As a child in the era of Super Mario Bros., it’s perhaps no surprise that I’d find myself drawn to Super Mario Kart. It was a racing game with simple mechanics but was silly and absurd enough to hold my attention.
But frequently, while looking over the character selection menu, I’d encounter a small but gnawing internal conflict. As a young girl who played video games in a time when there was a dearth of female characters, I felt as though I “should” play as Princess Peach.
Back then, it was rare for a game to have a playable female character. Metroid introduced players to Samus Aran, who represented a concept so novel it was a surprise twist at the end of the game. If you were a fighting game sort, you could play as Chun-Li in Street Fighter II or as Sonya Blade in Mortal Kombat. In fact, you could even play as Princess Peach in Super Mario Bros. 2, though players would eventually come to learn that game was never supposed to be part of the Super Mario Bros. series.
In Super Mario Kart, players could choose from Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Princess Peach, Toad or Koopa Troopa. The characters had different strengths and weaknesses. For example, Bowser and Donkey Kong took longer to accelerate but had a faster maximum speed.
It’s wrong to say that this character lineup consisted of only one female option. Toads are canonically genderless and Koopa Troopas can be male or female.
Still, at the time, those other characters were generally believed to be males and referenced as such. So, in an era where little girls rocked T-shirts with block letters that read “Girl Power!” I wanted to be excited to see Princess Peach as a peer to Mario, Luigi and Bowser. But something didn’t seem quite right as I mulled my character options.
I didn’t want to play as Princess Peach.
Princess Peach’s Problematic History
Throughout the entire Super Mario Bros. saga, with only few exceptions, Princess Peach has a one-note storyline. She’s a dainty princess that needs Mario and his crew to save her time and again. At the time Nintendo released Super Mario Kart, her sole claim to fame was that she was the subject of numerous rescue attempts.
Even back then, I understood the “damsel-in-distress” storyline is a lazy one. But video games of the past weren’t exactly character-driven masterpieces. Like so many others, I ignored the cookie-cutter formula in favor of following the hero’s journey.
I didn’t hate Princess Peach, per se. In Super Mario Kart, her character had good acceleration and a strong offensive move. She could be powerful when played correctly.
My main issue was that the only clearly female character in Mario Kart was a stereotype of femininity.
Princess Peach represents an ideal. She has blue eyes, blonde hair, white skin and a poofy pink dress. I wouldn’t be the first to write about this speaks to an unrealistic fantasy in which a goofy-looking plumber can win the heart of a princess by saving her from certain doom. That aside, Princess Peach bothers me because she stands for cultural standards of beauty and demeanor that are ultimately pretty corny.
The problem isn’t inherently with princesses, but with this particular character. What type of message are you sending your daughter when the only option is a beautiful, blonde, codependent princess who depends a man to rescue her?
To be fair, it wasn’t just Princess Peach reinforcing this worldview. I grew up in an era of generic Disney princess-related storylines, stories which run the gamut of problematic stereotypes involving a prince who rescues the woman from her terrible fate.
Society spoon-fed me the princess narrative my entire life, but I never bought into it. I didn’t have Barbie dolls. While the other girls played “House” at recess, I played soccer. I looked up to my mom, who put in long hours at the bank and cared for two kids while my father traveled around the country for work.
There are plenty of girls who want to be princesses, and this isn’t to discount any of them. However, there’s something inherently uninspiring about those classic depictions of Peach. Innately, we understood Mario, Luigi and even Bowser. We grew with them and became part of their journeys. But for much of the Super Mario Bros. series, Princess Peach wasn’t much more than a cameo in someone else’s narrative.
To me, Peach is what happens when male creators attempt to develop a female character without bothering to consult any women. I have no way of knowing whether this is actually how she came to be, but it certainly feels that way. She doesn’t naturally seem to appeal to little girls who play video games. Rather, she seems like a marketing executive’s idea of what appeals to little girls who play video games.
It’s easy to imagine that the team behind the game turned Peach into a playable driver because it wanted to honor the history of Super Mario Bros. while attracting more female players. But even decades later, it stands to reason: If Mario can be a frumpy everyman, then why is the only expressly female character option someone’s dainty dream woman?
I understand it’s unrealistic to expect every single game out there to represent every unique aspect of gender expression. But I also recognize a problematic message: As a male, you could be a short, mustached plumber and find your way in life. As a woman, you had to be a beautiful blonde… and it was likely you’d also be kidnapped at some point.
In one sense, I’d already rebelled against how my culture thought I should behave by playing video games in the first place. While female video game players are far more commonplace and visible today, the mentality of the time suggested they were something for the boys to do while the girls played with dolls.
And yet, one of the few opportunities that I have to play a female character in what was at the time the biggest video game franchises in history, my only option was a goddamned female stereotype.
Somehow, playing as this specific character felt more frustrating than not having a female character at all.
The Evolution Of Female Playable Characters Over Time
As I got older, games became more sophisticated. Decades later, when I first created a character in Destiny — the same main character I continue to use today in Destiny 2 — I didn’t go for beautiful. Instead, I chose to be interesting. My Guardian is a purple alien with an angled, bushy mohawk.
Red Dead Online also lets players customize their characters. Instead of trying to turn my character into a cute cowgirl stereotype, I again wanted to create someone fun and unique. So, I made my character an elderly woman with rough skin and messy red hair. Again, she may not have been beautiful… but she’s certainly someone who looks like she has a story to tell.
Many modern video games consider sensitivity issues when it comes to gender expression and identity. As the percentage of women and gender-nonconforming people in the gaming industry trends upward, it seems only natural to expect they would bring their diverse experiences to their craft.
The game I currently play most is Apex Legends. Respawn Entertainment’s writing team is doing an incredible job of creating a diverse cast of characters who feel like genuine people. In fact, these identities are so strong that players start to form bonds with them. They’ve managed to create an entire universe driven by fans’ appetites for character lore.
In Apex Legends, I can not only choose to play a non-stereotypical female character, but these characters constitute half of the game’s playable characters. There’s also a nonbinary character. One of the game’s female characters has a large scar on her face, a purely cosmetic detail that adds so much depth.
While the Mario Kart games now have far more diversity in their lineups, Nintendo’s depiction of Princess Peach has changed very little. This obviously a brand choice — the power of the brand comes with peoples’ ability to recognize the characters. Still, would it be so terrible for her to put on a pair of pants for a change? What does she look like after she’s changed a tire? Wouldn’t it be cool to see her headline her own console game (one that doesn’t have the act of crying as one of her special abilities)?
It’s been decades since I first played Super Mario Kart. Unfortunately, one thing hasn’t changed:
I still don’t want to play as Princess Peach.
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