(The promised follow up to this post)
Firstly, if the Internet has taught us anything it’s that if you make a character who is compelling and interesting – some portion of your audience will have very sexy thoughts about them.
However, since there is the ongoing pressure feel to make female characters especially sexy – here’s a few tips for those who are conflicted on writing their female characters – especially warriors.
Consider other means of expression.
A character who’s not interested in getting amorous attention has no real reason to dress up in a sexualized outfit. However a flirtatious character can end up with many reasons to wear unsexy clothing – that doesn’t mean they can’t flirt though.
How a character talks, what they talk about and how they interact with different characters can convey a lot even if their outfit isn’t sexy. And of course, there’s how they decorate their gear and their space.
Example: Jagged Alliance and Jagged Alliance 2, where there were three types of bodies on the battlefield (big male, regular male, female) but all kinds of personalities conveyed through their portraits, dossiers and conversation in game.
Cynthia “Fox” Guzman’s models wears the exact same style of pants and t-shirt as everyone else, but when her moral is high she flirts shamelessly and speaks frequently in multiple entendres and a centrefold photoshoot mentioned in one of her profiles. She’s brazenly sexual from the moment you discover her – and this is the most you’ll ever see of her:
Does she even need to titillate the audience?
As part of the general pressure put on a women in society – there kind of an additional pressure many creators feel – that in order to be liked a female protagonist needs to look sexy, talk sexy, go to sexy places, have a sexy love interest, have a sexy shower scene, have a sexy sex scene.
However when actually step back and look at it – almost none of this really necessary or often even helpful. It just wastes the audiences time and shows them the same things they saw every other time. Breaking away from it can provide a great breath of fresh air.
Example (with spoiler ahead): Marge Gunderson in Fargo (1996) is a middle aged police woman who is seven months pregnant. Marge has a very distinct (and very not glamorous) small town accent, a bald husband and a need to cover up constantly due to the winter cold. She never goes to a strip bar, never talks about her sex life and never looks for affection outside of her marriage – but she does investigate a crime and make the big arrest at the end. Then she goes home.
Did Fargo suffer due to this lack of sexy sexiness? NOPE! Fargo was nominated for numerous awards (Frances McDormand won the Oscar for Best Actress for her portrayal of Marge), had fantastic box office returns and the Coen Brothers are now doing a Fargo TV series.
How many outfits do they have?
Do their “work clothes” or signature outfit need to be how they express their sexuality? What if they protect themselves meticulously while when expecting a fight, but have a passion for revealing fashions when they’re off duty? What if they wear boring street clothes but like to show off when they dress up for fancy parties? What if you meet her in a nighclub wearing a silly little black dress, then the next time she’s in full body armor?
You can use other moments to build up a character and make them complex and interesting (and sexy), you can’t prioritize sexiness over practicality in their attire and then try to erase it later with other explanations or special circumstances.
Example: Aveline de Grandpré in Assassin’s Creed: Liberation has a cleavage flaunting dress for when she presents herself as the noblewoman she is, a very unflattering set of ragged clothes for when she disguises herself as a slave and a rather badass outfit for when she gets down to business as an assassin.
People react differently to Aveline depending on how she is dressed, and she has access to different abilities and tricks. A change of clothes can really mean a massive change in perception, provided the change is meaningful. Samus Aran’s sexy outfits for her pinups did not, in any way, justify her wearing her boyshorts and tank top onto a battlefield… especially not with those ugly heels and a gun.
– wincenworks
(duskwitch also directed us to this fine article with some pointers of some ingrained design principles which have senselessly limited female character design)
