Are Female Armors Denigrating?

[Aurielius]

I thought that after seeing the new rash of 'revealing', 'sexy', 'alluring' mods to female armor and clothes in Skyrim and since a fair number of players are ladies, I wondered how they viewed the choices being made available to them. Most women in my experience dress for other women not men, since in the main we (men) have not what I would call a keen fashion sense and the only true critic's are other women. Subjectively in my playing and adding mods to Oblivion it was exceedingly hard to find actual fashionable clothes for female NPC's that did not simply objectify them and now in my humble opinion we are heading down the same path with Skyrim. Most but not all female armor mods are simply stripper outfits. This video was originally posted by Syeeb so he / she should get the humor credit not me, but it was what got me thinking about the topic to begin with.

 

http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6550847/female-armor-sucks

 

 

EDIT: 12/23/11..POLL is fixed.

Edited December 24, 2011 by Aurielius

[roguim]

Don't find it denigrating, yes most are sexy, reveling so i simple don't use, but there is ones that like and i doubt the modders who create such mod want to put the women in a "low position", only like to see women in a reveling clothes and want that in their games.

Btw: i said by my experience with Oblivion/fallout3/ fallout new Vegas as i don't own Skyrim yet so don't see any mod for that.

[Shantih]

IMO you have to be a prude to find anything wrong with female armours in the unmodded game. It's pretty standard fantasy stuff and the most revealing armours are not that different depending on gender (unlike in the funny video you've posted a link to). I'd understand such a concern if the unmodded game included very skimpy models but that's simply not the case.

 

Now when it comes to mods I can understand that some people may find some modded outfits outrageous. But guess what, mods in a single player game are totally up to the player. I know some female players who enjoy using revealing modded outfits for their male characters and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

 

What one player does with a single player game in the privacy of his/her own home is something that only concerns that player.

 

I for one like using sexy outfits at times although I'm not a big fan of the most extremes outfits (the stripper outfits if you like) -not because they might objectify the female body but rather because I like my characters to wear outfits that serve a purpose and can be seen as somewhat practical in the game world but I would never criticize somebody who enjoys having a half naked babe in high heels in their games.

 

If you're looking for examples of the objectification of the female form then you don't need to look further than ads. Most of them use sex as a marketing tool and using sex to make money is definitely a more serious example of female objectification in my books. It's the same with movies. Most female leads are good looking women and in movies we often have scenes that take advantage of that (regardless of the actual rating since sexy doesn't always means that there is nudity involved).

 

I guess I understand where you're coming from but I don't think going all PC on mods would be a good thing. It's a modder's prerogative to be able to design whatever outfits he or she likes and it's a player's choice to decide to use them or not.

 

Also what someone may perceive as sexual objectification someone else may simply see as the expression of the love and appreciation of the female body -just like all great artists who painted nude models. When looking at nudes by Renoir I don't see examples of female objectification, what I see is art.

 

There is nothing wrong with expressing a healthy appreciation for the beauty of the female body or male body for that matter (there is no arguing when it comes to what one finds beautiful).

[Lisnpuppy]

*removed*

[Marxist ßastard]

I was just reading an article about this, and it reminded me of an armor mod from Morrowind:

 

http://pnmedia.gamespy.com/planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/fms/images/mods/1910/1134437180_fullres.jpg

Currently rated 9.94 on PES. Classy, guys.

Edited December 19, 2011 by Marxist ßastard

[zegh8578]

i find them offensive to realism.

"i am ready for battle! my bewbz are well protected! just dont cut anywhere around my awesome waist, or hot belleh."

no.

[grannywils]

I can't say that I find the armor choices you describe "offensive", I just find them foolish. I agree with those who have already said that these are mods, and we can choose whether or not to use them. These are, after all games, and we are all entitled to our own fantasies. However, since we are describing "armor", it just seems to be somewhat nonsensical to consider a warrior woman running around in two bandaids and a g-string for protection. When I play female characters they are well armed and well armored, as are my male characters. If I want beefcake I leave that for companion characters.

 

As far as objectifcation is concerned, yes I do believe that when it comes down to it, the women are being identified as sexual beings when so much focus is placed on their anatomy in these mods. However, that is not unusual or hard to believe, since it is in fact the way things frequently are in the real world as well. Once again, these games are a good way for people to live out their fantasies, and probably a much safer way for them to do it than many others that might be chosen.

[Vagrant0]

As far as objectifcation is concerned, yes I do believe that when it comes down to it, the women are being identified as sexual beings when so much focus is placed on their anatomy in these mods. However, that is not unusual or hard to believe, since it is in fact the way things frequently are in the real world as well. Once again, these games are a good way for people to live out their fantasies, and probably a much safer way for them to do it than many others that might be chosen.

The reality is that it works both ways because those things which are aesthetically pleasing tend to be even more so when exaggerated. Consider Conan the Barbarian and countless fantasy images which have a similar look. Skyrim has a lot of this sort of look, including countless armors where you're wearing little more than a loin cloth with a male character. Does anyone cry about objectification of men, for looking manly? Nope. About the only complaints have come from men who are uncomfortable with their sexuality... Or reality types crying fowl because of frostbite and such. When you get down to it, as long as it isn't exaggerated to some ridiculous extreme usually people of both genders don't have much problem with it aside from the usual "That's impractical" or "That's showing off too much skin." stuff.

 

The problem is really the imbalance and the fact that most of these designs of bikini armor come from Asian RPGs/Anime where sexist views and women wearing the most revealing, flimsy, unrealistic things are the ones who tend to kick the most ass. The problem is that real forms of objectification and sexism tend to go without so much as a comment, or worse are just passed off as a joke. And when you have more than half the population on the internet consisting of immature boys who think the phrase "*censored*, get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich" is anything less than demeaning, this sort of one-sided sexism will only continue to get worse.

[SilverDNA]

Anyone can play with the armor he/she likes. It is a fantasy game and anyone has its own imagination how the armour for his beloved character shall look. There are thoses who like a evil style, those that need a magical can opener +3 to get peeled out of their armour, and those that like other armours, and thoses that like revealing armour for gaming. it is still a fantasy game and fantasy uses imagination to work properly.

On realism ... The one did wear armour was Joan of Arc (Wiki)

I personaly prefer light armours instead of plate armour for females, so chain or leather armours fit my syle of gaming.

Since I like to tinker around with textures; I like revealing armours sometimes it is easy to modify them and look at them with a new texture and get an idea how the texture will look to the skin of a character in different lights with a normal map. I recommend this for beginners with less complex armour meshes.

...but that's only my two cents

[hoofhearted4]

at least they put woman in the game. if they really wanted to objectify them, they wouldnt have put them in at all, considering woman warriors were unheard of in medieval times. :P