Super Mario 2 is an amazing game, in all its 8-bit glory. I remember playing this bad boy as a little kid. I... admittedly, was a tom boy. I trampled over my gender stereotype and I ate it for breakfast, daily. I played with batman and robin figurines, and I hated pink. Loathed it. As far as I was concerned, overly pink items could seriously fall off a cliff and die. So you could only imagine my reaction when I picked up this little game. Do you know why? Do you know why I was so surprised? It's hard. Playing as my favorite green dude just wasn't helping. And so I quickly found out the advantages of playing the dainty pink atrocity. She presented a unique trait different from the rest: the ability to float. The user is able to choose between 4 characters: Mario, Luigi, Toadstool, or Princess Peach, and they each have their own unique skills.. but really? None of them are really helpful in battling evil and unjust mushrooms. Except for Peach. And I can only imagine how the opposite sex reacted to this surprise. Did they squirm and try to avoid playing the easier route, as the pink atrocity, or did they battle it out "like a man" and play as the heroic Mario?
Yes, we can dissect the avatars and how the user interacts with them. Yes, we can even say that Peach's unique trait may have forced the male gender to wear the female avatar, effectively letting them to role play as a girl or what not. Really, it is to my opinion that Super Mario Bros. 2 just... is. It's a story of a plumber and his brother, with his love interest Peach and.. some mushroom friend? When they chose to make up the characters, I don't believe they were actively seeking to appeal to whatever audience for whatever reasons, aside from the fact that they were expecting mostly male gamers. Looking at the history of the game, these characters were made to fit a fairytale. The first Mario game allows the user to play as average plumber Mario, on a quest to save the princess. There were some comments stating how Peach is stereotyped as thin and pretty, but c'mon, really? She's a PRINCESS. What man wants to rescue a fat slob high up in a castle? We make these characters to represent the ideal, what we think a princess should look like. Mario and Luigi are an awkward set of brothers. One's a little chubby, the other is awkwardly tall. This set allows the user to roleplay as the underdog, as the average Joe in an attempt to attain ultimate awesomeness.
Now, if I were to act like Schleiner and dissect this game, what kinds of conclusions would I come up with? Well, for starters, I'd open this up stating what a messy can of worms Mario Bros. 2 makes itself out to be. This game allows the user to be WHOEVER he/she wants to be. As a male, I could effectively play as Princess Peach and put on that "drag" mentality. I could make Princess Peach be that positive role model for myself, an all high and mighty princess gettin' down and dirty to save the kingdom. Mario, the positive role model, enduring this tripping world filled with talking mushrooms and crazy egg-shooting dinosaurs in order to save this gorgeous princess. I could be this seemingly gender-less toad and do whatever I want. Really, it's all up to the viewer. Schleiner's view of "gender configurations" incorporates the idea that "a single subject may morph and oscillate between [various] positions or roles, or gravitate more strongly toward one player/subject position". In essence, I could take Peach and make her my female gaze play toy, I could role-play as a bad ass dress wearin' destroyer, or she could just be my happy little role model. The same could be said towards all the characters. As a human being, I have the ability to think whatever I want to think and do whatever I want to do with these avatars, whether I choose to adhere to my gender stereotype, or experiment in my mind how wearing drag would be.
Super Mario Bros. 2 complicates gender stereotypes because it's not just cut and dry. The dainty princess kills things. You can be a genderless mushroom. Or a chubby Italian plumber. Really, I think this game forces men to play as the chick. Why else would they make it so difficult, unless you were the princess?
Schleiner, Ann-Marie. "Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons? Gender and Gender-Role Subversion in Computer Adventure Games." MIT Press 34.3 (2001): 221-26. Web. 7 Oct 2010.
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