Bloodrayne - Feminine Idealist?

This morning, I was reading up on an unlikely subject: feminism. The Escapist's "women in gaming" issue came out this morning, and I had scarcely started reading, when I ended up, through a chain of blogs, wikipedia, and googling, reading up on "Raunch Feminism".

The concept, detailed in this book basically revolves around the idea that (some) modern women embrace sexuality as an empowering factor in the battle for gender equality. Author Ariel Levy uses the term 'Female Chauvenist Pigs' to describe such women. Most of the reading I did looked upon Raunch Feminism negatively - mostly boiling it down to a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." strategy, in which women might fare somewhat better by adopting stereotypically male attitudes towards sex, but still ultimately live in a man's world, and are disadvantaged by their womanhood.

This is all somewhat troubling to me. I grew up with an older sister and stay-at-home (mostly) mother. My dad was never violent and didn't objectify women. I considered myself a pretty englightened male. I remember publicly admonishing a friend for cat-calling girls in the mall as a pre-teen. Imagine my quandry, then, when I suddenly was making those same cat-calls, if only internally, a few years later.

This sort of struggle is described pretty well by Kevin Smith in the liner notes of Chasing Amy - As a modern, enlightened male, you think that you understand women, and are above the banal tendencies of your gender, but ultimately you're wearing blinders; You're a heterosexual male, and whether it's genetics or social conditioning, there's a drooling, insecure sex-monger living in your subconscious.

So rewind a bit. I'm reading up on this idea of Raunch Feminism, and it dawns on me, that Bloodrayne is a FCP. And suddenly I'm dealing with a similar dilemma. You see, while working on Bloodrayne 2, I was pretty aware that Rayne fit the profile that Lara Croft helped build. She's got impossible dimensions, a ludicrous wardrobe, and oozes binary sexuality. It's telling that when we received body scans taken from Charlize Theron for Aeon Flux, she looked frumpy next to our beloved Agent Rayne. Charlize Theron is, after all, generally regarded as pretty attractive, and could easily be lumped into the "unrealistic standard of beauty" category.

While working on BR2, I coped with the moral gray area of Rayne's sex image with this thinking - she's a figure of empowerment. This sentiment was echoed on occasion by female fans of Rayne, whether posting on a web forum, or commenting on a rayne cosplay outfit. I bought into that, too. Here's a powerful, confident, and above all female protaganist. Rayne's a regular role model, right? Well, no; but she is a metaphorical image of feminine power.

This is the thinking that kept me comfortable with the tongue-in-cheek humour and presentation of BR2. And to be honest, It's thinking that carried over from my general (if somewhat unrealistic) opinion of female sexuality in life: Women and men should be on sexually even ground. Neither should be criticized for enjoying sexuality, or having some disdain for it.

However; just as my pubescent mind started fantasizing about underwear ad vixens turned my youthful enlightenment upside-down, so did this notion of Raunch Feminism shake the previously-solid moral ground I stood on with Bloodrayne as an empowering figure for women.

I guess the pleasant thing about this being a blog is that I don't need to reach a conclusion - it's enough to ponder this aloud. I'm not suddenly ashamed of Rayne and having worked on BR2, but it does cast a new light on previously "safe" thinking about how we portray females in games. Beyond Good and Evil's Jade is a commendable step in the right direction, but I'm not convinced Rayne's a step in the wrong one. What do you think?