ANALYSE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SIGNIFIERS AND SIGNIFIEDS IN THE TWO CSP GAMES COVERS

In this essay I am going to apply a semiotic analysis to both the Tomb Raider and Metroid video games covers. I will discuss Saussure’s idea of signifiers and the signified and how the representation of women in tomb raider is both radical and reactionary.   

I will argue that Lara Croft is both objectified for being a woman however also represented as a radical character, although it is seen as a good thing a woman being the main character in an action game I don’t believe that it will be a productive representation of women in the gaming industry. Tomb raider is a presentation of the theory of the ‘ the male gaze’ created by Laura Mulvey, the male gaze is an act of depicting women, from a straight male perspective that objectifies and sexualises women for their own pleasure, I don’t believe that this is a productive nor positive representation of women in the gaming industry. 

In the front cover of the video game tomb raider, the dominant signifier Lara Croft is positioned in a very particular way in order to show her assets, sexualising her with her polygonal breasts and breathy voice, it is hard for some heterosexual males to see her as representing more than an online sexual fantasy. Lara Croft was a huge exception to a rule that still sadly holds true for much of the gaming industry today:” building a franchise around a female lead is seen as a risk” because stereotypically women are not portrayed as action seeking characters. 

In the Metroid front game cover the main character “Metroid” is displayed to be a big shouldered, muscular,  masculine character, however the person controlling the suit is actually a female character, That is portrayed to appear as masculine which implies that men are stronger and better at defense in comparison to females; it also implies that the male suit is to defend Samus because she cannot defend herself. In addition to this the character is meant to meet the reactionary assumption of what tough, dominan character should be, this is shown to be a male character. The concept of a woman being the main character of a popular video game is a tremendous thing and it gives a good view on the company releasing the game, however there are other ways to avoid the reactionary, negative stereotype of women being oversexualised. ‘(From an article called “Diversity matters”) – This shows that no matter how much effort or help that a company can put in, there is always more to go, or more to do before people are happy.

In addition, the character Lara Croft from tomb raider is shown to be a capable, independent woman who can fend for herself. However Lara Croft can be seen to be in a revealing crop top and a tiny pair of shorts which specifically show off her sexual assets which are unrealistically curvy and creates an unrealistic expectation for women and girls playing the game and from the male perspective which goes along with the belief of a patriarchal society. As Well as this, in other video games male characters have full suits of armour that defends and helps the character and doesn’t show off certain parts of the character’s body but when it comes to a woman they don’t need armour and the majority of their body is shown off. This further shows how the idea of the male gaze is dominant in the video games industry.

In conclusion, both characters from Tomb Raider and Metroid are unjustifiably treated because of their gender. We can see Samus being represented as the opposite of her gender to display the idea that she cannot defend herself, therefore she needs to use and be protected by a big suit of armour that looks masculine on the outside and we can also see Lara Croft being oversexualised to fit the male gaze and identify her as a sexual object for the presumed straight male sales and attraction by using certain clothing.