Rape of Lara Croft

I nothing about Lara Croft so excuse my ignorance. I've never been interested. But yes of course women are seen as the weaker sex and it seems that men prefer them to be portrayed in that way.

Culturally women are still possessions. We take our husband's names for instance and boys used to be named after their fathers, girls were rarely named after their mothers.

There are quite a few films where the male character is motivated by a defilement of his family and more specifically of his wife. And strong women characters have usually been on the receiving end of violence (think Kill Bill) so they are victims before they can become heros. It's never that way with men.

I don't care whether she's raped or assaulted. It makes no difference. The issue for me is that the makers have decided to include a sexual crime in Lara Croft's back story at all. Why? What's the point? What does it add?

It is because she's a woman. Pure and simple - and a largely objectified character as it is - so it has to be a sexual assault.

I just hate it as a storyline idea.

And yes, x-posts. I understand that now. I was very confused why people were going on about her being raped when she wasn't. Thanks for the explanation, it makes better sense.

EatsBrains - we usually see men having something taken from them. So in the case of Rambo, it was his pride. In Gladiator, his wife and son were killed. In fact in the case of most male heros, their wives have usually been raped. That says a lot about how women are seen as possessions and how the rape of married women symbolises the theft of another mans possession.

That in itself makes an interesting subject for debate.

Again though, they are all saying that she was sexually assaulted. Are we all watching the same clip here? The clip where a man places his hand on her hip just before she knees him in the balls?

I am guessing that they are showing the background to her story as her motives. The main feature that I could see was that her village was being burnt to the ground so you can assume that her family and friends were wiped out.

Yes she has a threatening moment when a man thinks he can get a little too close, but to call that sexual assault is going too far.

The rest of that blog is spot on for other reasons, such as why men love to see women as victims rather than strong, fiesty and independent. But to insist on telling people that she was raped or sexually assaulted just detracts from that wider argument.

There is plenty of female Tomb Raider fans, who enjoy playing as a strong female character. This is what one of them is saying: missvoltairine.tumblr.com/post/25402688644/more-tl-dr-on-the-lara-croft-thing

I'm not really a fan, but I read some news about this new game when it was revealed - Lara Croft was supposed to be more realistic now, like a person, and less like a male cartoon fantasy.

Still, the developers made it clear that the player is not meant to identify with her, their player-character, which is generally the aim of gaming for the sake of immersion. Instead the player (thought of as male, despite all the female fans) should be thinking of her as a thing to help. Turned me off from the game immediately.

That ain't rape.
Yes you can be a 'strong woman' without having gone through some kind of sexual ordeal, but this is hardly a sexual assault.

It's a stupid computer game showing a woman with huge breasts wearing tiny vest tops and even tinier shorts. She's a dominatrix at best.

I'm more offended that women with small breasts or women who are larger than a size 6 aren't seen as strong, action hero types. But then it's a game for teenage boys.

Isn't shooting a man for attempting to put his hand on your hip a little... disproportionate? That's not strong, that's psychopathic. And I speak as one who is infuriated by unwanted touching or even people standing too close.

Anyway, it's totally illogical, as if she wasn't a kick-ass woman until the rape/attempted rape she wouldn't have been toting a gun at that point. Or know how to kick a guy in the balls effectively.

Reality
No, the take out message is that if a woman is raped / sexually assaulted, she can then become a kick ass warrior woman. Therefore, sexual assault can be a positive in a woman's life.

VERY dangerous and retrograde message.

Reality..... how much reality do you think is in a story line where a woman that was raped is propelled into 'strong woman'? IME rape is not a catalyst for a 'strong woman' at all.

You can see the entirety of the 'attempted rape' in - for those who don't want to match, a man corners her, moves to put his hand on her hip, then she kicks him in the balls and shoots him.

It's sexual assault at 'best'; I think calling it a rape or attempted rape is ludicrous and offensive.

Done.

Done

Jesus Christ.

Done

And OMFG what are they thinking

Done, can't believe it!