MEDIA QUESTION: HOW ARE FEMALE PROTAGONISTS
REPRESENTED IN 'LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER' AND 'THE HUNGER GAMES'?
Within this investigation I want to look at how female protagonist are
represented in the action genre and specifically the two texts 'Lara Croft:
Tomb Raider' and 'The Hunger Games'. Some audience members might
stereotypically believe that the first expectations of both female protagonists
are that they are a dominant and positive representation of the female gender,
but are they actually represented in this contemporary form or are they still
being objectified in the ways Laura Mulvey discusses in the male gaze theory. I
firstly will explore the female protagonist’s reliance on men, secondly I will
investigate if their ideology and mindset is relative to the present or some what dated? Lastly I will discuss the
representation of female body, are females still being objectified, is a
realistic body images being projected and if so why is this the case? To help
answer my investigation I will apply relative theory such as audience theory
such as uses and gratifications, Laura Mulvey, The male gaze.
In recent years there has been an increasing number of action heroines
within the film industry (1). Women in modern society
are seen as equals to the male gender leading the way for strong, female
characters to be created in the film industry as a means of inspiring and
encouraging this outlook that may have not have been seen in the past. However
it is hard to depict whether they are being represented in the idealistic way
imagined; are they dominant, powerful women or are they just simply seen as a
“chick with a gun” (2)?
The first case study I looked at was ‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’ in which
actress Angelina Jolie plays one of the most well-known female actions heroes.
Despite her character being portrayed as this tough female who is not only
intelligent and beautiful but is control on the males around her, within the
film she is still very much sexualized according to Laura Mulvey’s male gaze
theory (3). Throughout the film the character’s heavy layering of sexual
signifiers such as her glasses, holster and garter belts, short shorts and long
swinging hair automatically build her up as a visually pleasing aspect taking
away the seriousness of what she is supposed to be representing. Some people
may see it as Croft using her beauty to her advantage in the film to gain what
she wants (4) but her persona as a ‘seductive supervixen’ is still not
diverting away from the past stereotypical female roles in film like it claims
to be attempting to do (5). Originally Lara Croft was created as a video game
before later being made into a film, the idea being that the male dominant
audience of the video gaming industry could almost control this idealistic
women who could be seen in a sexual manner but still play an action genre game;
this being said even with the expansion of this into the film industry and the
widening of the audience she is still associated with this original by many
people. It could be said that she is not this image of empowerment nor is she
operating outside the boundaries of traditional gender restrictions, so by
being the way she is conforms to the stereotypical gender role.
The idea of being able to control an attractive and feisty female
character is an element which the video games target audience of “males between
fifteen and twenty-six” (6) would be drawn to. In an interview with an
enthusiastic fan of the video games he stated that he was cautious and
protective over the character of Lara when playing, ironically he found himself
not just controlling her but looking after her as well. Taking on Croft as a
possession he must protect.(7) This tells us that before a film was even
created the female role of Lara was already given a stereotypical outlook by
game players and created for the male audience so even if the film adaptation
was developed with the idea that she should be seen as a strong, female
protagonist she has already been represented in such a way that many
individuals already see her in a particular manner.
However saying this there are particular elements of her character in the
film, which do keep to the idea of the female protagonist. In the ‘No Guns’
scene of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider she is positively conveyed as a dominant
female. She not only takes control at the beginning of the scene by telling the
other men to leave so she can deal with the antagonist on her own so they don’t
get harmed but she also successfully defeats him with her body strength alone
despite him being a being a dominant male. Unlike other scenes she is not sexually
objectified in anyway by they camera. The camera angles mainly show her facial
expression, followed by long shots of her fighting the antagonist.
Despite the character of Lara originally being created for a male
audience it is a questionable debate whether or not the creators designed her
to be objectified in anyway. Although her appearance has clearly been shaped by
a desire to embody male sexual fantasies and “almost condemned to the
artificial and oppressive ideals of femininity” (8) the roots of her
character’s life are very much supportive of a strong, positive, female
protagonist. Not only is she a gymnast, best selling writer and famous
archaeologist but the origins of her story speak of her being the sole survivor
of a plane crash in which she used her wilderness skills to stay alive for two
weeks, upholding characteristics which you would expect to find in a role model
for women and a positively represented female protagonist. It is difficult to
conclude whether Lara Croft has a positive representation due to her positive
attributes due to the ongoing objectification that occurs which links to Laura
Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory. I feel it is a matter of personal opinion to which
one. “Lara is everything that is bad about the representations of women in culture,
and everything good”.(9)
My
second case study is ‘The Hunger Games’ in which Jennifer Lawrence plays teenage
protagonist Katniss Everdeen, an individual whose characteristics very much
convey an un-objectified and strong female protagonist but in a contrasting manner
to the previously discussed Lara Croft character. The opening scenes show that
Katniss is the bread-winner of the family after the passing of her father, she
is not only comforting her younger sister as she awakes from a nightmare, something
usually carried out by a parent, but in the next scene is also showed hunting
to provide food and money for her family. The character of Katniss is very much
a reflection of post feminism, and in fact the text has a whole shows no
significant discrimination or even comments that indicate any bias opinions
towards the female gender. All the females and males within the text seem to be
represented as equal without the female protagonist appearing as a strong
feminist; it all appears very much the norm that the women are as strong and
intelligent as the men.
Katniss
is represented as having both female and male qualities and takes on fatherly
and motherly roles at different points in the film. She is a tough and intrepid
hunter who is “better at killing rabbits than expressing her feelings” (10) but
at the same time is gentle natured and tender-hearted when she risks her life
during the games to try and protect a younger girl called Rue. This questions
whether she an ideal female protagonist or is she just a protagonist who is
given male qualities as she has very much been given a role a male would
typically have. The presence of this is even apparent when she is taking care
of Peeta, the boy who is also fighting from her district, whom she later
pretends to have reciprocating feelings for in order to win over the public
watching the games. This is very much gender role reversal to what we would
commonly find in film texts as by feminizing and adding a sense of naivety to
the character of Peeta in contrast to Katniss she is represented as the more
dominant out of the two. With these qualities in the female protagonist it
could arguably be said that the representation of females in action films is not
necessarily progressing in the sense that the females are being accepted and
viewed as just as strong and heroic as men but are just simply given a male
persona with a women’s body. “I do think Hollywood movies get it wrong when
they show women in action roles – they basically make them men.”(11)
This
being said she is clearly very differently represented as a female protagonist
than the previously discussed character of Lara, “She is a hero but doesn’t
mean to be a hero. She’s a symbol of revolt and freedom and hope … a futuristic
Joan of Arc.”(12) This contrasts the representation of Lara Croft who uses her
sexuality to take control in many situations and is very much aware of her
heroic status. Both are unquestionably female protagonists but whether or not
they are the ideal definition of this is completely dependent on personal
opinion. Personally I feel that Katniss from The Hunger Games is a more
positively represented protagonist as she is a realistic female in comparison
Lara Croft who was created for a male audience to “underline the very constructedness of
conventional ideals of femininity”(13). Katniss is someone
the female audience can idolise and in many ways realistically obtain the same
qualities as. She is intelligent, brave, kind hearted and tough without being
sexually objectified but still seen as beautiful and all without knowing
herself. These are the qualities I feel a true female protagonist should be
represented as having.
(3) Google book –
‘Inside the Gaze’
(6) Video Game
statistics from 1996 (Pretzech 2000)
(7) Olafson 1997 (p100)
(8) “The Whole
Woman” 1999 by Germain Greer.
