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I feel ya, Dorothy, I am also appalled at what passes for clothing in Zenescope’s Oz. Are clothes taxed per inch of fabric in the West?

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Have you ever looked at L. Frank Baum’s books about a land ruled and influenced by strong, complicated women, and thought “man, I wish these characters were drawn like plastic dolls by J. Scott Campbell so I could masturbate to them”? Well then, do we have the series for you!

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(We also recommend you find actual people to interact with, we’re worried.)

Not technically armor, but I know 0 people who would wear this fabric scrap in real life. I guess J. Scott Campbell* knows more people than me… who are imaginary. At least Dorothy over there is wearing what might pass for clothes. I don’t even know what to call the Wicked Witch’s…. bodily coverings.

At least the series doesn’t fall into the Evil is Sexy trope, since everyone is barely allowed clothes? Yay?? ?

-Icy 

My eyes, upon seeing Zenescope’s idea of what “Kansas Farmgirl” and “Powerful Evil Witch” look like: 

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~Ozzie 

* I realize Campbell may not have had any input on these character designs, but it’s just the sort of thing he would design, so he still gets 0 points.

lasafara:

demengineerz:

When you take a game seriously:

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When you don’t:

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@bikiniarmorbattledamage feel like this belongs on your dash

As we implied before, the best of all worlds in games is the option to choose ANY look, from ridiculous to absolutely serious. 

But… Can we please have the second gif as the default for all male characters in the next big mainstream adventure title? 

~Ozzie

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

feministgamingmatters:

Somebody used this gif to “prove” that Metal Gear sexualises men the same as women:

Do people really think this is equivalent to Quiet (et al.) or are they being disingenuous?

I find it hilarious how dudes will insist that if people really knew about Metal Gear Solid they’d know about Raiden and that he was (allegedly) as objectified as Quiet… despite the fact Raiden and his butt run (very late in the game) were both surprises to the player (and the development team) and Quiet was used heavily as marketing material a year in advance of MGS V being released.

That and well, I could only find one figure of Raiden breathing through his skin:

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It’s almost like he wasn’t intended to titillate or something.

– wincenworks


#nakedness doesn’t equal sexualisation

Continuing the theme of false equivalence… yes, we have seen (and commented on) people who proudly claim that Raiden’s naked run justifies Quiet’s “breathing through skin” un-costume. 

We’re also familiar with the general confusion between sexualization and nudity. Vast majority of the Status Quo Warriors conflate bare skin with being sexual, so by that logic, Conan/Kratos/Zangief are equally, if not more sexualized than their scantily-clad female peers and therefore sexism is “solved”.

This, of course, willfully ignores the simple fact that not only so much more goes into sexualization than nudity (like framing, posing, expressions etc.) or that there are different ‘decency’ standards for bodies of different sexes

(especially nipples), but also how bare skin itself doesn’t yet guarantee sexyness. 

That’s why @partsal‘s female barbarian comparison is still a perfect example of how completely different character premise can be conveyed with the same amount of bare body:

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~Ozzie

After long weeks of fighting Tumblr’s amazingly absurd flagging and appeal system, this post finally became visible again, so we can bring it up. 

YES, DESPITE ALL ODDS, PEOPLE STILL UNIRONICALLY ARGUE THAT NEKKID RAIDEN IS AS SEXUALIZED AS QUIET IS. (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

So here’s our brief reminder about the (not really) subtle difference between nudity and objectification. 

~Ozzie 

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

adjectiveverb:

marshmallowknight:

bunrobot:

marshmallowknight:

“weaponized femininity” more like “how to cater to the male gaze and Western beauty ideals while acting like it’s Totally Subversive”

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bASICALLy

[Comic source: Kate Beaton]

Apparently, according to all the people who were upset that we dared to call out Hideo Kojima and implied that his use of Quiet in promotional materials was objectification and pandering, you can also act like it’s totally subversive by writing a long back story for the character.

It doesn’t have to be, or really their own back story, or one that the majority of players will even experience – just so long as there’s something there to claim that you “totally humanized and made worthwhile” the character who’s boobs appear in every promo post.

Then it becomes a deep commentary of the “reality of women in these situations”… there being so many women who run around in bikinis on battlefields in reality.

– wincenworks

Since “weaponized femininity” got namedropped in that post we reblogged this weekend, let’s maybe bring it back today. And wonder once again how exactly does displaying a conventionally attractive heroine’s

tits and supermodel strut  equally as much as her

weapons and battle prowess count automatically as female empowerment and not thinly-veiled pandering to cishet men.

And also let’s remember another, more evocative name which Miss Represenation documentary gave to this Totally Subversive™

trope – The Fighting F*cktoy

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~Ozzie

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

adjectiveverb:

marshmallowknight:

bunrobot:

marshmallowknight:

“weaponized femininity” more like “how to cater to the male gaze and Western beauty ideals while acting like it’s Totally Subversive”

image

bASICALLy

[Comic source: Kate Beaton]

Apparently, according to all the people who were upset that we dared to call out Hideo Kojima and implied that his use of Quiet in promotional materials was objectification and pandering, you can also act like it’s totally subversive by writing a long back story for the character.

It doesn’t have to be, or really their own back story, or one that the majority of players will even experience – just so long as there’s something there to claim that you “totally humanized and made worthwhile” the character who’s boobs appear in every promo post.

Then it becomes a deep commentary of the “reality of women in these situations”… there being so many women who run around in bikinis on battlefields in reality.

– wincenworks

Since “weaponized femininity” got namedropped in that post we reblogged this weekend, let’s maybe bring it back today. And wonder once again how exactly does displaying a conventionally attractive heroine’s

tits and supermodel strut  equally as much as her

weapons and battle prowess count automatically as female empowerment and not thinly-veiled pandering to cishet men.

And also let’s remember another, more evocative name which Miss Represenation documentary gave to this Totally Subversive™

trope – The Fighting F*cktoy

image
image

~Ozzie

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

theworstblogdotgeocities:

lowpolyhighfun:

A friend’s request for a bodily comparison of the gods and goddesses of Smite.

bikiniarmorbattledamage

I’m having a flashback to this Overwatch silhouette comparison (pre-Zarya, the token exception, that is):

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original source: [x]

Eyup. Typical. Men tend to be all shapes and sizes, while women are just slight variations of the same “shapely” figure.

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[x]

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[x]

~Ozzie

With a very few exceptions, pretty much every time I see a game brag about diverse body shapes – I wonder if they hired the same “expert” consultant that Levi’s did:

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– wincenworks

more on double standards | more on character design | more on SMITE | more on Overwatch

Since everyone can predict us talking again about Overwatch in the near future, this week’s throwback is the video game industry’s bafflingly narrow definition of what “diversity” among female characters looks like.

~Ozzie

Now you can’t convince me that all those outfits with completely random cutouts AREN’T designed this way. Headcanon accepted. 

Fun fact: I tried to reverse google search the whole picture this comes from and the Google’s closest keyword

suggestion was Polish for “sadness”: 

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I think this search engine finally achieved self-awareness. 

And I, for one, welcome our new bullshit-detecting robot overlord.

~Ozzie

This definitely explains certain designs we’ve featured on the blog.

-Icy

h/t: @danyren, @emissaryofwind, @whiteraven13