I, as a woman, want Wonder Woman to be hot as hell, fight badass, and look great at the same time – the same way men want Superman to have huge pecs and an impractically big body. That makes them feel like the hero they want to be. And my hero, in my head, has really long legs.
Because that:
Has TOTALLY the same costuming priorities as this:
With lines like that, maybe Jenkins and the costume designer, Lindy Hemming, aim to be the Mari Shimazakis of Hollywood… Except Diana of Themyscira is not Bayonetta, so “she’s supposed to be very sexy and I as a lady find it empowering” excuses do not really work, even in
I want to be optimistic and am gonna assume that the crew is contractually obligated to endorse every choice made about the movie, no matter how ridiculous it is when you think about it for more than a second.
That being said, please don’t read it as an endorsement to boycott Wonder Woman in cinemas. Critics have been saying some great and interesting things about it, so if you decide to watch it, remember that you can enjoy the movie while being critical of its flaws (like costumes that contradict the story’s message). Still, be watchful of both what’s communicated on screen and behind the scenes, cause those things say a lot about how female-led stories are viewed in the industry.
~Ozzie
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Art is not made in a vacuum. It is tangible communication – a powerful object formed from varied experiences and views, and the implications it derives from the world in which it was born.
Pretending that something is “only” a piece of art/fiction/game/whatever and therefore can’t possibly be emblematic of its creator’s own biases (and form further bias among the audience) is ignorant at best.
Art and entertainment are, by design, media for transferring ideas. Not always intentionally in the propagandist way, but the transfer happens constantly. That’s one of the reasons media criticism is needed: to seek out and analyze what media communicate.
This is why we don’t buy “Oh, let those hundreds upon thousands of fictional ladies fight wars in metal bikinis, what bad could possibly be taken from all those stories they are featured in?” argument.
male gamers like to pretend that male characters designed, draw/rendered and written by men, made hulkishly muscular and hypermasculine by men for a deliberate target audience of men is objectification and hypersexualisation rather than actively appealing to male power fantasy
and it’s somehow women’s fault of course
My favorite example of this is when people try to invoke this guy as their ultimate trump card of “Men are objectified in video games too!”
The ultimate steroid rager who converses primarily by screaming and murdering. A completely selfish man who, since murdering his wife and daughter, seems to only one emotion (anger) and prone to random acts of violence. A man so terrible that he goes out of his way to incorporate murdering random women* into “puzzle solving”.**
People actually point to this character, created by a man (David Jaffe) and try to tell us this is objectification of men in order to pander to women.
Then, presumably, after throwing a tantrum and destroying random objects in their home, then wonder why women aren’t impressed by this and find them undateable.
* The fact that almost the entire female population, including the monsters, goes to great pains to show off their breasts to the player also never seems to factor into their assessment.
** This sequence featured in Tropes vs Women in Video Games – however please be advised that this sequence along with other parts in the video contain extreme depictions of violence against women. (x)
– wincenworks
So, due to some minor events that gave this myth a shot in the arm, it’s probably worth bringing this back this week, particularly since said event related to barbarians and similarly physically powerful warriors.
The notion that “men are objectified too” really doesn’t hold up under the slightest scrutiny – particularly when so much media insists on asking the audience to cheer for super violent male characters who are often amazingly unlikeable.
– wincenworks
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things that don’t break white male gamer’s immersion: dragons, magic, made up metals, impossibly large weapons, eating 50 potatoes while in combat, riding a horse up a 90 degree cliff
things that break white male gamer’s immersion: realistic armor for women, black people
~~~
The recent dudebro meltdown over new Star Wars game having female protagonist called for this Throwback. It’s additionally important since apparently someone even took issue with the character’s perceived ethnicity.
~Ozzie
When there’s a cultural “normal” in media, seeing anything that diverges from it becomes too obvious (for better or worse). That’s why questioning that “normal” is so important.
-Icy
Somehow it’s like the umpteenth “official” time when the SJWs/feminazis “took over” video games and movies – according to some men whose worldview shatters at a sight of a non-sexualized female lead in a trailer. Remember when the same thing happened with Dragon Age: Inquisition? Or more recently, with Ghosbustersreboot? The list could go on.
Yeah, dudes, if you continue to act like that someone will totally take you seriously eventually!
~Ozzie
As an additional note, while I fully understand and sympathize with the desire to turn various aspects of ridicule back on certain demographics – please do not misuse the term “triggered” like this, it does a disservice to people with actual PTSD triggers and perpetuates their ridicule.
You have men yelling: “yay! Boobs in games! Bigger boobs! More boob! Naked boob!”for decades. When female gamers finally got enough of a voice to say: “hey, I kind of wish there were women in video games who weren’t 80% boob by body weight”: those same men utterly flipped their shit.
This whole “why complain? You can’t tell designers what to do!” only seems to come up any time anyone but straight, white men dares make their opinion heard.
Sadly accurate.
Note how whenever cishet white audience members demand changes, those demands are met, or at the very least acknowledged. Whenever anyone else does that, it’s gonna be called “whining” or “entilement”.
Emphasis mine.
~Ozzie
Video game has a single gay male character who flirts you? Riot against the developers. Protagonist options do not include a white male? Riot against the developers. Age of Conan reduces bust sizes on female characters? Riot against the developers. Didn’t get the ending you wanted? Riot against the developers.
Women who have been gaming for years point out obvious problems?
– wincenworks
It still baffles me that wanting women in games to be designed appropriately for their job/setting is a controversial opinion to have, apparently.
Daughters of Persephone! My women only Space Marine Chapter. Not my best illustration work, but its really starting to take too much time for a quick fan work / colour concept, and I should work on more original works really (though I’ll probably end up doing other fan stuffs :P)
Threw together another quick sketch, playing with the general out of armour look.
I like this interpretation of the black carapace.
It’s going to happen sooner or later
You keep telling yourself that lol
Yeah…
Just remember there is more ‘Daughters of Persephone’ where that came from 🙂
Warhammer 40k bros are the epitome of fragile geek masculinity*
To them, not only women as Space Marines simply can not be a thing, because arbitrary fluff reasons – Emperor God forbid any fan dared to draw, let alone customize some figures of them! Literally. We’re talking about the Toxic Masculinity Brigade yelling “Heresy!” at anyone who even mentions the possibility of a female Astarte existing.
See all of @pantmonger‘s awesome Daughters of Persephone art + some commentary regarding detractors in one post here.
A Marvel representative decided to blame the rich representation of new characters, particularly women, LGBTQ+ folk and people of color, in their superherocomics as a reason for their recent sales drop. They’re making a bold claim that it’s the readers and retailers who didn’t really want diversity.
Incidentally, we discussed the potential of scapegoating the strive for diversity in media if said media is unsuccessful in our “Go make your own!” article.
