and question why majority of the “Gaming Feminist” population cry and moan about “Bikini Armor” in World of Warcraft
But when it comes to representing a male character in cosplay they decide to strip it all down into a “Bikini Armor”… Contradiction at it’s best.
You want to look sexy… Go for it, But don’t point the finger at “sexist pigs”.
This is why I can’t take none of you social bloggers serious.
Now feel free to read between the lines and tell me about all the irrelevant crap I don’t need to read while you derail from the BASIC point I’m making here.
So… that “basic” point is “feminist who criticize stupid armor bikinis can not EVER want to look sexy or dress scantily out of their own free will”?
That’s why I have no trust for anyone who starts their statement with “I am going to play Devil’s Advocate”.
~Ozzie
After I finished laughing… which took a while. I decided I would go out looking for this army of social justice warriors in sexy Rule 63 Warcraft cosplay. Surely there must have been a legion of them to inspire such vitriol.
I found: One woman doing a single sexy WarCraft crossplay… and found no references to Social Justice, social justice issues or “sexist pigs” on any of their profiles (Indeed Google returns no results for their screen name + “sexist pigs”)
So not only did they miss the point – but this argument exists only in their imagination. That reminds me of something…
Post otherwise worth bringing back, because we’re never free of hilariously oversensitive dudebros crying HYPOCRISY at strawfeminist SJWs for somehow simultaneously hating bikini armor and… wanting to personally dress up as sexy male characters in said bikinis? Okay.
Which totally happens. With frequency… not.
And even if that did happen, we have a tags about agency and false equivalence which address such unfair comparisons. Have a good read!
~Ozzie
Posted on
A New Take on The Old Republic costumes
Star Wars: The Old Republic typically has pretty good gender equality in their armors, but rarely there pop up some designs that are just old-fashioned. Not cause they’re 18th century tuxedos, it’s the double standard that’s old-fashioned… let’s just get into it.
Darth Sion Armor Set
I completely forgot about this guy cause I played Knights of the Old Republic 2 162 years ago, but Darth Sion is a shirtless angry man with scars(?), and this is his SWTOR armor set. I wasn’t too mad about the bare midriff in this since the dude version is bare-chested.
I was, however, and will continue to be, petty about the default for “lady equivalent of a shirtless man” being a literal bikini top. They had it so good with the back, but then dipped the neckline so far down in the front that it lost all of its support. There’s a reason sports bras have more than just an underwire.
(On the other hand, just adding a top means the pauldron isn’t nailed into her shoulder blade, like it is for the dudes.)
So my main effort went into adding the support back in, as well as giving her some girth. That’s my main complaint about the ladies in SWTOR: They’re all sticks! Even the “thicc” body type is miles off from the dude version. Granted, I didn’t give her the buff woman build I’d usually go for, but that’s because I was trying to prove a point; that the initial model wouldn’t have to change much to make her look like a fighter.
I also gave her some Sick Veins, cause that’s what the Siths get in SWTOR. (Where are my cool crackled-rock-scars, BioWare??) But I only drew that on one of the closeups, cause it was One of Those Days.
-Icy
Bold Hellion’s Armor Set
How anything about this glorified biker costume, male or female, says “armor”, I do not comprehend.
Since the dude version is also shirtless, I took much more issue with the suspicious dimorphism in how their bodies are depicted and gendered double standard in the cut of the costume, rather than with protective value.
It was one of Those Days, so I limited the redesign to giving the lady version a non-stick-figure body, which included replacing her teeny crop jacket with his, that also covered a lot more of her mid-section.
Basically my lowest effort redo so far, yet still just making her buff made quite a difference, I’d say.
This artwork looks like an attempt at imitating Chris Sanders style of pinup, but with Uncanny Valley effect instead of his deep understanding of anatomy and character appeal.
Oh, the hubris it takes to draw every single female character as contorted fish-faced… thing with giant boobs and ass and then insist that it’s the only right way to design cartoony women, because females be sexy. And also that male cartoony characters should be all angular and ‘heroic’-looking, because that’s somehow inherently masculine. Then to present way more diversity among men anyway.
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.
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
Halloween throwback time! Reminder that to wear a mass-produced superhero novelty costume, ladies need to come in conventionally sexy size and shape (and usually ready to show more skin), while guys get the outfit to compensate their everyman figure with foam abs.
~Ozzie
I suppose I should be grateful that the girl costumes don’t compensate with foam boobs and butts, cause we all know that’s the Woman Power Fantasy: being slim thicc. ?
In MGSV if you ogle Quiet, she “poses” for you suggestively. In Death
Stranding if you stare at Sam’s crotch, he punches you. The framing of
both of these are bad. One is framed as a reward, the other is framed as
“no homo!” despite the player’s action in both being the same. I don’t
care if you worship Kojima, we REALLY need to talk about the “male gaze”
perspective in his games, and stop giving him a pass because you love
his games.
On the one hand, I do appreciate that ogling a character who isn’t comfortable with it comes with consequences. On the other hand, I doubt there are consequences for ogling any of the ladies. I also agree with the “no-homo” and violence criticism. Are guys not allowed to say “hey, could you stop staring at my crotch? It’s making me uncomfortable”? Wincenworks, please confirm.
This really points out the big double standard in the last 2 games from Kojima, as well as most of the media we criticize on this blog: that men have agency and women are just objects meant for consumption, whether that’s for fan-service, being a plot device, or being a lamp. The two lady characters I know from the reveals from Death Stranding are named Mother and Fragile, so that’s…. not promising at all.
-Icy
Punching people in the face for looking at their crotch is generally frowned upon in society, as it is usually customary for the other party to demand you be removed from premises or charged, even in places which still have “gay panic” defenses on the books. (What I’m saying is this normalizes the absurd justifications cishet men use for real violence against real men-loving-men)
This was a relatively laid-back stream. I was actually pretty surprised that we had not tackled WoW in a stream before! I ended up picking the Jade Armor just because of that underboob… it was just taunting me… I had to do it. It wasn’t my fault! Please, don’t–!
So besides switching the outfits between the 2 characters, I also switched their facial expressions! I gave the maaale an attractive, nonthreatening smile, while making the lady more intimidating. I also added the at-this-point Patented Icy Redesign Dick. I mean, if we can’t tell he has a penis, how are we supposed to know he’s a man, Blizzard?? How???
-Icy
Glorious Set
This change was pretty basic copypasting job with adjustments according to character silhouettes. Bonus change was giving the guy’s cool braids to the lady, as she deserves an interesting haircut as well!
And this shit gets a thousand times worse whenever the costume is not even supposed to made of latex, but regular-ass fabric… or metal ¯_( ͠° ͟ʖ ͠° )_/¯
Sometimes when I’m watching a review for a Marvel movie and they start talking about how hot the female lead is, I briefly think “Seriously? Gross pigs”. But then I take a look at my desktop and see screen caps of almost all of Chris Evans’ ass shots from his Marvel movies, and I realize I have absolutely no right to judge. I am no better. That’s not to say nobody else has the right to judge, because they do. Just putting it into perspective so both sides can understand one another better.
Not really. Who even cares about objectifying Steve Rogers when he gets 3 of his very own movies and there isn’t even a SINGLE movie for ANY female character. Who cares about women on tumblr objectifying him prettyyyy much harmlessly when entertainment shows/sites seen by millions gush about Steve’s character development or Chris’ acting, while the only thing they say about the SOLE woman is her new hair/her weight loss or gain/how hot she looked. Sometimes, women are ONLY put in movies to be the token “eye candy”, (regardless of whether or not she’s underage) and this happens a lot. Look at the massive franchise that is Transformers.
It’s not the same thing… Men objectify women and it leads to real life violence against women—fuelled by already rampant misogyny. Women objectify men and it leads to gifsets of Chris Evans’ ass.
Yuppppp And no one respects sexy men less for being “objectified” if you can even apply the term the same way to a guy- if anything, being objectified is glorifying for men.
What’s that thing Joe Mangianello said about how he doesn’t feel like men can be objectified? Cuz women are viewed as sex objects, but men are viewed as power objects?
A guy who takes off his shirt and shows off his buff bod in a movie has power, he’s displaying his value and attractiveness
I mean, the culture isn’t NEARLY the same; I’ve been thinking lately about how no matter how much we “objectify” men, it’s always an empowering thing for the man.
He’s sexy: it’s an achievement.
And a lot of our attraction is also about fawning over the man’s personality, his expressions, the nuances of the character he plays- cute jokes about Doritoes….
I can go from posting ten close-ups of Chris Evan’s ass (accompanied by praise and self-deprecating jokes) To a picture of him in a sweater-vest, looking pensive and talking about his love of golden retrievers in the same ten minutes (with commentary about what a darling angel he is)
None of it is demeaning or objectifying in remotely the way female objectification is, and your point about Chris Evans starring in three Cap solo movies is really right on…. …while women can barely scrape past the damn Bechdel test half the time, and half the time are reduced to T&A and get assaulted or fridged or show up in their undies for no reason…
Some wise words about gendered double standards and false equivalence between objectifying male and female characters.
Keep in mind that this post is at least five years old and since then we had barely two mainstream superhero movies with female leads released, one of which was about Wonder Woman in an unmistakably sexualized costume.
