13. Lara Croft's Polygons and Gender in Video Games

I read the article about Lara Croft and gender analysis and it talked about some pretty interesting things. I’m not an avid gamer at all but I used to play lots of video games when I was younger, but I do have a roommate who is a bona-fide gamer. I understand that the character Lara Croft was no mistake. Her breasts were intentionally made to be huge, her waist small, and she was meant to have legs for days. She was also made by and for men. This type of idealized woman doesn’t really reflect what any kind of woman looks like, and I’m sure this would upset feminists...but there is quite a lot that could upset feminists. The thing that feminists are forgetting is that the way that men are portrayed in video games is exactly the same. My roommate has recently been playing God of War, a game about Kratos setting out to kill Arez, along with the rest of the Gods. All of the male and female forms were extremely unrealistic and idealized. Aphrodite was extremely sexed-up wearing little clothing with her breasts exposed, but she is also the Goddess of sex. The male Gods also wore little clothing and were unbelievably muscular. I understand that the majority of the creators of the games sexualize and put the female form upon a pedestal but the same can be said for the male characters.

The article talks about Lara Croft being a positive role modal for women, which I can hardly agree with. I think that video games for the most part are a waste of time, and if we are letting younger elementary school age kids play these games where the point of the game is to rip some guys head off, blow up some some building, or shoot this guy in the head, is that a good thing? I don’t think violent video game characters could ever be considered role modals. I also think that you could be doing something more productive with your time than playing video games...Tasks that actually accomplish something.

The part in the article about the game patches was interesting because I had no idea that that could be done. They were referred to as hacker artists, and I was a little confused when I read the term, but it makes sense now. These people hacking and ‘rewiring’ the game so that it appears different when played can be considered art. A person has to put a lot of time and effort into a patch to make a bad guy appear as a giant chicken or some kind of farm animal. Although the effect is for comic relief, it is still considered art in my book. As for the “Nuderaider” created I’m not really going to say much, except that it is silly and...when you think about it, How weird is it that some creepy dude is slaving over a computer for hours entering codes to get a naked video game character?