Is Princess Peach from nintendo's mario series representing women badly?

So, here are the facts about Princess Peach, formerly known by Princess Toadstool. She rules the Mushroom Kingdom with a population of small defenseless mushroom capped people known as the Toad race. She is frequently kidnapped by an extremely heavy, muscular, fire breathing Dragon turtle, the king of the Koopas, Bowser. She is saved by a middle aged Italian plumber, named Mario, often with the help of Yoshi, a cartoon dinosaur he rides on for extra jumping power. He is also aided by two adept members of the Toad race, a couple of blue and yellow capped toads. One of his most frequent partners is his younger brother Luigi,who is among countless others from various games in the Nintendo brand. In the Princesses years of development at the hands of Nintendo, specifically his creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, she has gained many traits, hobbies, mannerisms, and different skills. Let us now go over these many traits and mannerisms, to understand why we ask this today.

Princess Peach is easily one of the biggest contenders for damsels in distress at first glance. She is certainly in distress quite frequently, being saved from a powerful beast of a king, Bowser. Aside from that, she could be seen as a romantically desirable character for Mario, which follows the stereotype of the man heroically saving, and “getting” the girl. They’ve never had any evidence of being in a real relationship, or any evidence of romantic attachment between either of them. She is romantically desired, not by Mario, but by the antagonist, Bowser. Attachments and conflicts revolving around her and the protagonists and antagonists aside, she is the victim for the majority. So what makes Princess Peach herself? Why has she been seen as a poor representation of women for fitting such a large role in a popular video game?

She isn’t only a damsel in distress.  We don’t know that much about her hobbies, for example, but she is shown to have a skill for baking cakes, of which this one may or may not make her a baking prodigy, assuming she made it. This affinity is supplemented by this, a move she uses in Super Smash Bros. to fight off other players. Super Smash Bros. goes far in its attempts to keep her feminine and lady like despite her knocking an opponent across the screen. The roster of skills she has does exceed her usual list of activities, but she is capable of competitive racing, a majority of sports, and in a few different games she even competes with Mario’s performance to help in certain adventures. While her average time is spent being a ruler, daintily drinking tea and enjoying sweets, the highs of her experience and skills seem to imply a talented and well mannered woman.

A lot of the negative press for Princess Peach in this classic platforming game is directed at women in video games in general. Even from the beginning of video games, the primary target audience was for boys, which also became a target for men as they gained popularity. Some of the classic women in gaming that fall under scrutiny are Lara Croft of Tomb Raider, Princess Zelda from the Legend of Zelda series, Tifa Lockhart of Final Fantasy, and Samus Aran from Metroid, to name a few. They fall under scrutiny for having  either sexually pleasing designs, being overbearingly masculine in behavior, or just being another damsel in distress. The Grand Theft Auto series, for example,consistently shows deplorable attitudes towards women and gives video games the impression of being misogynistic.

This article covers a lot of the issues that stem from not just Peach, but the whole Super Mario Bros. series with its defining of the feminine way. Someone like Princess Peach, in my opinion, is no weak woman; she is more skilled than a majority of people in real life, being able to play sports and race very competitively.I suppose this could also be said because her image can be fitting to any role, conforming to the needs of Nintendo, which definitely provides a doubled edged perspective. I don’t think Peach is at fault for being kidnapped by a heavy, massive turtle dragon-- I don’t think any normal man could stop such a beast, but yet again, an Italian plumber can, another double-edged opinion.

What do you think?