The hilarious front line in the tragic war against ridiculous female armor
Tag: FAQ
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Tidy Up Tuesday #95
Reminder to all first-time readers (who likely won’t even see this post) that questioning the very idea of criticizing any costume design isn’t a good look when you’re reblogging from a costume design critique blog.
Even casual scroll through our resource and reference tags would lead you to really good (often older than the videos in question) debunks about boob armor from people who, unlike him, make and/or wear armor for its intended use. Some of which, unlike him, are women and maaaybe have more expertise on what it’s like to have boobs under a breastplate. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
You’re welcome to use our Female Armor Bingo to play bingo with the characters you see in media. Make sure to read the rules, and to tag us in the posts!
Time to answer some more recent and returning inquiries!
Just heads up: we’re less likely to make a post based on a “Can you talk about XYZ?” question in our inbox than on a submission that includes image(s) and even most laconic description on what the design/character is.
PLEASE, before messaging us about something “not working” under a link we left to another part of our blog, check it on desktop computer first. We do our best to make sure that any link we provide works at the day of publishing. And we do not take responsibility for Tumblr screwing it up.
Tumblr mobile app basically refuses to show tags, subpages or to do searching properly. Just please keep that in mind when viewing BABD (or any other Tumblr blog) on mobile devices.
As we said in our last Tidy Up post, YES, we have seen that one YouTuber’s video about boob armor (and many others, like ones regarding Barbarians in bikini). And NO, he does not know what he’s talking about.
For better sources (a.k.a. people who can do minimal research before sharing strong opinions about fantasy and historical armor or women warriors’ role in society), check our reference and resource tags.
Surprised we need to say it here, but there was enough confusion in the comments and notes lately to justify it:
We are not qualified to answer questions or comments clearly meant for the original authors of stuff we didn’t make. Asking us in Disqus comment section or Tumblr notes about content that we posted from another source (which we always do our best to credit and/or link within the post) is quite pointless.
On the same note, commenting on some trivial non-BABD related aspect of content we posted is also rather wasteful. Please keep in mind why exactly something’s on bikiniarmorbattledamage before remarking on a part of it that might be incidental and unrelated.
Time for some updates! Since last Tidy Up ended up dominated by the topic of Tumblrocalypse and our thoughts on that, we might need to reiterate some points this week.
While Tumblr put its amazingly bad new policy officially to work, we’re still exploring the options of BABD’s move to a website on which we have more control over our content.
That said, this blog is going nowhere. Even after moving its primary posting to a different server, we will keep on linking new posts on our Tumblr (and it will probably remain the primary place for reader submissions).
Tumblr did something and lately tags and search button on our blog seem to not work consistently, especially on mobile. We’re sorry if tag links in our posts (including this one) don’t work or if you guys have trouble finding stuff on BABD, even when it’s properly tagged.
There’s a big chance that switching to PC would help, but we can’t guarantee that. Sorry there’s nothing we can do about it.
Tumblr also did a little, more high profile thing where they announced they would be getting rid of all “adult content” to make everyone happier and a better community – starting on December 17.
Summary of our thoughts below:
If Tumblr actually wanted to improve the community for people then they would could so in the following ways:
Actually reacting appropriately when people file reports. Whether it be to end harassment, clean up tags or just get downright horrifying content such as doxes and revenge porn off the site.
Actually target toxic groups such as Nazis, people who sexualise children, anti-feminists, Neo-Nazis, anti-SJW crusaders, creepshooters, Alt-Right, blackface defenders, people who spam up unrelated tags with porn/shock images, and “I’m not a Nazi but I kind of agree with a lot of…” types
Actively work to combat the spambots that pollute tags with ads for shady porn sites, and make people cynical about every new follower
Instead what they’re proposing to do is to essentially trust their algorithms to police their community in a manner which won’t address any of the above but, based off what we’ve seen from the flagging on this and other blogs:
Punish people who do fan art of scantily clad female characters (the professional artworks are often featuring anatomy that is too far warped to be recognized as images of people)
Punish cosplayers who dress up as characters from many of the companies that Tumblr is no doubt hoping to attract advertising revenue from (again, the professional images seem less recognizeable)
Punish people who post anything a machine things looks like a “female presenting nipple” (your guess is as good as anyone’s)
Of course they promise this won’t affect “real art” and other content they decide is acceptable, but given Tumblr’s record for this – that means absolutely nothing.
Largely it is ridiculous project designed to make a high profile show of bringing Tumblr more into line with traditional ideas of “acceptable” media (which allow for bikini armor that arouses straight men but not for women to express their own sexuality for themselves) while ignoring the actual problems of the site and the appeal it has had to many people.
It’s terrible and we’re currently looking into options for hosting BABD elsewhere.
Apparently this newest submission from @theoldhack that we bingoed triggered a couple responses weirdly obsessed with the fact that those WoW armors are very old, therefore… we should not talk about them on BABD? So let us unpack it:
Those screenshots were made and submitted in September. It’s not even like we should not comment since those armors are discontinued or something. They’re still available in the game.
There’s no statute of limitations for bad designs.
Arguing over whether she’s a “true” albino or not completely misses the point of the whole discussion. Even if Ashe was (and her design, even when accounted for makeup, makes a shitty job of conveying albinism in person of any ethnicity), this changes absolutely nothing about Blizzard electing to give another pale, thin conventionally attractive woman spot in the cast rather than finally creating a playable Black woman. Especially since she’s clearly not a PoC albino, as many rebloggers pointed out.
People claiming that racebending a supposed albino to be Black is somehow taking away from albino representation are concern trolls.
Literally all “arguments” about Overwatch “already having” playable Black female representation are neatly listed and debunkedin this handy masterpost by @geegee-wellplayed. Please go read it and hand the link to anyone who claims that Symmetra/theAmaris/Sombra/Efi/Lucio is all that Black women need to identify with in the game.
“Ashe is a gang leader, so making her black would be a bad look” rhetoric makes as much sense as any Thermian argument – she doesn’t have to be made as an antagonistic gang leader or to be (extremely) white. It was entirely Blizzard’s choice to release a character like that instead of literally anyone else.
If you actually think that @darthputa or anyone (particularly PoC) doing race-bent redesigns of white characters from predominantly white media is the real racist and you still follow this blog, please unfollow immediately. Or at the very least tell us, so we can block you.
Since it wasn’t the first time we discussed the matter, with the Ashe post we introduced the representation and diversity tags. We’re still working on re-tagging old posts with them, so if you guys spot in our archives something related to those topics and not yet tagged, please drop us a note!
You might have noticed that lately, especially two weeks ago, we neglected to post on our regular schedule. Some personal issues fell on us and took more attention than we could spare for the blog. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep the queue going now.
Unfortunately though, our schedules still do not permit to come back to weekly redesign streams. If anything about that changes, we’ll announce it as soon as possible!
use search function to check if we posted on your subject matter already.
We’re grateful for all submissions, messages and mentions BABD gets from readers, however the amount of repeats we’re sent makes it exponentially harder to sift through all of them and preparing posts with new topics.
Please remember to always provide sources with any submissions as there is no guarantee we’ll be able to trace the origin of any images without some help.
thaumaturgists (formerly durendals) actually rephrased its old text after a couple of years to have better wording regarding the notions of individual character agency:
on a textual level, a female character can dress however she wants and shouldn’t be shamed and hated for what she prefers to wear.
on a metatextual level, she might still have been designed with an intention to provide fanservice.
this means that criticising a design and the person/people who created it, as opposed to a character, is not misogyny. being displeased about the way a character has been designed is not synonymous with hating her. it is impotant to recognise that character designs don’t exist in a vacuum.
On related note, “slut shaming” is a term that refers to being shitty to real people who posses their own agency, not fictional characters. For further commentary on the matter, read any of those posts.
After much deliberation (and coming to a conclusion that a 5-day judging deadline that intersects with our holiday season wasn’t a wise idea), BABD is proud to present winners of the Break the Bingo design contest!.
But first, let’s give shout-out to those of fans who started working on their designs, but didn’t end up officially submitting them, particularly the artists who tagged us in their WIP posts. Those drawings, even when unfinished, were pretty great!
We’re amazed by the ultimate turn-out. A lot of contestants put extra effort into their entries, by doing things things like:
putting them into a form of a comic/concept art pitch/fake advertisement
It’s a bit scary just how close to the industry standards lots of you guys came! Some of the designs look like lifted straight-up from a video game or comic book studio!
Each and every submission is appreciated and we’re sorry we could reward only a select few of them, ones that we found to be the most creative in their use of the Female Armor Bingo tropes. And those are…
The plexi-boobplate is very clever! Nice way to score “Covers only nipples and genitals” while technically giving her a chest piece 😀 Also best luck to Tom in his never-ending quest of finding the sexy male armor suitable for his empowered body. ~Ozzie
Legitimate depiction of how heavy armor works in video games. – wincenworks
Her main “covering” is mostly mesh/chain mail thing. It’s sorta lingerie stocking AND boob sock armor. What I think is most innovative about this design is the boob holes in her boobplate. The girls can swing free and unencumbered while in action. Great for badass empowered female warriors.
Accurate representation of shoulder plates and fantasy high heels! – wincenworks
Chainmail boobsocks encased in what seems like a boobplate frame… possibly the most painful-looking chest piece in the contest. That + super impossible heels + pointy bits that will stab her whenever she moves = another winner! ~Ozzie
Extra points for showing accurate understanding of how bikini armor artists think how physics work. – wincenworks
Personally I think the original version of this chest piece fitted the definition of “boobplate” a bit better, but both versions are very well designed and look as uncomfortable as expected from a bingo winner! ~Ozzie
Bonus prize:
Thanks to lokificent’s generous prize donation, we were able to choose the fourth winner! And that artist is…
Designing ‘armour’ that would score all 25 squares and the bonus points was equal parts interesting challenge and vicarious thrill. I had to constantly resist the urge to make things less ridiculous. The pinnacle (or nadir, depending on how you look at it) of this exercise was the Echo variant ‘breastplate’; it’s practically a bingo in its own right
Particularly accurate with sci-fi’s tendency to put bits of metal and lights in random places. – wincenworks
I’m getting an impression that more thought was put in designing those modular nipple pieces alone than in many complete outfits we bingo’d before. ~Ozzie
The prizes:
As established above, there are four rewards to choose from:
To collect their prizes, the winners should contact us at bikiniarmorbattledamage via askbox/fanmail or at BikiniArmorBeDamned via private message and the first three of them should specify what is their preferred reward. First prize winner gets whatever they choose, then the second and then the third one pick from the remaining poll. Bonus winner gets whatever is left for them.
All the other contest entries + further commentary under the cut:
Bonus throwback this week in reference to a question we get periodically regarding the Female Armor Bingo. Credit to the latest asker of it, @deeppurpleskeleton:
The answer, in short, is: We have, to date, not come across any example that fills all squares of the Female Armor Bingo in the wild. We did, however, run a contest to break the bingo card and were very impressed with the creativity of the entrants.
Please do click on the Keep reading link and view all the entries. We’re very proud that our blog inspired artists of many skill levels to come up with so many distinct, yet equally absurd costume designs. All of them deserve recognition.
