RACISM IN LOZ: THE GERUDO
Remember that no racism that’s internally justified through the lore of the game is valid, because someone wrote the lore of the game.
Also remember that while I’m focusing on japanese media (Nintendo) it would be incorrect to think that Japan is the only country doing this or that Japan is a special example of racism and xenophobia. That should not be the takeaway.
For the purpose of this discussion I will not make a huge effort to distinguish the depictions of the gerudo in OoT and BoTW, even though many people dismiss criticism of OoT because it came out ages ago.
The reason for this is that there’s a continuity in the themes associated with the gerudo in both games and the way they’re depicted by Nintendo, including the overt coding of the gerudo as being inspired by MENASA cultures.
(MENASA broadly refers to Islamic countries/cultures in Middle East, North Africa, South Asia.)
Nintendo has an issue with orientalism of Islamic countries - specifically treating them as the exotic other. They’ve consistently included references in their games that take from the aesthetics of these places in their games.
Many LoZ fans will remember that the original gerudo symbol was a moon and star, and that there was an excerpt of islamic prayer included in the theme song of an OoT temple that they were forced to take out after public outcry.
Nintendo has also taken from Arabic; the term sheikh is an Arabic title given to the leader of a tribe or member of royalty. Now, using languages from other cultures is not inherently wrong but it’s an example to their consistent use of Islamic aesthetics and the fact that they engage in a sort of ‘cultural shopping’ where there’s no respect to understand the source culture and reproduce it in a way that is meaningful or understandable to a person from that culture.
Nintendo also has a consistent trend to portray their dark skinned female characters with an exposed mid section compared to their white appearing peers, which I take to be emblematic of the wider company behaviour towards dark-skinned people.
This is related in the sense that there’s a trend towards racial fetishism. In OoT they introduce the gerudo who:
Are all women besides Ganon - elaborated upon later.
All thieves - self explanatory stereotype of Arabs (based off the fable of ali baba and the 40 thieves)
Have a handful (like 2) identical character models despite the fact that they and hylians are both human in loz lore, and hylians were given individual models - what gives?
Have dark skin and bright white lips?? that’s a minstrel caricature.
Huge pointed noses on them all.
Literally made some of them green - Ganon and his evil witch mothers.
Gave them shitty, sexualised outfits.
The fucking face veil, bane of my existence.
I can’t list every single example of Islamic aesthetic but the scimitar is an evident one. The shalwar (puffy trousers, named sirwal in botw which is just the arabic name for shalwar).
BoTW is actually worse in some ways, starting with the idea of the harem. For reference (bc anime has fucked up the meaning of the word), harem is Arabic for a sacred, inviolable space. It’s meant for women and children.
The notion of the harem has been heavily exoticized in the orientalist imagination. People were enamored with the idea of scantily clad, perpetually available women who were naive in their isolation and guarded by beastly men, but who would be accessible if only you could sneak in.
In reality the harem is not solely an Islamic thing, but the word harem comes from Arabic that refers to the Islamic practice of having sex segregated spaces.
Women, old and young, children - male and female - would traditionally exist in a separate space.
In BoTW and MM they heavily promote this as an orientalist fantasy. Men are constantly seen around the walls and gates of these women only spaces, explicitly fantasizing about them in their dialogue, and trying to get in. The entire subplot of gerudo town in botw is trying to sneak in as man, and pulling it off.
This fantasy is also promoted by the gerudo being “perpetually available” in their incessant obsession with hylian men and looking for husbands, including latching onto the first hylian they can talk to. This the 'love school’ you can find in the town that caters towards telling them how to approach men.
No education needed! Go get yourself a white hylian man.
There’s no biological reason for the gerudo to be all women. They’re supposed to be of the human race, the way that hylians are, however they are all female to fuel this fantasy, and remove the competition of native men.
One theory that people have made on why the gerudo are “better” (good guys/closer to hylia) and have light skin in BoTW is that the interbreeding with hylian men have diluted their bloodline.
They’re supposedly not a separate race and yet by the colour of their skin are functionally treated as a separate race by all game mechanics and lore.
re: ganon - Yes, the villains were the only people of dark skin in oot, and remains the only significant character that is a dark skinned character. However!! It gets worse.
Nintendo gives its villains non-human skin colours even if they’re supposed to be human (Ganondorf).
He is straight up puke green mixed with dark babey, and so are all their other villains! Demise is dark skinned (aka the evil demon lord who started this all). Ghirahim is straight up grey (also with white lips) - Fi is blue, I know but the overall trend is shitty. Yuga is a sickly whitish grey. The evil “shadow Links” are black versions of Link. Ganon has also been interchangeably depicted as a human and as a pig and/or beast, sometimes in the same game. Why is it that the brown human villain is consistently rendered as non-human? [Remember step one: lore justified racism is just racism.]
Okay so we did most things now onto the Outfit.
I would like everyone to be aware that the gerudo outfit is not what people wear in any culture, especially in the desert.
Practical issues first: you have to cover up from the harsh sun and sandy wind. This includes SECURE head and face covering, and minimal skin exposure. Everyone is susceptible to sunburn, yes even if they’re black. You want something loose and made out of cotton, not whatever the fuck that outfit is. Silk and metal?
Other practical issues: the abundance of gold jewelry - that’s gonna burn you girl get in the shade.
The high heels on sand - wtf?
Lack of armour for all warriors (The no abs joke isn’t very funny when you remember that women of colour have been characterised as being more able to handle physical labour, and feel no pain (from slavery times)).
Basically everything that a warrior may need is missing, but that could be accounted for by regular old sexism.
Also, the fact that only white looking humans in loz have varied settlements and cultures when the gerudo culture is so homogenous it bothers me. That’s not worldbuilding (same applies to the gorons).
I would like to direct you all to a post - ostensibly an analysis on Aladdin - but applies because it’s about the use of a veil in western media as part of orientalist fantasy.
https://sarawatlisme.tumblr.com/post/182610962137/is-aladdin-as-racist-as-the-gerudos
The veil and the outfit are separate offences in my mind.
The outfit is based on a belly dancer outfit. It’s what you’d see if you looked up “slave leia” (or harem slave) for a Halloween outfit. The belly dancer outfit itself was invented in the early 1900s in egypt by a businessman who wanted to market traditional dance to western tourists. It is a product made out of a need to appeal to orientalism.
Nobody in any culture wears this as part of their regular clothes. In fact none of the cultures the gerudo take from have a single outfit for everyone but hey, who cares if your orientalist fantasy is one-dimensional.
Muslim women veil their faces. They are the most visible and prominent group that does so.* It is explicitly done as part of wearing a headscarf and is done for modesty. To veil only the face but to expose the aesthetically pleasing long hair is to subvert the message of modesty into that of that of explicit sexualisation.
The face, and by extension personhood or ID of the woman herself, is not the focus. Her exposed body takes the spotlight- which is especially what happens when you pair a face veil with an exposing outfit.
It becomes a prop to highlight specifically the disparity between the veiled (face) and unveiled (body).
*Some North Indian Hindus also practice purdah, IIRC that includes veils. But that also came from muslim culture with the Mughals’ conquest of India.
The face veils used in BoTW look exactly like the ones of a niqab based on the attachment style - which is what allowed that transphobic joke of it blowing away in the wind to happen. A real face covering that’s meant to protect from sand would not do that, if anyone were to make that argument.
Another issue: the sexualisation of gerudo children.
Riju is 12-14, wears full make up, full jewelry, and the same outfit as the adults. In fact, all the children wear the exact same outfit. Including heels. Dressing children in sized-down versions of sexy womens’ outfits is downright disgusting and contributes to the sexualisation of brown girls.
Now I’m sure I’ve established the ways in which the gerudo use iIslamic coding. Yet Riju is a Hindi name. They drink alcohol. Ganon is linked to a fucking pig??? The most famous harām creature ??
Arabic titles are randomly given to the sheikah. The music for all the Gerudo? It’s Andalusian. It’s Spanish. Now some of the Spanish/Moorish musical exchange was legitimate, but maybe don’t pick the one genre that’s largely the result of the Spanish Reconquista? Go fucking ask someone from an appropriate musical tradition to write your game some music, they could use the employment and representation.
If it is disrespectful to mix and match the aesthetics of various east asian cultures just for the consumption of foriegners then it certainly is the same for that of Islamic cultures.
Nintendo has an issue with racist characitures, the gerudo are not the first and only ones. There’s a common trend in all LoZ games to give random characters an afro (sometimes also big lips) and - either in conjunction with this or seperate to this - a weirdly revealing outfit.
See the npcs in TP - The lantern merchant has a crop top, exposed mid-section, and an afro which birds nest in. His sister has an afro and her belly out. Their sister wears a normal outfit and has straight hair.
See also the carpenters that appear in OoT, MM, and MC.
These are the carpenters. In OoT the builders are explicitly called lazy by their boss and try at all times to shirk off work.
Nintendo also enjoys racist depictions using clowns. Where the modern clown descends from minstrel shows (please read https://www.black-face.com/blackface-clowns-history.htm). And god knows what went on with WW.
This does not touch upon every instance of nintendo racism, but was included as an example of the ongoing issues with their behaviour.
Acknowledge the racism and inherent issues in the way nintendo depicts the gerudo and other characters.
Educate other Zelda fans.
The biggest “fuck you” isn’t just that nintendo does this. It’s that LoZ fans pick up on the coding and run wild with it. Y'all are so thirsty for the gerudo outfit. For “rehydrated ganon” that somehow is more racist than Nintendo’s own depiction of ganon. Drawing ganon bright green. Saying how much you want “gerudo lady to please step on me”. Stop leaving it up to fans of colour to recognize and call out this shit.
