In this essay I will be discussing the representation of women in both the Metroid and Lara Croft game covers. I will argue that both radical and reactionary views are shown across the covers.
Metroid’s front cover presents a dominant signifier of a character in a space suit, from looking at the cover it is not known whether they are male or female – however from context we know that the character is a woman. This signifier can be seen as reactionary without context, where most people would assume the character in the spacesuit is a man. The Character is presented as big and broad, typically seen as masculine characteristics, and is holding a gun – something usually seen as reactionary for men. Due to not knowing the character’s gender, many people will see this and incorrectly assume the character is a man because it is radical seeing a female protagonist in a spacesuit with a gun. The addition of the gun on the spacesuit presents themes of violence and action, which again is seen as reactionary for male characters – further pushing the idea of the character being a man to players. However, knowing the context of the game, having a woman as the main protagonist and carrying a gun to save the day juxtaposes the stereotypes of men saving the day – and normally a “damsel in distress” – letting a woman take this mantle instead. This juxtaposition also avoids the “male gaze”, a term coined by Laura Mulvey which describes the sexualization of women in media to sell to men. The protagonist wearing a space suit and shown in the way she is, as big and broad, countertypes this as she is not sexualized in any way.
The front cover of Lara Croft also presents a dominant signifier of a female character, however it is clear that Lara is a woman from the cover. From a first glance, seeing Lara’s guns may seem radical and different from what people are used to, however it is quickly seen that this cover is not much different from others. For example, the position that Lara is in manages to accentuate both her breasts and her behind – and her clothes don’t help either – Lara is shown to be wearing a tight shirt and tight shorts. Both of these examples set an unrealistic example for women, that they should sexualize themselves to be seen as sexual objects. This matches with the male gaze, and Laura Mulvey’s views; “woman displayed as a sexual-object is the erotic spectacle”. Overall, whilst Lara’s guns show that she can be tough and fend for herself – contrasting typical views of women in video games, where they are normally “the damsel in distress” – the front cover of the game also feeds into the stereotype of sexualizing women in games. The quote “For every forward step however, there is often a reminder of how far is left to travel” from the article “diversity matters” perfectly describes how this front cover portrays Lara Croft.
In conclusion, both the Metroid and Tomb Raider front covers juxtapose stereotypes of women in video games to differing degrees. Metroid shows Samus as strong and does not sexualize her, completely opposing what would be expected. Whereas Tomb Raider shows Lara as strong but still sexualizes her character. It is clear that there is a slow shift of how women in video games are portrayed, but games like Tomb Raider are slower to stop sexualizing women than Metroid.
