Remember when I said earlier that Kojima reference never gets old? Wish I meant it only as “mocking that tweet about Quiet is always funny”.
NOPE. Media creators actually keep using some variation of “Once you learn why her being half naked has convenient in-story reasons, you will feel ashamed about your comments” to preemptively shut down criticism they know they gonna get for creepy double standards in costume/character design.
So, again, let’s make it clear: designing fictional explanations for gratuitously creepy ideas in fiction does not mean they’re impervious from real-world critique.
~Ozzie
Brought to our attention by superheroineworld (thank you so much for linking it in a reblog!)
This video sums up pretty damn well why any sort of “makes sense in context” justification for absurd and creepy things in fiction (like, say, bikini armors) is invalid by default.
Quotes worth highlighting:
Writers routinely alter the rules to suit their interests and the needs of their story. So, in the world outside of the diegesis, in our world, only the implications and impact of that fiction actually matter.
It’s basically a circular argument to expect that the fictional rules created specifically for the narrative will shield the narrative from being criticized on the meta level.
Criticism of a creative work is, ultimately, criticism of the decisions that people made when they were putting it together.
Which is also why “you’re slut-shaming that character" is a fail at responding to criticism. Characters are fictional constructs with no agency and the “choices” they make can be blamed solely on their creators.
You guys might have noticed, but around half of the Female Armor Rhetoric Bingo is made from Thermian arguments. That’s how popular this circular logic is among skimpy armor defenders. And I’m glad we now have this video to explain why it doesn’t work.
~Ozzie
Most people understand that stories are constructed with plot outcomes in mind and thus parts of the story (such as characters) are adapted accordingly. The love interest will always be attractive regardless of background, and the protagonist will always be set off on the adventure regardless of how many other potential candidates are about.
So it stands to reason that it should not be expected that if we’re told a female character just happens to have a plot critical reason for dressing in a ridiculous outfit, it’s pretty likely the plot was adapted to justify the costume and not vice versa.
Doubly so if the same plot elements are applied to men in a manner that fails to qualify them for being recognized as truly empowered.
– wincenworks
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
I can’t help but think that if, in 2009, Marvel had consistently put as much effort into pitching the Supehero/Spy crossover angle and making James Woo look like… well James Woo (instead of the Punisher) as they did in making every one of these covers assure the reader that this issue contains a half naked superhero lady then maybe Agents of Atlas would be memorable title.
After all they mostly did that in the 2006 season and the series got to make a comeback in 2009, but now it’s pretty much forgotten and nobody even bothers to keep the url parked any more.
It’s almost like these ridiculous costumes don’t sell comics or something.
– wincenworks