0 The new Lara Croft and That Scene

When I woke up this morning, I was looking forward to reading all the first-play reviews of the new Lara Croft instalment (and a bit for reviews of Sims 3: University Life, but the less we talk about my addiction to that the better). I was so excited that I completely forgot about the highly talked about and criticised 'rape origin story' until I logged into Twitter and found it waiting for me.


Violence towards women in video games has a sadly rich history. If female characters aren't being beaten, they're being sexualised, or quite often both. I wanted to give an example of an early playable female character in my gamer life, but the only one I can think of really is Lara Croft;  she was touted as the bad-ass woman every girl can look up to, but as a rather short nine year old it would have been difficult for me to do that with her comically large breasts in the way. One of the most recent examples I can give is from Batman: Arkham City, where every thug was calling Catwoman a bitch and making inappropriate comments about what they'd do if they found her. No-one was calling Batman a bitch, partly because there is no male equivalent to the word, partly because he will promptly arrive and grind your face into the concrete. However, even if we take all of that into account, what surprised me was how many people were shocked that men would say nasty, sexist things. So (for me, anyway) the question becomes whether, in the fight against sexism in video games, we remove sexism and violence towards women altogether or portray it properly.


Everything about the Tomb Raider revamp had me ready to play it as soon as possible. I had no idea the last incarnation of Lara even had a backstory, since it was never played out by the character and only really mentioned quite hammily every now and then - "Oh Alfred, I must go and fetch that artefact from that guy because my parents died in a plane crash and he served them some peanuts and lived." Much like everyone else, though, I was somewhat shocked by the 'rape' scene that would form part of her back story. She was already going to be pretty tough after surviving on a hostile island did she really need to be raped as well?


One of the main problems was that it all escalated quickly from being an attempted rape scene to a rape origin story - apparently, it turned out to be neither. Rihanna Pratchett, the story writer for Tomb Raider (and whose glorious existence I only learned about this week) had this to say about the scene:

"When you see the scene in context, you see the light leave the guy's eyes [...]. She just can't believe what she's done. She's not thinking, 'Oh my God, I was almost raped.' She's thinking, 'Oh my God, I've just taken a human life.' It's unfortunate that if you have a female protagonist and male antagonists, and they're coming after her, people see that vibe." - from an interview with Eurogamer

All the playthroughs so far back her statement up, and every trope has been disproved; it isn't glorified, she doesn't enjoy it, she doesn't automatically lose, she isn't weaker, and it wasn't her fault.



The thought that popped into my still blearily sleep-fuddled head this morning was this: a lot of the arguments are talking about rape like it's a thing that never happens to young women, like its a rare thing that's never ever used against them - like the genuine attempt to use violent sexual behaviour to overpower a young woman is unrealistic. When men are told about the rape statistics for women, and how women can feel threatened even when they aren't being threatened thanks to a society that doesn't talk about rape and blames the victim, they rarely, truly, understand it. In the new Tomb Raider game they have to play through an attempted sexual assault on a woman, and for a lot of male gamers it's going to be uncomfortable and confusing because they've never experienced it from that side - but most importantly, they're talking about it.



Ultimately, I feel the attempted assault on Lara has it's place. Some dick who thinks he's tougher than this frail-looking stranded survivor is likely to try and take violent advantage of her; it isn't about him, though, it's a scene about Lara being forced into a corner and taking her first life. This doesn't mean the game industry should start cranking out games with female characters who are rape survivors or it'll just become another form of origin story, but the new Tomb Raider feels like a step forward in the realistic portrayal of women in video games.

UPDATE: like a rough to cover a diamond in more rough, Team Fortress have decided to give their Croft Crest badge this super flattering description. (via @DickMandrake)