Blog #7: Schleiner

The most obvious gender-subject configuration I saw was with princess. All the rest of the characters pretty much just jumped up and then fell back down when you press the jump button. With princess she jumps up and basically floats/flies for a while before she comes back down. I’m guessing this is because they expect girls playing the game to use princess and they assume that females won’t be as good at games as males so they make it easier to play as her than as the others. Another thing about her is that she is much fluffier than the rest of them. Mario, Luigi, and Toad are more rugged or dirty looking and look like they belong in that surrounding; princess is more polished looking and seems out of place in the countryside jumping down pipes.

Other than that I didn’t really see any obvious, glaring gender-subject configurations. I did notice that Luigi was also slightly easier to use because he seemed to jump higher and stay in the air slightly longer than Mario. He is also kind of more nerdy looking which leads me to believe that maybe they expect people who aren’t as good at the game to use him. This isn’t really a gender thing though, just more of a stereotype. I really don’t know what the deal is with Mario; I mean, he is a very short, chubby guy yet somehow he is always the one that ends up saving Princess and running off with her. This seems to go against the norms in my opinion; usually it’s the taller, good looking guy that saves the day.

Schleiner, Anne-Marie. "Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons? Gender and Gender-Role Subversion In Computer Games." MIT Press 34.3 (2001): 221-26. Web. 7 Oct 2010. .