The hilarious front line in the tragic war against ridiculous female armor
Loool im playing vindictus.. And then this one appeared.. My character in front
From time to time, we get people insisting that there’s not wrong with an MMORPG game having… terrifying battle lingerie so long as you have an option to wear something more covering.
I sometimes wonder if those people understand that the second M in MMORPG stands for Multi-player.
– wincenworks
Survey Shows Even Teenage Boys Think Women Are Over-Sexualized in Video Games
A survey has found that most teenage boys—despite common wisdom to the contrary—don’t want women to be over-sexualized in their video games.
This survey has been doing the rounds of the media since it got featured in this little publication called Time Magazine. For those interested in the actual research methods and data, there’s more information here at Polygon (including links to the entire presentation). They also posted a response to all the publicity here.
All in all it’s more compelling evidence to support our stance that sex does not sell anything but sex. This was something that was known (to his great disappointment) by one of the original market researches in the 1960s.
Creators, the truth is that are no shortcuts on the road to creative success, no matter what the creepy marketing guy or the person who won’t leave the comments section tell you.
– wincenworks
I love it when designers have pretty okay looking female armor (like maybe a some subtle boob dents and or it’s very very fitted despite being METAL) but the give her a thigh-high boots and leave that oh so precious strip of sexy, sexy leg flesh DIRECTLY where the femoral artery is
Like someone doesn’t even have to slash them she could easily just cut herself on her own armor and fucking die before going into battle someone please stop the nerds jfc
Exactly! We regularly laugh at the ubiquity of exposed thighs in female armor because of that.
Here are some highlights of that costume design trope from our ‘no pants’ tag:
[x]
[x]
[x]
And let’s not forget about the ones which shamelessly display the double standard:
[x]
[x]
[x]
Maybe fictional female warriors lack major blood vessels in their limbs just as often as they lack spines and vital organs in their torsos?
~Ozzie
I love it when designers have pretty okay looking female armor (like maybe a some subtle boob dents and or it’s very very fitted despite being METAL) but the give her a thigh-high boots and leave that oh so precious strip of sexy, sexy leg flesh DIRECTLY where the femoral artery is
Like someone doesn’t even have to slash them she could easily just cut herself on her own armor and fucking die before going into battle someone please stop the nerds jfc
Exactly! We regularly laugh at the ubiquity of exposed thighs in female armor because of that.
Here are some highlights of that costume design trope from our ‘no pants’ tag:
[x]
[x]
[x]
And let’s not forget about the ones which shamelessly display the double standard:
[x]
[x]
[x]
Maybe fictional female warriors lack major blood vessels in their limbs just as often as they lack spines and vital organs in their torsos?
~Ozzie
The sad part is, Ciri’s shoes here actually look wearable compared to way too many designs we’ve seen.
Most designers not only put female warriors in high heels inappropriate for the character’s activities. They also create footwear that ignores how feet work and would require them to be broken or liquefied… because body horror is sexy?
The ubiquity of “women’s feet = high heels” thing is quite scary. Awkwardly arched, nearly vertical “Barbie” foot shape is so prevalent in portrayals of women that there’s a generation of artists who apparently think that’s how female anatomy works.
It still amuses me that parodies of Samus Smash Bros “jet boots” understand that a heel this high needs thick platform under the ball of the foot, while the original barely had any sole in front part of the shoe.
~Ozzie
Personally I love this bizarre tendency for people who are are emotionally attached to having high heels in games insist that there’s a scientific reason for Samus and other women having high heels.
Like, high heels have these great and obvious martial applications – but literally no military or martial art has ever chosen to employ them… because it would be unfair to the enemy?
– wincenworks
more about why high heels on action heroines break the suspension of disbelief in fiction | general high heels tag on BABD
A trend I’ve seen in positive female armor examples… I find neither good nor bad but just thought-provoking… In many of positive female armors, the ladies have a long, often untied and fancy (even sexy) hair. That kind of hair is usually very impractical in battle (blinds, someone can grab it), and while dudes can sometimes have freely flowing long hair, long hair is mostly girls’ thing in pop culture. Your thoughts, what is the okay-ness of giving a lady warrior long fancy hair, and why?
Largely we don’t address the long hair issues because the solution is pretty straight forward (as shown by the-hero-dies aka Kevin Warren):
As for the okay/appropriateness – it generally depends on the consistency and suspension of disbelief. It’s common practice in all kinds of media to have named characters go without helmets do they can be easily recognized and in more than a few productions the men have equally impractical hair styles.
When it becomes a problem is when products signal that some men are practical and/or warriors by giving them close cropped hair styles and then give women with equal responsibility fancy hair styles because they have an arbitrary checklist of traits all women need. Such as:
Then it’s terrible because it showcases the double standard, objectifies women and destroys the visual story telling by mixing the messages on what a character’s appearance is supposed to tell us.
– wincenworks
Gamers’ sociopathy by LucidARTDVC
Speaking of demands for “realism”…
As we said the last time when we featured another rhetoric bingo-worthy piece by LucidARTDVC, this artist isn’t joking or being ironic. He genuinely grasps at straws* to excuse his softcore porn bikini armor babe drawings. Instead of, you know, admitting to himself that fanservice is a thing.
So, as ladyofpayne brought our attention to the above, um, piece of art, let’s maybe address the fairly popular “argument” that we’re supposedly some anti-escapism killjoys who demand fantasy stories to be exclusively realistic (and let’s maybe not address how it apparently makes us sociopaths, cause that’s some new level of ad hominem peppered with ableism).
On to the subject, though:
First, it should really go without saying, but neither we nor sites/communities with similar goals actually expect all fiction to be exclusively realistic/naturalistic. You can’t even quote someone demanding such thing, cause no-one says that.
Second, it’s not the issue of “realism” in the first place, but of willing suspension of disbelief and consistency in worldbuilding. Bikini armors are too silly to play them straight; plain and simple. Using them without awareness of their absurdity will break the audience’s immersion in the story. Especially if they’re featured next to male-exclusive full armors. Presence of some fantasy elements
in the established world
is not yet a reason every random implausibility, like skimpy “armors”, is allowed.
Third, fiction is not made in a vacuum. Nothing in writing happens by accident. And so, the creators should consider the message the used tropes send, rather than justify their questionable choices retroactively. That’s also why authors should not excuse anything they do with “rule of cool”. Cause that’s just a refusal to think critically of one’s creation.
*I’m still impressed (in the worst way possible) by that conveniently ripped out-of-context Art of War quote, as if Sun Tzu would so totally approve of chainmail bikinis, cause… speed bonus?!
~Ozzie
Pretty much. In an era where companies are spending millions to generate the most realistic looking water effects – I really don’t think it’s too much to ask that we reconsider the way we design women’s armor.
– wincenworks
(source)
Whether something classifies as a primary or secondary characteristic is mostly only of interest to biologists and people involved in medicine. The classification refers purely to biological matters and development during puberty.
If someone were to make a Rule 63 of the Rule 63 would look like Power Girl, because massive genitalia is not what society considers “sexy” in women – but massive boobs are.
What’s really interesting to me is the disregard for all the other aspects involved. For example, Power Boy’s lips remain full and kissable but his upper body is more bulked than Power Girl – but not as ripped and chiseled as conventional super heroes are.
– wincenworks