The Vox article is certainly worth reading. Aja Romano offers a good summary of Lara Croft’s graphic design in her discussion of the character’s appeal. Many critics argue the exaggeration of her body proportions is salacious. Since the gameplay is from the third-person perspective, the camera is often positioned in a way that draws attention to her long legs and chest. This ludicrous representation suggests the character is there to be objectified by the audience because the male designers are emphasising her athletic physique to satisfy the male gaze. It should be immediately obvious her outfit is not suitable for an adventure in the snow-cold mountains. You can see this representation in the following screenshot from the first cutscene in Peru: Is Lara Croft a fembot or a feminist icon? For most of the earlier games in the franchise, the protagonist wears boots, light-brown shorts, turquoise tops, and fingerless gloves. Is he simply performing his gender role? Representation Reinforcing the imbalance of power between femininity and masculinity, he refers to Lara Croft as “darlin'” and “kitten”. It is also important note Larson’s sexist language during several of the cutscenes. Not everyone has he money to be so independent. Of course, bell hooks might point to the fact Lara Croft comes from an aristocratic family so she can afford to be independent and traipse around the world in search of lost civilisations and ancient artifacts.
In this way, the protagonist seems to validate Gauntlett’s fluidity of identity concept. Since Lara Croft is always depicted posing with her weapons, including on the box art for “Tomb Raider: Anniversary”, it is clear the character transgresses the binary representation of gender because she is active and adventurous. In our introduction to Liesbet van Zoonen, we referred to her description of a combative and aggressive representation of traditional masculinity. …watching Tomb Raider… might encourage girls to become somewhat more independent and feisty, without them needing to directly copy an extensive fight sequence, embark on a perilous quest for ancient artifacts… David Gauntlett It is important to note the first Tomb Raider game was released just after the Spice Girls topped the UK music charts with their single “Wannabe” so the representation of Lara Croft fits in with that new wave of female empowerment. When David Gauntlett first published “Media, Gender, and Identity: An Introduction” in 2002, he suggested the representation of the Spice Girls and their “Girl Power” was a terrific example of how gender identities were more complex than the binary definitions which reduced women to passive housewives. Tomb Raider and the Cultural industries.
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