The sexualisation and desexualisation of Lara Croft and is she a Sex Icon/ a Sex object?

I feel like we’re at a point in the franchise with all the current gaming trends wherein a series returns to its roots. As I’m sure most of you are aware, there were a lot of women and some men vocally upset online when Lara‘s redesign was revealed.

We can split Lara into two categories for simplicity:

Classic Lara/LAU and Survivor.

For ease- Angie Lara/Top cow can fall into the former whilst Alicia slides into the latter.

The first is presented as a highly sexualised(moreso in Legend, Underworld and 4/5) avatar but is also an outlier in gaming as she is cold, determined and highly independent. she also has an iconic wardrobe and iconography.

The latter has a more practical wardrobe but it is less memorable and the character is less motivated by her own goals-see father complex, is more at ease when aided or aiding friends and has to remind herself of what she is capable of frequently.

The main argument in dislike of her new model has been that she is sexualised with LOA.

Many of you would argue that Survivor Lara was desexualised but I would both agree and disagree.

I think Lara’s design was made more aligned to cultural changes at the time e.g. Hunger Games, the rise in discussion of women being scantily clad in games etc but she is also subject to a faux sexual assault and many have noted her screams sound vaguely porn Esque- see the below:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/od88si/can_you_stop_moaning_for_once_lara/

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/lara-croft-sexual-assault-survivor-no-victim-flna829970

I do think Shadow was both a step up for Survivor Lara in design and a step down- the step up would be having actual body protection via her armour climbing vest but the design is also very boring in contrast to earlier iterations.

The reason why I think a lot of people were upset barring the ragebaiters on both sides* was the cleavage and possibly shorts.

I think Lara’s shorts are fine but I do take question as to why Lara would go into the field in a low cut top. I think they could have easily kept the TR1 style swim top without the thong sides and managed to keep the iconography.

I do think this was probably more a case of the necklace however and the busyness of- white undershirt, blue vest, jade necklace and a strap going across from the backpack.

I think the best solution would have been to keep the necklace as a bracelet around her gloves instead but I’m interested on your thoughts surrounding the conversation on Lara online.

Personally I feel like Cradle of Life had the best wardrobe mix, it was very sexy whilst still feeling practical and not at all sexualised-

the wetsuit in example was both something someone could wear whilst being true to Lara in contrast to the zipped down wetsuit/thong combo in Underworld which whilst iconic was incredibly impractical for mission use.