When people miss the point
So I posted this on my facebook:
"Some of you lovely people play video games. Some of you have probably played one of Tomb Raider series. But I hope that you intelligent people would be just as offended as I am about the attempted rape scene in the new one. You know, the one that's supposed to make the players "sympathize with Lara"
Now there's a LOT I could say, but people have already put it much better than I would be able to. So do yourself a favor and read some of these before you try and tell me why I shouldn't be angry."
With the following links:
The Lara Croft rape thing.
The Victimization of Lara Croft
and this is the response I got:
"I think the key word there is attempted, sure, the way the exec worded it is super creepy, but its clearly meant to be empowering, and not turning her into a victim. The footage in that article is freaking amazing, exciting, and clearly sets Lara up to be way more realistic and badass than she was before, which is awesome",
And I had to literately WALK AWAY from my computer to keep from throwing it across the room. I can't believe that anyone I know would be this completely moronic. I cant believe that ANYONE would think for even a millisecond that any form of sexual assault, even attempted, could be empowering.
It's not empowering. It's violent, degrading and dehumanizing. It's taking someone's sense of security away. It makes them a victim that will have to deal with the trauma for the rest of their life.
Surviving a sexual or attempted sexual assault doesn't make you more "bad ass", it's not some grand obstacle to overcome for a fucking story line.
I could go on and on about this, but the articles I've linked say it better than I could.
But I will say this:
The fact that people don't understand WHY this offensive is a very sad statement on the role of women and violence against women today.
"Some of you lovely people play video games. Some of you have probably played one of Tomb Raider series. But I hope that you intelligent people would be just as offended as I am about the attempted rape scene in the new one. You know, the one that's supposed to make the players "sympathize with Lara"
Now there's a LOT I could say, but people have already put it much better than I would be able to. So do yourself a favor and read some of these before you try and tell me why I shouldn't be angry."
With the following links:
The Lara Croft rape thing.
The Victimization of Lara Croft
and this is the response I got:
"I think the key word there is attempted, sure, the way the exec worded it is super creepy, but its clearly meant to be empowering, and not turning her into a victim. The footage in that article is freaking amazing, exciting, and clearly sets Lara up to be way more realistic and badass than she was before, which is awesome",
And I had to literately WALK AWAY from my computer to keep from throwing it across the room. I can't believe that anyone I know would be this completely moronic. I cant believe that ANYONE would think for even a millisecond that any form of sexual assault, even attempted, could be empowering.
It's not empowering. It's violent, degrading and dehumanizing. It's taking someone's sense of security away. It makes them a victim that will have to deal with the trauma for the rest of their life.
Surviving a sexual or attempted sexual assault doesn't make you more "bad ass", it's not some grand obstacle to overcome for a fucking story line.
I could go on and on about this, but the articles I've linked say it better than I could.
But I will say this:
The fact that people don't understand WHY this offensive is a very sad statement on the role of women and violence against women today.