A real fun video you guys MUST watch! (:
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
Between Friends comic by Sandra Bell-Lundy (who I thank greatly for letting me publish the above excerpt)
View whole storyline here: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
E submitted:
I’ve been amused by the “Hot Flash Woman” sub-plot in the Between Friends newspaper comic and thought you might get some interesting material from it. This is the simplest one to just post a link to (mod note: the second one here), with two characters debating sex-appeal vs. practicality.
Thanks for submitting! 🙂 As you said, this comic sheds some light on ever-so-handwaved ’sex-appeal vs. practicality‘ dilemma in female costume design.
And, at least in my opinion, comments how internalized “I want her to look sexy and empowered!” mindset is even by female content creators.
People just tend to focus on (relative/arbitrary) visual appeal without the second thought on how the costume would affect the character within the rules of their own world. And once it’s questioned, said rules are bent with weak excuses like ’distraction bonus’.
Also, let it be a reminder that this blog is not focused solely on female armor, but on all kinds of impractical outfits for female fighters, that includes superheroes.
some college student submitted:
This is the girl from the Ragnarok Online post a while back.
I always found it weird that a common justification was “freedom of movement” for drawing/presenting women in bikinis or lingerie with random bits tacked on as armor. Given that battle bikinis and lingerie armor generally come with accessories such as high heels, spikes jutting against the skin, and extremely tight mini-skirts, etc, such outfits would usually impede movement or even harm the wearer if they moved in certain ways. So, I’m fairly certain that the “freedom of movement” argument is kinda moot.
Finally a kind of post this blog was created for, YAY! 😀
Great point!
Skimpy female armor is not sexy like wow ok I can see your boobs and ass now but its gonna be pretty nasty when you get them chopped off in battle.
angercats submitted:
So the other day a there was discussion about skyrim on here. And I was browsing through the steam workshop, lookin’ for some good mods and then I found this ~GEM~.
There is this ~BEAUTIFUL~ mod pack called fabulous female collection that’s full of this crap. Why??? It doesn’t fit skyrim it all. It makes them all look like barbie dolls. How do they??? Kill dragons?? Om my god, I’m just laughing so hard.
It’s actually worse on nexus. omg
To be completely honest, I can’t “hate” so much on this bikini mod as you’d probably expect me to, because exactly what it is… a mod.
Bikini Armor Battle Damage, unlike many related blogs, doesn’t have a strict policy of criticizing only ‘official’ art, but we still need to acknowledge how fan creations exist in a bit different context.
Video game mods are created for fans and by fans to enhance their experience with things they personally enjoy, be it My Little Pony skins, functional portal gun or a metal armor. Fitting with the game’s themes is optional when it comes to mods.
Last time we visited a Skyrim mod we talked about it on context of being absolutely ridiculous (spandex chainmail outfit complete with mail boobsocks and nipples poking through). That thing was trying really badly to ‘count’ as an armor atop of being objectifying, while bikinis you sent seem to be created solely for the gamer’s viewing pleasure.
I know it’s really hard to draw a line between a mod that’s there simply to look pretty and one that takes impracticality to a whole new level, so don’t hesitate to send me any example you find questionable. We can always discuss it together here.
