Content warning for sex worker-phobic language bit later (around 11:55) in the video.
Nostalgia Critic’s Spawn movie review took a shot at questioning randomly sexy assassin lady costume, which results in an exchange quite familiar to this blog:
-Anybody who dresses like that is NOT gonna take their job seriously.*
-What am I supposed to wear?
-Armor, bulletproof vest, a mask to hide your face!
-How are people supposed to know that I’m a woman?
-It doesn’t matter if you’re a woman. It’s actually better if they don’t know you’re a woman, because then you’d be harder to find!
Bonus points for this particular character being one of antagonists, which feeds squarely into “evil is sexy” cliche.
Especially since all her killer co-workers, including pre-Spawn Al Simmons (who she replaces as the top assassin), dress sensibly.
When will the day of pec-window male assassins come?
~Ozzie
* We assume Doug meant any job where serious personal injury is a regular risk.
I remember when the Spawn movie flopped, the creator of the franchise, Todd McFarlane, blamed the director for taking too much creative license (which was hilarious in itself McFarlane himself left Marvel due to them not allowing him enough creative license).
– wincenworks
more regarding sexy assassins on BABD
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
Hey there! I mentioned to my boyfriend (a pretty avid gamer) how ridiculous and useless female armor usually is in games, and he responded that “women would get mad if they wore the same armor as the men”. I’m not sure how one would prove such a claim, so I thought I’d ask here. How would you respond to that?
How would I respond?
I remember nearly two years ago, someone tried to tell us that women didn’t like Samus until got those (aesthetically awful) high heels and well it seems that that person was wrong. Very wrong. Profanity outburst inducingly wrong. It’s also more or less got it’s own Rhetoric Bingo square:
Consider:
- We’ve set up a Steam Group with a Curator section for people looking for games where female characters get decent characters.
- Posted about how there’s a plethora of mods that improve mainstream games that have failed to provide suitable outfits.
- Routinely get a lot of support for our positive examples, many of these examples are submitted to us by women who are really excited about the gender equitable designs
- There has been no end of popular parodies and serious commentary about this for years, some even featured by Blizzard (who still didn’t fix anything or make any real progress in the nine years since)
- It is a fact that everyone loves and/or wants to be just like Cassandra Pentaghast. No seriously, everyone loves her.
While it is certainly true that some women greatly enjoy some heavily sexualised female characters (and we’re totally okay with that), the notion that somehow there isn’t a demand for different types of female characters and different armor options in games and other media is just absurd.
A three volume anthology of stories to provide “characters with feminist overtones” (many, many of them seem to be armored very much like men…) was fully funded! Over a quarter of a million dollars has been pledged to the project – that doesn’t happen unless there is massive demand.
There are plenty of women out there who want big, hulking suits of armor and the ones who don’t are hardly going to get mad at a game that respects the notion of gender equality.
– wincenworks
Hey there! I mentioned to my boyfriend (a pretty avid gamer) how ridiculous and useless female armor usually is in games, and he responded that “women would get mad if they wore the same armor as the men”. I’m not sure how one would prove such a claim, so I thought I’d ask here. How would you respond to that?
How would I respond?
I remember nearly two years ago, someone tried to tell us that women didn’t like Samus until got those (aesthetically awful) high heels and well it seems that that person was wrong. Very wrong. Profanity outburst inducingly wrong. It’s also more or less got it’s own Rhetoric Bingo square:
Consider:
- We’ve set up a Steam Group with a Curator section for people looking for games where female characters get decent characters.
- Posted about how there’s a plethora of mods that improve mainstream games that have failed to provide suitable outfits.
- Routinely get a lot of support for our positive examples, many of these examples are submitted to us by women who are really excited about the gender equitable designs
- There has been no end of popular parodies and serious commentary about this for years, some even featured by Blizzard (who still didn’t fix anything or make any real progress in the nine years since)
- It is a fact that everyone loves and/or wants to be just like Cassandra Pentaghast. No seriously, everyone loves her.
While it is certainly true that some women greatly enjoy some heavily sexualised female characters (and we’re totally okay with that), the notion that somehow there isn’t a demand for different types of female characters and different armor options in games and other media is just absurd.
A three volume anthology of stories to provide “characters with feminist overtones” (many, many of them seem to be armored very much like men…) was fully funded! Over a quarter of a million dollars has been pledged to the project – that doesn’t happen unless there is massive demand.
There are plenty of women out there who want big, hulking suits of armor and the ones who don’t are hardly going to get mad at a game that respects the notion of gender equality.
– wincenworks
Benimaru Nikaido disempowered
@puppyinatophat submitted:
So I noticed you guys discussed King of Fighters XIV’s latest trailers and there was something that I feel you missed in your discussion.
Benimaru’s design change. They had a perfectly “empowered” character, and they take that away from him.
This was his pre XIV design (in game shots too):
(KOF 94)
(KOF 2000)
(KOF XI)
And now this is look in the latest game:
How could they? Taking away his empowerment like that? Expecting a man to fight in simple street clothes when he could be showing off his intimidating abs.
(Also, for those wondering about his hair, he has electricity powers and keeps hair out of his eyes by using static electricity to push it up. He’s also a very very inspired by the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure character Polnareff.)
(Trailer showing Benimaru in King of Fighters XIV here)
I would like to call for a solemn moment of silence, for this poor soul so had his empowerment stripped of him. (If you would like to press F to pay your respects, I’ve checked and it’s not a Tumblr hotkey so you’re safe to do.)
Benimaru, you are being failed by the people who should have been there to protect you. I’m so sorry.
Benimaru has all the traits of someone who should have been protected. He’s a fighting game character (not Street Fighter but still), he’s got fabulous hair, delicious abs and a love of teasingly revealing outfits. But, when the time came where were the “creative freedom” crowds? Who came forward to speak on this Benimaru’s behalf to speak of this fictional character’s important personal preferences?
No one. Benimaru was counting on these people to protect him (or would have if he wasn’t a fictional character). His empowerment has been stripped away without so much as a word of complaint by The Guardians.
– wincenworks
Benimaru Nikaido disempowered
@puppyinatophat submitted:
So I noticed you guys discussed King of Fighters XIV’s latest trailers and there was something that I feel you missed in your discussion.
Benimaru’s design change. They had a perfectly “empowered” character, and they take that away from him.
This was his pre XIV design (in game shots too):
(KOF 94)
(KOF 2000)
(KOF XI)
And now this is look in the latest game:
How could they? Taking away his empowerment like that? Expecting a man to fight in simple street clothes when he could be showing off his intimidating abs.
(Also, for those wondering about his hair, he has electricity powers and keeps hair out of his eyes by using static electricity to push it up. He’s also a very very inspired by the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure character Polnareff.)
(Trailer showing Benimaru in King of Fighters XIV here)
I would like to call for a solemn moment of silence, for this poor soul so had his empowerment stripped of him. (If you would like to press F to pay your respects, I’ve checked and it’s not a Tumblr hotkey so you’re safe to do.)
Benimaru, you are being failed by the people who should have been there to protect you. I’m so sorry.
Benimaru has all the traits of someone who should have been protected. He’s a fighting game character (not Street Fighter but still), he’s got fabulous hair, delicious abs and a love of teasingly revealing outfits. But, when the time came where were the “creative freedom” crowds? Who came forward to speak on this Benimaru’s behalf to speak of this fictional character’s important personal preferences?
No one. Benimaru was counting on these people to protect him (or would have if he wasn’t a fictional character). His empowerment has been stripped away without so much as a word of complaint by The Guardians.
– wincenworks
An apology
We recently reblogged a fan art of Zevran from Dragon Age in an outfit consisting mostly of straps and thus perfectly appropriate for both Zevran himself and our sexy male armor.
Unfortunately it was overlooked that the fan art in question did portray Zevran with a very pale skin tone. While he may often be depicted with pale skin, Zevran is definitely brown and beautiful.
As such the post has been removed and we sincerely apologize for the promotion of the original image and contributing to whitening a character of color.
~Ozzie & – wincenworks
An apology
We recently reblogged a fan art of Zevran from Dragon Age in an outfit consisting mostly of straps and thus perfectly appropriate for both Zevran himself and our sexy male armor.
Unfortunately it was overlooked that the fan art in question did portray Zevran with a very pale skin tone. While he may often be depicted with pale skin, Zevran is definitely brown and beautiful.
As such the post has been removed and we sincerely apologize for the promotion of the original image and contributing to whitening a character of color.
~Ozzie & – wincenworks