How to Put Women in their Place (and Give them Depth)

   Thursday's lecture surely made a lot of us think; many of the blog entries this week have been focused on gender representation and sexism in videogames. In particular what disgusted me was when Kevin made mention of the attempted rape sequence in the up coming Lara Croft game. I did some lazy googling to find out more about this, listened to snippets of people's opinions on YouTube (gamers who are offended by the scene as well as those who do not see the problem), but the moment it was mentioned in class I thought about something I'd read a while ago about female characters and the treatment of rape in literature, but it is also applicable to games.

  The article speaks on the Woman in Refrigerator trope that was included in class and flips it into such an overtly offending generalisation-- that rape is a good idea to use when one needs to knock a strong female character off her pedestal, or a back story which comes to define every movement they make, every strength they develop, basically the act of rape defines victims of rape. Rape is abused as a literary device reminding women how vulnerable we are, and tells those who have had this happen to them that their rape is the most interesting thing about them. Just read the article, and the comments, it's awesome.

 Back to Lara Croft and Tomb Raider (2013) however, the game designer has publically announced that no instance of sexual assault takes place in the game whatsoever and that the pivotal moment in Lara's story is when she is forced to kill another human for the first time, despite an executive producer initially stating that she is "almost raped" and has to choose whether to "fight back or die" and it is an important moment of evolution for her character (Ron Rosenberg's interview with Kotaku). Whether or not sexual assault was the original implication of the scene doesn't really matter in the broader scope of this issue and how it reflects tired, societal views on women.

  Rosenberg's comments imply that women will not go through rape if they fight back, he simplifies it to rape being reliant on and the reactionary fault of the woman being raped. No wonder people were initially furious with his interview? Perhaps the company had to backtrack to cover what may not be evident in the game, but what certainly could have been suggested at. That it is only the threat of rape that empowers Lara Croft to defend herself. So many problems... I can't even. It's up to your personal interpretation but nevertheless this whole Tomb Raider debacle has shed light on a serious issue that needs to be spoken about, and is currently (always) super relevant.

 I'm not saying rape should be ignored in videogames, not at all, just that the treatment of rape within these worlds needs to change. Strong female protagonists do not need rape to legitimise their roles as strong female protagonists.

Thank you,
Georgia.