Okay, lest you’re too young to know what Super Mario is, here’s some context: it’s a popular video game that came out in the late 80s, and has since become the icon for video games. Recently, Nintendo released its first mobile game (other than Pokémon GO, which is a collaboration with Niantic), Super Mario Run, and it became the fastest downloaded game, even surpassing Pokémon GO.
The gameplay is relatively simple yet addictive: you move a character from left to right, killing enemies by jumping on them. Once you reach the end, you’ll face a boss.
As for the story…well, let’s just say that games in the past don’t give a damn about stories, and most Mario games do have a story but no one cares.
Then in came Mr Chris Suellentrop. A former editor (an editor is a high-level position in a publishing firm, much like the general manager of other industries) of The Times‘ Op-Ed page and a host of the podcast Shall We Play A Game?, he wrote an editorial in The New York Times which is picked by by The Straits Times.
In his piece “Why my kid won’t be playing Super Mario Bros”, he’s disappointed at the game because he thought that in 1985, when the first Super Mario Bros was out, gender stereotypes were expected. Now, there should be…well, gender equality.
His argument is that in the game (or in almost all Mario games), a female, Peach, is kidnapped, so Mario, a male, gets to be the hero to save her.
Oh.
Before you go WTF, here’s even something more interesting: if I’ve interpreted it correctly, he suggested that because gamers tend to identify themselves with the protagonist, it has repercussions on how the gamer will “adopt new identities”.
Obviously, this doesn’t go well with netizens. Here’re some of the comments in The Straits Times Facebook Page.
So, here’s a solution: make Sonic female, make Link female and make Solid Snake female. That’ll solve the problem. And let’s take it one step further: make James Bond female, make Batman female and make Spiderman Spiderwoman.
Kthxbye.
Featured Image: geeksundergrace.com
This article was first published on goodyfeed.com
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