Tag: costume design

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Gender is messier than a singular point on a two-dimensional line

Gender is messier than a singular point on a two-dimensional line

It’s worth bringing up that while the vast majority of content we cover is direct comparisons of depictions of cis women to cis men, and the main reason for this is frankly it’s very rare for popular media to create engaging characters that aren’t cis and/or don’t conform to the gender binary.

The complexities of gender along with the complexities of trying to incorporate signifiers in your designs are perhaps yet another great reason to instead focus on other aspects in armor/costume design.  Concepts like:

  • Practicalities and priorities in combat/adventuring
  • Personality traits and personal histories of characters
  • Unique or special traits of the world in which the character exists

Basically all the stuff that often gets considered with cis male characters design processes in most media.  Then we can have all kinds of characters created with the same sort of depth and respect.

Kind of amazing that we have people who are opposed to this.

– wincenworks

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As a follow up to HBomber’s excellent video discussing how popular media (especially games) doesn’t objectify men I thought it was worth pointing out that the double standard is especially obvious if one looks at novelty superhero costumes (using the above examples or any of those featured at @fucknosexistcostumes)

Male costumes commonly come with the padding to simulate the muscular physiques, because they’re to make the “every man” feel like a superhero without having to work out or diet.

Female costumes commonly are sized with the assumption the wearer will fit within conventional beauty standards commonly assigned to superheroes.  The “every woman” is expected to diet and exercise to look like a drawing in a comic book.

On top of that: women who don’t fit within the very narrow, artificial beauty standards will find that the family pets get better costume options than they do.

It’s really amazing how much of reality you have to willfully disregard to try to support the “men are sexually objectified too!” argument.

– wincenworks

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Zero Suit Samus’ Heels: Why it’s a Big Deal and Why You Should Care

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

capriceandwhimsy:

So the thing I keep hearing is that Samus’s new Zero Suit design from SSB4 is okay because “they’re not actually high heels, they’re jet boots.”

Bullshit.

But before we get into that: why is it a big deal that Samus is wearing heels in the first place?

Read More

Great article regarding character and costume design of Samus Aran throughout the years. Things to learn from it:

  • why slapping “jet boots” label on high heels doesn’t justify the heels
  • what Samus’s appearance conveyed in the old Metroid games and what it does now
  • why is Zero Suit worse than a two-piece skin revealing costume Samus used to have
  • how the recent games betrayed Zero Suit’s original purpose

I highly recommend reading it whole!

~Ozzie

In addition, Shattered Earth did a great breakdown on the “Jet Boots” (Dr Evil air quotes there) and explored what they might have looked like if they were designed with purpose here.

– wincenworks

This week’s blast from the past: great breakdown of the infamous Samus’s “jet boots” which happen to look exactly like really badly designed and anatomically impossible high heels. 

Also, as a reader, Ceithir, reminded us, our blog never featured this concept art from Metroid Fusion, which confirms that Zero Suit was never meant to involve impossibly high heeled footwear.

image
image

Well that priority sure survived for long…

image

~Ozzie 

Posted on

Zero Suit Samus’ Heels: Why it’s a Big Deal and Why You Should Care

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

capriceandwhimsy:

So the thing I keep hearing is that Samus’s new Zero Suit design from SSB4 is okay because “they’re not actually high heels, they’re jet boots.”

Bullshit.

But before we get into that: why is it a big deal that Samus is wearing heels in the first place?

Read More

Great article regarding character and costume design of Samus Aran throughout the years. Things to learn from it:

  • why slapping “jet boots” label on high heels doesn’t justify the heels
  • what Samus’s appearance conveyed in the old Metroid games and what it does now
  • why is Zero Suit worse than a two-piece skin revealing costume Samus used to have
  • how the recent games betrayed Zero Suit’s original purpose

I highly recommend reading it whole!

~Ozzie

In addition, Shattered Earth did a great breakdown on the “Jet Boots” (Dr Evil air quotes there) and explored what they might have looked like if they were designed with purpose here.

– wincenworks

This week’s blast from the past: great breakdown of the infamous Samus’s “jet boots” which happen to look exactly like really badly designed and anatomically impossible high heels. 

Also, as a reader, Ceithir, reminded us, our blog never featured this concept art from Metroid Fusion, which confirms that Zero Suit was never meant to involve impossibly high heeled footwear.

image
image

Well that priority sure survived for long…

image

~Ozzie