Three days ago, Salon.com did the amazing: They turned clickbait into clickbait. Someone with Salon social media took to Twitter to promote their article….from last year. I’m so glad they did though, because I missed this article, and all of its wrong.
On October 5, 2013, Jon Hochschartner wrote an article titled “The Legend of Zelda” is classist, sexist, and racist. In this article, Hochschartner focuses entirely on Ocarina of Time. It appears Jon’s only source throughout this article was Anita Sarkeesian, who has likely never played the game.
I could spend more time than is healthy making the case for why OOT is the greatest game ever to be created, and why you’re wrong for liking Majora’s Mask more (despite the fact that the stages of grief theme is quite awesome, the save options killed way too much for me). Maybe another time. I’d like to pick apart this particular argument.
Starting with the claim of SEXISM. An excerpt:
For a portion of the game’s plot, Zelda is represented as an imposing warrior. But, as Sarkeesian points out, she is only able to achieve this disguised as a man and she’s kidnapped within minutes of revealing her true identity.
At least they got it, in part, correct. For a MAJORITY of Zelda’s representation in OOT, she appears undercover as Sheik. Sheik appears to Link after he is freed from the Chamber of Sages, post 7 year imprisonment. And Sheik is pretty badass. He teaches us warp songs, does some sweet magic disappeary stuff, and is quite literally the only reason Link was able to complete his quest as an adult (essentially, an awesome and less annoying version of that owl).
However, when you make a claim like “kidnapped within minutes of revealing her true identity” and try to portray it as sexism? Have you people ever even Zelda’d? Ganondorf did not kidnap Zelda because she’s a woman. He did it because A) She carries the Triforce of fucking Wisdom, and B) She’s the rightful heir of Hyrule. Never once does Ganondorf say “Oh silly little woman-person, you’re weak! Let me kidnap you because you’re weak!” On the contrary, Zelda is quite powerful. Zelda. Does. Magic.
Next Quote:
Link also rescues other female characters who arguably fall into damsel trope, such as Saria, a friend from his Kokiri childhood, and Ruto, princess of the aquatic Zoras.
Seriously? Link only ever rescues females? So he didn’t save the entire Goron race from starvation as a child, or free them all from their jail cells as an adult in the Fire Temple. Nope. Never happened. He also didn’t free Ruto’s father, King Zora, from being frozen after completing the Ice Cavern. That was certainly not a thing that happened. Or the carpenters in Gerudo’s Fortress. Nahh….
I could continue on, about how insanely awesome Impa was, or how all of everything was created by Goddesses. GodDESSes. Oh! Or we could talk about how the Gerudo race is ALL WOMEN, with a single male being born every 100 years. And how they allow that male to be King, for no reason other than communicating with other tribes. These women fulfill every role in their society, from architect to warrior. They consider having “gender roles” between men and women to be blasphemous. Look at all that raging sexism! I need no further proof that Anita and Jon H. never played this game than the fact that there is ZERO mention of the Lava Dragon from the Fire Temple being named Volvagia. Lava Dragon. Volvagia. Say that out loud. If they wanted any argument about sexism, that’s probably all they’ve got, at all, ever.
Moving on. Racism.
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.
All the good characters are white. All the bad characters have brown skin. Look at all these good white characters
“The Gorons don’t count. They’re not people.” Do they talk? Do they hug? Are they characters that are brown? I count them.
“The Zora don’t count. They’re fish.” Do they talk? Are they characters that are blue? Did you not include Princess Ruto, a Zora, as a female who needs to be saved? Then I count them too.
“In the right light, Impa’s skin…” Shut up.
“Wait a second. Why did Liz include a picture of Nabooru? She’s OUR example of racism!”
Further proof that somebody didn’t play the game. Maybe we’ve forgotten that Link becomes an honorary member of the Gerudo tribe in OOT after freeing the Carpenters. He even gets to go into their training ground. But no, Nabooru is included because she’s a GOOD GUY…erm….GIRL. She is Ganondorf’s direct subordinate, who does not approve of his brutal methods. We meet her in the Spirit Temple, where she is attempting to take the Silver Gauntlets in order to interfere with Ganondorf’s plan. Need more proof Nabooru is a good character? SHE’S A FUCKING SAGE.
On to Classism.
Firstly, they focus exclusively on Kakariko Village. Not even kidding, that’s it. One single area from the game.
A quote from the article:
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…. “Ocarina” portrays the apprentices or journeymen as lazy and shiftless, and the boss as the only one willing to work.
WHAT??? Hold the phone, this is your example of CLASSISM? The boss has more motivation than the workers? Apprentices are lazy? Classism is prejudice against a specific social class. But one guy says his workers are lazy, and suddenly we have a class issue surrounding the entire video game? I don’t even need to offer any proof aside from the definition of classism for this one to be debunked.
Next (and only other) example:
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…. By focusing on the greed of individuals, the game ignores how private property incentivizes and even mandates such behavior.
AKA: “Your interpretation of the game is wrong. Mine is right, because of everything else I’ve been so right about in this article. Like the sexism. And the racism.” Never mind that the actual explanation of the transformation of the family into Skulltulas was as a direct result of a curse placed on them due to their greed. No other information is given but this. Is it not possible that they were just greedy assholes?
And, are we also ignoring that, in the period of time without a King, the Gerudo are essentially a classless society? Or that the only real deciding factor of the Kokiri in regards to class is whether or not you have a fairy? Or that, while technically there is a head of the Gorons, they are more so a brotherly tribe of equals? How can you possibly claim that an entire game is classist, based solely on the idea of “the boss works harder” and “greedy people are spiders now?”
*I’m going to completely ignore the article’s claims about animals, which is essentially boiled down to “The cows are too happy, they’re going to be eaten one day.”*
A reminder: There are 7 total sages in Ocarina of Time. 5 are female. 3 have brown skin, 1 is blue.
Can’t wait to read your comments. Until next time!
This guy thinks the cows are too happy? Don’t let him play animal crossing he’ll have a stroke.
Nice breakdown of the Salon piece its obvious he never played the game in depth, a trend we see from the SJW side
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Good arguments. Take out all the adverbs (ending in “ly”) and it will read much clearer.
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Im a sporadic game player – shooters!- and I am stunned at this pathetic attempt to deconstruct games through the lense of SJW worldview. Its risible. Thank god you guys are fighting back against this crap!
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I love this blog almost as I much as I love Ocarina of Time, and that’s saying A LOT. You pierced the armor of their argument with poisonous arrows, sharpened by irrefutable logic and made ever more deadly by your repeated, verified examples. Your blog is a work of art.
It is true, the Hyrule mythology is heavily in favor of the feminine role. The goddesses are the Creators of everything, including the Triforce, the source of ultimate power that one man, Ganondorf, dedicates his life to possessing. The enemy is a man who seeks the power of women! The fearless and cunning Gerudo, who occupy perhaps the most exciting part of the game. Then there’s the fact that the game is named after A WOMAN. And it is this woman, Zelda, who possessed the most necessary item of the game, the ocarina of time. As a child and as an adult, Link is only able to accomplish his quest because of what Zelda gives to him. If anything, this game is too feminine!
Thanks for writing this blog. It was perfect!
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“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.”
This is just beyond parody. Anything short of literal communist propaganda is “classist” by this guy’s standard.
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The writer doesn’t even get this part right. Radical progressive/left economic writing often deals with how property relations can obscure coercive human relations. In simple terms it’s how focusing on things (“this is what a feminist looks like” shirts) blurs what happens in the real world (feminist shirts created in third world factories by underpaid women). Instead the writer states that “private property incentivizes and even mandates such behavior” as if inanimate objects act on their own! Marx and Engels would be loling in their grave.
OoT actually DOES show the greedy, coercive relationship between the fabulous family and worker characters in the game and even attaches a moral to it- the masters family was turned into horrible beasts because of their greed.
Of course, with his “examples” of sexism and racism it’s obvious he didn’t do his homework, but how the hell do pieces like these get past editors?
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Good analysis. Their mindset is “War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength.” Facts, truth, to them all is mutable in order to fit “the narrative”. Keep up the good work!
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Liz, it’s awesome that you’re doing a blog! I hope you replace some of the current gaming media. =)
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Great rebuttal. It’s nuts for them to attack OoT like this. That’s part of their goal I suppose, to make us question everything we love because it’s supposed to be “instructive.”
And although Majora’s Mask is the best game ever IMO, I can respect someone who’s played both and prefers OoT. What annoys me is people who say OoT is the best game ever when they haven’t even *played* MM.
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The writer never realizes that Gerudos are a separate SPECIES from Hylian, who are in turn separate from Kokiri, much in the same way that Gorons and Zoras are different. At the same time, all of these races come together as equals and try to live peacefully under the same realm.
Who are the ones making assumptions based solely on appearance now?
I hope the fine people behind this critique get working on other video game gems such as Chrono Trigger next. It would be so fun to see how they don’t bother to play the game at all and draw their conclusions based on only one of the 13 possible endings.
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My favourite part was still when he went off on a tangent to pine for workers rights for the cows at the Lon Lon Ranch.
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This article is the best example of what gamergate should have been about. Well done.
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