Sexuality – Interactive Digital Narratives

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/

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/

Category: Sexuality

Sexualizing Lara Croft for Profit

The Clothed but Still Sexualized Lara Croft