
“The Legend of Zelda” is classist, sexist and racist - somedude99
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/05/the_legend_of_zelda_is_classist_sexist_and_racist/
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nathan_long
"By focusing on the greed of individuals, the game ignores how private
property incentivizes and even mandates such behavior."

This is where I quit reading.

Without private property, the state owns everything. And some of the animals
always end up being a lot more equal than the others.

Greedy humans will always exist. Giving a few of them control of all property
is very unwise and has always worked out poorly.

~~~
vinceguidry
I didn't finish either. The idea of using culture as a battleground for class
struggle is admittedly tempting, but ultimately it just means more ways for
the non-creative to tell the creative how to do their jobs. If Mad Men had to
be politically correct for the current time, it wouldn't be worth watching.

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maaku
WTF? More like “The Legend of Zelda does not conform with my neo-Marxist and
radical feminist [sic] world view.”

Maybe the problem is with you, not the game?

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krapp
>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.

That seems to happen a lot in fantasy. I think I remember reading somewhere
that it was pointed out to J.R.R. Tolkien once that all of the heroes of his
stories were essentially white and all of his villainous monsters were
"creatures of color" and he remarked he'd never considered the unfortunate
consequences.

Nevertheless, i think this guy is reading way, way too much into what is,
essentially, running around a maze stabbing monsters and collecting loot.

~~~
maaku
Also, middle-earth was supposed to be a mythology for England... naturally the
'men of the west' would be English (white)?

Anyway, I always thought 'mysterious dark-skinned bad guys from the south' was
cultural legacy from the Moorish invasion & Christian reconquest of Spain.

EDIT: Then again, we're talking about a _Japanese_ video game (albeit with the
trappings of traditional European fantasy) so I'm not sure how much of the
above applies.

~~~
krapp
I've played the Japanese version of the original as a ROM for what it's worth
and they didn't change the character design for export so far as I can
remember. Probably "European fantasy" explains that...

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clarky07
This article is so bad I don't even know where to begin. Having a man save a
women in a video game isn't sexist. This is a case of looking for a problem
where there isn't one to get pageviews and clicks.

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mamcx
I wonder why some people read a radical viewpoint on everything.

Seriously they think that a author wake up in the morning, then think:

"I will create a racist story".

Instead of:

"I imagine a cool game!". I bet the majority not think about the unfortunate
implications of everything they do, and more than that, not even imagine that
someday in the future some kind-of-a-expert will look for a serious
philosophical undertone in his work, then create it.

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Suro
Someone need to read some Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, an hilarious
book.

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mcphilip
Gaming narratives often jingoistic. News at 11...

No one's claiming the Zelda series gives Dostoyevsky-esque insights into
societal structures.

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dccoolgai
We are all dumber for having read this... I award you no points, and may god
have mercy on your soul....

Seriously, though...this is offensive...there is real racism and sexism in
media...you don't need to go fishing this far for it, and doing so distracts
and dilutes the legitimate efforts to point it out and criticize where
necessary...

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olgeni
At least it's not ageist.

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guiomie
lol

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omonra
Great parody.

