Last night I went to the cinema to see Snow White and the Huntsman, an alright film let down by Kristen Stewart trying to be enthusiastic and uplifting. During the film, a particular scene struck me and the bias against certain forms of entertainment became apparent.
In the scene, Snow White is locked in her tower when the Queen orders her brother to fetch her. As he enters, he sits next to a horizontal Snow White, strokes her leg and says something along the lines of "my sister won't let me near you" and the clear and unambiguous suggestion of rape is complete. As the film progresses we see two men and seven male dwarves striving to protect Snow White.
In case you havn't guessed, this is not unlike the E3 tomb raider controversy. Except when a google search for "snow white and the huntsman controversy" is performed, we see people are more concerned that the dwarves weren't played by real life little people. Whereas a search for "tomb raider controversy" brings up the same tired articles.
How is it possible that a variation of a children's fairytale, rated as a 12A in cinemas not receive the same criticism that a video game, which will probably be rated at least a 15, gets?
Personally I don't have a problem with either situation because they are both quite realistic and ultimately both characters go on to kick some ass but surely there has to be consistency between mediums. The uproar surrounding the developers comment about the "player wanting to protect Lara" was misplaced. Who wouldn't want to protect someone who has just been threatened with rape. Of course people may argue that this makes the character weak and is therefore a negative stereotype which is usually reserved only for women. I feel that in the context of the Tomb Raider reboot and origin story the situation will help to shape an awesome female protagonist. At the same time though, I would like to see some strong heroines who are strong just for the sake of it. Basically, it would be nice to see Joss Whedon make a video game :D
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Honestly, I haven't been following the Tomb Raider controversy at all because I already know what I think. And that is, the TR trailer did nothing wrong and wasn't controversial in the smallest sense of the word. Compared to other forms of media, the Tomb Raider trailer was equivalent to Barney, imo.
They having killing in a child's fairytale too. Where's the controversy for that?
I think people get hung up on stupid things. If the scene in the game doesn't bother you, then don't try to tell others just to have it justified. The devs won't change a thing anyway nor do they care.
I dont get the Fuss, Women get raped around the world and its showed in movies and books, how something that actually happens couldnt happened to Lara, those are villians not little teddie bears.
It makes me mad that there is a lot of people that want the games to be more hollywood esque media and when a game like this point towards that, it gets bashed.
Games seem to get targeted and treated more harshly sometimes , not particularly fair but when you have ass hats like that Jack Thompson causing a fuss , it's no surprise.
If Crystal Dynamics give into this social media bull crap and cut out what will essentially be one of the reasons to make you give a dam about the character and want to survive the entire game ... then I will not buy it.
The point is that it's so obvious. Beat Lara to a pulp and then she miraculously rises above the MEN that kidnapped her and hurt her. It's practically a mirror for a story on the Lifetime Network. It's lazy writing.Why aren't there any women abusing her too? They could have found other ways to show Lara gaining strength without any of this. Lara is beaten up by bad MEN and to defeat the bad MEN she has to become a strong WOMAN. There doesn't seem to be any subtly or depth to the theme. I could be wrong and maybe there is more to it but knowing how developers work these days, I am doubtful.