The Lara Phenomenon Character Analysis

Video game playing has become an increasingly popular interest for many people. Every video game is unique in its own way and how it is shaped to the audience at hand. With all the video game playing, this gives rise to possible concerns as to how the media portrays such aspects in a game. One debate about video games that is an increasingly popular subject to talk about is how gender is portrayed in video games for both men and women. In many video games, women are shown as having a passive role, while men hold a more dominant role. In the video game Tomb Raider, Lara Croft is a character this is being talked about because she is the main character and is a female. Previous video games have created the media representation that females are

stereotypically less important and portrayed as a negative player in the game. However, in Tomb Raider Lara Croft distinguishes different roles that strays away from the typical stereotypes such as woman holding little to no importance in a game, and they are visually are portrayed differently than males. The new portrayal Lara sets, is a new representation for female characters in video games, that allows the audience to shape their views for women in video games as being more positive and holding larger roles.
Prior to Tomb Raider, many games have had females in them that show they hold little to no importance in the game.

These characters are most of the time submissive players, which are characters who do not possess qualities of authority and gives up his or her power to help them achieve their own goal. The media and prior research on this topic of a female submissive character is all based on how each person interprets it. Jeroen Jansz who is a professor of communication and media at Erasmus University and his colleague, Raynel Martis, wrote an article discussing the role that females hold in video games. In the article titled "The Lara Phenomenon: Powerful Female Characters in Video Games," they go on to explain, “People actively interpret what they have seen in the media and attribute specific meaning to [it]” (Jansz and Martis 142). In this instance many previous games, like Super Mario Bros, shows Princess Peach as a damsel in distress and constantly needs help. People then do not want to actively see females hold any other role in a video game except for a submissive one. However, Lara Croft has created a new representation that people can interpret females, in fact, can hold dominant roles in games. Lara is dominant in Tomb Raider and escapes the media representations that surround females in games, and sets the new meaning to how females are interpreted in

games.
Lara Croft is the protagonist throughout the game. With having not even played the game and looking solely based on the cover of the game, Lara is standing with a bow and arrow in her hand. She appears to be looking powerful and in charge, by holding a weapon in her hand and standing determined with a serious look on her face. Seeing a female on the cover of a video game holding a weapon seems to be unheard of until now. Martis and Jansz, conducted a study to research the portrayal gender has in video games and explained that “ the vast majority of [individuals] were males on the covers of video games” (Jansz and Martis 143). Out of the research conducted, none of the games analyzed concluded to have a female character on the cover and play a dominant role. As seen in Tomb Raider, Lara Croft actually is portrayed in a dominant role with being on the cover and also having a weapon and being very serious and having that determined look in her eyes. This gives the audience the sense that Lara is actually depicted as a strong and dominant female character, over all other characters in the game. This portrayal of Lara is straying away from what female characters appear to be in many games.
To look further at other representations of females in video games, the 1996 Tomb Raider edition of Lara Croft’s appearance is one that has a high emphasis on the figure of her body instead of the game itself. Her appearance is based heavily on the sexualized root of her character. Dennis Scimeca, who is a staff writer for the Daily Dot newspaper, wrote an article talking about the message the game gave towards women. In that article titled “The message that Microsoft’s ‘Tomb Raider’ controversy sends women” he argues “ Lara Croft wasn’t entirely a positive figure for women” (Scimeca). The first portrayal of a female character in the Tomb Raider series was intensely criticized for having her gender be the main focus of the game. Scimeca further goes on to explain, “[Lara] was hyper-sexualized with huge breasts and really short shorts” (Scimeca). Her imagine was in fact based on having larger than normal breasts and having a slim waist. Female characters in video games must appeal to the audience, which is predominantly male. In this way, developers create the normal view society holds for females to look like that is being provocatively dressed and skinny. However, that is not the case for the new Tomb Raider Lara is featured in.
In the newest edition of the game series, Lara’s new appearance is one that is being called a complete reboot of the previous series games.

Jared Friedberg wrote an piece of work for Georgia State University, titled “Gender Games: A content analysis of Gender Portrayals In Modern, Narrative Video Games” which discusses the binary gender in video games and how gender was looked at in those narrative games. He states, “ Lara’s physical appearance…is far less emphasized than previous games” (Friedberg 82). The game developers toned down her appears and took out the sexualized root to her. This shows her to have an average body build and a realistic look by being able to get her clothing dirty and being able to get cuts and injuries to her body. Martis and Janez further also explain “The female characters were generally ‘hypersexulized’… [having] revealing clothing or partial nudity” (Jansz and Martis 143). This is not the case for the new Lara Croft as she has a realistic and simplistic body figure with her hair in a pony tail, and remaining mostly clothed, going against contrary portrayal as women being over emphasized with abnormal body figures and

clothing.
Adding on to the idea that Lara being able to be cut up and be able to damage her body, this is an important aspect because female characters tend to have little importance in a game, therefore don’t normally have the ability to be cut or damaged at all. In Lara’s case, throughout the gameplay she becomes dirtier and dirtier. In the beginning of the game, it appears that Lara will not be engaging in anything too strenuous on the ship, as she is just going to explore human history being an archeologist. However, as Friedberg points out “the game throws [Lara] into very dangerous situations” (82). Washing up on the shore of the island, Lara soon becomes covered in mud and remains that way for the remainder of the game. Eventually she has to fight off the villagers of the island, and becomes bloody, cut up and sweats from all the ongoing trials she endures on the island. These aspects of Lara are particularly important because females trend to not be associated with being sweaty, bloody and cut up from things in a video game. These traits by contrast, do not mirror what people think of females in video games. The females are in the background of video games and are not involved in getting dirty or cut up, but Lara distinguishes a difference in Tomb Raider, having her be the most important character in the game.
Going on about the beginning of the game, the very opening scenes of the game, Lara’s narrative begins, which plays an important role in the dynamic changes in the representation of her. One could say that the game is going to be about a hopeless woman trying to survive. In fact, during the very first moments of the game, a cut scene is shown of Lara being helpless and about to drown from her sinking ship. She then finds someone to help her but slips and plunges into the ocean and resides on an island with nothing to survive. In this instance it appears to the audience that Lara is helpless and a damsel in distress who is going to lack importance in the game. Jordyn Giulio, who is a graduate from the University of Gonzaga, wrote an article titled “Portrayals of Women and the Demographics of the female Gamer” discusses how women are viewed in certain video games. She goes on to say “Even when there was a main female character… [They] share the primary status with a male character, thus downplaying their importance” (Giulio 5). In the opening scene of the game, it gives us the sense that, although Lara is the main character she is still going to hold a lesser importance in the game because that’s the stereotype given to main characters that are females. The game plays on the users expectations, by giving them what they expect to see with female characters, that is, a damsel-in-distress figure at first, only to subvert things as the game goes on.
With Tomb Raider being an action packed video game, with violence all around, Lara must find a way to respond on the island she washed up on, in order to find a way to survive. In this instance, it would be uncommon for a female character to be in this position to have authority and be so violent in a game. Most video games as described by Martis and his colleague are “ dominated by masculine themes as, for example, action, war, violence, competition” (Jansz and Martis 143). Tomb Raider is no exception to that statement; however they go on to explain that in those games, the main protagonist is predominantly a male figure. In Lara’s case, though she is the dominant protagonist in this game and contradicts that males are always seen as the dominant figure and that notions of war and violence are only for men.