In a study by Jeroen Jansz and Raynel G. Martis, they coined the term the “Lara phenomenon”. This is “the appearance of a strong, and competent female character in a dominant position”. There is no doubt that over the past few years there has been a rise in female protagonists in video games such as the Tomb Raider (2013, Square Enix) reboot, Faith from Mirror’s Edge (2008, EA/Dice) and, more recently, Max from the episodic game series Life is Strange (2015, DONTNOD Entertainment/Square Enix). However, their study was conducted by only looking at the appearance of the characters in the opening cut-scene in their twelve game selection including Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness (2003, Eidos Interactive), GTA Vice City (2003, Rockstar Games), and Silent Hill 3 (2003, Konami). Although they attempt to justify this choice by claiming that the opening cut-scene “informs us about the covering story of the game, and the position of the characters in the narrative”, this is not a fair representation of a game.
In order to give a fair representation of a video game, an in depth textual analysis must be given. Derek A. Burrill notes that a similar approach to film can be taken in analysing gender representation because video games have borrowed a lot of techniques from film. This essay will give a textual analysis of games such as Tomb Raider (2013), Mirrors Edge, and WET (2009, Bethesda) in an attempt to argue that female heroes in the action/adventure genre, though they can be seen as objects of desire, should also be seen as being “one of the boys”. This essay will analyse this in three ways: The avatar as an object of sexual desire; the female character within a male context; and the player/avatar relationship between watching and performing within the game world.
Avatar as an Object of Desire
When asked “Are female avatars in video games objects of desire?” you can answer yes and point towards Lara Croft as the definition of hypersexualisation. With her enlarged breasts, pretty face, and tiny waist, it is easy to see why Helen W. Kennedy refers to her as being “eye and thumb candy for the boys”. Kennedy also stresses that the marketing campaign was also a crucial factor in creating Lara as a cultural icon. She notes that the Tomb Raider games were undoubtedly partially marketed towards girls due to the “’girlpower’ zeitgeist and could potentially have hit a positive chord with the emergent ‘laddette’ culture which very much centred around playing ‘lads’ at their own game(s).” Further, Lara was used as a cover girl for The Face magazine which compared her to Yoda and Pamela Anderson which – as Kennedy writes – “signalled her penetration within a wider cultural landscape” so that people who had never played as Lara were still aware of who she was.
Despite the girl power aura around Lara, her avatar is still ripe with sexuality. The sexuality is further exploited by a key formulation of the three dimensional game space: the camera. Writing of her experience playing Tomb Raider, Esther McCallum-Stewart writes that when she was prompted to “look up, and you will see a hole”; instead of the camera panning up to reveal the hole in the ceiling, the camera panned up to between Lara’s legs. Although this was not an intentional part of the game, it does, however, problematise the in-game camera as a tool for the male gaze. When playing a game where the player is in control of the camera (which is most 3D games) the player is free to look around and subsequently they are able to objectify female (and male) avatars by looking at their chest, buttocks, or in the case of McCallum-Stewart, between their legs. Even in Tomb Raider (2013) with the new Lara’s deflated breasts and new humanised backstory, her avatar can still be objectified.
In the game, Lara and her team venture to find the ancient Japanese city of Yamati and end up shipwrecked on the island somewhere within the Dragon’s Triangle. At the start of the game, she is knocked out and wakes up tied up in an underground cavern. McCallum-Stewart notes the vast differences between the new Lara from the older generation: her breasts are much smaller, and she does not do handstands over ledges but instead scrambles up them. She also frequently loses grip, leading the player into a short quick-time event to grab back on before she falls to her death. It is clear to any player of the game that the new Lara is on a more human level; the gameplay itself is even interrupted at times as Lara struggles to walk forward. All the player can do is press the analogue stick forward and wait for her to continue. Yet Lara is still beautiful. She wears a tight t-shirt that gets dirty, and even though her breasts are reduced, cleavage can still be seen on a number of occasions. The new Lara is also not exempt from the gaze of the in-game camera where the player can still focus on various parts of her (more vulnerable) body.
This may seem to only be applicable to third person perspectives but, in some cases, this can also be applied to first person games. For instance, the first playable section of the survival horror Alien: Isolation (2014, SEGA) sees the player taking control of Amanda Ripley waking up from sleep wearing only her underwear. No point of this section is shown in third person but the player can easily see she is barely clothed by looking down and walking which allows them to see Ripley’s bare legs, feet, and underwear. The player can also make Ripley take a shower at this point by walking into it and interacting with the shower’s control. Similarly, taking control of Faith from the first person parkour styled game Mirror’s Edge enables the player to look down and see her body from the waist down. Even Portal 2 (2011, Valve), a game where protagonist, Chell neither speaks or can be seen by looking down, can still be objectified if the player uses the portals (a transportation tool used to solve the game’s many puzzles) in such a way, they can be used as a mirror from which the player can look at the avatar’s body.
Manipulation of avatar bodies has been taken to an extreme with game modifications. Kennedy highlights the so-called “Nude Raider” patch rumour that would make Lara completely nude as well as making her perform a strip-tease. Though this example is only a rumour, there are modern day examples of game mods like this for games such as the Tomb Raider reboot, Batman: Arkham City (2011, Rocksteady Studios) and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011, Bethesda) listed on a website titled “10 More of the Sexiest Nude Mods in Video Games”. The author, Kyle Lowe, writes “What’s better than playing the latest, newly empowered female lead of Tomb Raider 2013…How about playing the ass kicking young Lara Croft completely in the nude? And you thought putting an ice axe through a guy’s head was the best thing out there.” On a similar level there are games designed as sex simulators. Particularly Japanese Ero games of which Tanya Krzywinska indicates sex is a mechanic of the game itself of which “there is a clear intention for the game to be consumed as porn – but only on the condition that you have worked hard enough to gain access to sex”. This not only illustrates that there are extreme alternatives to objectifying avatars but also there is a group of (presumably male) players that actively seek out these “improvements” to their existing games, and also indulge in games where the ultimate goal is sex with female avatars.
Having an audio/visual relationship, the sound of a videogame is also a source in which the avatar can be sexualised. In Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, when prompted to jump, Lara will do so but only while emitting an exaggerated groaning noise. Lara will also make similar noises when she is shot, killed, or grabs onto a ledge. This game also allows the player to take control of Kurt, essentially a male version of Lara, on rare occasions. Crucially, when he is prompted to jump, Kurt does not groan or emit any sound that suggests he is struggling. By contrast this only heightens the feminine heterosexuality of Lara. Mirror’s Edge and Alien Isolation also have similar sexualised sounds within their soundtracks. When running for an extended period of time, Faith will start to pant; she will also groan and grunt when (like Lara) jumping, falling from great height, grabbing onto and pulling up from ledges. Ripley is also prone to making sexualised noises such as heavy breathing while hiding from enemies or gasping sounds if she is grabbed by certain enemies. The sound/image relationship offers what film theorist Michel Chion would refer to as “added value” which would reinforce the already sexualised image of these female avatars with a sexualised sound.
It is not only the female avatar that is presented in game to be hypersexualised. In video games, males are presented having excessive muscles, superhuman strength, and action skills. This is probably best illustrated by examining Marcus Fenix from Gears of War (2006, Epic Games). Marcus is a soldier of the Gears fighting back against an army of underground creatures known as Locusts who are trying to take back the Earth’s surface. He and his in game teammates (Cole, Dom, and Baird) are overloaded with exaggerated muscles and guns. One of which, the “Lancer” is the standard weapon and is made up of a machine gun with a chainsaw attached to the bottom enabling the player to brutally execute their enemies. This could be said to be the heart of action games – guns, muscles, and gore – that can be seen in a large number of games. Marcus also speaks in a macho gruff styled voice and grunts when prompted to change cover to avoid enemy fire. Unlike his feminine cousins in the genre, Marcus’s grunts do not embody any sexual connotations because he is not presented in an overtly sexual representation, therefore his grunts reinforce his avatar as an embodiment of masculinity. Moreover, this role of action hero is predominately male orientated. This therefore raises the issue of gender when a women is placed into this role.
Action Grrrl: Heroine in a Male Space
Judith Butler’s model of gender performativity says that “the body becomes its gender through a series of acts which are renewed, revised, and consolidated through time”. Under this model it can be understood why the gun wielding action hero is stereotypically considered to be male because he is constantly being churned out of popular culture within a number of films and video games. The action game is then, by tradition, a male space with a hero characterised with male traits. Burrill notes that though the avatar is the “entry point” into the game and a more tempting focus of study, “the structure of the surrounding environment…is just as relevant a topic of inquiry”. He notes that the rules of the game in the action/adventure genre encourage and “often require” the player to actively take part in violent or destructive acts that have no negative effect on the overall game. In Tomb Raider (2013) Lara is required to kill enemies in her path so the player can progress to the next section of the game without being killed. The player is also encouraged to take part in violent acts that include killing encountered animals or to execute enemies in a grisly manner both to be rewarded with experience points within the game that allows the player to upgrade Lara’s abilities and weapons. In Mirror’s Edge, though a level based and not an “open world” game, the player is encouraged to attack and disarm enemies, where they can then use their weapons to take out the remaining enemies in the area. Kaveri Subrahmanyam and Patricia M. Greenfield highlight that such violent actions within video games reflect the play styles of young boys. Therefore, the action game is one that is filled with masculinity coded structures in both characterisation of the hero’s actions and in the structure of the game itself.
Drawing on the work of feminist film theorist, Laura Mulvey, Kennedy writes that “’active’ or ‘strong’ female characters signify a potential threat to the masculine order” in which the female “castrated body…represents the threat of castration itself”. This threat of male castration is then counteracted with the “phallicization of the female body” and the “heavy layering of fetishistic signifiers” such as Lara’s guns, glasses, and hair. Brigit Richard and Jutta Zaremba note that fetishism “signifies a ritual object that gives its worshipper safety and security”, shielding the player as they “expose” themselves to many dangers onscreen. Such a character is known within film theory as the Femme Fatal and, as observed, is also part of video games. Though the Lara Croft of before 2013 is an excellent manifestation of the Femme Fatal, a better example can be drawn from WET.
Stylistically, WET takes influence from the old grindhouse films of the 70s and 80s. Its grainy picture, cheesy lines (“You should have stopped at “I can’t feel my legs””), and its frequent cuts to advertisements reminding you to “enjoy the show” or “why not try a delicious hotdog?” are all reminiscent of the American Drive-in Theatre where such films were screened. In 2007, the grindhouse genre saw a cinematic revival with Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s double feature Grindhouse that was made as a celebration of the old splatter films. Stylistically, they feature heavy celluloid grain, images of the celluloid burning or moving out of frame, and in the first film, Planet Terror (dir. Robert Rodriguez), even a statement apologising for a missing reel. Planet Terror sees go-go dancer Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan) battle against an army of zombies with a team of survivors and eventually getting a machine gun for a leg; WET sees heroine Rubi Malone fighting against waves of enemies as a hired gun armed with an array of guns and a katana. The gameplay involves navigation through the levels while combining jumping, sliding, wall running, and pole-swinging to defeat the enemies as fluidly and gruesomely as possible with the award of extra points for headshots and “nut shots”. Similar to Lara, Rubi can be seen as a Femme Fatal and an object of fetishized desire with her dual-wield pistols, sword, and skin tight outfit. However, unlike Lara, Rubi’s relation to grindhouse cinema further encodes masculine traits into her character. She is more violent, she swears, is explicitly sexualised – one scene sees her captured and tied up in her underwear – and heals by swigging from a bottle of whiskey, throwing it in the air and shooting it. Rubi is then arguably the epitome of the Femme Fatal: she is dangerous but sexual, and a female but masculine.
Playing With Yourself? Player/Avatar Relations
Video games, though arguably similar in imagery and narrative techniques, are not films. The most important distinguishing factor is the interactivity between the player and the on screen avatar. Games have aspects of performativity embedded in their structure. The player is not watching Lara as herself battle enemies and solve puzzles, they are watching themselves as Lara battling the enemies and solving the puzzles. Even in first person games such as Mirror’s Edge and Alien: Isolation the player is watching themselves interact with the game world within a POV perspective of the avatar. This distinction leads Burrill to note that “the self is configured as a prosthetic that one both watches and controls”.
Rune Klevjer has taken the ideology of a player prosthetic further by arguing that the avatar allows plyers to be in a game world via “prosthetic agency” in which they can interact with the game “through…an extended limb”. Through practice, he continues, we can control the avatar without thinking much the way we can control our own hands. However, the player is limited to what actions they can do with their avatar. Even with control innovations such as the Nintendo Wii and Xbox Kinect, the characters are not puppets insofar as their actions are limited by the programmed control scheme of the game. In WET, Rubi can run, jump, slide, shoot, aim, and attack with her sword. These are the tools the player has to interact with the game world through Rubi. These controls are how the player is able to bridge the paradoxical gap between “performing” and “watching” through what Klevjer calls a “Phenomenology of Perception”. Such a theory derives from Merleau-Ponty’s notion that the “subject is not a mind that has a body, but a mind that is a body” meaning that perception of the world does not derive from the cogito “I think” but, rather “I can”. Playing as Rubi, the player can shoot two enemies in the head while diving over a table in slow motion, land into a slide and slash another to death with a sword. That is how the player can interact with the game world via the tools given to them.
Yet, the (limited) control of the avatar is called into question by their autonomous nature by Richard and Zaremba. They note that “waiting gestures” of the heroes “suggests autonomous actions on the side of the protagonist, even though they are programmed. This shows that the personality of the “sheroes” emerge on the audio-visual level only in the form of actions, gestures, and aesthetic expression”. For example, in Mirror’s Edge, when left unattended for a while, Faith will stretch and crack her knuckles as if biding time until the player resumes control. Similarly, when in an elevator, Rubi will sigh and repeatedly press the button as though frustrated or play the harmonica. Both of these examples are avatar actions that the player cannot do. As these actions take place when the player themselves are inactive, it would appear unfair to suggest that such waiting gestures break player’s phenomenological perception of the game as (at that moment) they have broken it themselves and are busy with real world matters. Nevertheless, the waiting gestures can be used to further argue for the masculine traits of the “sheroe” embedded in their characterisation.
Gender is heavily layered within the player/avatar relationship of play. Kennedy goes as far to argue that a male playing as Lara is “transgendered” in the sense that a male is playing through a female body. However, as outlined in this essay, Lara, Faith, and Rubi are portrayed performing a number of masculine associated actions. Burrill notes the masculine characteristics of Lara and writes that “regardless of the player’s gender, the act of play is the defining force that binds not just femininity to her body, but masculinity to her actions, and thus back to the player. So, the player is hailed…by the ludic sense of the game as a male figure”. With this framework, we can understand the heroine of an action game as being “one of the boys” in the sense that their female bodies do not affect the masculinity of play and player perception of the game’s action. However, this is not to dismiss Kennedy’s theory of transgendered space entirely. It could still be argued that a female player playing as Marcus Fenix is playing within a transgendered space as there is nothing in either his body or actions that binds femininity to him or the player. Likewise, the same could be said about a male player playing as Barbie in Barbie Dreamhouse Party (2014, Namco Bandai) as there is nothing masculine in Barbie’s body or actions to bind to the player.
Conclusion
The action/adventure genre of video games is full of strong female characters that can be seen as both objects of desire and a product of masculinity. Like film, the female heroine is subject to the male gaze and with the added control of the game’s camera as well as nude mods, the player is free to gaze upon the bodies of their avatar’s as they wish. Nevertheless, the heroine of the game can be illustrated as a Femme Fatal and thus mixes masculine conventions of strength and violence with sexualised femininity to create a fetishized image. Moreover, the question of gender identity is complicated when asking who is playing the game. It has been demonstrated that because of her masculine traits, the female hero can be seen as one of the boys and therefore the male player is not, as Kennedy argues, occupying a transgendered space of performativity. However, when considering a female player under this framework with a game such as Gears of War, the notion of a transgendered space seems plausible as there is nothing to bind her femininity to the game’s avatar or actions.
By Andrew Murray
Bibliography
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Filmography
Planet Terror, 2007. Directed by Robert Rodriguez. USA: Rodriguez International Pictures.
Ludography
Alien: Isolation, (SEGA, 2014).
Barbie Dreamhouse Party, (Namco Bandai, 2014).
Batman: Arkham City, (Rocksteady Studios, 2011).
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, (Bethesda, 2011(.
Gears of War, (Epic Games, 2006).
GTA Vice City, (Rockstar Games, 2003).
Life is Strange, (DONTNOD Entertainment: Square Enix, 2015).
Mirror’s Edge, (Dice: EA, 2008).
Portal 2, (Valve, 2011).
Silent Hill 3, (Konami, 2003).
Tomb Raider, (Square Enix, 2013).
Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, (Eidos Entertainment, 2003).
WET, (Bethesda, 2009).
