Extended Post - Old Lara... Meet new Lara!

Few video game characters have been subject to as much discussion and controversy as the Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft. Some have hailed her as a feminist icon. Others have critiqued her as a sexual object for males to fantasize over. Hall (cited in Raessens, 2005, p.375) argues that the reception and consumption of a product are “active, interpretive and social event(s)”. Effectively, Hall distinguishes between three ways in which a text can be read: the dominant or preferred reading, the negotiated reading and the oppositional reading. The two interpretations of Lara Croft mentioned above are examples of negotiated and oppositional readings of the Tomb Raider franchise. 

Source: Google Images

So let us unpack some of these readings a little further. In 1997 The Face magazine interviewed Toby Gard, the original creator of the Lara Croft character. Below is a short excerpt from that interview (cited in Mikula, 2003, p. 79) that is relevant to this discussion:

The Face: Is Lara a feminist icon or a sexist fantasy?

Lara the Survivalist - Source Google Images

Toby Gard: Neither and a bit of both. Lara was designed to be a tough, self reliant, intelligent woman. She confounds all the sexist clichés apart from the fact that she’s got an unbelievable figure. Strong, independent women are the perfect fantasy girls – the untouchable is always the most desirable.

Lara Croft’s figure is described in plain terms by Mikula (2003, p. 79) as “excessively feminine – her breasts are massive and very pert, her waist is tiny, her hips are rounded and she wears very tight clothing.” If a viewer simply focuses on these physical attributes, I can see why there are a variety of views that consider this character to be problematic. Yet in the very next sentence Mikula (2003, p.79) goes on to describe some of Lara’s other attributes: “she is also physically strong, can fight and shoot, has incredible gymnastic abilities and is a best selling writer”.

I don’t know about you guys, but these are certainly qualities that I wish I had! On top of this, at the time of this titles release in 1996 there was not a single video game title on the market that presented a lead female character with these attributes. In fact, most commonly women were (are arguably still are) presented in games as damsels in distress.

 Source: Google images

Not all commentators hold such a positive view of Lara Croft. Australian feminist author and journalist Germaine Greer refers to the character as “a sergeant major with balloons stuffed up his shirt…she’s a distorted, sexually ambiguous male fantasy” (cited in Mukula, 2003, p. 79). However, if we are to look at some of the situations in which Lara is placed, she certainly breaks the mould when in comes to traditional gender roles. In the original Tomb Raider game Lara is the only survivor of a horrific plane crash and is forced to survive alone in the wilderness for weeks while also being a trained rock climber, combat expert, motorcyclist and world-renowned archaeologist.

I can think of numerous examples of more problematic depictions of women than this, that’s for sure! Grand Theft Auto V was released a little less than a month ago to much critical acclaim, yet has come under fire for its sexist depiction of female characters. Even as recently as today I have read an article  about the sexy yet impractical depiction of female soldiers in Crytek’s upcoming shooter Warface.

While the debate continues to rage about the issue of women in video games, some perceive characters like Lara Croft as a step in the right direction. A female participant of the womengamers.com website (cited in Mikula, 2003) posted that Lara does not need a man to rescue her should she break a nail, reflecting that this character is considered a positive influence among some young women. Note: I am unable to provide a link for this comment as the website no longer exists.

So while an argument can be made for the less stereotypical aspects of Lara’s character, the publishers of Tomb Raider recognized early the tremendous impact a clever marketing campaign could have on a predominantly male video game audience. Interestingly though, the original Tomb Raider title was instrumental in drawing a large following of young women (Knight, 2010). While women were not necessarily drawn to the overt sexualisation of Lara Croft, perhaps they were inspired by a female character who diverted from traditional gender roles and enjoyed the exploits of a real adventurer.

The early years of Lara - Source Google Images

In the early years of the Tomb Raider franchise, Lara Croft’s sexuality and appearance was leveraged to great effect, including magazine covers and other images such as the ones embedded to the right. In the early days, the games’ creators clearly had no qualms with playing up Lara’s sexiness, and as discussed earlier, not many strong female lead characters existed in video games at the time. This likely contributed to the great success of the title, which spawned a slew of sequels and even a Hollywood film series starring Angelina Jolie as Lara herself.  Knight (2010) discussed Jolie’s portrayal of the character at length, acknowledging that many consider Jolie’s work to best the best depiction of the character to date. She also describes the tendency of Lara in the film series to dominate the many male characters, further enforcing the positive change in gender roles sparked by this franchise.

Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft - Source: Google Images

However, the old adage ‘sex sells’ certainly comes to mind even with just a cursory glance at many of the images used in magazine spreads and other forms of advertising to depict the Lara Croft character. This aggressive sexualisation became noticeable within the game itself, with sequels Tomb Raider 2 and 3 increasing Lara’s aggression and sex appeal. Interestingly, as the character’s assets became the focus more over time, the game itself started to suffer, with more attention given to Lara’s polygon count than the actual gameplay of the title itself. The following editorial (cited in Makula, 2003, p. 82) describes this transformation:

“In Tomb Raider II and III, Lara became an obnoxious sex object, more intent on stealing the hearts of men than relating to her female following. Her physique became more and more unrealistic as the series progress. Her attitude became more deliberately sexual as well”.

This evolution or transformation of the character is depicted in the image embedded below:

The Evolution of Lara Croft - Source: Google Images

Perhaps one of the more troubling demonstrations of the sexualisation of this character is via the creation of the infamous Nude Raider patch. I recall that when I was aged 13 and playing the original Tomb Raider a rumour circulated around my school that there was a cheat code you could enter into the game, which removed the character model’s clothing. I will leave it to your imagination as to whether I searched for this cheat code or not, but such a code did not exist. This did not stop an enterprising individual from creating a modification to the PC version of Tomb Raider that enabled players to play with a naked character model of Lara. This is perhaps a more distasteful example of the power of prosumer culture. 

It is intriguing how different readings of a title can influence future development.  This is particularly relevant to Tomb Raider. Many years after leaving the franchise, Tony Gard (Lara’s original creator) was brought back to consult the development team (Makula, 2013; Knight, 2010). He encouraged a reduction in Lara’s breast size, arguing that the character had become too sexualized.

The new Lara - Source: Google Images

In 2013 we live in a time where the gritty reboot is a popular way of revitalizing an ailing franchise and this game is no exception. Earlier this year a rebooted title simply called Tomb Raider was released with a considerably less sexualized Lara Croft, and was a surprising success. This game sought to retell Lara’s origin story with significant focus placed on the player engaging with a much younger version of Lara who throughout the game grows into a strong independent survivalist. Reviews were extremely positive across the board. This of course brought with it new controversies, including a game scene that implied an attempted rape, causing a great amount of furor. The developers’ intended reading is that putting Lara through horrific situations will develop a bond between the player and character that encourages protecting Lara. A similar technique is used in the hugely successful video game The Last of Us, which has an extremely strong female co-protagonist named Ellie. In my opinion, Ellie is a perfect example of a non-sexualized female character done right. She is intelligent, courageous and displays maturity beyond her years, and not a single piece of marketing has displayed her in any other light than this.

I was a teenage boy when the original Tomb Raider released, so the sexualisation of Lara's character didn’t seem like a problem to me at the time. However, it is great to be able to look back on this franchise as an adult and see that video games are evolving as an entertainment medium and can approach much more complex issues and not be so one-dimensional. The new Lara title may not be perfect, but it is a great step in the right direction that put the focus back on presenting a stellar game - that being a game focused on interesting characterization beyond the physical, and intense cinematic gameplay.

Having looked at some of the ways that Tomb Raider has been read by critics over time, one can clearly see the impact that a consumer’s reading has on shaping their opinion. Halls’ observations (cited in Raessens, 2005) about the way a text is read affecting its public perception is clearly as relevant today as it was 17 years ago. While the video game industry can be still be seen often as a bit of a boy’s or men’s club, I will be pleased to see more titles take a more mature approach and allow us to develop less superficial readings of the medium.

Gritty, tough and awesome - Source: Google Images

References

Knight, G L 2010, Female Action Heroes: A Guide to Women in Comics, Video Games, Film, and Television, Greenwood, California.

Mikula, M 2003, ‘Gender and videogames: the political valency of Lara Croft’, Continuum: Journal of media and cultural studies, Vol 17, No. 1, pp. 79-87.

Raessens, J 2005, ‘Computer games as participatory media culture’, Handbook of Computer Game Studies.MIT Press Cambridge.Mass, pp.373-388.

Week 9 - You no mess with Lo Wang!

Christina Klein’s (2004) article on the effects of globalization on the US and Asian film industries is quite an intriguing one. It highlights those intersecting cultures and their effects that flow on through and back to each country. While Klein (2004) focuses on the film industries, I have decided to focus on the flow on effect that this has had on the video game industry as well. As we’ve progressed through the ALC215 we have learned of the increased impact of the video game industry as an entertainment business. Just two weeks ago Grandof Theft Auto V  became the fastest selling entertainment product in history, eclipsing previous records set by box office juggernauts like Harry Potter and The Avengers.  With figures like 800 million dollars in 24 hours it’s clear that video games are big business.

Source: Google Images

While Klein (2004) highlights Asian influences on films such as 1999’s TheMatrix, from my own experience I recall a popular title that released in 1998 called Shadow Warrior. This title was a clear satire of many popular Asian stereotypes and featured references to anime and other pop culture, particularly surrounding Japan. At the time perhaps I was too young to notice, but notably this game attracted a lot of controversy for what some people felt were unhelpful depictions of Asian culture. This was particularly evident in a lot of the character dialogue spouted by lead character named Lo Wang.  The name in and of itself is a double entendre but lines such as “Ah better than acupuncture” or  “Two Wang’s are better than one” are used frequently. Sze-Fai Shui (2006) discusses the controversy that surrounded this title upon its release, describing a letter written to a popular video gaming magazine decrying the titles unrealistic depiction of Asian culture.

Even still this title was considered quite a hit for its time and a reboot for the title was released just last week. Reviews have been very positive for this title, and without exception every one that I have watched or read have mentioned a huge reduction in the perceived racist content in this title. Lo Wang’s personality is still as abrasive as ever but the double entendre’s and lines have been toned down dramatically. Similar to week 7’s discussion of Lara Croft it seems modern reboots that focus on maturing their lead characters are having great success when they focus on improving the core gameplay rather than exaggerated characters.

Cultural influences are inherently built in to many entertainment mediums and it is interesting to see the different reactions to these cultures. 

References

Klein, C 2004, ‘Martial arts and globalization of US and Asian film industries’, Comparative America Studies, vol.2, no.3, pp.360-384.

Sze-Fae Shiu, A 2006, ‘What yellowface hides: video games, whiteness, and the American racial order’, The Journal of Popular Culture, vol.39, no.1, 109-125.