Lee-Ming Zen PWR 3-05 Research Paper September 24, 2004 Dr. Alyssa O'Brien Finding the Woman Who Never Was: Gender Role Exploration Through Lara Croft An amalgamation of five thousand polygons, two arms, two legs, one head, a pair of big pistols at the hips, and a pair of even bigger breasts is no oddly-shaped monstrosity, but instead, sex icon and celebrity Lara Croft (Eidos, screen 1). Except Lara Croft is neither human nor real; she’s the protagonist from the popular videogame series Tomb Raider. Her voluptuous figure has been the subject of countless reviews, articles, and commentaries and her “badass” attitude and “kickass” ability have been the basis for the Tomb Raider series’ success. However, she is much more than just an action heroine. In order to recognize this multilayered aspect, one must examine Lara Croft through visual appearance and delve into the psyche and inner thoughts represented by her images. By investigating the various expressions of Lara Croft and the evolution of her aesthetic character, we are offered a chance to explore the various cultural and sociological aspects of our understanding of gender, especially in relation to videogames. Despite these references that assume Lara’s sex, Lara Croft can be neither male nor female because “she” is a digital figure and it is this unique androgyny that allows her to provide a way to understand gender roles and identity. 1 In particular, her evolution parallels the different stages of gender exploration that adolescents experience and struggle through. In order to understand this complex parallelism, this paper will analyze the visual representations of Lara Croft starting from her first days in the original Tomb Raider game up to her most recent incarnation as the Angel of Darkness. 1 It is important to understand the exact meaning of androgynous because it does not mean neither male nor female. Instead, it refers to a state that is defined as “strong in both [masculinity and femininity]” (Basow and Rubin 26). Zen 2 The Woman Who Never Was Tomb Raider, developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive, has been one of the most successful series of computer games to have ever been released. The first Tomb Raider which spawned a variety of sequels, including the upcoming Angel of Darkness, was released in 1996 and enjoyed a great amount of success by selling over twenty-six million units (MobyGames “Tomb Raider Series,” screen 1; Poole “History of Tomb Raider,” screen 2). The succeeding games did not sell as well as the first, but still reached a significant portion of the market. In each of these games, the star is Lara Croft who was created by Toby Gard, an artist at Core Design (Poole “History of Tomb Raider,” screen 2). Though the original character for the game could have been either male or female, Core decided to choose Lara “as a refreshing antidote to the muscled meat-heads that usually populated videogames” (Poole “History of Tomb Raider,” screen 2). Lara Croft’s beginnings were never as a sex symbol or national celebrity but a girl with a wild streak (Poole “History of Tomb Raider,” screen 2). Nor was she ever meant to be real, as her creator states that Lara is simply “a caricature of a feisty attractive women [sic]” (Gibbon, screen 4). In fact, her concept and the reasons for casting Lara as the protagonist of the Tomb Raider series seem to indicate that she is a prototypical tomboy. However, Lara Croft is far more than that and in order to gain this perspective, I will begin an examination of the evolution of Lara Croft. Building Gender Roles for Lara Croft Figure 1 – A star is born: Tomb Raider I box cover. Source: ChesireCat. Zen 3 The evolution of Lara Croft begins with the first Tomb Raider game’s release and the most impressionable image related with it: the picture of Lara Croft depicted on the box cover of the game packaging (see Figure 1). The box cover provided a variety of attention drawing mechanisms and for most viewers, it was their first chance to see Lara Croft. The first means of attention drawing is the shape of the box itself. Most games published at the time were shipped in rectangular boxes, but Tomb Raider had a trapezoidal box which not only drew attention to the box and image but also illustrated the novelty of a three dimensional shooter game. Once the viewers’ eyes were on the box, they were drawn to three key points: the title, Lara’s face, and Lara’s breasts. Her tiny, disproportionate waist emphasized her large, unrealistic breasts which are almost centered in the image and, as such, appear to the viewers as the central focus of the image. Her arms are skinny and her face, accentuated by her short, shoulder-length hair, has a serious expression pasted on it. She wields a set of guns at ready and her pose indicates a sense of caution. Thus, this first image of Lara Croft provided a variety of contrasting messages about Lara to the viewers especially in relation to her masculinity and femininity. These messages are well summarized by Anne-Marie Schleiner who enumerates the possible interpretations of “Lara as female Frankenstein,” “Lara as drag queen,” “Lara Croft is a dominatrix, a femme fatale,” “Lara Croft is a positive role model for women and girls and a possible entry point for women into the male discourse domain of computer games”, and “Lara Croft is a vehicle for the queer female gaze” (“Does Lara Croft”). Each of these configurations presents a compelling argument for the image of Lara Croft on the box cover. Schleiner describes the role of female Frankenstein as that of a “monstrous offspring of science, an idealized, eternally young female automaton, a malleable, well-trained techno-puppet created by and for the male gaze” (screen 4). This idealization of Lara as an image made “for the Zen 4 male gaze” fits neatly with the centering of her breasts on the box cover as a way to increase her sexual appeal toward men. At the same time, she fits the other analyses that Schleiner presents. Lara acts as a drag queen in a certain sense due to her androgyny because aside from her massive chest, she evokes a certain masculinity that comes from her masculine-featured face of big cheek bones, pronounced brow, and sharp protruding chin, as well as the stereotypical image of gun- toting men. These two analyses combined serve to facilitate the idea of Lara Croft as a “vehicle for the queer female gaze” as she is an attractive woman and possesses a masculine side that may appeal to lesbian women. In addition, her serious stare alongside the dangerous pistols she totes play on the typical images of femme fatale and dominatrix. Last, but most simply, her three dimensionality contributes to her image as a positive role model for females because Lara Croft has broken the mold and the barriers by becoming a woman in a shooter game, setting a new precedent. Despite representing all of these views, Lara Croft cannot be one and all at the same time. Or can she? A look at the psychology of the gender identity and role behind Lara Croft may shed light upon this question. Psychologically, I argue that Lara Croft’s gender role development parallels that of an adolescent’s. The formation of gender roles and identity has long been a topic in psychology including discussion from Freud. One of the most compelling models of gender role development is the Parsons and Bryan model created by Jacquelynne Parsons and James Bryan at the University of Michigan. In their model, they view the first stage of gender role development as “[u]ndifferentiated gender-roles” where the subject “is unaware of gender as a social category” (Parsons and Bryan 16). This state of ignorance is similar to that of Lara Croft in the first version of Tomb Raider – she does not have a clearly defined role nor is she completely aware of it and cannot conform to any of the roles that she may be able to fulfill. She Zen 5 also exhibits some aspects of the second stage where some stereotyping does occur such as “activities, dress, social roles and some personal characteristics” (16). Similarly, Lara Croft does dress and act in certain ways, but her gender-role cannot be clearly defined in these terms. Lara Croft’s Androgyny Figure 2 – Man or Woman? Lara Croft with Robert Nideffer’s patch applied. Source: Nideffer. Continuing her development is the next installment of the series, Tomb Raider II, for which a patch (a program that modifies the original game) was released by artist Robert Nideffer. In his patch, Lara Croft gained a moustache and a goatee; and, aside from its breasts, Lara Croft could be mistaken for a man (see Figure 2). Despite Core’s attempt to make Lara more feminine by attaching the long, braided pony tail to the heroine, many of her masculine facial features were retained and the patch by Nideffer only worked to accentuate those aspects of her masculinity. This image again fits the variety of roles that Schleiner presents with the exception of Lara Croft as female Frankenstein because she has ceased to be female. She can still act as a role model for women as a masculine woman or a feminine man and she can still be the drag queen or obsession of the queer female gaze. However, Lara Croft still remains androgynous and more so than ever due to having both breasts and abundant facial hair.