Accidentally Queer

I’ve been playing Tomb Raider lately while I try and come up with things to take to Room 801, which means my mind has been mostly bouncing between how a mostly-straight white dude can contribute interesting or non-exploitive written art to a style mostly about Gender, Sexual, and Romantic Minorities, and about Lara Croft’s sorta-maybe-kinda-gayish relationship with her buddy Sam.

I don’t think Sam and Lara are gay. I think that relationships are so rarely touched in action media that a depiction of any relationship looks like the main type of relationship you see in them. It’s not a deliberate attempt to make a sweet, meaningful lesbian relationship, it’s a slightly-incompetently handled friendship.

At least, so far! Maybe at the end of the game Lara and Sam claps hands meaningfully and say, “Now let’s both go find some boys to date!”