Tag: suspicious dimorphism

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Okay. So a lot of people want us to talk about For Honor, specifically as a positive example (rather than it’s odd design decisions that we noticed on first announcement or that it’s a game where everyone is white, covered up but coded white by culture or Japanese).

The female designs are better than the usual we see, there are a few ongoing issues though like their determination to gender exactly ¾ of the classes as male, and ¼ as female… and their determination to make sure you notice the ladies have boobs (and are smaller).

So yes, it’s better than most, has some really cool designs, and can be counted as another game that has female combatants who grunt like they’re trying to kill someone rather than get them off – but it has it’s own issues.  If you like fantasy combat games and warrior women, it’s got definite appeal.

What I found more interesting:  after Game Theory made a video of it’s usual quality standard – a whole bunch of historical weapon/armor enthusiasts rushed out to debunk it and try to spread awareness not to believe misinformation in popular culture! (examples here)

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Meanwhile it’s hard to find any sort of video talking about female armor that isn’t grossly apologetic or rushes to stress that it’s not opposed to bikini armor in a fantasy setting etc.

If only recognizing people’s humanity and representation as as important as preventing misinformation about Vikings, Samurai and Knights.

– wincenworks

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talon-queen:

@bikiniarmorbattledamage

The new Warborn race from ArcheAge’s most recent update

File under:Ridiculous differences between genders in fantasy game races

Imagine how great these designs could be if “interesting” was a higher priority on female character design than “have as much tiddy hanging out as possible”

Instead, we get a continued effort to subvert the satirical value of Oglaf.

– wincenworks

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But MMA/Wrestlers….

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

It seems a popular trend in trying to defend terrible costume designs with random pictures of female wrestlers or MMA fighters.  Usually accompanied by some sort of rant about how anyone who questions the perfection of these costumes is the sexist one!

Yes, there are many sexualized costumes in women’s sports. It’s not because the costumes are flawless. Rather it is a sign that female athletes often suffer under the tyranny of Creepy Marketing Guy too.

At the end of the day, justifying sexist double standards in the media by pointing to more sexist double standards in the media only showcases how wide spread the problem is.

More under the cut.

– wincenworks

Keep reading

Since we’ve just covered how plate armor can be worn by basically anyone who has the training,it’s probably good for us to address a popular defense of very suspicious dimorphism.

There’s nothing natural about it, it’s simply the result of thousands of media producers all buying into the same convenient myth that has no basis in reality and every basis in trying to feel good about objectifying women.

– wincenworks

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nhvz:

wizardmoon:

prokopetz:

prokopetz:

Concept: fantasy species where the ladies are nine-foot-tall horrors of teeth and claws and the men look like lithe twentysomething pretty-boys wearing body paint.

(Well, except for the Wise Elders. You can tell when a male is a Wise Elder because he looks mid thirties instead of early twenties and trades in the twinky underwear model aesthetic for a stubbly-yet-well-groomed Hot Dad vibe.)

THIS!! xD

@bikiniarmorbattledamage

This Friday, we continue the theme of suspicious dimorphism with this amazing sexy guy/monstrous lady subversion! 

Sad part is, this idea shouldn’t only come up as a joke. There is no reason, other than blind belief that “sex sells” (to cishet dudes), for fantasy/sci-fi dimorphism to always make females look like conventionally attractive humans. 
Just think of all the genuinely creative world building possibilities that open up with fictional society where men take the Green Skinned Space Babe role, while women fill out all the more interesting alien race tropes.

~Ozzie

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a-ship-of-meat-and-bone:

dajo42:

hello welcome to the rpg here is a COOL NEW RACE we just added its called the badarumpus it comes in male n female and this is what it looks like

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we are very proud of what we have done here and we would also like to present to you ANOTHER COOL NEW RACE we just added this ones called the splimb and it also comes in male n female

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BUT THATS NOT ALL!!!!!!!! wait until you see OUR THIRD COOL NEW RACE called the ZNOOPHOOPS that also comes in male n female

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enjoy your game fuckers

@bikiniarmorbattledamage

Another accurate satire on the subject of suspicious dimorphism. Including the same bikini for all the ladies.

Obviously, this is just another fantasy world where the humans are the weird species for having males who look so similar to women!

~Ozzie

more parodies on BABD

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femfreq:

Why are almost all the female characters in games slender and young? We dig deeper into gaming’s problem with body diversity in our brand new Tropes!

You can find a complete transcript of the episode on our website.

While body shape is not technically the focus of this blog, it is a heavily related issue simply because it basically all fits into idea that female characters are only worthwhile if they are conventionally attractive, heavily sexualized and avoid challenging too many perceptions.

For all the talk about how much people like a female character for being badass, there’s a tendency to only support it if it doesn’t clash with other ideals like conventional beauty or sexualization.

This has created an odd situation where many people are more comfortable with a woman built like a fashion model wearing an outfit made of dental floss as being a badass than they are with, well a badass like this:

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Which is not only ridiculously limiting from a creative perspective, but also re-enforces the idea that all women should look like these ridiculous fantasies (that look like at best, very few real women, and at worst no real women).

– wincenworks

We touched upon this issue before, especially when talking about Overwatch (particularly this post), but Anita puts the problem of double standards of beauty in character design most comprehensively in this video. 

Lots of illustrative examples really drive the point home: There is a noticeable lack of visual diversity among female game characters (and, by extension, in other popular media), while male ones get a variety of appearances.
This limits not only the designer’s creativity, but the female audience’s sense of inclusion.

~Ozzie

more about: character design | double standards | suspicious dimorphism

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)