But now at least we can make an informed guess that those old costumes were some sort of hard-earnedcompromise between giving the actresses wearable armor and meeting the “sex sells” demand from higher ups. It’s obviously no coincidence that once there were no women in power over the next movie Amazons appear in, any restraint over shamelessly objectifying them was gone.
Okay, I may not be a huge comic book buff (yet still a huge fan!), but I’m willing to learn if there’s something I’m missing. I’ve always loved the idea of Wonder Woman – a powerful female warrioress from Ancient Greece/Amazonian culture (iirc), a Xena-like character who fights for virtue, honor, truth, all those good things. She plays with the big boys, and not only keeps up, but shows them how it’s done.
If that’s so, then…whywhyWHY is she most always shown in a skintight, strapless, pantsless, thong/swimming suit/flimsy piece of spandex???? I know she’s pretty indestructible, but do you know how HARD it is to fight in a leather corset, where there’s no straps to keep that gigantic chest in place?
It makes me VERY sad that such a famous, prominent figure of feminine power is mostly seen as a sex icon, mostly featured in sexy/escher-esque poses, wearing “clothing” that looks like it was sprayed on or hanging on with a wing and a prayer (and maybe ample amounts of superglue?), or any variation thereof? I say ‘mostly’, because I have seen some versions where she’s more practical, with pants, real armor, heck I’ll even settle for the Greek/Xena-style skirt in some versions. Bravo to those people for giving our poor warrioress some semblance of dignity.
If I understand correctly, like in the Xena universe, that is the ‘style’ of the era, the leather skirt with the bodice and shoulder armor, reminiscent of Romans and Greeks from Sparta, etc. Well okay then, give WW an outfit that actually looks/works like real armor from that period, instead of the spandex thong/corset she’s most often depicted in. Also, iirc, maybe she doesn’t wear full armor because that’s the ‘Amazon way’, IE: she’s so OP that she doesn’t need full covering. But give her SOMETHING that isn’t so obviously designed to sell sex first, and practicality last!
Spandex may be all the rage for comic books (and it’s probably easier to draw), but I’d like to direct your attention to some of these wonderful blogs for many, many more reasons why our beloved Wonder Woman deserves more than a minimal-coverage, maximum-bust corset (and why practical armor can be even more BA and gorgeous):
Unless there is a practical, logical reason why WW is nearly always shown in the aforementioned ILLOGICAL ways, let’s face it: Sex sells, and too many people are buying. And that is no excuse, because women like myself want to see our gender treated with more dignity, respect, and understanding than what is given. You know what, I’ll bet Superman is chivalrous. And so is Wonder Woman.
I challenge any WW artist to design her with something more akin to Lady Sif (from the movie version), instead of just going with the flow.
TL;DR – Wonder Woman is too freaking amazing to be treated as a sex icon. She deserves a whole heck of a lot more from us, her fans. She deserves something befitting who she is, and what she represents.
My post isn’t intended to insult anyone, I know we all have different ideas and viewpoints. I’m just expressing my own views and frustrations with society :/
/end rant (btw, I have no problem with the comic book world; check my blogs, I’m a huge nerd! But I do have a problem with how prevalent the sex industry is, especially in my fandoms! Move over boys, girls are nerds too!)
I really find it baffling that after sixty-four years and countless re-boots, re-designs, re-imaginings for different mediums, etc. DC Comics keeps coming back to basically her original costume but with no skirt:
Epic creativity.
– wincenworks
Even when she gets a skirt, it’s like a swimsuit equivalent.
It’s shaped like a W, get it?? …For Wonder Woman!
-Icy
This was the most appropriate throwback we could think of, with Justice League film and its degraded Amazon costumes coming so soon. Diana, as well as her people, really deserves better.
Even the cover above, which Icy added, is a perfect example of Wonder Woman costumes which @realms-master talks about! That armor is literally painted on her (impossibly narrow-waisted) torso, especially the boobplate that somehow conforms to gravity along with the breasts. No amount of intricate shading would mask that. Also note the dissonance between Wondy’s serene expression and triumphant pose. It’s obvious that the artist, Liam Sharp, aimed to make her more “appealing” than powerful.
As the article points out, the Justice League movie has an essentially all male executive team as well as a male costumer. There’s presumably also a Creepy Marketing Guy (or even a small army of them, seeing as this is a DC/Warner Bros production).
No matter who to blame, this is just self-demonstrably shameful.
What’s really baffling about this is that Zack Snyder and same costumer, Michael Wilkinson, did manage to create a fairly decent (fantastic by comparison, but certainly not without it’s faults) female costume design in Man of Steel, as worn by the glorious Faora-Ul:
Most of the high end production staff from Justice League also contributed on Wonder Woman. So that leaves us with several equally terrible possibilities:
Someone with executive power literally saw the early sections of Wonder Woman and decided that what it needed was more women’s body on display so asked for “sexy versions of that”
The executive(s) in charge have been starting with “playing it safe” to build hype on the initial movies, and now have concluded that since those were a success they can throw female characters and fans under the bus in favor of their own puerile fantasies
You may notice a theme of this being an executive with very poor judgement, and as much as a suspect otherwise I really hope it’s NOT Zack Snyder. Because if it is, this does not bode well for the future:
– wincenworks
Posted on
Amelia in Fire Emblem Heroes
FEAnon submitted (and Ozzie bingo’d):
So the character Amelia from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones was added to the inter franchise crossover, Fire Emblem Heroes in her General form, General being a heavily armored character class in Fire Emblem.
In Sacred Stones, Amelia looks the part if she becomes an armored class, but something seems off from her Heroes depiction.
Amelia seems to have forgotten not only leggings fro her armor, but pants. Maybe I’m missing something, but why wear heavy armor if your entire lower body is exposed? That pose and the camera focus is also real interesting of the artist.
Male Member of the same class in the same game.
Lets try for a Bingo!
Unimpressive bingo score, but that just shows how close Amelia was to a decent female armor design before someone decided that a girl knight should go pantless, despite being heavily armored from waist up.
How sad it is that the only images of this character without randomly uncovered legs are low-res sprites from an older game… Gods forbid pants on a female warrior were more than a couple pixels high.
~Ozzie
Posted on
(Warning: This game deals with a lot of dark material and imagery for this game includes a lot of themes of torture, death, psychosis and gore. I have tried my best to avoid putting any disturbing imagery in this post or linking to any directly)
We’ve had numerous requests for comment on Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and to be honest it’s a complicated topic. It is true that it is a game that avoided various tropes that we’re told games need such as bikini armor, battle thongs, cleavage, etc But the outfit is still not on par with say Emily Kaldwen or Billy Lurk’s attire. (It’s still angering brodudes though)
It’s also a game where the much more important criticisms such as the handling of theme of mental illness and protagonist having locs (which Celts and Vikings did not have, which is why their descendants need various modern products to replicate them). So comparatively Senua’s attire not being terrible is minor.
The game is however is an interesting example of how even studios beginning with the noblest intentions can get pulled down by industry pressure and reliance upon media and societal standards. They started with:
They wanted it to be historical, but when it came time to find reference images… they didn’t exactly cite what I could call historically robust sources:
When it came time to scan a body for the 3D model of Senua, they went with a fitness instructor, who also happens to do modelling. She she did end up half of the things that the original vision promised she would not be, and her attire was designed more around modern fashion ideals than her origin.
The fact that it stands out to so many people as so different and that the developers felt they only had the freedom to do this much by avoiding signing on a publisher really says a lot.
