Trends that should stop: having “evil” versions of female characters wear more revealing clothes and act more sexually aggressive than the “good” version, because that demonizes women’s sexuality and ties it to having lower morals and it’s just generally a shitty gross trope
Agreed so much!
The “evil is sexy” trope is as bad, if not worse, excuse for sexualization of female characters in media as any other rhetoric we address regularly. It (sometimes literally) demonizes female sexuality, on top of objectification that is already there. Sending the gross message that women can look and act sexual on their own accord, but they’re far likelier to do that if they’re wicked.
Which, of course, is most obvious either when a good character becomes corrupted and gains more seductive attitude while her outfit all of sudden looses a couple square feet of fabric…
…or when there’s an evil equivalent to a good character/class/race, and that equivalent is designed as significantly more sexualized. [x]
~Ozzie
see also: “Sex-positive” women in gaming (or lack thereof) | Cia | Regime Wonder Woman | Bladestorm’s Joan of Arc | evil Sue Storm (Malice)
edit: My apologies for not also highlighting the even more reprehensible trend of using darker skin to signal evil – because there’s apparently still not quite enough racism in the world.