Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Legend of Zelda - Accessing female spaces by deception

60 replies

LonginesPrime · 06/06/2020 11:36

DD just explained to me the latest mission she had to solve in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - she is playing as Link, a male character, and the objective is to get into Garuda, a town that's exclusively female.

The female inhabitants are fiercely protective of their home and are vigilant about visitors. Only females are allowed in. Link needs to gain access but is refused by the guards.

You (as Link) hear about a man who managed to get in there so you have to go and find him.

When you find him, he's dressed as a woman and you have the option of studying his face and asking him if he's a man, etc. The only way to progress the game is to tell him that he's beautiful - when you do this, he offers to sell you some women's clothing and explains that everyone will see you differently when you wear women's clothing.

When you wear the women's clothes, the guards of Garuda think you're female and let you in, so you can go around the shops completing the necessary tasks and interacting with the female inhabitants disguised as a woman.

I know it's 'only a game' and that there's an unreal amount of misogyny in the gaming industry anyway, so I'm not surprised that the female perspective of this issue has been overlooked. But it's still so disheartening that a new generation of young gamers (male and female) is being sent the message that it's ok for men to completely disregard women's rights and boundaries if they conflict with what men want.

OP posts:
Gibbonsgibbonsgibbons · 06/06/2020 12:50

I can’t comment on the game but my kids tell me that the comic books have a clan that is all women apart from one male who is born every hundred years who rules them Hmm my son (9) said “it’s weird!”

burnoutbabe · 06/06/2020 12:36

To be fair in fallout 4, you can romance pretty much any companion male it female (but not the robot or massive troll) and take then to your bed to boost your skills.
I played as a female but pretty sure the men still got the same equal options to have romance with all the companions.

Now crackdown 3, I played as a female agent but they didn't bother changing the genetic "find him" shout by the crime overlord. That was poor!

Z0rr0 · 06/06/2020 12:31

Maybe I'm being too cynical but that sounds like deliberate grooming of the gamer to accept men in women's spaces without questioning them. I mean the whole scenario sounds as if it was designed by a TRA.

LonginesPrime · 06/06/2020 12:17

You don't have to tell a man he is beautiful. Link finds a man with a female costume and dresses up as a Gerudo woman

But you have to tell him he's beautiful to get him to give the costume to you - that video says it too.

Yeah, I don't know why I'm surprised, really.

OP posts:
CaraDune · 06/06/2020 12:11

Oh dear, the main thing I'm taking from that youtube clip is "I'd sooner watch paint dry."

But yes, much of the gaming industry (as far as I can tell going off second-hand reports from friends who are gamers) is deepy misogynistic. It wouldn't surprise me if part of that misogyny was due to game designers indulging AGP.

Deliriumoftheendless · 06/06/2020 11:56

Gaming rarely thinks about actual woman and girls. One of the Fallout (I think) games has an option to play as male or female, but when you go to a settler camp women come on to you because the default character is a hetero male. Great for lesbian visibility but why is the assumption that you’re a straight male or a straight male wearing a female skin (as in the gaming term not literal skin).

growinggreyer · 06/06/2020 11:49

You don't have to tell a man he is beautiful. Link finds a man with a female costume and dresses up as a Gerudo woman. The guards can't tell that Link is male obvs because a teenage boy in a silky veil and harem pants is indistinguishable from the real thing...

growinggreyer · 06/06/2020 11:46

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

OneEpisode · 06/06/2020 11:44

To progress in the game the player has to tell the man he is beautiful? Is he beautiful?

BaronessRadishFemish · 06/06/2020 11:43

Is there a similar scenario in the game but with roles reversed? ie woman trying to access a male only space?

(...not holding my breath)

Swipe left for the next trending thread