Tag: commentary

Posted on

It’s probably fair to say that women in fantasy RPGs are the industry’s most highly endangered species.

I mean, these are women who take on entire monster-infested dwarven mines wearing nothing but a bit of moulded plate metal over their chests and a chainmail g-string.

If it’s not disembowelling, it’s probably going to be some kind of really nasty infection from all that… chafing.

Armour expert calls female boob armour a “design flaw” (via bikiniarmorbattledamage)

This is still probably my favorite summary of why skimpy armor obviously makes no sense.

~Ozzie

Posted on

pagesinked:

dilithiium:

hey can we uhhhhhhhhh get rid of boob armor?

and i mean in every fictional setting like fantasy, scifi, etc but here are two prime examples:

these are both………… pretty weird. i get that wonder woman’s outfit has been the same since 1941 but she still serves as a good example, and idek what’s going on with valkyrie. a lot of people praise this for being “feminine but functional” but this still means there’s some armor smith out there carefully molding breastplates to fit each individual boob (as per that one tumblr post going around that i don’t have the link to).

here’s an example of real life armor on women:

there you go. some real women wearing real armor made for real combat situations. now listen, i’ve worn this and yeah—– this shit’s functional. and no, it doesn’t squish your boobs in, no matter what you’re doing. it actually fits quite snugly despite how it looks. see how no effort was made to have individual boobs poke through? that’s because that shit ain’t necessary. in fact the breast molding would be pretty terrible for your rib cage but i’m sure you’ve all seen that post.

at least star wars got this one right:

@bikiniarmorbattledamage

YES! Gwendoline Christie is a perfect example of someone who plays two characters who are female warriors Brienne from GoT and Captain Phasma from Star Wars and they have armor that is protective and functional and armor doesn’t have to be sexy.

Boobplate is the ever-returning topic on this blog and we couldn’t agree more with the points brought up in this post (because we discussed them in one way or another before). 

Valkyrie actually gets another – not ideal, but better set of armor in the same movie, and I have a sneaking suspicion they made this boobplate-y one just to lower the audience’s standards. 

And while Wonder Woman’s costume wasn’t exactly the same throughout history, even if it was, that’s no reason NOT to improve it in all the present and future adaptations, reboots and new media installments she’s in.

~Ozzie

See also: Captain Phasma Facebook post

Posted on

pagesinked:

dilithiium:

hey can we uhhhhhhhhh get rid of boob armor?

and i mean in every fictional setting like fantasy, scifi, etc but here are two prime examples:

these are both………… pretty weird. i get that wonder woman’s outfit has been the same since 1941 but she still serves as a good example, and idek what’s going on with valkyrie. a lot of people praise this for being “feminine but functional” but this still means there’s some armor smith out there carefully molding breastplates to fit each individual boob (as per that one tumblr post going around that i don’t have the link to).

here’s an example of real life armor on women:

there you go. some real women wearing real armor made for real combat situations. now listen, i’ve worn this and yeah—– this shit’s functional. and no, it doesn’t squish your boobs in, no matter what you’re doing. it actually fits quite snugly despite how it looks. see how no effort was made to have individual boobs poke through? that’s because that shit ain’t necessary. in fact the breast molding would be pretty terrible for your rib cage but i’m sure you’ve all seen that post.

at least star wars got this one right:

@bikiniarmorbattledamage

YES! Gwendoline Christie is a perfect example of someone who plays two characters who are female warriors Brienne from GoT and Captain Phasma from Star Wars and they have armor that is protective and functional and armor doesn’t have to be sexy.

Boobplate is the ever-returning topic on this blog and we couldn’t agree more with the points brought up in this post (because we discussed them in one way or another before). 

Valkyrie actually gets another – not ideal, but better set of armor in the same movie, and I have a sneaking suspicion they made this boobplate-y one just to lower the audience’s standards. 

And while Wonder Woman’s costume wasn’t exactly the same throughout history, even if it was, that’s no reason NOT to improve it in all the present and future adaptations, reboots and new media installments she’s in.

~Ozzie

See also: Captain Phasma Facebook post

Posted on

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

doctorsanity:

I think the biggest thing gamers fail to recognize when discussing sexism in video games is presentation. This is the biggest reason why I can never see characters like Zangief even be remotely equivalent to female characters. Disregarding every other difference that sets them apart, when was the last time you saw the camera creepily do a pan across Zangief sensually massaging his breasts and ending on his stuck out ass? His walk cycle isn’t him wildly shaking his hips. None of his animations flaunt his body in the sense that you’re supposed to be attracted to him. And to top it all off I know that, if this actually happened, it would be done as a joke.

image

Thank you for this post! It’s a nice concise explanation

on why male power fantasy is not the same as female sexualization.

It’s tedious at this point when we see someone claim that characters like Conan/Kratos/Zangief are equally “empowered” as their boob-flaunting female peers (because bare chests?). Hope this helps.

~Ozzie

more about false equivalence on BABD

Weekly throwback for today: one of the biggest factors of double standard design conveniently ignored by the false equivalence rhetoric: the presentation. 

Even if we somehow agreed that a bare-chested dude in a speedo/loincloth is the direct male counterpart to a lady in a physically impossible non-costume (consult our bingo archive for examples) – which we don’t agree with – it still wouldn’t take into account the differences in body language, camera angles and other factors that frame a character as an object instead of a person. 

~Ozzie

Presentation is also how you get woman characters who may be fully clothed, but are still objectified. Miranda from Mass Effect may not score very high on the bingo, but when her ass is the only part of her in a shot of her talking to Shepard…

image

Yeah. 

-Icy

Posted on

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

doctorsanity:

I think the biggest thing gamers fail to recognize when discussing sexism in video games is presentation. This is the biggest reason why I can never see characters like Zangief even be remotely equivalent to female characters. Disregarding every other difference that sets them apart, when was the last time you saw the camera creepily do a pan across Zangief sensually massaging his breasts and ending on his stuck out ass? His walk cycle isn’t him wildly shaking his hips. None of his animations flaunt his body in the sense that you’re supposed to be attracted to him. And to top it all off I know that, if this actually happened, it would be done as a joke.

image

Thank you for this post! It’s a nice concise explanation

on why male power fantasy is not the same as female sexualization.

It’s tedious at this point when we see someone claim that characters like Conan/Kratos/Zangief are equally “empowered” as their boob-flaunting female peers (because bare chests?). Hope this helps.

~Ozzie

more about false equivalence on BABD

Weekly throwback for today: one of the biggest factors of double standard design conveniently ignored by the false equivalence rhetoric: the presentation. 

Even if we somehow agreed that a bare-chested dude in a speedo/loincloth is the direct male counterpart to a lady in a physically impossible non-costume (consult our bingo archive for examples) – which we don’t agree with – it still wouldn’t take into account the differences in body language, camera angles and other factors that frame a character as an object instead of a person. 

~Ozzie

Presentation is also how you get woman characters who may be fully clothed, but are still objectified. Miranda from Mass Effect may not score very high on the bingo, but when her ass is the only part of her in a shot of her talking to Shepard…

image

Yeah. 

-Icy

Posted on

Relevant timestamp: 1:27

Gwendoline Christie and Stephen Colbert discussing the notability of her roles as

Captain Phasma and Brienne of Tarth and how their images relate to the standard look of women in fiction.
It’s sad that female characters in practical, gender-neutral armor are still considered novelty and how the basic human decency of designing non-sexualized woman needs to be treated like something that deserves praise. 

Here’s hoping that Phasma, with extended role compared to Force Awakens, will have an interesting storyline that enriches her intimidating and mysterious presence.

~Ozzie

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
Posted on

noknightinarmor:

darthlenaplant:

ranger-truth:

marzipanandminutiae:

elfman98:

hotdadcalendar:

I literally can’t get myself to sit through movies that don’t have women. I’m like where the fuck are the women? Why are there so many men? This is boring as fuck goodbye

Even if it’s historically accurate?

as everyone knows, women were invented in 1990

All the notes of “women weren’t on old time battlefields” are wrong. There were more prostitutes and merchant women than there were soldiers in most every encampment. They followed the armies, marching alongside them, and notably ran the camps.

Many more women dressed as men to fight.

Long before female nurses were officially considered to be a part of the military, they were already on the battlefield. They merely didn’t get written into official reports because they were “invisible women”, “not supposed to be there”. Usually they would be local women running a makeshift care center out of their homes.

Movies involving ancient societies? Guess how many had female fighters?

Spies? Mostly female. Yeah, only the men were caught, usually (because nobody suspected the servant woman), but historians believe most cases had more women spies than men. Most cases meaning across time and continents.

Giving me a movie on samurai? Women were trained as well to avoid being captured and raped, and often fought just as hard as men. One woman notably survived multiple battles, and became a hero alongside her sisters after taking out 7 men before dying in her last fight (usually in sword fighting you’d be lucky to take out 2 enemy soldiers. 7 is fucking insane, but because she was a woman it was shoved under the records how the lord managed to survive).

Women have ALWAYS been on battlefields. Women have an intense history in driving victories and losses alike. They were supply runners, fighters, spies, assassins, prostitutes (look up how prostitutes essentially ran the western world, or even the social status of harem members. They literally fucking ruled), even underground activists.

The only time there weren’t many women were with cowboys. Actual western cowboys tended to be both POC and gay. In fact, any time women didn’t have a near equal or greater presence, there was a LOT of gay men.

History: either 80% female or 100% gay. And it’s 95% POC.

@bikiniarmorbattledamage

“Historical accuracy” of women not being warriors is something we discussed before. And, obviously, debunked with historical, anecdotal and common sense arguments.

Actually, the Wild West (while not really associated with warriors and battlefields) would be one of the historical settings with the best recorded history of women (specifically prostitutes) running the place:

[Also please listen to this clip’s companion podcast that elaborates on the subject. History of powerful madams in the American West is fascinating.]

~Ozzie

Posted on

noknightinarmor:

darthlenaplant:

ranger-truth:

marzipanandminutiae:

elfman98:

hotdadcalendar:

I literally can’t get myself to sit through movies that don’t have women. I’m like where the fuck are the women? Why are there so many men? This is boring as fuck goodbye

Even if it’s historically accurate?

as everyone knows, women were invented in 1990

All the notes of “women weren’t on old time battlefields” are wrong. There were more prostitutes and merchant women than there were soldiers in most every encampment. They followed the armies, marching alongside them, and notably ran the camps.

Many more women dressed as men to fight.

Long before female nurses were officially considered to be a part of the military, they were already on the battlefield. They merely didn’t get written into official reports because they were “invisible women”, “not supposed to be there”. Usually they would be local women running a makeshift care center out of their homes.

Movies involving ancient societies? Guess how many had female fighters?

Spies? Mostly female. Yeah, only the men were caught, usually (because nobody suspected the servant woman), but historians believe most cases had more women spies than men. Most cases meaning across time and continents.

Giving me a movie on samurai? Women were trained as well to avoid being captured and raped, and often fought just as hard as men. One woman notably survived multiple battles, and became a hero alongside her sisters after taking out 7 men before dying in her last fight (usually in sword fighting you’d be lucky to take out 2 enemy soldiers. 7 is fucking insane, but because she was a woman it was shoved under the records how the lord managed to survive).

Women have ALWAYS been on battlefields. Women have an intense history in driving victories and losses alike. They were supply runners, fighters, spies, assassins, prostitutes (look up how prostitutes essentially ran the western world, or even the social status of harem members. They literally fucking ruled), even underground activists.

The only time there weren’t many women were with cowboys. Actual western cowboys tended to be both POC and gay. In fact, any time women didn’t have a near equal or greater presence, there was a LOT of gay men.

History: either 80% female or 100% gay. And it’s 95% POC.

@bikiniarmorbattledamage

“Historical accuracy” of women not being warriors is something we discussed before. And, obviously, debunked with historical, anecdotal and common sense arguments.

Actually, the Wild West (while not really associated with warriors and battlefields) would be one of the historical settings with the best recorded history of women (specifically prostitutes) running the place:

[Also please listen to this clip’s companion podcast that elaborates on the subject. History of powerful madams in the American West is fascinating.]

~Ozzie

Posted on

I couldn’t wait till Jim Duke du H’ardcore took on some explicitly sexist comments from the “real” gamers. Worth watching just for the way he enunciates “females”, the fave noun of everyone who’s too hardcore to refer to fellow humans as “women”.

Obviously, feeemales and filthy casuals are the reason gaming is ruined and no longer a “safe space” where a real manbaby can enjoy a skill-based challenge (which it definitely always was, yeah, totally). Everything in video games is now just “too easy” and or “politically correct”, to placate the vocal minority who just doesn’t want to git gud and/or be male. 

image

[GIF source]

It’s not like Dark Souls, the infamously hard non-casual game, is a staple among our positive examples of gender equal armor. 

But yeah, it’s totally the pandering to emotionally stunted cishet dudes what makes a game “hardcore”, not the difficult, carefully designed gameplay.

~Ozzie

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)