‘Sex’ doesn’t sell. Erosion of female self esteem does. The feeling of superiority over women does. Turning women into ‘things’ to be studied, scrutinized & judged and then calling it ‘sex’ does. 

Sex doesn’t sell. Objectification does

Sadiqa Thornton (via female-only)

Amen.

~Ozzie

(via bikiniarmorbattledamage)

This week’s throwback: a concise explanation of what people really mean when they confidently announce that ”sex sells”, which somehow is supposed to invalidate critique of hypersexualized media. 

~Ozzie 

See also: Fighting Fucktoy | The immature and superficial portrayal of “sex” in video games

edit: The original poster of this quote seems to have devoted their blog to TERF (trans-exclusionary radical “feminism”) ideology, which we at BABD do not support at all. Trans women are women and feminism concerns all genders.

Nonetheless, Sadiqa Thornton’s words remain very much true to what we believe in, no matter who put them on Tumblr (if not the Internet) first.

Y’know, even if there wasn’t a single woman in all of history who had fought in war or a single example of real, historical female armor, there would be no problem in pointing out fantasy armor is unrealistic because the complaint is not based on what women DID wear but what women WOULD wear.

A. Noyd 

Came across this amazing comment while archive binging our positive examples tag

I think it perfectly sums up the basic flaw in the “women warriors aren’t historically accurate, so realism doesn’t matter when portraying them in media” kind of rhetoric.

~Ozzie

Y’know, even if there wasn’t a single woman in all of history who had fought in war or a single example of real, historical female armor, there would be no problem in pointing out fantasy armor is unrealistic because the complaint is not based on what women DID wear but what women WOULD wear.

A. Noyd 

Came across this amazing comment while archive binging our positive examples tag

I think it perfectly sums up the basic flaw in the “women warriors aren’t historically accurate, so realism doesn’t matter when portraying them in media” kind of rhetoric.

~Ozzie

…when one male character criticizes a woman for going into battle with her shirt hanging open, which is really the snake eating its own tail of video game sexism in a game where a significant portion of its speaking female characters are similarly and impractically exposed.

Arthur Gies, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Review: Off the path

A relevant follow up the question of how does one satirize bikini armor, specifically that one does not do it by blaming a fictional character for the clothing chosen for her by the creator.

Particularly not if one is going to then normalize it within their media, which has normalized this excuse to the extent that it appears on the rhetoric bingo card.

– wincenworks

…when one male character criticizes a woman for going into battle with her shirt hanging open, which is really the snake eating its own tail of video game sexism in a game where a significant portion of its speaking female characters are similarly and impractically exposed.

Arthur Gies, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Review: Off the path

A relevant follow up the question of how does one satirize bikini armor, specifically that one does not do it by blaming a fictional character for the clothing chosen for her by the creator.

Particularly not if one is going to then normalize it within their media, which has normalized this excuse to the extent that it appears on the rhetoric bingo card.

– wincenworks

It’s not that we should censor or be down on individual women for doing things that make them feel empowered, but the larger question shouldn’t be about individuals. It should be about systems. Why do we live in a world where the easiest way to be empowered is to put your naked body on display when that’s not true for men? Why is that something we commodify? Why do we have such a limited set of options to begin with?

We Were Feminists Once author and Bitch Media co-founder Andi Zeisler in this interview, “Is Mainstream Feminism Bad for Women’s Rights?”  (via femfreq)

These are all very important questions to ask about popular depictions of female “empowerment”. Yet we so rarely see them asked, let alone treated as a systemic issue, not individual choice of a person (or fictional character).

~Ozzie

It’s not that we should censor or be down on individual women for doing things that make them feel empowered, but the larger question shouldn’t be about individuals. It should be about systems. Why do we live in a world where the easiest way to be empowered is to put your naked body on display when that’s not true for men? Why is that something we commodify? Why do we have such a limited set of options to begin with?

We Were Feminists Once author and Bitch Media co-founder Andi Zeisler in this interview, “Is Mainstream Feminism Bad for Women’s Rights?”  (via femfreq)

These are all very important questions to ask about popular depictions of female “empowerment”. Yet we so rarely see them asked, let alone treated as a systemic issue, not individual choice of a person (or fictional character).

~Ozzie

just because it covers the tiddy doesn’t make it practical

Some Git

A good rule of thumb for armor design, if you asked me.

~Ozzie