Star Sapphire in Justice League Doom

@avatarwill113 submitted: 

Wow. So she decided “I’m going to wear this pointless half-helmet that offers no protection, but I’m going to expose most of my upper torso, in a way which is hugely impractical for most mundane tasks let alone super-villainy”. Maybe she wants to show off her lack of bellybutton? 

Star Sapphire basically never gets a break from godawful costume. 

What upsets me the most is that animated adaptations usually veer on the safer (and less physically impossible) side of sexualized superheroine costumes (see: Angela and Dagger), thus old DC Animated Universe Star Sapphire just wore a leotard and thigh-high boots: 

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The Justice League Doom one is just… ugh.

~Ozzie

Legion of Doom, more like Legion of Skin. 

Nobody in this team has a bellybutton…

Also, apparently that purple star tattoo is where she stashed her powers. Observe.

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Am I the only one weirded out by the casual way with which he just sticks his hand into another person? ( ಠ_ಠ) Not to mention, maybe put the crystal that holds all of your powers somewhere where a person can’t just grab it so easily. Then maybe she could wear a better outfit. 

-Icy

Hollywood Has a Boob Armor Problem, and It Needs to Stop

Hollywood Has a Boob Armor Problem, and It Needs to Stop

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A discussion that started since Wasp’s boobtastic costume got revealed in the Ant Man movie got rekindled once new photos from the upcoming sequel started popping up.

Significant quote from the article, a response to something us female costume design critics are often accused of:

To be clear, this isn’t a call for modesty. This is a call for Hollywood to have more realistic depictions of female warriors. and more creativity in their designs. 

While it’s hard to advocate for the barbarian warrior heroic nudity in media like PG13 movies, modesty of a costume is hardly ever an issue for us (well, maybe unless it directly contradicts a specific character’s modest personality). That’s why the Female Armor Rhetoric Bingo has a "You want every woman to be covered from head to toe!” square.

As usual, though, I strongly disagree with assertion (in the latter part of the text) that movie!Wonder Woman’s armor is a good middle ground between practicality and aesthetic. Again, neither having vaguely historical references nor looking better than Amazon bikinis from the Justice League film make it an objectively good design, especially when you put Diana next to her male peers

Also, throwing Lady Sif and Valkyrie under the bus, when at worst their costumes are exactly as bad as Wondy’s and the Amazons’? Someone seems to write with DC-favoring bias >.> 

For more comprehensive commentary about the whole spectrum between genuinely practical female armor and unrealistic, but feminine and aesthetically pleasing armor, I recommend reading the Skin Is Not Necessary for Sex Appeal article we reblogged before.

~Ozzie 

h/t: @filipfatalattractionrblog

Bingo filled by Twitter user @GTPsijic

Since when talking about difference between Wonder Woman movie and Justice League movie Amazon costumes this week we mentioned two articles that praised the former, let’s set the record straight: NOPE. 

Amazon armor is not good, let alone perfect, in Wonder Woman. At best, it looks like leather/metal fashion wear with some neat Greco-Roman references for armor history geeks… Given we accept the reality where Ancient Mediterraneans invented boobplates and wedge heels as combat wear. 

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But now at least we can make an informed guess that those old costumes were some sort of hard-earned compromise between giving the actresses wearable armor and meeting the “sex sellsdemand 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

I’m still very angry that the new costumes make old ones look so much better just in comparison, making our criticism look weirdly harsh in hindsight. Lowering standards below the ground level doesn’t invalidate the points already made regarding the old standard

~Ozzie 

see also: fan-submitted bingo for the old Amazon armor

Why Wonder Woman Deserves More

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

realms-master:

Help me out here guys….

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!)

Bolding mine. I share this sentiment.

We had posts regarding both on how questionable Wonder Woman’s strapless cleavage cut is and the rare (official!) alternative designs that are more practical and/or pay tribute to ancient Greek aesthetic, unlike the iconic outfit everyone remembers most.

~Ozzie

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:

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Epic creativity.

– wincenworks

Even when she gets a skirt, it’s like a swimsuit equivalent.

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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. 

~Ozzie

The Amazons’ New Clothes – The Golden Lasso

The Amazons’ New Clothes – The Golden Lasso

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SamBeringer submitted: 

Zack Snyder took one look at the boobplate in Wonder Woman and went “hold my beer.” Christ, this is awful.

Worst part? Here’s something the article above points out:

Wonder Woman began filming in 2015, the year before Justice League started filming in 2016. The Amazons’  design was finalized and most of the costumes completed while Justice League was still in pre-production. That means that there were discussions about what the Amazons should wear into battle in Justice League and the epic designs from Wonder Woman were rejected in favor of leather bikinis. Let that sink in. They rejected already finished costumes to redesign and remake the armor so that more skin would be showing.” 

Thanks to all readers who sent this our way! 

This makes me angry on a visceral level. We covered the problems with the costumes and the way the were pitched in the Wonder Woman movie, but this is twice as bad with none of hat tips toward real historical armor.  This has all those problems and then some. And is, frankly, just generic bikini armor trash.

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.

~Ozzie

See also: Buzzfeed’s take on the same topic (ht: @itsgoodtobeming)


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:

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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
  • Warner Bros or some other executive power only allowed the Wonder Woman amazon armor to be as not-terrible-as-possible because they assumed it would be a limited interest movie and not the highest grossing Superhero Origin Story at the time of it’s release. (which would explain this comic)

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:

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– wincenworks

Cheetah’s appearance in Injustice 2. Why even put clothing on an animal hybrid? She’s covered in fur, what are the clothes for? Because they’re not for any purposes of breast support or protection from attacks… The “outfit” ends up calling more attention to various body parts by putting clothes on them, much in the same vein as Jack in Mass Effect 2. That loincloth especially calls a lot of attention to itself.

Also, does she apply lipstick as part of her grooming routine? What’s going on with her mouth?

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Though I’ll give her that she looks rightfully upset.

-Icy 

Cheetah’s design changed a lot over time, though whether her spots were a costume or her own fur, she rarely wore clothes over them [image source]:

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When she did, though, it was some basic minimalistic garb, not overdesigned “savage” costume  with way too many “exotic” accessories over boobs and butt.

~Ozzie