The Bikini Armor

Alleged sexism of "the bikini armor" is a different issue. I was not addressing in with my tweet (although I did defend the sexy barbarians a few weeks ago in https://medium.com/@adrianchm/i-want-to-murder-some-nazis-and-save-a-damsel-in-ddistress-5bfe944412a4).

It's obvious there's been a lot of critique towards the bikini armor being unrealistic within the context and rules of fictional worlds. And sometimes that critique is deserved -- I cannot find my own older tweet, but I was one of the few people who actually liked the "censored" redesign of Divinity:Original Sin better than the original (http://i.imgur.com/Ltt3uxA.jpg). Because either it's cold in this world or not, damn it -- and the half-naked woman did not look like a sorceress who could keep the body heat high with magic.

However, sometimes the bikini armor makes total sense. Would you complain that Native American or African warriors did not wear head-to-toe armor, and had tons of skin exposed? I assume you would not.

I do read FF's tweet as one of those when the ideologically blinded condemn the bikini armor because it's somehow ALWAYS unrealistic AND THUS sexist. It can't be purely about women having skin exposed for the titillation of the players unless FF is against e.g. bikini as such and would prefer if women were fully clothed at a beach -- which I assume is not true. So that tweet ONLY makes sense IF you combine "general unrealism of the bikini armor" with the sexual objectification. And this is what I was addressing.

Of course, I would love to be wrong. Cannot wait for FF to tweet that bikini armor makes total sense in certain worlds. Then I could disagree on a different level (see the link at the beginning). But no, I'm not holding my breath.

Finally,

"Maybe it's less about realism and more about never seeing a male warrior in a mithril banana hammock?"

Many fantasy warriors have their skin exposed, like Conan (http://www.gameguru.in/images/conan-1.jpg) or Kratos (http://www.fightersgeneration.com/np6/char/scbd/kratos-bd3.jpg).

But I do consider such complaints a bit odd anyway. No one forces women to dress sexy and expose skin yet billions of them do it every day. But offer such a character in a video game and for reasons unknown that's sexist and demeaning. That's not to say some designs are not ridiculous. They are. But not all of them, and I am not even condemning those that are (again, the link in the opening).

"Fantasy is no excuse for armor that leaves women semi-nude, or for it being okay to demean women."

Nah.

a) Fantasy - or more broadly, fiction - actually can totally be an excuse to leave women (OR MEN, obviously) semi-nude or nude.

b) "Demean"? Are you saying that all those sexy cosplayers are not sexually positive, independent women, but self-hating, self-demeaning weaklings? Is the female visual designer of Bayonetta a self-demeaning sexist, or did she just go on a power trip with the character? Which is it?

c) Once again, Conan. What are you saying here? That Conan should wear a full body armor?

Gais pls.