Rape of Lara Croft

[EatsBrainsAndLeaves]

Crystal Dynamics want to introduce a back scene storyline where Lara Croft gets raped - to "explain" why she became a strong female character. Obviously saying that a woman can't be strong, active, and kick ass unless she has suffered sexual violence. Can you sign this petition asking the company not to do this.
Thanks

To be clear, I hadn't seen the trailer. Before the trailer was made and released the company was talking about a back story of a rape to Lara Croft. Perhaps they have changed it because of complaints? There were even posts on the internet from male gamers saying they would pay extra to watch the animated rape of lara croft.

However it is still problematic to explain a charcater's kick ass status on the basis of an attempted rape - and I know the explanation doesn't even make any sense any more since they have changed it to Lara Croft shooting him. But the reality is we don't see male kick ass characters having backstories of attempted rape. Just ask yourself why that is?

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.

Rhubarb - I said in my post just above yours that the company were planning to have a backstory of her being raped. Comments and posts have been made on the basis of that. They have obviously watered down their proposals - which is good.

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.

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.

That is true with other equivalent male characters. But Lara already has a backstory of a plane crashing and killing her parents and fiancee.

And yes awful that male heros usually have raped wives. You are right, it is about men having their !possession" defiled by another man. And given whenever feminists talk about rape, someone says - well men get raped too - why can't it be the male heros that get raped instead of their wives?

The answer I suspect is because of the cultural idea that "real" strong kickass men would never "allow" themselves to get raped. Only women and very "weak" men get raped. There are lots of cultural messages in all of this

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.

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.

Hi all,

Thank you for those who reported this thread to us.

We do think that there is a very interesting debate here so thank you for starting this thread EatsBrains - however, we do not allow folks to link to epetitions on the main Talk boards and so we have edited it out on this occasion.

Please do continue the discussion.

Sorry Rebecca. I didn't know it was not allowed. I have seen various e petitions in the FWR board, so had assumed it was okay.