Lara Croft and rape stories: breaking down the b****

Why is rape seen as a reasonable way to “strengthen” female characters?

[Kran]

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD THIS WAS NOT A RAPE SCENE!

What I saw was not what rape was. It was merely Lara fighting back after a man just started to touch her, but not on the oblivious body parts. That doesn't mean rape.

God sake ¬¬

[h311rais3r]

Apparently all men are raping their gfs when trying to get their gal in the mood according to this guy lol

[HebrewHammer]

I came in here to say the same thing. I was under the impression Laura was always in fear of - but never actually is raped in the game. I would say that's a legitimate concern for a girl trapped on an island.

But either way, this is stupid. We whine about how games aren't recognized as a medium for writers and narrative, yet we all get in a kerfuffle over things like this.

Let Crystal Dynamics do their thing! It's their baby.

[Megaton]

Idiots ruin everything.

[Double_O_Revan]

This is why we can't have nice things.

[vortis]

...and instead only get things from EA. =(

[aliengmr]

To write all that about a non-issue is such a waste. Considering the scene in question has more to do with Lara killing someone rather than the "rape" that doesn't happen in the first place. I don't actually dissagree with the main idea of the article, just that it has any relevence to Tomb Raider.

At worst the scene is an overused cliche, at best it serves to bring much needed depth to a underdeveloped character. Could they have done this differently? Sure. But that doesn't mean it would be better.

[turnerdc]

I just played Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and there's a scene similar to this whole "Rape Scene" debacle that happens in the game. WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE!!!!

[csreynolds]

Totally agree. No one batted a friggin' eyelid at that, did they?

[KrimsonKody]

I was gonna try to explain "why" rape MAY appear as an strengthening milestone of sorts, but doing so would only dignify this silly ass article.

Like, wow, is that the "new" definition of rape?
If so, do you know how many people have unintentionally been raped by me?
Does that make me an philanthroping rapist?
I'm gonna need chasity gloves...

[Lord_Sloth]

YOU MONSTER!!!

[IQUITN4G]

If it had been a worse scenario though would people still be saying what they are here. i suspect that a number of people rather think the subject in question is just harmless anyway considering how it's used so often. Obviously not everyone does this but the word is very much used in a very ignorant way. The truth is most people wont have been raped but it sure would wake them up to what this subject actually is if they had been

More than anything though it's generally a younger generation here we're talking about or those just too stupid to know how ignorant they sound when strangely declaring to raping someone online for example- unless some of the people saying this do in fact actually practice this of course

Anyway the whole subject of the word's often misuse is strangely brushed under the carpet like it doesn't exist

[Jormungandr]

I didn't get past the attempt to equate "violent" and "strong" before I stopped reading. This tired cliche has never been true and never will be true and the fem-nazis (which is something else entirely from feminists) who keep using it as a strawman argument to justify their delusions of persecution seriously need to stop.

I won't claim women don't have unique hardships they must face that men don't... but I will point out that men have unique hardships of their own as well. Which one has it worst? I haven't a clue. That said I'm not childish enough to care. I have no time or patience for "my life is worse than yours" pissing contests.

Rape happens. It shouldn't. When it does some body should suffer swift and terrible retribution. But it *does* happen. Some women never get over the experience enough to go on with their lives. This is tragic in its own right. However, those that do manage to go on with their lives *are* stronger for having overcome something so terrible. I don't claim the strength they gain is worth the price they are forced to pay for it... but that's not the point.

It *would* be the point if we were talking about a real person who actually exists and was actually raped. We aren't. We are talking about a fictional character who's supposed rape is a literary device to give her emotional depth in the eyes of the game's players. And yes... as a literary device rape is a reasonable way to strengthen (in the minds of readers/players/fans) female characters.

No one, man or woman, wants to read/play/watch a character who suffers a breakdown and never again leaves their house cause of what was happened to them. We want stories about characters who triumphed over adversity and ended the story better off than they started despite how easy it would have been to give up, time and time again.

The character Samwise Gamgee perhaps said it best in The Return of the King, "I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something."

So yes... characters will have hardships thrown at them by their writers in far greater proportion that most of us mere mortals could never hope to cope with. These characters, man and woman alike, will cope and grow and becomes stronger any way. They will accomplish what we could not and make us feel glad that they did.

But yes... I admit that Lara Croft is on the "violent" end of the spectrum where female characters are concerned... but so are almost all other video games characters, male and female. Video games are, by their nature, focused squarely on "action" and thus, like an action movie, tend to have a fair amount of violence.

[Jormungandr]

That said... if we limit ourselves to video games only Lara Croft is consistently one of the least violent characters. I haven't played the latest installations... perhaps things have changed. In the past, however, most of the so called "violence" in the Tomb Raider series has been little more than Lara defending herself from bears, and tigers, and things that go bump in the night. And in the cases where she has come to blows with human opponents I can not recall any instance where she was the aggressor.

Is that really a message "Battered Women's Support Services" wants to send women? That they shouldn't defend themselves if they can't do it with absolutely no "violence?" I'm sorry... maybe it's my testosterone talking but I'm not just gonna sit passively while some one wails on me. I'm also not going to try to reason with him. And I think its exceptionally irresponsible for an organization which ostensibly is meant to protect women from being abused or help them cope with being abused to send the message that women have no right to defend themselves.

And the "over sexualized" bit hasn't been true about Tomb Raider in almost a decade. Lara has become a much more robust character in her own right with a personality far more complex than most male video game heroes. And her "ample bosom" comes in at a barely a C cup in the latest games which is not even an unusual size in real life... never mind by Hollywood standards.

No what's really going on here... is that BWSS is offended that rape is being "legitimized" by it's inclusion in video games. This is despite the fact that rape has been an accepted literary tool for use with female character in fiction going back several decades both in written and video markets. Yet rape still hasn't been legitimized by that... so there's no reason to think video games will be able to do any better of a job of legitimizing rape than they have of legitimizing mass murder, war crimes, grand theft, or a countless dozen other morally repugnant behaviors.

Well... I'm sorry for the women who have been through something like rape or spousal abuse but my consideration for what some one has been through falls far short giveing any one the right of telling an entire planet it cant talk about certain subjects cause someone might get offended.

/rant

[Hicken]

Double bubbled for well said, man. I've gone on rants in my time, even about this subject, but I think you've got the most well thought-out response to this ridiculousness that I've read.

[GameOn]

Oh I get it. This guy hopes to get a job at fox news

[csreynolds]

I'm seriously concerned about my mental well-being following all this Lara Croft rape controversy, because I genuinely feel compelled to track down all the authors bleating on about it in their sensationalist manners and break their fingers to prevent them from ever writing again...

Stop. Being. So. Ridiculous.

No rape occurs, no rape was ever going to occur, Crystal Dynamics formally stated rape is not a theme of the Tomb Raider reboot, and apologised for any offense caused - is any of this sinking in yet? Soon, guys won't be able to hold their girlfriends' hands without some raging feminist/idiot misconstruing it as an act of sexual aggression. FFS.

[Snarkasaur]

I'm a little frightened at the definitions of rape flying around in these comments. Apparently you're all perfectly fine with feeling women up when they're tied down, as long as you don't penetrate. Is that the general consensus?

Nor was the entire article about the R-word, so much as it was about building a character based on bad motivations. Maybe you all should actually read it before you start on your misogynistic hateatribes.

[Hicken]

Or maybe you should get over the fact that people are blowing that scene FAR out of proportion, and we're all tired of it.

First and foremost, what happened was not rape, yet what do you see in every headline? Nevermind the "definitions" you see here; they're in response to the sensationalist headlines that have obviously moved people like YOU to comment.

Second, and what you and all the other complainers seem to be forgetting, what you DO see is NOT an unlikely scenario in reality. And this game is supposed to be more... what's the word?.. REALISTIC.

Third, I refer you to Jormungandr's posts above, where he perfectly explains why so many of us dislike all the time being taken on this non-issue. Though, according to you, becoming stronger as a person after going through something traumatic is a "bad motivation," so I guess you wouldn't understand.

[Snarkasaur]

That scene, combined with the developer comments about "protecting" Lara, are not at all blown out of proportion. Do you ever think that maybe women, yes they play games too, are tired of seeing female protagonists in situations like this? It's perfectly realistic to think that Nathan Drake would have been captured and raped, and yet that scenario would never occur to anyone in this community. Yet you're all perfectly willing to accept the realism of a woman in that situation, and apparently even defend it.

The point isn't that it's realistic, but that it's unnecessary, and in the game because the developers do not understand how to build a female character in any other way but as a victim.

[csreynolds]

Snarkasaur, I went to the trouble of writing a constructive response to your comments, but then I realised that it'd make no difference; you'd remain a self-assured idiot irrespective of a legitimate retort.

So, as you were.

[KrimsonKody]

Vega "almost" raped Chun-Li...
THAT's a rape scene!