So Bayonetta is coming to Super Smash Bros, and And it has been noted that her footwear looks remarkably similar to that of someone we’ve kind of talked about a little on this blog. We even reblogged a comic about that is disturbingly similar to this whole situation.
Also since the copyright stamp on the announcement video was for 2014, suggesting that her announcement was intended around the time of the Samus shoe controversy but delayed for reasons unknown.
Hilariously the response to announcement of Bayonetta joining Smash from brodudes to this news was to rush out and create fake petition (full of anti-sex worker slurs) and try to blame it on SJWs (while only anti-SJW sites promoted it). The petition has since come down off Change.org – I guess it’s finally occurred to them how silly other petitions looked.
Still hasn’t occurred to them yet that we’re okay with people enjoying problematic things or that there’s a time and a place for sexy. Actually a lot of time and places, off battlefields.
That and well, if they’d just gone ahead and included Bayonetta as their sexy Super Smash Bros pinup girl from the start, and not gone through with all the “Samus needs rocket boots to compete with the boys” or “a female designer was involved so no sexism!” (sound familiar?).
– wincenworks
15 female video game protagonists that aren’t objectified or tokenized
Unfortunately this list is not completely accurate. A few of the characters within it are sadly objectified by the creators:
- Lightning has many great outfits, she also has many horrible outfits and outfits that actually look more complete with the addition of a ballgag and blindfold.
- Samus has both the issue of the long standing tradition of “the better you play the more undressed you get to see her” and well, her inclusion in Super Smash Bros.
- Nancy Drew, amazingly, has one game where Nancy is required to dance in what can only be described as a Catwoman fetish outfit in order to win the outfit (with the option of dancing for tips later) *. This incidentally, is more or less the only time you get to see Nancy in the games.
So yeah, while there are more heroines we could add to this list – it’s kind of a shame that 20% of those on the list have exceptions.
– wincenworks
* We should stress, the issue here is not Go-Go Dancing itself, but rather that this was awkwardly shoehorned into the for no reason other than they wanted to have a conventionally attractive woman in a fetish outfit dancing. Seriously – this is not a reasonable way to obtain a cat-burglary costume with security countermeasures inbuilt.
Sexy is not bad. Stripping is not bad. Wearing sexy boots is not bad. You know what is bad? Pandering is. Being a lazy designer at the cost of catching a wider audience is.
A bounty hunter who runs over rugged terrain does not need stripper boots, she needs something with treads and function that can *gasp* still be sexy. I can picture a hybrid boot design that is feminine but rugged, functional but badass.
You know what conveys things like “boosters” and “power” and “high jump”? Springs, coils, energy cells, treads, jets… you don’t have to be literal but you also might want to show, not tell, what a prop does.
High-Jump Stripper Boots! by stephlaberis
Very important quote from this article regarding Samus’s high heels, but it applies to character and costume design in general.
~Ozzie
(via bikiniarmorbattledamage)
Worth bringing back that there’s nothing wrong with sexy in itself, but there’s a time and a place for everything. When you’re trying to convey epic action and epic danger is not the time for epic sexy time clothes.
– wincenworks
Sexy is not bad. Stripping is not bad. Wearing sexy boots is not bad. You know what is bad? Pandering is. Being a lazy designer at the cost of catching a wider audience is.
A bounty hunter who runs over rugged terrain does not need stripper boots, she needs something with treads and function that can *gasp* still be sexy. I can picture a hybrid boot design that is feminine but rugged, functional but badass.
You know what conveys things like “boosters” and “power” and “high jump”? Springs, coils, energy cells, treads, jets… you don’t have to be literal but you also might want to show, not tell, what a prop does.
High-Jump Stripper Boots! by stephlaberis
Very important quote from this article regarding Samus’s high heels, but it applies to character and costume design in general.
~Ozzie
(via bikiniarmorbattledamage)
Worth bringing back that there’s nothing wrong with sexy in itself, but there’s a time and a place for everything. When you’re trying to convey epic action and epic danger is not the time for epic sexy time clothes.
– wincenworks
