ria-rha:

killerlolita asked:
How exactly does covering up a character show that sexy outfits aren’t empowering exactly? That and how does dressing up male characters in sexy outfits making a point?
It’d be easy to ask the inverse: how does dressing up female characters in revealing outfits make them empowered?
To answer this question we’re going to do an exercise that anyone familiar with the internet can participate in. First: imagine an adorable kitten (if you’re having trouble, Google images is rife with them… like I said: internet). Now, imagine that adorable kitten wielding a weapon (oh hey Google). Are these cats now empowered? Or has the situation gone from visually appealing to funny?
That’s what most female character design does: creates a juxtaposition of eye candy that thinks just because it’s started wielding weapons and calling itself tough, suddenly it’s empowered. It isn’t. It’s a cat with a lightsaber.
As for how dressing up a male character in clothes usually reserved for their female counterparts makes a point, well, mostly it helps show how ridiculous these outfits (and also the way the women are generally posed) are. We’re so used to seeing our female characters looking (and acting) this way, that it often doesn’t register. It helps get people asking why it’s okay for a woman to go into battle like this, but it’s funny when a man does.
-Staci

PREACH!

problemspoof:

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

Could be a bit less boobplate-y, but pretty cool design nonetheless.

I’d be prepared to give the boobplate a pass here for once, for two reasons:

1) it appears to be lacking the sternum-snapping ridge on the inside. The front of the armour looks fairly flat, and the sculpted breasts appear to be mainly on the side. They wouldn’t be as much of a liability.

2) the depth of the breastplate is such that they probably aren’t form-fitting at all, and they’re simply sculpted on rather than actually containing her breasts, similar to the stylised musculature on the front of Roman officers’ breastplates.

As I said in a previous reply to similar comment, I suspect that the ornamental golden figure may create a weak point anyway (but I’m neither a smith nor a welder, so don’t take my word for it).
Also, if we take a closer look, there’s a hole between her breast boobplate and collar, and that hole just happens to be roughly where her sternum starts.

And you apparently haven’t seen a welldone boob bump on an armor if you’re defending how this looks.
Because however better than such death wish or this absurd, it’s still a pretty standard sphere-based booblate. And even if purely ornamental, it’s a design flaw anyway. Hell, assuming there’s padding unbeneath, such shaped mold may be a bit uncomfortable to put on.

It’s a very awesome character and costume design (badass knight woman of color, squee!) and a huge leap in right direction, but let us acknowledge that it’s not exactly perfect or practical in every way possible, alright?