Okay, now we’ve all been assured that Mercy’s sexy witch outfit was not even a little bit sexualized or made to pander to a particular demographic…
…and that Blizzard only makes these special events for “fun” and certainly not as part of a larger strategy to make money and promote themselves…
…let’s talk about the other aspect of the Halloween event: White washing and placing a lower value on characters of color, especially female characters of color (so much so they forget that they’re skin is brown).
For those already frantically typing apologies:
- Hanzo got to keep his tattoos, they even recolored them for him to better fit his “demon” persona (and his grey skin tone matches his regular)
- So how many of you noticed that Pharah, Symmetra and Hanzo are
Possessed ,Vampire and Demon respectively but
generic white guySoldier 76 is “immortal”? That’s not generic “Immortal” that’s “homage to Michael Jackson’s Thriller” btw. - Now you’ve typed your bit about the Summer Games Event did you happen to notice how Mei got completely left out of that too?
- So Symmetra’s vampire form having pale white skin is not whitewashing… Because all vampires/undead ever, regardless ethnicity, are supposed to be pale white? How so? Who makes up rules on how vampires work other than people who write them? Regardless of so many better options? If we’re obligated to imitate previous imagery, why don’t more vampires look like Count Orlock?
- Lastly, Blizzard recently announced they’re going to make potentially dramatic changes to one character to make them viable (and they don’t yet seem to be sure what changes those will be). Can you guess which character? If you guessed the brown lady in the sexy cocktail dress who’s recently been white-washed for Halloween you’d be right!
Here’s the reality: Blizzard makes games with a very big focus on making money, and with Overwatch they’ve been promoting themselves as being more concerned about representation – but they haven’t been following through. Not for women, not for other cultures and not for people of color. It’s basically an going mess of glorification of white men at the expense of others, this leads to a certain demographic having a relationship with the media that’s well…
tl;dr: Blizzard’s depictions of women in general are terrible, but their treatment of female characters of color is even worse. Blizzard is pretty blatant about using brown skin tones as an optional accessory in their ongoing quest to make money via highly commercial video games and that is not okay no matter how many half-arsed excuses are made on their behalf.
– wincenworks
If only the developers of these games were as socially aware as Epic NPC Man, they might avoid forcing him to hand out well… that.
At least he tried to avoid the embarrassing situation, which is more than we can say for so many developers with “fresh” ideas.
– wincenworks
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
Legends of Tomorrow
@whereismywizardhat submitted:
After seeing the promotional picture for the Legends of Tomorrow version of the Justice Society of America, and specifically their version of Stargirl, I opted to do a five second redesign to make the look feel… well, more like something a superpowered woman in the 1940s would wear.
My Redesign
The source
It should be noted that Stargirl in the comics looks almost identical to the source photo, but she is also set in modern day, not 1941.
Look, I get that superhero costumes were based on the super tight outfits strongmen wore in order to show off their physique. That does not mean when transplanting a female character to WWII you can bring her costume without baggage.
I have to say, I really like the redesign – it’s nice and conveys the spirit of the era without fussing about too much with the specifics or worrying about trying to pin down a particular moment in fashion.
As for the official image.. there’s something about the super heroine costumes I just can’t put my finger on… something to do with history. Something the show probably should have come across while doing some research on World War Two era fashions, life and technology…
Seriously DC Comics, you should know better… not even Catwoman wore spandex in the 1940s and she was a femme fatale from word go!
– wincenworks
Legends of Tomorrow
@whereismywizardhat submitted:
After seeing the promotional picture for the Legends of Tomorrow version of the Justice Society of America, and specifically their version of Stargirl, I opted to do a five second redesign to make the look feel… well, more like something a superpowered woman in the 1940s would wear.
My Redesign
The source
It should be noted that Stargirl in the comics looks almost identical to the source photo, but she is also set in modern day, not 1941.
Look, I get that superhero costumes were based on the super tight outfits strongmen wore in order to show off their physique. That does not mean when transplanting a female character to WWII you can bring her costume without baggage.
I have to say, I really like the redesign – it’s nice and conveys the spirit of the era without fussing about too much with the specifics or worrying about trying to pin down a particular moment in fashion.
As for the official image.. there’s something about the super heroine costumes I just can’t put my finger on… something to do with history. Something the show probably should have come across while doing some research on World War Two era fashions, life and technology…
Seriously DC Comics, you should know better… not even Catwoman wore spandex in the 1940s and she was a femme fatale from word go!
– wincenworks
Watch: This dad’s TED talk about female super heroes is so important
follow @this-is-life-actually
Christopher Bell: Bring on the female super heroes!
We want to give special props to Christopher for calling out both how high saturation media giants like Disney tend to promise representation but stop short of even a token presence and how society’s fixation with gendering media and traits hurts children of all genders.
As a preemptive response to those who claim he’s misrepresenting media in general or it’s just Disney, let’s use a recent video game that claims it’s doing better representation for women.
Here is all the Zarya merchandise Blizzard has in their online store that isn’t a generic Overwatch/group item or labelled as “Men’s”
I’d like to show you their Mei merchandise, but they don’t have any. At all.
Yeah.
– wincenworks
Watch: This dad’s TED talk about female super heroes is so important
follow @this-is-life-actually
Christopher Bell: Bring on the female super heroes!
We want to give special props to Christopher for calling out both how high saturation media giants like Disney tend to promise representation but stop short of even a token presence and how society’s fixation with gendering media and traits hurts children of all genders.
As a preemptive response to those who claim he’s misrepresenting media in general or it’s just Disney, let’s use a recent video game that claims it’s doing better representation for women.
Here is all the Zarya merchandise Blizzard has in their online store that isn’t a generic Overwatch/group item or labelled as “Men’s”
I’d like to show you their Mei merchandise, but they don’t have any. At all.
Yeah.
– wincenworks