WEEK 3

Angelina Jolie - Tomb Raider

The ‘hottest’ girls in video games seem like it is rated and defined by how much sexualised they are. They are showing most part of their bodies, wearing so little and being sexualised in every moment they make. However when Lara Croft, the video game female character is transferred into a real personnel- Angelina Jolie in the movie called, ‘Tomb Raider,’ what kind of affect does it have on the audience?

Well first of all, having Angelina Jolie playing Lara Croft is a good choice made because she is the right one. She is well known for her charismatic and powerful acting style where she is as strong as the male characters in films she played in. This excites a lot of girl gamers, who play games containing male protagonists thus being the male in the game world. As girl gamers are the minorities in the game world, the girl players are also minority. It is interesting to think about then, how male audience and players of video games like ‘Tomb Raider’ think of Lara Croft. They don’t need to choose to play Lara Croft since there are a lot of other male protagonist games available for them. However, Lara Croft and her character are well known and famous amongst them. This is because; in real life someone like Lara Croft cannot exist- and the main reason for playing obviously comes from the whole satisfying experience of the fantasy world. Male audience who likes watching such movies and playing such games, and they’re satisfied with it because probably, playing as a female is more fantastical and exciting.

However seeing this video which is about a girl who defines herself as a girl gamer and who thinks that boys who think they ‘naturally’ are good at playing games, because they are males, are wrong because girls can play just as good as guys. She has mocked by few people, where they commented on her video called Girl Gaming! girls can play just as good as guys!
as ‘"play just as *well* as guys". GIRLS CAN'T GRAMMAR’ and ‘Go to the kitchen and make me some food woman. And put the controller down.’ This shows that, whole commodification of either Angelina Jolie or Tomb Raider was a smart idea (even though she is a girl) because this definitely did and will in the future, catch male audiences’ eyes.