TanithT said:
Because females have an equal right to be the protagonists in any genre?
Yes. But that isn't a real answer. Because gender is also not irrelevant.
To put it a slightly different way: "Why can't a male character be central in this particular story about someone going through this brutal physical punishment?"
The point being that the gender of your protagonist is a choice with consequences, not just a coin flip. If you put a male, or a transgendered person, in that role, the story should change, even if only subtly.
So what is that choice doing in
Tomb Raider? What effect does her being female play in the telling of that story. Why is it useful?
TanithT said:
You make many very good points, but this is actually one I disagree with. I like telling human stories that aren't automatically gendered ones, and when a story can be told that matters and has the same heroic impact whether the protagonist is male or female, I tend to like it a lot better
Aye, I think we're getting at the crux of our mild disagreement.
I don't think there can be gender-neutral stories. As long as gender exists, it is an influence, if only subtly, if only in the background, if only in the mind of the creators. Gender doesn't always need to be front-and-center. But it's always
present, and it cannot be inconspicuously removed. The story of a woman getting tormented and worn down only to find strength from her father and overcome her adversity is different story from the story of the man getting tormented and worn down only to find strength from his father and overcome his adversity. The arcs and the meanings are quite different. Whether or not they should be, or are intended to be, they are. I think if you try to pretend that isn't the case, you get a sort of false perspective that does a disservice to everyone involved.
Gender, I think, is always present.
Tomb Raider specifically has never tried to push Lara's gender to the background (QUITE the opposite, the series' success might be partially based on the heroine's cup size). In this trailer specifically the gender becomes important, whether or not it's intentional (and I think in a few situations at least it is intentional).
Because humans have gender, it's hard (if not functionally impossible), IMO, to tell a believable human story without also telling a gendered story. Because your protagonist needs to have SOME gender, and because the gender they have will affect how the audience will see them, the good story uses the gender like they use every other element of that story: to help relay the message. Think of how Joss Whedon uses gender in the
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. It MATTERS that Buffy is a woman. She's not gender-neutral.
This might be holding a videogame (hardly a medium known for nuanced...anything) to too high of a scale, but hell, I don't really think, "Be aware of the context in which your stuff happens" should be too high a standard for ANY creative work.
Anyway.
That's why
I feel a little skeeved out at the
Tomb Raider trailer. I feel like I'm invited to leer luridly at this abused woman. And BECAUSE it's a woman, it carries with it some specific cultural baggage (ranging from domestic violence through to dependence on male authority and touching a few choice points in between). It's entirely possible that the game itself avoids the obvious prurient interests and unfortunate implications, but the trailer, at least, doesn't really.
