Subversion and Reinforcement: Sexualised Representations of Female Protagonists in Tomb Raider, Dead or Alive, and Bayonetta

Abstract

This article examines hypersexualised female protagonists in Tomb Raider (pre-2013), Dead or Alive, and Bayonetta, games spanning action-adventure, fighting, and hack-and-slash genres across 1996–2009. Often considered progressive for their agency, these character designs simultaneously reinforce gendered stereotypes through the masculine gaze. The study investigates how seemingly empowering representations operate within an aestheticised pleasure framework, revealing tensions between reinforcement, subversion, and nonheteronormative readings. Using a medium-specific close-reading methodology, informed by an adaptation of Mulvey’s (1975) concept of the three looks —camera, character, spectator— to interactive video game contexts, the analysis examines in-game graphics, combat animations, mechanics, camera framing, and promotional materials. Theoretical insights draw from Mulvey’s feminist cinema theory, extended via Crenshaw’s (1989) intersectionality and hooks’ (1992) racial critiques; Butler’s (1990) gender performativity; and Ruberg and Shaw’s (2017) queer gaze. These games were selected for their fighter-like protagonists, enabling comparison of recurring sexualisation themes across genres, eras, and audiences, highlighting continuity —persistent objectification— and variation —evolving interactivity—. The findings demonstrate how participatory gameplay, camera agency, and aesthetic choices shape gendered spectatorship in ways prior cinema-focused scholarship misses, contributing an intersectional analysis of “aestheticised progressivism” in video games. Video games thus mediate empowerment and objectification simultaneously, both reinforcing and challenging patriarchal norms while enabling queer-informed engagements.