Representation of women in the media (gaming)

Lara Croft (Tomb Raider)

According to most women Lara Croft doesn’t really represent most woman, but there desires. Lara Croft is represented as women who are independent, reliant on no one as well as able to do all the heroic action based activities as her male counterpart. My research has shown me that majority of women disagree with how her character is portrayed and how she is dressed.

Most women believe that she is a character developed for the sole entertainment of male gamers because of her appearance; some women have stated that they now have self-confidence problems because of the character as a whole.

Lara Croft is represented as the 'Ultimate' woman is controlling, powerful and destructive. She is construed as flawless and quite frankly untouchable. Her clothing in the game also shows me that she is a woman of desire as she is wearing little to nothing which would give many gamers the same idea. She is represented as the adventurous, exciting and animalistic character which most male gamers would be engaged by and most female gamers might not.

younger women can be influence by her character as most teenage women want to be seen as independent and outgoing an adventurous; Lara Croft’s character can influence teenage girls to behave in a certain way this follows the needle cringe theory and the two step flow theory using celebrity endorsement

Lara Croft challenges the typical stereotypes of woman. She isn't your average housewife who cooks cleans and looks after the children; she also challenges the stereo type that women are nothing more than a “damsel in distress” in movies and video games in this instance she is the hero who does the saving and fighting, she really does challenges male stereotypes of women and is very different from what is expected of women in video games as women are typically displayed as the weaker/ helpless character, who is normally nothing more than a partner to the male hero.

The male gender is most likely to play this game because of how she is dressed with in the game. She is very revealing which would appeal to some male gamers. She very adventurous and action filled so the male gender is definitely most likely to play this, whereas the female group might not because of how she is dressed and portrayed. This is very common with male and female gamers.

Nariko (heavenly sword

Is the main character from a video game called heavenly sword, she is the daughter of the head chief and her name is unknown throughout most of the story she is respected highly in her home land and is a skilled warrior she is represented in the same way as Lara croft as a highly independent women who doesn’t rely or need help from any one.

She commands the soldiers to defend her city against overwhelming enemy forces; she takes down the most powerful and hideous of monsters, with fast and acrobatic movements. She represents the same thing as Lara croft a young women who can do anything she sets her mind to.

Her representation follows even closer to Lara croft in so far as her dress since she is seen throughout game play as wearing little to nothing, which is used to entice male gamers to purchase the game her “kick ass” attitude is used to entice young female teenagers to play the game, due to the level of action in this game and violence this game is designed to target the young male aged 14-21 as it is a mixture of an adventure, a fighter and sci-fi game all wrapped up in a bundle .

Nariko is the desire of young teenage females in terms of her attitude she is shown in the game as caring but a force to be reckoned with. Her body is one that is just as Lara croft seen as desirable so the two characters although women breaking the general stereo type of women in the games are portrayed in very similar ways.