This past summer was quite a doozy for Crystal Dynamics, mired in the "rape controversy" surrounding their upcoming Tomb Raider reboot. As you'll recall, a trailer depicting Lara Croft in a moment of near-sexual assault was received very poorly, and the much-needed discussions about sexism in games to follow evoked reactions ranging from the dismissive to the enraged. In the wake of the chaos, Crystal Dynamics initially sought to distance themselves from the reality of the footage, with brand director Karl Stewart insisting the word rape "wasn't even in their vocabulary".
Now with the game's release a mere few months away, the topic has been reignited, most recently with Tomb Raider's art director Brian Horton, who not only says they "don't shy away from the choices" they've made, but also goes on to ponder as to why sex is more controversial than murder or death, commenting:
"The tightrope is how people perceive it, because she is a woman and it's a man in an overpowering position. He was over the top of her in a menacing way, but the outcome is such that you either pull the trigger or he kills you. It's a little more binary: it's not so much… "ooh I don't know what he did." [It's obvious] he would kill you."
"I think it's weird that we view death as being okay…It's one of our things as a culture, in the video game space. We still have to be very very careful about how we deal with these issues. As an industry we've grown up, but not enough to do everything you can do in films or TV. We made a conscious decision to make a bold storytelling choice and gameplay choice, to give that scene more emotional weight. We don't shy away from the choices we made."
He also says, of the controversial E3 2012 trailer:
"…In that situation, out of context the story was more salacious than the actual content…What forms Lara is not what he [the foe] did to her, it's what she did to him, and that's the big distinction for us."
Having seen footage of the Tomb Raider reboot at E3 2011 and 2012, in addition to the trailer, and spoken at length with creative director Noah Hughes, I have to agree with the above sentiment. In context, Lara's transformation is much more nuanced than the trailer alone would have you believe, and it's best to judge these things not from a split second impression from promotional footage but in the scope of the entire game (I will also point out that TV and film still regularly face backlash for their depiction of rape, for example the Dakota Fanning movie Hounddog in 2006).
Personally, I'm more concerned about another comment in the interview, one he made about Lara's transformation:
"Before she was really just an expression of male energy in a female body. Now she's both female and feminine, but at the same time very strong, has that inner strength, has those smarts – the things you associate with Lara Croft – but also with a little more texture."
This statement presents Lara as if femininity and strength are inherently exclusive, as if Crystal Dynamics had to inject the vulnerability to make her more "female". While this is in direct contradiction to another statement made in the interview, ("We're making her vulnerable because it's her first adventure, and she happens to be a women."), I feel that the mindset still needs to be addressed, as it undoubtedly plays into their perception of Lara and of women as a whole. How does "male energy" differ from "female energy"? What does that phrase even mean? It suggests that Lara's femininity is not only tied to her vulnerability, but that in shedding it during the game, she later becomes more like a man.
If we're to create female leads that appeal to women and men alike, reflecting and reinforcing a status quo is not the way to go about it. Categorizing strength as a male trait and presenting Lara as an exception to the rule is not a part of the solution.
That being said, I appreciate that Crystal Dynamics are at least trying. This topic is a veritable landmine to navigate, and while it's brought out a lot of emotions on either side of the issue, it's a necessary and important process. I for one will still be playing Tomb Raider when it comes out on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on March 5, 2013.
