I would like to start of by saying that I think that Kate Stables is a very excitable journalist who sounds as if she's just won a couple of hundred pounds off a scratch card rather than an author. Her main point is that a durable female superstar has arrived on the cinema scene, even though her real fame as Lara Croft continues to be more as a videogame icon, who is loved by men all over the world rather than a convincing flesh-and-blood heroine. .
There have not been many films where females have played the dominant lead role especially in an action film. Women have been portrayed in films as helpless, weak house wives with the men taking the lime light. Lara Croft faces the problems that have been inherent towards the representation of women head on. She is a figure, which represent the recent raise of power that independent women have undertaken. Even being an action hero she is still sexy wearing army boots and tight black leather shorts a figment of many men's fantasies. However showing her feminine side with hair in "school girl plaits.".
I think that Kate Stables wishes she was Lara Croft and was able to have the power and sex appeal that Lara has. I believe this as Kate focuses on Lara figure describing her as a "third way of action heroine, flaunting a soft-hard combination of exaggerated curves and no-shit hardware." She seems envious of her and the attention that is given to Lara. However it could be question if she is envious of Lara Croft the video icon or of the actress Angelina Jolie? .
Nevertheless I do agree with what Kate is saying about the empowerment of women, and that Lara Croft has widened the doors to allow more women to take lead action roles and compete with their male colleagues. I think that the door has also been open by other women such as Nicole Kidman who can generate large audiences without the help of a male actor playing the lead role. .
Her writing suggests that she did most of it over a tape machine.