The video game industry has had numerous controversies related to various topics, such as violence, explicit graphics, addictions and sexual themes. In this essay I am going to be exploring how women are represented in video games and in particular, I will be focusing on the contrast between Lara Croft and Princess Peach. Lara Croft appears in the Tomb Raider series and Princess Peach features in many Nintendo games such as, ‘Super Mario Bros’, ‘Mario Galaxy’ and her own game ‘Super Princess Peach.’ She is mostly a non-playable character in the games.
In the history of gaming, ‘The Damsel in Distress’ has remained one of the most widely used clichés and misrepresentations. Furthermore, as a trope the ‘Damsel in Distress’ is a plot device in which the female character is placed in a perilous position whereby she cannot escape on her own and must be rescued by the “hero” which tends to
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Firstly, Lara Croft and Princess Peach have completely opposite appearances and they are perceived differently. Secondly, Lara Croft is a British archaeologist who is portrayed with an idealized body with revealing attire. She is also very pugnacious. This exemplifies that she is treated as a sex object in the gaming industry. It also reinforces the negative stereotypes of women in today’s society because they should not be represented like that. In comparison, Princess peach is a damsel-in-distress; in most Mario games has complete different features to Lara Croft. People typically criticize Peach for being dependent on males and that she isn’t fully equipped to deal with Bowser, therefore she relies on Mario to fight her battles. Women in this society don’t want to be seen as over-feminized or romanticised. Women today want to be viewed as equally intelligent, confident and as independent as