Week 3 (Game Studies): Lara Croft Feminist Icon or Cyber-Bimbo?

Week 3:
Game studies: “Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyber-Bimbo “?

Thesis (Claim and Reason):
Gender in Video-Computer Games, is something that we need to really wonder about and understand how it was portrayed in the games of “Past” as well as in “Today’s”. The changes that have occurred over time could be compared to being considered almost like an Evolution format.

On the average it had been said that girls and women are less involved in video games that are boys and men, and when they do play, they often prefer different games. Of course, that was then and this is now. On the average the number of males vs. females playing videos has risen over the years. Mainly, due to the evolution of the female characters in a lot of the ever popular videos games out in today’s world.

Over time there has been research done on exploring the likes and dislikes of the female gamer, and they discovered that the amount of female gamers have risen from 33% to over 45%. That is almost having the gamers out there in today’s world. So, today’s game players are no longer overwhelmingly male dominated.

It had been noted that females may tend to regard contemporary computer games (even those designed for male players) as “sites for female participation and resistance to societal gender roles and conceptions of masculinity and femininity”. But, while they are trying to per say increase the female role as an icon as well as a gamer, it is doing more harm than good.

Section I:

Claim: The Meteoric Rise of Lara Craft: she has changed over the years into a supposedly stronger female, and never looks like the normal next door neighbor girl.

Evidence: All of the females that have either portrayed “Lara” in the movies, or video games (such as physical shape, voices etc) have never been anyone else other that someone who is in great shape. Angelina Jolie (Tomb Raider movies-2001 and 2003), Jill de Jong (2007), Karima Adebibe (2007) are just a few of them. It has been said that the raising status of Croft as a sex symbol in the video games (due to the increasingly gratuitous artwork and advertisement) as being detrimental to the character, who has gained more attention from her appearance than her tough-as-nails spirit and determination.

Section II:

Claim: There are supposed to be some major changes happening with “Lara”, why does it seem like it will be worse that better before it’s over.

Evidence: It has even been stated that she would undergo a redesign and become more “demure” in Tomb Raider: Legend for the sake of becoming more appealing to female gamers. However, it has been said that some of the outfits that she wears in this game are more revealing than outfits seen in previous games, with many of them showing her cleavage and/or midriff (although most of the available outfits are fairly modest). It seems like she is being design to portray like “Eye and Thumb Candy for the boys out there”, vs. as a strong dependable , seeker of the truth, both large and small that it has been said she was suppose to be doing and continues to this day.

Section III: Dealing with the opposition

Twenty-five years ago video games were something that guys played (mainly kids and some adult males), in today’s world the landscape is shifting. While the gaming world is pretty much male dominated, there is a large and growing population of female gamers out there.
Video game companies need to improve the attention to the designing of the games more, because per research it has been shown that the female gender (gamers) are shelling out almost as much money as it’s male counterparts.

Mainly because if we continue to cater to the existing (male) players, we’re never going to grow, thus decreasing the possibility of that Pot of Gold increasing more than it already is and that could mean the possibility of losing billions.

The first thing that the gaming companies need to understand is that male and female gamers are wired differently. They need to understand that women are looking for a quick fix, a game that they can hop in and out of with relative ease. Spending time trying to improve the characters abilities is more a male thing. Thus they need to be creating a more realistic heroine and not a scantily clad Tomb Raider.

Conclusion:

Now supposedly, here is this intelligent, beautiful, athletic woman, who also happens to be named on Game Fly’s List of Hottest Chicks Ever (2008), as well as honored with a star on the Walk of Game (2006) and even made the Guinness World Record as being recognized as “Most Successful Human Video Game Heroine. And on a poll held by MSN in 2008 of who was the most Iconic video game character, in which Lara came in 3rd but actually drew with Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog.

With all of this going on, why is she allowing them to portray her as a Cyber Bimbo? Lara Croft is considered by critics and fans alike as one of the most significant game characters in popular culture as well as the most famous female video-game character (which we know as she has been names in the Guinness Book of Records).

Yet, she has allowed them to dress her like a “Bimbo”, as well as being portrayed seemingly in an increasingly bloodthirsty manner (in the first two sequels of the series), and also not giving Lara the option to avoid lethal force against human characters. But it was said that they did a subplot in “Anniversary” where Lara mentions feeling guilty that she was forced to kill for the first time. According to Toby Gard (the original designer), he was stated as saying; “We wanted to make Lara’s first kill more meaningful”. Yes, let’s make her seem more human, and not just a killing machine like the rest of the video world.

We need to improve on all video games, and especially the ones with female characters. Females need to be portrayed as strong, independent and yet intelligent. Not all females go around killing people or dressing like Bimbos. They should try to make it a bit more realistic.

A very important way to reach females (as gamers) as well as the men out there is to create realistic heroines, not damsels in distress and certainly not scantily clad Tomb Raiders. In today’s world women and girls both are put off by the misogynistic treatment of females, where they are often nothing more that bikini-clad digital eye candy.

Games like the ones today; that have their female characters portrayed in this fashion, tend to lead the men in the world to assume (stereotype) all females that they have come in contact with and any that they will come in contact with in the near future. This could end up causing more harm than good for females in today’s world, where we have enough to deal with.