I found a scenario where boobplates and other kinds of outrageously impractical female armor were not only justified but historically accurate: gladiatorial combat. While they were certainly rare, female gladiators existed and they often wore revealing and impracical outfits in battle. This was because gladiatorial armor wasn’t supposed to be protective, it was supposed to look fancy and leave the wearer vulnerable. People went to the arena to see blood.
While the arenas of Rome would certainly have been the place where you would have seen impractical armor and boobplates if they were to ever exist… however there is no evidence to suggest that ridiculous female armor was ever worn by an gladiatrix.*
There is certainly evidence that female gladiators fought in the arena, however nobody has yet to find the remains of any ridiculous armor, any writings of ridiculous armor or any artistic evidence of it.
Gladiator armor was made “impractical” in the sense that it didn’t protect their vital areas – but it didn’t impede their ability to fight or recover from a fight like a boobplate would. They after all, there to provide a great show (their lives literally depended on it) and boobplates and similar armor would have just reduced the chances for blood (and boobs!)
“Contestants” (to use that term as loosely as possible) in the Roman arenas came in two varieties: People who were being punished in a theatrical manner and people who were basically professional athletes (even if they may be slaves).
According to Seneca the Younger, those who were there to be punished weren’t even issued helmets or shields so had no ridiculous armor. The professional athletes had very specific equipment issued to them depending on their roles, No room for flashy boob armor.
– wincenworks
* Do not do an image search for “gladiatrix”, you will not find anything remotely helpful, but you will find a lot of stuff that is down right disturbing.
Save the boob plate! A fight worth fighting for, amirite?
Save the boob plate! A fight worth fighting for, amirite?
Liliana submitted:
So the Divinity: Original Sin artist is even worse than I thought. Know how the original design was a typical, pathetic, pandering and obnoxious bikini armour? It got changed later (for an obnoxious boobplate, but at least it covered a bit more skin), but apparently, only reluctantly so.
That poor, poor artist, having to censor himself like that. Of course he misses the point of the criticism of these armours completely (“it’s not about realism! also look at Conan!” are among his “arguments”), but that’s to be expected, I suppose.
Apparently that design we bingo-ed and discussed before was done by one of those guys who think that any criticism of their creation is not theirs, but the critic’s problem and feels honestly so attacked right now.
Thierry Van Gyseghem’s “argumentation” is worthy of a Rhetoric Bingo, though keep in mind that most of the linked rant is incomprehensible attempt at bullshitting academic MRA paper through bizarrely broken English (the insistence that “sexistic” is a word is my fav!).
It focuses mostly on how current game journalism supposedly is serving the nefarious pro-women “lobby” (which seems like a thinly-veiled way of referring to Anita Sarkeesian), and how it leads to self-imposed censorship of the game creators (a sure proof he’s one of the people who don’t know what “censorship” is).
Also, (not so) amazingly he seems to be caught up in thinking that bared belly is the only issue in his original illustration, even though it was literally 1 out of 17 bingo squares it checked… mind you, it could have potentially scored more if legs were shown.
So yeah, with such engaging “points” we would need a whole new custom bingo for this guy, therefore please don’t take my attempt at playing with what we’ve got too literally:
Wow, he scored ridiculously high even without a custom card!
TL, DR: There goes any benefit of the doubt we could have had for this artist when it comes to deciding how “creative” the final designs get.
Big thanks to Liliana for submitting!
~Ozzie
Curiously he claims he loves feedback… I guess he means feedback that doesn’t challenge any of his assumptions, privileges, etc.
What I really love about his strange notion though is – can you imagine if it was extended into any other field?
“I am a chef, and the restaurant owner told me we’re not going to serve pale veal any more due to animal cruelty concerns – I implore you all not to self censor your dinner tables!”
“I am a banker and we have been told not to use pressure tactics to get customers to sign up for credit cards – Do not allow yourself to be censored when manipulating others!”
“I am a janitor and we have been told not to use this chemical that upsets some people’s skin – Do not allow others to tell you what you what cleaning chemicals you should use at home!”
My personal favorite snippets:
- “Also blackmails in the form of ”change your game art or we won’t publish a single word about you.” is a common behavior found among those.“ – Given that the games industry and games journalism market is ridiculously competitive, I think this would be the smallest challenge publicity wise. After all, it’s a game that uses the core mechanics of what was the “new hotness” fifteen years ago. Not exactly ground breaking or that special given that the Indy games marketplace is flooded with nostalgia.
- “If by all means the opposition feels change is needed, let it NOT be by oppressing others art but by just offering an alternative for those who wish an alternative.“ – Apparently he believes there are game making elves (similar to cobbling elves, but different) out there who will just create quality games with equal armor without anyone in the industry having to do the work… strange stance for a man who should be aware there are no game making elves. Games require teams of professionals, budgets, investors, distributors, etc
- “This journal entry is all about judgmental journalism, offended-by-design opinionators and the fearsome white knights that the first two bring in its wake.” – I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone who’s offended by the concept of design… it strikes me as a terrible life. I’m also pretty sure since most games journalism is reviews – that being judgmental is kind of a prerequisite for the job.
All of this vitriol because his boss asked him to… do his job.
– wincenworks
Better Identification of Viking Corpses Reveals: Half of the Warriors Were Female | Tor.com
Better Identification of Viking Corpses Reveals: Half of the Warriors Were Female | Tor.com
Re-identification of Viking corpses has revealed that half of their warriors were female.“Researchers at the University of Western Australia decided to revamp the way they studied Viking remains. Previously, researchers had misidentified skeletons as male simply because they were buried with their swords and shields. (Female remains were identified by their oval brooches, and not much else.) By studying osteological signs of gender within the bones themselves, researchers discovered that approximately half of the remains were actually female warriors, given a proper burial with their weapons.”
Women have always fought. We have always been there, ‘contributing to history’. Our own, modern sexism contributes to the erasure of it.
(Bolding mine)
Sadly not completely accurate. They couldn’t confirm that half of them were warriors (it was a small sample size) – but it did confirm that the methods that had previously been used to determine the sex of the corpses were incorrect.
Specifically that even though it is well known that Vikings had great warrior women in their ranks, archaeologists frequently assume their remains belonged to a man unless they’re have only traditionally "female” items on them. This is because “history” as we know it is interpretation of evidence, and sometime the interpreters are both sexist and lacking in imagination.
Don’t ever let anyone tell you that women in history didn’t fight and never, ever let anyone tell you that fiction shouldn’t include badass warrior women.
– wincenworks