Media essay– Tomb Raider and Men’s health 

This essay compares the representation of gender in both Men’s Health and Tomb Raider. Issues raised in this essay consist of how Lara Croft, the main character in Tomb Raider, is portrayed sexually, to appeal to male gamers and how you have to work out and have the ‘best body, to be a man, in Men’s health. Gender stereotypes will also be brought to light and how they are defeated or highlighted.  

Lara Croft is a well-known video games character in the game Tomb Raider and is the dominant signifier. She is very popular with men due to her small wait, large chest and behind. She also wears short shorts, suspenders and a crop top, which adds to the sex appeal. This, however, is not a good influence on young girls. Even though the games age rating is a 12, teenage girls are heavily influenced by the media and if they are seeing Lara Croft, who has a very unnatural figure, they will start to believe this is the norm. This idea links into the Reception theory, created by George Gerbner, which states that exposure to reinforced messages will affect our ideas, attitudes and beliefs. So, if girls are constantly seeing her small waist and large chest, they feel like they need to do everything to be like her. Lara Croft is quite diverse in a way, even though she is heavily sexualised, she defeats the idea of gender stereotypes, such as ‘women are delicate and gentle,’ but clearly Lara isn’t this. In the first picture on the back cover, it shows Lara crossing a vertical wall with just a single rope. This highlights her bravery and strength that she needs to pull herself along the wall. As it is also high off the ground it shows her fearlessness. These attributes that Lara has, stereotypically belong to men, about having strength and being brave. But, however, the illustration is also focused her suspenders and skinny legs, giving men another reason to buy the game. As it is on the back cover the audience will see what they are buying into and giving them a taste of what they are going to be playing. This is linked to the idea of mise-en-scene, on how she is purposely placed there with her suspenders on show. Similarly, the idea of Lara’s highlighted body is also portrayed on the front cover. The texture of the colours and where they are placed, emphasises Lara’s body, with light shining from her legs and chest, so people will look at that first. The contrast between the light dark colours reflects the game is all about Lara. There is a lot of light around her eyes which makes the audience look into them, which gets them hooked as she is using her eyes in a sexual way to entice people. The character is almost contradicting herself in the fact that she is doing activities which males would predominantly do but at the same time she is sexualising herself. This gives men more of a reason to buy the game as Lara is an independent woman, yet they still get to physically control her.   

The second point raised in this essay is about the magazine ‘Men’s Health.’ Likewise, this magazine also reflects gender in a good and bad light, much like ‘Tomb Raider.’ This magazine is mainly aimed at men who are looking to become fit and healthy.’ The index symbol on the front of the magazine shows Vin Disel, who is very muscular and looks very strong. This is portraying that this body shape is the shape you need to be, to be an ideal man. The image is surrounded by tag lines which are all about ‘127 ways to build a stronger core’ and ‘103 shortcuts to t-shirt arms.’ Just by these 2 tag lines we can see that the idea that is drilled into men’s heads is that you must be big and strong to be a ‘man.’ This also reflects the idea of the Reception theory and how we are so influenced by the media, seeing these big and buff men becomes the usual to us and we need to be like that to be accepted in today’s society. The tagline ‘shortcuts to t-shirt arms’ is also a play on words as the word ‘shortcut’ could reflect the shortcut arms on a t shirt. Having fun and catchy taglines encourages the reader to want to continue reading. There is one tag line which goes the against the idea of male stereotypes. It is ‘#slay winter blues.’ This is showing that a big platform like ‘Men’s health’ will be able to give the opportunity to people about opening up about mental health issues. It shows that no matter how big and strong you are, you can still suffer from mental health and be able to openly speak about it to people and seek help. The stereotype that men aren’t weak, or men don’t cry is being defeated. The fact that the text is in bold and in capital letters shows it is important. Also having an icon like Vin Disel on the front shows he is an ally of mental health awareness and the audience seeing him supporting it may encourage them to speak up. On the second page it shows that page number 125 is about style. This is also going against male stereotypes because it is usually women who are into fashion and clothing, but men also need to have that platform as well. Men can also take pride in what they wear and want to feel nice in what they are wearing, as well as women. Finally, the final page shows an old man running. This goes against the idea of age and how stereotypically ‘old men’ can’t to do anything as they are too fragile and weak, but Phillip Howells goes against this idea and ran 794 miles competitively in 2016. This page of the magazine is showing that are other forms of fitness as well for men and not just body building and gym work out sessions. But there is running, cycling and swimming which Phillip Howells talks about in his interview.  

In conclusion, gender is heavily represented in Tomb Raider and Men’s Health. Whether it be with positive or negative stereotypes. The main stereotype of women which is defeated in Tomb Raider is ‘women are weak and soft,’ but Lara clearly isn’t weak as she is fighting dinosaurs and swimming down into the depths of the tomb. Males are represented in ‘Men’s Health’ to be big and strong but the stereotype of ‘men don’t cry’ and ‘men are mentally strong’ is conquered when it says ‘#slay winter blues’ which really emphasises what mental is important to men as it is to women. However, both these covers portray a negative atmosphere on gender. As ‘Tomb Raider’ is all about sexualising women and men using them as objects and controlling them and ‘Men’s Health’ is portraying that you need to be into fitness and be strong to be a real ‘man.’ If the audience don’t have the body shape of Lara or Vin Disel this could make them feel worthless and useless. So, they both highlight positive and negative representations of gender.