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 |
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment