Ms. Pacman: An Unlikely Feminist

We'd like to make a formal apology to the unsung heroine of the video game arcade world. Ms. Pacman, we prostrate ourselves before you—we had no idea how vast your influence was! (Or, existent really.) Even the arcade owner from Wayne's World boiled Ms. Pacman's role down to her signature bow.

What fools we were! We gotta hand it to this video for pointing out the wonderfully weird little differences between the Mr. and Ms. I mean, we'd be lying if we said we ever noticed (and this video is totally silly) but it does beg a solid question: what is the female role in video games? They're more-than-typically thought to be a penis-dominated pastime, and the blatant misogyny behind many plots do little to hide this fact. In terms of progressive female empowerment, Ms. Pacman doesn't do a ton—but for a video? It's pretty heavy lifting. 

Watch and see if you agree.

Image: Clearly, this is before she met Mr. Pacman. Courtesy of Flickr

 

 

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