Feminism – Interactive Digital Narratives

Blog Post #11

Reading through my classmates’ blog posts and listening to in-class discussions one thing appeared abundantly evident to me. Despite trying to be an understanding person, aware of others’ issues and problems, I remain ignorant of many issues that do not pertain to myself. I had always thought the overly sexualized nature of female characters in most video games mainstream video games today was silly, but I never saw it as such a troublesome issue. Partly because I assumed that most people who play video games simply don’t care. Thinking back, I’m almost ashamed to think that because people don’t care, they didn’t need to be exposed to another perspective. What I’m getting at is that, exactly BECAUSE the video game industry is full of young male customers, the vision and perspective they see needs to be altered not to serve them, but to educate them. The video game industry is actually the perfect platform, because within it exist a vast majority of ignorant males who need exposure to something other than fanservice, who need to start being counter-indoctrinated, and liberated from their simple minds.

Chris’ post about Skyrim, and the role of women for instance, was very eye-opening. I had never considered the reality that many of the women in the world are submissive and without a real independent role. The stupid excuse that, “it’s realistic that way” does not go in a game with dragons, magic, and elves. In fact, it is in exactly THAT world where we need to see equality – a virtual world. What does it say about a developer when they create a world that retains issues from reality, like inequality and sexism? Especially when you’re given a choice to right the wrongs by creating a new world. It says that they are ignorant.

Samantha in her post about GTA as well makes very strong observations. Yes, the developers of GTA are trying to make a game that simulates reality. But in a way where they augment it as well. So why augment the aspects that need fixing within our world? Why make a problem that’s already an issue, even more extreme? In GTA, a prostitute is already an NPC, a bland representation of a real human being. We also have to slap a sexist sticker onto it? Objectify it even more? What are we teaching young males all around the world? That these things are okay? That they’re just “part of our world”? One would argue that GTA allows you to do much worse things than objectify women, but the issue is that, the violent outbursts a player might engage in within the game world are almost NEVER translated into reality (even cases where people in real life go on violent criminal outbursts in the form shootings, GTA is not the reason why), but sexism does translate into reality, because it’s everywhere around us, it’s so integrated into society that it’s impossible to draw the line between the game world and the real world.

Violet as well makes a solid point about who deserves to “survive”, what does a successful survivor most likely look like.
Emi’s post on Bioshock was just as eye-opening and telling of exactly the points I made. It is within the subtle nature of sexism that we find the true problem and potential for positive progress. When these subtleties are changed to support a better world, maybe we’re able to influence more young males and change the way they think.

Final Reflection

Throughout the semester, I found our unit on the portrayal of race and gender in videogames to be one of the most interesting topics we covered. In my previous exposure to videogames, I have always been more of a passive absorber of subliminal messages. I was never really aware of the problems with the decisions programmers make about race and gender until experiencing this unit. As such, many of my posts critiqued the portrayal of gender in the videogames I played, and I was extremely happy to see posts that did the same, or critiqued the portrayal of race in videogames.

I noticed that the majority of the games critiqued for their portrayals of race or gender by our class were big-budget, console games. Chris, points out the sexist lack of agency in the female characters of Skyrim, while Desmond points out the villainous and weak portrayal of Arab soldiers in Metal Gear Solid V. Sam critiques Grand Theft Auto for including the mechanic of easily obtaining a prostitute and sleeping with her, sexualizing the few female characters in an extremely successful game franchise.

I think that Sam really highlights the main question that everyone should be asking of the decision to sexualize females, give them no agency, or to portray race in certain ways: why include the mechanic? In a videogame the creators must code everything that happens, so no decision is made “just for the heck of it.” Even a game that attempts to break stereotypes like Paul claims The Walking Dead does still fall into racist assumptions.

I think that it is extremely important to engage with videogames so that we can learn the effects they have on society. Players must take note of the underlying assumptions found in games, so that they can then take note of the underlying sexist and racist assumptions that permeate our society. As Violet points out in her post, the assumption that only white, heterosexual males can make believably strong characters simply illustrates that society only values white heterosexual men.

The more people that notice this problem, the greater the chance will be that differences can be made. With my final project, I was inspired to make a game that works against these tropes thanks to my eyes being opened to them. As we teach people to draw attention to problems, we increase the chance that people will work to solve these problems. If we have more people inspired to engage with—and even make games that subvert—painful assumptions in videogames, we begin a path that can lead to society correcting these assumptions.

The Growth of Female Sci-Fi Characters, as Seen in Broken Age

In, “No Business in Space? The Female Presence in Series Science Fiction for Children,” Karen Sands details the history of female characters in the science fiction genre from the 1940s to the mid-1990s. Though a bit dated now, the article serves as a great comparison for how far female characters have come in children’s science fiction stories in recent years. While the article focuses on literary female characters in the science fiction, I chose to use the article for insight on the female protagonist in the videogame Broken Age, which was released in 2014.

At its heart, Broken Age is a science fiction game. Broken Age tells the story of two teenage protagonists, a male named Shay and a female named Vella. While Vella’s narrative begins in a traditional fantasy world, Shay’s narrative is firmly rooted in science fiction, taking place in a spaceship as Shay is on a mission to help his home planet of Loruna. The two narratives seem to have no relation, as the player progresses through the game, Vella and Shay’s paths cross and Vella take up residence in the science fiction world. As such, Vella can be used to illustrate how improved the female character is in the science fiction genre.

Vella, seen here, is the female protagonist of Broken Age

Though Sanders mentions that females were beginning to receive better roles at the time of her publication (1997), she outlines two major problems associated with female science fiction characters. First, female characters in science fiction stories are always characterized by their communication skills (Sanders 22). Regardless of their intellect (as female super geniuses and ordinary girls were common tropes at this time), female characters were always highlighted for their ability to communicate than their male counterparts who had more central roles and solved problems with their intellect, ingenuity, or physical skills (Sanders 17). Sanders explains this trope by saying that females, “solve mysteries (without using scientific knowledge),” by helping “to bring people together through their power to communicate” (19). Secondly, Sanders discusses the problem of female character rarely having, “the opportunity to work alone to show off their capabilities; girls and women are still under the direction of men and boys” (22).

Fortunately for Broken Age, Vella’s storyline actively works against these tropes. Vella’s communication skills are not highlighted as her strongest asset. In fact, Vella is a poor communicator, as seen by the way Vella is unable to effectively convince anyone of the problems with the Maiden’s Feasts and the mogs. Vella never solves a problem through communication; Vella actively chooses which object in the environment and in her ability to solve any predicament she is faced with. Similarly, Vella always solves problems on her own. There is no male character to claim Vella’s success, or to give her orders. Thus, Vella does have the opportunity to work alone and proves the worth of female characters, even in a science fiction setting. A stark contrast to the characterizations Sands describes, Broken Age shows just how far female science fiction characters have come.

Even when she enters an unusual science fiction world, Vella is the one who solves her own problems

Works Cited

Sands, Karen. “No Business in Space? the Female Presence in Series Science Fiction for Children.” Foundation 0 (1997): 15-24. ProQuest. Web. 14 Dec. 2016.

Image Sources

https://www.cosplay-it.com/en/cosplay/10332/vella-broken-age
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPad/Broken+Age/feature.asp?c=65109

Sexualizing Lara Croft for Profit

In his article “Lara Croft: The Ultimate Young Adventure Girl,” Kurt Lancaster details the sexualization of the famous Tomb Raider protagonist Lara Croft. An interesting aspect of this article is the shift in focus Lancaster takes with regards to the … Continue reading →

In his article “Lara Croft: The Ultimate Young Adventure Girl,” Kurt Lancaster details the sexualization of the famous Tomb Raider protagonist Lara Croft. An interesting aspect of this article is the shift in focus Lancaster takes with regards to the way Croft is sexualized. While most people discuss Croft’s sexualization from a design standpoint—her bust line, her wardrobe choices, etc.—Lancaster focuses on the strategies employed by Tomb Raider’s developers to sexualize Croft for profit.

Though now Tome Raider is developed by Crystal Dynamics, at the time of the article’s publication, the Tomb Raider franchise was developed by Core Design Ltd. Core Design was not afraid to show off Croft’s body. A prominent image on the official Tomb Raider website was that of Croft lying seductively on a canopied bed in a provocative black evening gown.¹ The image was used to entice the (assumed) male player to come and “play” with Croft by focusing entirely on her sexualized body rather than the adventure or action she undertakes.

This image was used to entice players to join Lara Croft on her adventures through the sexualization of Croft’s body

This image is not the only way in which Core Design sexualized Croft to sell the Tomb Raider games. At major gaming expos, such as the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E³), Core Design would hire models to become a physical embodiment of Lara Croft, thus affording characters a physical embodiment of their sexy dream girl.¹

Rhona Mitra was one of the first Lara Croft models: models hired to be photographed as Croft for the excitement of the game’s players

In my opinion, Lancaster’s 2004 article shows how far the Tomb Raider franchise has grown. As mentioned in my previous posts about Tomb Raider, Croft’s sexualization is already downplayed in the reboot, with more realistic body proportions and clothing choices. Crystal Dynamics promotional work for the game, such as the game’s 2 E3 trailers below, also focus less on Croft’s sexualized body and more on her status as a survivor.

In this way, Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix have taken a great leap forward by focusing promotion of the Tomb Raider franchise on Lara Croft’s status as a female action hero, rather than as a sexy adventurer. Though the Tomb Raider franchise was built on Lara’s status as a sex symbol, it appears that developers are slowly moving away from this stigma to create a more fully developed and feminist approved female videogame character. If this would have been possible without the franchise’s pre-existing success through the sexualization of their character, however, remains to be seen.

Sources

Lancaster, Kurt. “Lara Croft: The Ultimate Young Adventure Girl. Or the Unending Media Desire for Models, Sex, and Fantasy.” PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, vol. 26, no. 3, 2004, pp. 87–97. www.jstor.org/stable/3246480.

Image Sources

www.jstor.org/stable/3246480

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/64387469646426872/

The Clothed but Still Sexualized Lara Croft

Coinciding with the relaunch of the massively popular Tomb Raider franchise in 2013, the protagonist of the series, Lara Croft, was redesigned as well. Lara is one of the most famous women in videogame history, notable for her infamous bust … Continue reading →

Coinciding with the relaunch of the massively popular Tomb Raider franchise in 2013, the protagonist of the series, Lara Croft, was redesigned as well. Lara is one of the most famous women in videogame history, notable for her infamous bust line and barely-there outfits. Even though Lara is one of the first female action heroes, her choice of “lingerie as armor,” as Anita Sarkeesian refers to Lara’s wardrobe choices, is impractical and makes no sense for a woman rushing into battle.¹

In her first appearances, Lara Croft showed quite a bit of skin and had extremely large breasts

It seems that Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix sought to create a more realistic and feminist Lara Croft in the relaunch of the series. In the game, the protagonist is in much more appropriate outfits. In Tomb Raider (2013), Lara is dressed in long cargo pants and a tank top, with a greatly augmented bust. Lara is also less sexualized by being covered in dirt. This decision makes sense in the narrative of the game as Lara encounters a shipwreck that lands her on a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean.

For the 2013 relaunch of the series, Lara Croft was redesigned as a gritty, dirty, and clothed action heroine

While Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix would likely get commendation for their choice of Lara’s wardrobe in the 2013 version of Tomb Raider, I doubt Sarkeesian would be fully accepting of the game. In one of the earliest cutscenes in the game, Lara is immediately characterized by her sexuality, reminding the player of her desirability and attractiveness. Before the player gains the ability to have Lara shoot a handgun, a cutscene is presented that shows one of the island’s inhabitants finding a hidden Lara. Before Lara wrestles the gun out of the man’s hand, he strokes her side and then sniffs her hair in a distinctly sexual way.

Yes, in this scene Lara proves her ability by fighting off her would-be attacker, but that simple caress immediately clues the player in to Lara’s sexuality. While there is no violence in the scene, the implications of the caress are immediately understood. From the inclusion of this touch, Lara must be thought of by the player as a sexual object. An action hero, but still a sexual object. In this sense, the developers have taken a page from the book of the non-player sex object trope coined by Sarkeesian.² Even though Lara is an action hero, dressed in a more appropriate garb in Tomb Raider, she is still sexualized by non-player characters. This in turn sexualizes Lara to the player in a distinctly anti-feminist way—through the threat of violence.

Sources

Lingerie Is Not Armor – Tropes vs Women in Video Games. By Anita Sarkeesian. Perf. Anita Sarkeesian. YouTube. Feminist Frequency, 6 June 2016. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.
Women as Background Decoration (Part 1). By Anita Sarkeesian. Perf. Anita Sarkeesian. YouTube. Feminist Frequency, 16 June 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.

Image Sources

http://tombraider.wikia.com/wiki/Lara_Croft_(Original_Timeline)

http://tombraiding.com/video-games/the-new-tomb-raider-games/tomb-raider-2013/