Leslie Rodriguez

EL 250 - Jerz

01/15/06

Ex 7: Pre-Submission Note

I was really unpleased with how my first proposal came out and I found that in order to get into the meat of my topic, I needed to do more research before writing another one. My ideas about the paper and the topics which I have chosen to focus on have changed a great deal and now include some aspects of my original topic mixed together with new ideas. My original proposal from Ex 4 was what I would consider too broad. I think that initially I was pulling for Lara Croft to be seen as a feminist icon because I liked her so much and for this reason there was bias in my thesis. Since my proposal I have done much more research into both Croft and feminism. Rather than trying to prove that Croft is a feminist role model/icon I am going to examine the feminist critique of Croft in comparison to other controversial elements of media such as pornography.

The traditional feminist arguments deal with gender inequality, promoting women’s rights, and issues in society. I feel that in my paper it would be appropriate to apply these to Tomb Raider, the game and the movies. At first I wanted to stick specifically with talking about the video game, but as my research progressed I found that I would have to include the movies in order to support some of the points I was making. In my paper I have also decided to compare the feminist critique of Barbie & Lara Croft. In regard to the issue of film, I am going to address pornography and the idea that playing Tomb Raider, the user/player would see less adult content then in a movie (equivocate the rating system in films to that of movies). I would like to also focus on the main streaming of pornography and how it has affected popular opinion of Tomb Raider.

There is the possibility that I will develop an argument about the male gaze and voyeurism. Overall I found that my first proposal was too broad and the thesis did not narrow down a specific issue regarding Lara Croft and feminism. I am going to let the paper make the arguments for me, and then write my final thesis based on the conclusive point of view that I develop. There is a possibility that I will cut down this information in order to avoid incoherency. One other thing that I wanted to note was that in my thesis I included cited quotations to back up my claims.

JWEB RESPONSES:

  1. I have expanded the contents of my bibliography immensely since Ex4. I omitted the non- academic sources that I had planned on trying to use. I have also decided to include some of the texts from the course (Juul, Koster Laurel). After doing more research I found that I needed to change my thesis which in turn lead to a change in my bibliography.
  2. My thesis has changed a lot since Ex4. My original proposal from Ex 4 was what I would consider too broad. I think that initially I was pulling for Lara Croft to be seen as a feminist icon because I liked her so much and for this reason there was bias in my thesis. Since my proposal I have done much more research into both Croft and feminism. Rather than trying to prove that Croft is a feminist role model/icon I am going to examine the feminist critique of Croft in comparison to other controversial elements of media such as pornography.
  3. I feel that at this point in the term paper that my best accomplishment would have to be the use of sources that focus on topics other than video games and feminism. I am planning on saying a lot about our culture and the treatment of gender by society.
  4. I think that the most challenging part at this point in the paper is organization. I was having a lot of trouble trying to figure out the order in which I wanted to make my points. I am not sure how much exposition I want to give about the game or how exactly I am going to transition between the issues surrounding the game. I prepared an outline that I am currently re-arranging.