Introduction:
Most forms of media like to use hegemony to enforce certain dominance. Our textbook defines hegemony as “…the power or dominance that one social group holds over others” (Dines & Humez, p. 33). In most of modern media, men are portrayed to be the dominant social group. Men often have privilege over women, and are usually in positions of power while women are subordinate. Clearly hegemony exists in our society with men being the paramount group.
Videogame characters might be thought of as being a standard for their race or gender. Depictions of women in video games are examples of these misrepresentations. Many games portray women as being inferior to men; they are depicted as helpless or included solely for sex appeal. The Legend of Zelda series is known for making women the dominant social group. For this project, Kellner’s content perspective will be used to analyze the representation of women in the Legend of Zelda series, and show that this series breaks the typical hegemony of male dominance.
Textual Analysis:
In the past, most adventure videogames involved a male character saving a princess. The princesses were usually depicted as being weak and unable to defend themselves. This implied that men were always meant to save a helpless female. As time went on, however, the princesses became more independent, and in some cases the princess even became the main character. Nintendo has, over the past several years, transformed a formerly stereotypically helpless princess in the Legend of Zelda series by decreasing the sexual aspect of her character as well as making her more assertive and decisive.
The Legend of Zelda series was once based around rescuing the helpless princess named Zelda. The protagonist of the series, Link, had to rescue Zelda in every game. The early games featured Zelda as having the stereotypical aspects of a damsel in distress. There was nothing that she could do to defend herself, and she would wait patiently for Link to come and rescue her. As time went on, Zelda started to become less like a stereotypical princess and more independent. She even gained magical abilities that could harm anyone that tried to capture her. In a more recent game, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, she was able wield a sword and perform archery. Her appearance has also undergone a transition. Her original artwork depicted her as a beautiful young woman, with makeup, an elegant gown, and large breasts. As she started to gain the aspects of a wise princess, she took on the appearance of an average woman. She began to wear little to no makeup, average dresses, and the size of her chest became noticeably smaller.
The transition of the Zelda character began with a game called The Legend of Zelda: Wand of Gamelan. This game was unique in the Legend of Zelda series. Even though it was not a well-received game, it remains the only game in which the player could play as Princess Zelda. This was the game that started Princess Zelda’s transition to a more independent woman. In a role reversal, Princess Zelda was the one that had to rescue someone, and that someone was the former protagonist, Link. The traditionally weaker female was now fighting the forces of evil to save the traditionally stronger male without any significant help from other characters. Despite its poor reception, this game’s portrayal of Zelda as a strong, capable young woman was the first step in her ongoing transformation.
Apart from the Zelda character, other women are also given dominant roles in the series. The fictional land that these games take place in, Hyrule, can be described as a female dominated kingdom. This is evident in the kingdom’s creation story. The story tells of three goddesses descending from the heavens to create the kingdom of Hyrule. Once their labors were complete, the goddesses departed for the heavens. In their wake, they left behind three golden triangles, each representing one of their elements, and this symbol became known as the Triforce. If we compare the game’s creation story to the creation story of Christianity, which is a dominant religion in our society, one can once again see that the game is dominated by women in contrast to our male dominated society. In Christianity, there are three male aspects of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; whereas in the Zelda games the Triforce, which has godlike powers, is comprised of three components stemming from the female goddesses.
As another example, the villain of the series, Ganondorf, has been defeated by women before. The Gerudo are a race that is made up of mostly females. In fact, there is only one male born every one hundred years, and this sole male is crowned their king. While the sole male rules over them, the females have the ability to overthrow him. This is shown in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time when the women of this race rebel to remove their king, Ganondorf, from power. After this rebellion against him, Ganondorf sought the Triforce so that he may gain the power of the goddesses. While he was able to obtain one of the triangles of the Triforce, he was eventually sealed away in another realm by eight sages, six of which were women. So once again this powerful male character is not only seeking to attain the power of women but also has been defeated by women at times.
Conclusion:
The gradual transition of Zelda from helpless princess to wise young woman distinguishes her from other female videogame characters. Princess Zelda is no longer a female character that would encourage men to play the games in order to fantasize about her physical attributes. She has become a female character that most fans idolize for her wisdom rather than her beauty. She has, in many ways, broken the mold of women in videogames. This, together with the fact that there are many other dominant female characters in the Legend of Zelda series shows that women are the dominant social group in this fictional kingdom, which is opposite of the hegemony that exists in the real world.
Works Cited
Dines, G., & Humez, J. M. (2011). Gender, Race, and Class in Media Edition 3. In J. Lull, Media, Communications and Culture: A Global Approach (p. 33). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc.
