| RolStoppable said: Khuutra, we have been talking past each other a lot and most of it was definitely my fault. I guess this is the point where I have to admit that I don't understand the situation. Lara Croft has been mentioned as a good character and one that is liked by females, even though she has been much more objectified than Samus Aran has ever been. It's a mystery to me why this isn't an issue. Maybe it's because she beats up and kills men while Samus shoots aliens. I suppose the problem is that I am a sexist, so my point of view is always distorted in some way. |
Lara Croft is not universally liked by women; women do not universally like things any more than men do. Many women see Croft as being a problematic heroine.
The ones who like her (especially the older incarnations of her) like her because she is, in the context of the games, very sexy and very empowered. She's a sexual creature who will flirt with men and knows what she likes, but she also kicks a lot of ass and never debases herself. She is all woman, and she gets the treasure and stops the bad guys while never losing that sense of femininity.
In a sense she is the polar opposite of Samus; that is why some women prefer the one, and some prefer the other, or some like both but for different reasons (usually).
Objectification of heroines is still a problem, but it's often (as the case is with Lara Croft) a problem of the way the character is presented, rather than of the character herself. It used to be that Eidos used Croft's sexuality to sell the game. This is mostly okay, for osme people, because Croft's sexuality is very much a part of her character and doesn't get in the way of her ass kicking.
A lot of women (and a lot of men, including you on some level) don't like the current direction of Samus because sexuality isn't an intrinsic part of her character, and trying to play her up that way is dishonest, pandering, and going against the original spirit of the games. Lara Croft flirting with a guy is fine because she's attracted to men and that's who she is; Samus doing the same thing would be egregious, because why the Hell aren't we traveling underground and shooting aliens?
The idea behind Samus is that she isn't intrinsically female, or she wasn't ten years ago.
