauts series. 0:12:49.622,0:12:56.230 In the fourth game Scribblenauts Unlimited we are introduced to his twin sister Lily who is basically a feminised copy of Maxwell. 0:12:56.230,0:13:02.233 The two are identical except for a series of gendered signifiers designed to “mark” her as a female. 0:13:02.233,0:13:05.492 In the game we learn that Lily is one of 42 children. 0:13:05.492,0:13:13.272 All 41 of the other siblings are male and all have some trait or interest associated with their name that serves to define their personality. 0:13:13.272,0:13:18.736 There’s Artie the artist, Buzz the astronaut, Glum the emo-rocker and so on and so forth. 0:13:18.736,0:13:22.628 and all are unlockable and playable during the course of the game. 0:13:22.628,0:13:27.173 By contrast, Lily's personality trait is essentially being Maxwell’s twin 0:13:27.173,0:13:32.380 she has no associated interest or hobby other than being the female version of the game's hero. 0:13:32.380,0:13:41.788 In addition to being a Ms. Male Character, Lily is also a particularly pronounced example of another related trope called the Smurfette Principle. 0:13:41.788,0:13:48.859 The term was coined back in 1991 by feminist author Katha Pollitt and is of course named after the only female smurf in Smurfville. 0:13:48.859,0:13:55.233 The Smurfette Principle is the tendency for a piece of media to include only one woman in an ensemble of male characters. 0:13:55.233,0:14:03.949 The trope is a pervasive problem in video games, manifesting as the “token chick” in any given grouping of heroes, villains or non-playable characters. 0:14:03.949,0:14:08.372 An exceptionally stark example of the trope can be found in the original Mega Man series. 0:14:08.372,0:14:14.879 Over the course of 10 games there are 78 bosses or robot masters and exactly one of them is female, 0:14:14.879,0:14:18.423 Splash Woman who appears in the 9th game. 0:14:20.515,0:14:25.411 In the Wii U game The Wonderful 101, six of the seven color-coded playable heroes are men. 0:14:25.411,0:14:29.955 The one exception is, of course, the pink hero, named Wonder-Pink! 0:14:33.618,0:14:38.538 In addition to her Smurfette status, she is also afflicted with “Personality Female Syndrome.” 0:14:38.538,0:14:40.079 "I got in late last night. 0:14:40.079,0:14:44.619 But there was this party! And then the after-party and then the after-after-party. 0:14:44.619,0:14:48.823 I needed a major powder break to freshen up before meeting you guys." 0:14:49.361,0:14:55.265 Wonder-Pink is shallow, vain, materialistic and flies into a rage at the drop of a hat. 0:14:56.227,0:15:01.150 You can find Smurfettes in just about every genre, from dungeon-crawlers 0:15:01.150,0:15:02.601 to racing games, 0:15:02.601,0:15:03.839 from RPGS 0:15:03.839,0:15:05.687 to shooters. 0:15:05.687,0:15:09.827 Pollitt sums up the crux of the Smurfette problem nicely in her NYTimes article; 0:15:09.827,0:15:11.371 "The message is clear. 0:15:11.371,0:15:13.677 Boys are the norm, girls the variation; 0:15:13.677,0:15:16.255 boys are central, girls peripheral; 0:15:16.255,0:15:18.971 boys are individuals, girls types. 0:15:18.971,0:15:22.643 Boys define the group, its story and its code of values. 0:15:22.643,0:15:25.529 Girls exist only in relation to boys.” 0:15:25.529,0:15:29.185 With that in mind let’s come back to Ms. Pac-Man for a moment. 0:15:29.185,0:15:34.611 One of the core consequence of the Ms. Male Character trope is that it helps to define women by their connection to men. 0:15:34.611,0:15:38.167 So despite her tagline “More than Pac-Man with a bow” 0:15:38.167,0:15:40.788 "Honey, dontcha know? 0:15:40.788,0:15:43.912 I'm more than Pac-Man with a bow!" 0:15:43.912,0:15:49.631 Ms. Pac-Man’s visual properties are simply an extension of Pac-Man’s original design; 0:15:49.631,0:15:53.900 she actually kind of is just Pac-Man with a bow. 0:15:53.900,0:15:58.738 Her simple narrative reinforces the fact that she really only exists in relationship to Pac-Man. 0:15:58.738,0:16:02.697 She is both his love interest and also the mother of his child. 0:16:08.358,0:16:11.592 Dixie Kong is the female variant and love interest of Diddy Kong. 0:16:11.592,0:16:19.185 Note the ponytail and hair ringlets, pink shirt, pink hat, earrings, and eyelashes all to distinguish her from her predecessor. 0:16:19.185,0:16:25.433 Essentially Ms. Male Characters are feminized imitations or derivative copies of already established male characters. 0:16:25.433,0:16:30.102 They exist only because of, and in relationship to, their male counterparts. 0:16:30.102,0:16:33.833 Ms. Male Characters typically aren't given their own distinctive identities 0:16:33.833,0:16:37.563 and are prevented from being fully realized characters who exist on their own terms. 0:16:37.563,0:16:41.818 This has the, perhaps unintended, effect of devaluing these characters 0:16:41.818,0:16:47.418 and often relegating them to a subordinate or secondary status inside their respective media franchises, 0:16:47.418,0:16:52.469 even when they are, on rare occasions, given a starring role in a spin-off or sequel. 0:16:52.469,0:16:57.337 One very old and notable example of the Ms. Male Character trope comes to mind. 0:16:57.337,0:17:02.052 As the story goes, God made Adam in his own image and then later took a rib from Adam’s side 0:17:02.052,0:17:05.265 and fashioned a woman out of it to be his wife and companion. 0:17:05.265,0:17:10.170 This Adam and Eve version of the creation myth reinforces a subordinate view of women 0:17:10.170,0:17:15.401 man is cast as the original concept and source code for woman who is derived from his body. 0:17:15.401,0:17:21.909 Essentially Eve is the sequel to Adam, just as Ms. Pac-Man was built from the body of Pac-Man who came before her. 0:17:21.909,0:17:24.577 In a male identified society like ours, 0:17:24.577,0:17:28.210 men are associated and become synonymous with human beings in general. 0:17:28.210,0:17:32.711 In other words, male tends to be seen as the default for the entire species. 0:17:32.711,0:17:38.262 In video games male identification manifests as the tendency for all characters to be male by default 0:17:38.262,0:17:43.624 unless there is some special reason or specific justification for women to be present in the story. 0:17:43.624,0:17:48.147 To help illustrate one of the ways the "male as default” phenomenon operates in gaming worlds 0:17:48.147,0:17:51.722 let’s take a look at the mobile mega-hit Angry Birds. 0:17:51.722,0:17:57.319 When the game was first released in 2009, the five original birds in the flock were identified by their color 0:17:57.319,0:18:00.751 and did not include any specific gendered signifiers. 0:18:00.751,0:18:06.616 Over time, as the game has grown in popularity and the brand has expanded to include numerous spin-offs, 0:18:06.616,0:18:14.037 real world merchandise and a weekly cartoon series, the birds have been given more distinct personalities and actual names. 0:18:14.037,0:18:22.435 Mobile developer Rovio first began gendering birds in February 2011 with the release of their valentine-themed episode for Angry Birds Seasons 0:18:22.435,0:18:28.560 which includes Ms. Male Character versions of the Red Bird, the White Bird and a Female Pig as love interests. 0:18:28.560,0:18:32.455 Note the bows, makeup and long eyelashes. 0:18:32.455,0:18:37.775 There is a larger unintended consequence to “marking” these birds as female with feminizing gender signifiers; 0:18:37.775,0:18:45.409 it reinforces that all the other birds and pigs without these specific visual cues are all male by default, unless otherwise noted. 0:18:46.511,0:18:52.898 The addition of the Pink Bird to the main flock in 2012 further entrenched male as the default setting for the Angry Birds universe. 0:18:53.953,0:18:58.628 I should mention that Rovio later stated that the white bird was also female and named her Matilda. 0:18:58.628,0:19:02.566 This revelation led to a character redesign which has feminized the white bird 0:19:02.566,0:19:07.516 by adding pink accents, rose cheeks and long eyelashes in the Angry Birds cartoon series 0:19:07.516,0:19:11.077 just to make absolutely clear that she is female. 0:19:13.137,0:19:19.481 Over in the Mushroom Kingdom we have Toadette who is both a Ms. Male Character and the only woman among the Mushroom people. 0:19:24.541,0:19:30.751 Her introduction to the Mario-spin off games emphasize the fact that all the other Toads in the entire species are male. 0:19:30.751,0:19:36.752 Both the Smurfette Principle and the Ms. Male Character tropes create scenarios that reinforce a false dichotomy 0:19:36.752,0:19:42.863 wherein male is associated with the norm while female is associated with a deviation from the norm. 0:19:42.863,0:19:48.096 Everything we have discussed in this episode thus far has been related to visual design or narrative connection. 0:19:48.096,0:19:54.202 But there is another way that the Ms. Male Character trope can manifest itself, and that is through marketing and promotional materials. 0:19:54.202,0:19:59.146 A great illustration of this trend can be found in Bioware’s highly regarded Mass Effect series. 0:19:59.146,0:20:04.203 The games offer players a choice between a male or female version of the protagonist Commander Shepard 0:20:04.203,0:20:07.320 each with a range of cosmetic customizable options. 0:20:07.320,0:20:13.300 The female option is well designed and her overall narrative is nearly indistinguishable from her male counterpart’s, 0:20:13.300,0:20:16.320 aside from some of the romance options. 0:20:16.320,0:20:21.408 However, if we take a step back from the game experience itself and look at the marketing campaigns for the trilogy, 0:20:21.408,0:20:25.485 we see that the female variant of Shepard is practically non-existent. 0:20:25.485,0:20:30.076 In mainstream advertising of the franchise, the male commander is used almost exclusively. 0:20:30.076,0:20:34.839 His image is front and center on the box covers for all releases including the special editions. 0:20:34.839,0:20:41.209 He is the one featured in the TV commercials, teasers, trailers, web banners, street posters and print ads 0:20:41.209,0:20:44.137 and his face appears on most of the magazine covers. 0:20:44.137,0:20:48.759 All of this positions the male Commander Shepard as the default protagonist of the series. 0:20:48.759,0:20:50.116 "One man 0:20:50.116,0:20:52.138 one very specific man, 0:20:52.138,0:20:58.510 might be all that stands between humanity and the greatest threat of our brief existence." 0:20:58.881,0:21:01.698 That is how Bioware is selling the Mass Effect experience. 0:21:01.698,0:21:07.019 Nearly everything about the advertising campaign explicitly tells players that Commander Shepard is a man 0:21:07.019,0:21:11.626 and by extension associates the official storyline with the male version of the hero. 0:21:11.626,0:21:17.378 This marketing strategy contributes to the fact that only 18-20% of players choose the female option 0:21:17.378,0:21:22.219 (despite the fact that Jennifer Hale’s voice acting is widely praised as being far superior). 0:21:22.219,0:21:25.362 "You brought me here to confirm what you already know: 0:21:25.362,0:21:28.231 The reapers are here." 0:21:28.231,0:21:32.688 Still, the female version has a dedicated fanbase who frequently refers to her as “FemShep”. 0:21:32.688,0:21:38.985 And although this is meant as an affectionate nickname, it does further highlight her designation as a Ms. Male Character. 0:21:38.985,0:21:41.696 She is the one with the qualifier attached to her name. 0:21:41.696,0:21:46.498 She is “Female Shepard” whereas the male version simply gets to be, “Shepard”. 0:21:48.544,0:21:53.251 During the advertising of Mass Effect 3, Bioware made a little more effort to include female Shepard 0:21:53.251,0:21:59.173 with items like an alternate reversible slip cover for the game box (which features the male version by default) 0:21:59.173,0:22:01.641 as well as a special web only trailer 0:22:01.641,0:22:05.546 but these gestures feel like an afterthought or niche specialty marketing 0:22:05.546,0:22:09.236 and hardly what I would call a substantial or equitable inclusion. 0:22:09.236,0:22:13.677 While Mass Effect’s advertising strategy might not undermine the story or gameplay, 0:22:13.677,0:22:18.873 it is a glaring example of how the Ms. Male Character trope can be perpetuated by marketing departments 0:22:18.873,0:22:26.300 unless careful consideration is given to how gender is represented when advertising games that do offer players a choice. 0:22:26.300,0:22:32.211 Now it’s certainly true that in many cases the games starring the female variant are better gaming experiences overall. 0:22:32.211,0:22:38.315 And taken on their own, each individual example we’ve covered in this episode might seem relatively benign or trivial 0:22:38.315,0:22:44.142 but the reason this series focuses on tropes is because they help us recognize larger, recurring patterns. 0:22:44.142,0:22:50.437 Both the Ms. Male Character and the Smurfette Principle have been normalized in gaming and in mass media more broadly. 0:22:50.437,0:22:56.363 So much so that the two tropes usually pass under the radar and are often reproduced unconsciously 0:22:56.363,0:23:02.157 which is part of what makes the myths they perpetuate about women so powerful and insidious in our culture. 0:23:02.157,0:23:06.748 The truth of the matter is that there’s really no need to define women as derivative copies of men 0:23:06.748,0:23:13.800 or to automatically resort to lazy, stereotypical or limiting gender signifiers when designing video game characters. 0:23:13.800,0:23:21.103 "It was at that moment that Claire realized...she had super powers!" 0:23:21.103,0:23:26.918 Claire is a simple blue cube and one of the more memorable characters from the indie game Thomas Was Alone. 0:23:26.918,0:23:31.918 We know she is female because of her name, her narrative and the pronouns used during gameplay. 0:23:31.918,0:23:37.410 Claire’s gender presentation doesn’t reduce her to her gender or separate her from the rest of the cast. 0:23:37.410,0:23:41.954 "Claire needed to come up with a super hero name as soon as possible." 0:23:44.353,0:23:49.906 Half of the playable characters in TowerFall are women and the game is also notable for it’s color-code inversion, 0:23:49.906,0:23:54.316 The Last of the Order wears blue while the Assassin Prince is decked out in pink. 0:23:55.075,0:23:57.976 Indie games like the Knytt Underground, 0:23:57.976,0:23:59.892 Scary Girl 0:23:59.892,0:24:01.940 Ittle Dew 0:24:01.940,0:24:03.849 and the iOS title Lili 0:24:03.849,0:24:07.068 all have female characters who resist gendered stereotypes. 0:24:07.068,0:24:10.397 Each of these indie games avoids falling back on the Ms Male Character trope 0:24:10.397,0:24:15.546 or relying on narrow superficial visual markers as a stand in for personality. 0:24:15.546,0:24:19.908 The visual aesthetics of these female characters displays a range of gender expression and presentation 0:24:19.908,0:24:23.746 using a variety of hairstyles, color choices and accessories. 0:24:23.746,0:24:29.961 Developers can also choose to give players the opportunity to get to know the personalities, interests and struggles of their characters. 0:24:29.961,0:24:32.921 Even with minimal narrative or limited graphics 0:24:32.921,0:24:38.124 it is entirely possible to make games that feature dynamic women who exist on their own terms. 0:24:39.154,0:24:43.075 "Remember, it all starts with a harmless quarter. 0:24:43.075,0:24:47.578 But it can turn to tragedy just like that. 0:24:55.383,0:24:57.544 Can I play now?"