Video Game: Tomb Raider
QUESTIONS:
1. ‘Females in video games are portrayed as stereotypes’. Using van Zoonen’s theory of Gender, explore the concept of gender in the video game you have studied.
2. ‘Lara Croft is an empowering female character’. Using van Zoonen’s theory of Gender,...
1. ‘Females in video games are portrayed as stereotypes’. Using van Zoonen’s
theory of Gender, explore the concept of gender in the video game you
have studied.
Intro:
There are many evidences in the whole of the video game industry that show that
female characters are stereotyped, the intention of it mainly being to target their
audiences. In the study of the ‘Tomb Raider’ franchise, there has been instances of
stereotyping in the character of Lara Croft. However, there are also many instances
where the expectations of a stereotyped character are subverted.
First Point:
Female characters frequently play a Proppian princess role in video games. In
accordance with van Zoonen, ‘meaning is… constructed out of the historically and
socially situated negotiation between institutional producers of meaning and
audiences…’ It is therefore that producers had been – for a long time – cultivating
the ideology that females should be saved and males should be heroes into the
minds of audiences through the use of video games. However, in the late 1990s was
when the strong feminine ideology began to emerge. Toby Guard, Lara Croft’s first
designer, was influenced by strong femininity when characterising Lara. Instead of
stereotyping her, he chose to utilise the concept of stereotypes and had decided to
encode a different representation of Lara as a female character. Guard’s desired
outcome was to have the audience view Lara as the equivalent of a typical male
protagonist: strong, confident and capable. Evidences of Lara being seen as strong
exists in the ‘Shadow of the Tomb Raider’ (2018) game, where Lara is seen
defeating male opponents by herself. All the while, Jonah – who is physically more
muscle-defined and stronger than her – is not there to help or protect her. It is
therefore understood and perceived by audiences that Lara Croft is not weak but
rather strong.
Second Point:
Similarly, female characters are also frequently presented as sexually appealing,
reinforcing the already existing stereotype that all females should be naturally
beautiful with good figures and the desire to please the male audience. In
accordance with van Zoonen, ‘a core element of western patriarchal culture is the
display of woman as a spectacle... subjected to the gaze of the (male) audience’ . In
‘Tomb Raider’, Lara Croft is evidently portrayed as a stereotypical ideal female with
an hourglass body and a conventionally attractive face. The addition of her tank top
and shorts invites audiences to sexualise her. Her attributes consequently reinforce
the concept of the female gender and cultivates the idea that the standard in women
is to be beautiful and fit, and that women should aspire to be like Lara to please men.
It is also the fact that the producers of ‘Tomb Raider’ were mostly men, and so would
operate to the benefit of a hegemonic society. The creation of Lara therefore
supports van Zoonen’s statement, that the culture in western countries is patriarchal
and that a woman’s role in is to be looked at. Not only is Lara stereotyped herself,
, but her character also encourages males to stereotype the ideal female and females
to assume what the ideal version of themselves should be.
van Zoonen’s theory of Gender also proposes the idea that portrayals of male and
female bodies are different. When a male physique is shown, the audience is
expected to admire the male as it shows that he has worked for his appearance.
When it is a female who reveals her physique, the audience would generally lust
over her body and see it as something to be bought.
In terms of appearance, it may also be argued that Lara is not always presented as a
stereotype. Compared to some significant female characters in video games, Lara’s
character is not always presented in an adequate state. In ‘Rise of the Tomb Raider’
(2015) and ‘Shadow of the Tomb Raider’ (2018), Lara was seen being indifferent to
tainting her appearance with dirt or blood for the sake of her quests and the goals of
surviving. Lara is not seen at all concerned for the way she looks, contrary to how
certain males would stereotype females to be strangely obsessed with their looks.
Regardless of how the audience sees her appearance, it is clear that Lara herself
does not give much consideration to what she looks like or what she wears. It is also
the producers’ intentions for Lara not to exist in the franchise to impress male
characters or male audiences but to exist as herself, a character who will go out of
her way to ruin her appearance for her career. In cases such as this, van Zoonen’s
theory cannot be applied to Lara as she does not present herself as a ‘spectacle’.
Third Point:
As more video games are being produced, and as the times change, many females
and female characters representing the gender no longer adhere to a patriarchal
society. van Zoonen observes how in a society, women are associated with family
and domestic life whereas men are associated with the social world of politics and
work. From the very beginning of the franchise, Lara Croft was not once associated
with family or domestic life but rather work as seen in ‘Tomb Raider’ (1996) when
Natla specifically requests Lara to execute the mission. She is an archaeologist just
like her father, a powerful male in the field of archaeology and society in general.
Lara is far from a stereotyped female and her position in society is equal to a man, if
not, higher. In addition to this, in 1998 Lara Croft was officially named the
ambassador for the British Ministry of Science for her British scientific excellence.
This means that she officially represents many archaeologists and science-
enthusiasts, acting as a leading role in a male-dominated field and encouraging
males to look up to a woman.
van Zoonen’s theory of Gender also explores the idea of masculinity, that being
masculine is about efficiency, rationality, and individuality. In a cutscene of the ‘Tomb
Raider’ (2013) reboot, Lara is seen recalling the moment when she is on the ship
discoursing with Dr. Whitman, an experienced yet arrogant male archaeologist
regarding which direction the ship should head – east and not west. In accordance
with van Zoonen, ‘the whole idea of society… requires discourse… which by
definition has the effect of excluding, annihilating and delegitimizing certain views
and positions’. In this scene, the expectations of a patriarchal society are subverted
as Lara, who speaks with rationality, refuses to let her lower position be undermined
by his, and continues to persevere for her belief that they should travel east. She
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