The RadFem culture war continues: Female Supremacists call out "The Legend of Zelda" as classist, sexist and racist

Raiden_Gekkou · 2013-10-06T19:05:27+00:00

"The racial, ethnic and religious traits of the “good characters” and the “bad characters” within the game also demonstrate a certain xenophobia. All of the good characters, such as the Hylians and Kokiri, are white. In contrast, all of the bad characters, such as the thieving Gerudo and their king, Ganondorf, have brown skin. The Gerudo live in the desert, and in case it wasn’t clear what real-life group of people they are based on, the original Gerudo symbol is strongly reminiscent of the Islamic star and crescent."

Generally, cultures who live in desert-like conditions tend to have darker skin than people who live in fairer conditions.

spookypen · 2013-10-06T19:49:22+00:00

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ZimbaZumba · 2013-10-06T18:39:46+00:00

Post-modernism at its most absurd. If only Jonathon Swift were still alive.

Le4chanFTW · 2013-10-06T23:56:29+00:00

I sometimes forget that Salon isn't a part of the Gawker network. They're basically a Ctrl+V of Jezebel.

Redskull673 · 2013-10-07T02:35:52+00:00

remember when feminist didn't give a crap about video games?

I do.

SaigaFan · 2013-10-07T04:26:14+00:00

Getting so fucking sick of Salon.com

Capitalsman · 2013-10-07T07:02:01+00:00

How dare the Zelda series have a race of people that live in deserts that are all strong women that practically never give birth to men!

hierophage · 2013-10-06T18:54:09+00:00

Sharkeesan needs something different to do with her life. Not attack video games. I doubt when the game was being made the producers were thinking about how offensive the nature of the game would be to liberals and feminists.

bunker_man · 2013-10-06T20:25:07+00:00

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Rattatoskk · 2013-10-07T03:51:05+00:00

Oh? Ganondorf is brown? And the game somehow makes the brown people into villains? You know who else are brown?

A. Literally ALL of the Gorons, a race of rolling rock people

B. Nabooru, the sage second in charge of the Geruda.

C. The Deku Tree, the enormous brown tree that serves as father to all the Kokiri

D. All of the Sheikah. This includes Zelda's alternate form, Sheik. The Sheikah are retainers to the throne and protectors of the land of Hyrule.

Yup.. there's SOOO much hate for dark skinned people in this game.

TorontoMike · 2013-10-07T05:20:44+00:00

So reading that I assume that the author got really overwhelmed by first year at college and has embraced the Feminists, Communists and animal rights activists on campus with vigor. I wonder if any one has done a study of mental breakdowns/ involvement in cults of first year University students because I can think of four people that did about the same

Cthulusbaby · 2013-10-07T08:01:26+00:00

I notice most of the criticisms levelled at the games industry by feminists are directed towards Japanese games in particular. However I can't remember hearing them mention Japan even once, I assume because they don't want to appear racist. Cognitive dissonance, anyone?

2013-10-06T19:43:41+00:00

I stopped reading when they quotes Sarkeezan

bunker_man · 2013-10-07T09:29:41+00:00

The relationship between the self-described “boss” of the carpenters and those he calls “my workers,” appears to be one of a guild member and apprentices or journeymen. The boss refers to himself as a master craftsman, and says the workers were hired by the royal family to improve the village. Karl Marx described this relationship as one of “oppressor and oppressed,” comparing it to that of “freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, (and) lord and serf.”

If I'm to understand this, basically they're saying having a boss is oppression, since karl marx said people shouldn't have bosses.

O...okay.

Some may interpret the fate of the wealthy family, who are transformed into spiderlike creatures, in the House of Skulltulla as a condemnation of an exploitive class system, but that would be a mistake.

“Folks around here tell of a fabulously rich family that once lived in one of the houses in this village,” an elderly character in Kakariko confides. “But they say that the entire family was cursed due to their greed! Who knows what might happen to those who are consumed by greed.”

By focusing on the greed of individuals, the game ignores how private property incentivizes and even mandates such behavior. And with this moralizing focus comes a belief that society’s economic ills are intractable because of humanity’s flawed nature

Private property.

PRIVATE PROPERTY.

PortalesoONR · 2013-10-07T01:04:08+00:00

The beloved game takes a dim view of workers, people of color and women

it's clear here the effort of feminists to conflate the workers struggles for better conditions of living (struggles against capital) with inane struggles against patriarchy. They need to be called out on this every time.

shoatGow · 2013-10-07T01:29:18+00:00

“Ocarina” portrays the apprentices or journeymen as lazy and shiftless, and the boss as the only one willing to work.

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Yeah, because a basic cartoon-tier joke about lazy workers is classist.

In contrast, all of the bad characters, such as the thieving Gerudo and their king, Ganondorf, have brown skin.

Now theyre stomping on my childhood. Ganondorf was the only real malicious Gerudo.

“Willst thou get the girl? Or play like one?”

Maybe it should have been "Willst thou play the game realizing the story's built to entertain kids and not be read into overly hard? Or willst thou take everything out of context?"

But, as Sarkeesian points out, she is only able to achieve this disguised as a man

Disguised as a Shiekah, not a man.

Entire article has very little facts and a lot of context breaking.

Wawoowoo · 2013-10-06T21:10:47+00:00

I think you can get in trouble if you submit your essay to the public before turning it into your college professor. As someone who hates Zelda, I find the analysis hilarious. It's basically saying "hey, Khan is hispanic. This means William Shatner is a monster who wants to kill all Mexicans because they are emotional beasts who just want to steal everything from others!" If you just happen to ignore all the plot you can just make up whatever you want, and all opinions are equally valid for some reason. Once it gets to the part about animal rights I can't tell if it's satirical or not.

pempem · 2013-10-07T03:28:34+00:00

I see into it as one girls reflection on the game after reading the basic tenants of communism, feminism, and radical environmentalism. Unfortunately, she seems to have missed the literature that expands upon those basic ideas.

theychromosome · 2013-10-07T02:18:14+00:00

Hmm, well, I'm not getting how any radfem culture war is involved here. I mean, the article was written by a man and doesn't show any particular ideology. Radfems aren't much into classism and racism, they are into sexism mostly. So the title seems misleading: "female supremacist" is a man who has some crits of a video game. I'd leave it at that.

Title	The RadFem culture war continues: Female Supremacists call out "The Legend of Zelda" as classist, sexist and racist
Author	wrez
Upvotes	77
Comments	80
Date	October 6, 2013 6:06 PM UTC (12 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/1nuqy2/the_radfem_culture_war_continues_female/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/the-radfem-culture-war-continues-female.1161989 https://theredarchive.com/post/1161989

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