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Women and Geek, Pop Culture
by Christopher Harris
Hello everyone and welcome to another exciting installment of “Women and Geek, Pop Culture”. This series, like the name implies, will highlight some of the more authoritative roles women have in geek media. For example, the series will pin-point certain forms of media by briefly underlying how a particular show might diverge from tropes and reoccurring narratives we expect to see today. It’ll analyze fictional characters in TV, comics and video games, and emphasize the effects these characters have on future media and the representation of women.
Last week I highlighted Stahma Tarr, a great character from a SyFy show called Defiance. I brought up how even the most sci-fi show can incorporate women’s equality, and even marriage equality issues. If you’ve not heard of it, you should check it out.
This week, let’s take a look at a legend. She’s been raiding tombs since I was a young’un, and up until recently has broken out of the usual boring male fantasy trope in a major way.
Lara Croft
Tomb Raider
Lara Croft started her archeologist-adventuring, tomb raiding career in 1996 on the Sony Playstation. Created by Toby Gard and a small development team, the Tomb Raider series has seen everything from high praise to fan disapproval. I suppose with a track record spanning almost 2 decades you’re bound to hear everything people have to say about a thing, right? Well, Lara Croft isn’t the first woman in video game history, however she does play a pivotal role in Pop Culture. Ms. Croft has something like 14 games out, 2 movies under her gun belt and just about all the kinds of controversy you can think of from being a positive role model to a harmful, misrepresented, stereotype of women in media.
What’s special about Lara Croft is her ability to adapt and change over the years, with each passing year Lara Croft gets a bit more realistic. Sure the graphics and the resolution play their parts, but also each game gives you more and more of who Lara really is. Its these small progressive changes that played a very large part in the newest version you see right now, and the versions that are sure to come in the future. This is exactly the kind of mentality we need for all types of narratives in media. With all the buzz for female characters going on today, it’s important to note that the video game industry in 1996 was far worse. This was an industry that catered to boys and young men. The boys bought the games, they spend the money, or so they said. This led to a certain level of expectation on how woman were perceived in video games. This way of thinking bred the biggest controversial issue Lara has ever faced, being instantly made out to be a sex object.
When Lara first appeared on the scene she was a busty, slim-waist having, duel pistol wielding, and tomb raiding badass. Okay, so maybe the development team wasn’t fully aware of the impact their design would have on the industry. That’s definitely debatable. But whether she was meant to be anything more than what she was, the fact remains that Lara Crofts earlier renditions made her exactly that, a sex object. Her design certainly distracted my young tween-age self for most of the game, and if I wasn’t shooting bears or dodging dinosaurs, I was trying to move the camera in ways to get a better… view. Controlling Lara was just as bad as the player could contort her body in most ways that physics allowed on the Playstation. Though during those days it wasn’t much if you consider what most games allow you to do today. Looking back on it, yes, Lara probably was something of a fantasy for boys to act out whatever they wanted in "relation to the video game", if they wanted. I’d be hard-pressed to find a guy that finished Tomb Raider back in the day and took something meaningful from its “Plot”.
The very first Tomb Raider’s opening scene starts atop an icy mountain, where Lara Croft mercilessly slaughters a pack of feral wolves while wearing her signature booty shorts and tank top (Its pretty funny now). Aside from the obvious, albeit ridiculous details, it’s a scene that shows the player there’s more to this character than just her looks. Lara is as resourceful as Indiana Jones, equal parts badass and comical as Duke Nukem, and can survive harder than Chris Redfield. But for all the toughness Lara Croft exudes, she has continuously struggled between being a sex object and an attractive archaeologist with a passion for adventure. These two significant dynamics defined her, and unfortunately most people didn't really notice the the latter as the former was just too prominent. It's what made Tomb Raider feel quite a bit stagnant until just only recently.
However, in this modern “Age of Practicality” as I like to call it, there are new stories about old characters, whether comic, video game or otherwise, that need to fit a certain realism that our society can relate to. In this age these characters are morphing with the times. Lara Croft is a great example of this.
Today, Lara Croft has been rebooted to fit a broader mold. Her persona hasn’t changed, her identity is still badass Lara Croft. When you play this new Tomb Raider, Lara is still the survivalist you’d expect her to be, maybe even more so. No, instead the creators gave Lara a design overhaul. Her chest size is smaller and the booty shorts are gone, replaced with conventional khakis for the usual explorer. It’s so simple it has no choice but to work. The game itself is a cinematic work of art and this time around you get to feel what Lara feels, you see what Lara sees. The shallow, cookie-cutter Croft from the olden days is essentially dead. This new Lara feels and thinks. She can be chased, shot at, and broken and you still see her rise and keep on fighting.
The developers do a fantastic job delivering the core of this young woman. As she struggles to survive, you’re right there with her, experiencing it every step of the way.
It’s that mindful change that we need to see more of, especially in video games. Creating new characters gives way to growth. Seeing the same game get the same installments, year after year, is starting to feel old.
I was unsure on which character to write about for this one, being that it was the first video game edition of Women and Geek, Pop Culture.
I recently finished episodes 1-5 of The Walking Dead: Episode 2 and Clementine was looking real strong, but after giving it some thought, Lara was my choice.
The fact that Lara Croft went through a practical transformation is too good to pass up. What Lara Croft has represented for so long can actually be seen without the distractions and we can finally see this character in a new light.
The new Tomb Raider, as a narrative, has inspired me to write my own story with a strong female lead. So it just felt right to give some attention to Lara Croft!!!
-I'm not exactly sure what it is you mean by this.
"Doing so by two reboots makes it even worse. Aborting previous character developement and doing it twice is just plain wrong for any franchise and any character."
-I'm having a hard time following this as well. Are you saying reboots hurt franchises? If so I agree, but there are times where retelling a story is very necessary, especially in video games. In terms of Lara's strengths, I think they did a great job keeping her strong but grounded. Its easier to see in this story because they gave Lara depth, which is not the case in previous installments old games.
"And implying that the new version of Lara isn't based on her looks and oversexualisation,"
-She isn't based on her looks, it's practical and throughout the game you never question why she looks the way she does, or what she's wearing. What I said was this:
"The game itself is a cinematic work of art and this time around you get to feel what Lara feels, you see what Lara sees. The shallow, cookie-cutter Croft from the olden days is essentially dead. This new Lara feels and thinks. She can be chased, shot at, and broken and you still see her rise and keep on fighting."
because she gets constantly beaten (to the point it should turn her into a skinbag full of crashed bones and mashed organs), while the aim is still for "unkept beauty" - sorry, that's still oversexualisation."
-Its also a video game, no getting around that.... SO.... instead... I'm focusing on how a narrative can be great without all the extra controversial fluff we see in video games and other media that may misrepresent women. Which is also the point of my articles.