As a sci-fi chick, girl gamer, and all-around nerd-bird, you could say that I’ve been there / done that. I’ve played five editions of D&D, three editions of Star Wars, three editions of ShadowRun, a bunch of Gurps, too much of the various incarnations of the Palladium ‘Verse, Toons, Top Secret, Cyberpunk, Elfquest, Super Babes, Conventions, festivals, and even some good old-fashioned vampiric LARP. Oh, and I’m not yet 30 years young. But I didn’t spend the time writing this paragraph for nostalgia or bragging purposes, I just want it to be clear that I’ve been around the block and seen a thing or two.
One of the great things about role-playing games is the ability to jump into the role of someone else – Or, at least the ability to play a beefed-up, more sexy version of yourself. That’s just the way it is: we all play larger-than-life heroes and heroines, battling bad guys and saving the day (whatever that means). Sometimes, we get out of our shell and play a character that is so not like our real selves, but most of the time we all play some version of our self ‘ala bells and whistles.
It’s quite unusual for us to play the downtrodden, weak, under-skilled, and underpowered character. After all, we want to play the hero, we want to play the cliche. And that’s totally cool, so long as we don’t embrace one cliche and outcast others.
What am I talking about?
Well, ask yourself this: How many times have you wanted to play the scrawny guy? Hardly ever. You usually want to play the guy that excels in his field. You want to play the guy that looks cool with his ripped muscles, shiny armor, and big huge axe. Us girls don’t want that. After all, we can’t wield the big huge axe, or march in that heavy plate mail (and good luck trying to mount a horse with that gear). Sure, mechanically we could do all that, but that’s just cheesy. Which leads me to the point…
I’m a chick. My heroines are naturally going to be sleek, slim and sexy. If I’m going to play a character with any sort of natural strength, I’ll be wielding weapons and wearing armor more suitable to my stature. I don’t want to play a fighter that is 6’2, 220 lbs. That’s cool for a guy, but not a girl. Put him in any kind of bulky armor and he looks cool. He looks good. Put a woman in that armor and she looks like a… man.
Well, I’m playing a woman, I want to look like a woman. I want to look sexy and sleek. I’m not a feminist; I’m a realist. Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. Men are brawny, women are sexy. That’s why it’s ok that my character looks sexy. That’s why it’s ok that any female character looks sexy. I know you guys out there like to look at sexy female characters, that’s part of what makes the image / art cool to look at. Same with male characters – testosterone simply makes male characters look sexy.
Think about all of the fantasy, sci-fi, and comic book images of characters. The guys look tough and the girls look sexy. That’s how it is, and that’s how it should be. I mean, look at She-Hulk. She’s the female version of THE HULK, and she’s drop-dead sexy. Same goes for Batgirl, Supergirl, Storm, She-Ra, Red Sonja, Psi-Lock, and on and on and on.
What I’m trying to say, after all this writing, is that we gamers (especially those of us who cry foul over some scantily-clad female caricature) need to relax. Females are sexy, and female characters simply take that theme and run with it. That’s just how it is. The tendency to draw / paint women warriors in the trend of sexy isn’t going away. Actually, we need to see more of it.
Misty
20-something gal who loves gaming and gabbing. I think everyone has roleplayed at some point in some fashion or another, our take on the hobby is simply way more fun and entertaining.
I agree about female players wanting to play sexy characters. However, I disagree about female players not wanting to play big, strong types. A player in my current game was playing a 7’2″ goliath fighter who was very sexy despite being big and beefy. She really enjoyed the character, who we frequently referred to as “Xena.”
Also, full armor can be sexy if its designed correctly. Placing a woman in a man’s armor will make her look like a man, but you can design armor that looks very sexy (and I’m not talking chain mail bikinis here). Plate mail is very good because it can be custom fitted to the female form, accentuating curves in all the right places. Here are some good examples, all from the Fire Emblem series of games:
http://www.feplanet.net/media/gallery/8/titania.jpg
http://www.feplanet.net/media/gallery/11/minerva.jpg
http://www.feplanet.net/media/gallery/4/wendy.jpg
My point is as far as armor goes, you don’t have to sacrifice protection when going for sexy. Of course, the Fire Emblem series also has several examples of women who DO sacrifice protection in order to add more sexy:
http://www.feplanet.net/media/gallery/2/fiora.jpg
D&D is what you want to make of it. It is how you want it and that is what makes it special.
Thank you, Misty. I think I spend WAY too much time with feminists, trying to appease feminists, feeling absurd guilt over failing to appease feminists . . . It’s really nice hearing from someone with your perspective on things. I realize this probably wasn’t what you were going for, but thank you for making me feel slightly less guilty for being a male gamer.
I hope to see more of your writing around The Shack!
@Erik: Agreed, I’ve seen a number of examples of plate armor for women that were pretty darn sexy in their way. But of course, it depends on the character type – and the player.
Protection comes in many different forms, including mobility and agility, both of which heavy plate armor tends to limit. I guess I’m a little different, too. As a guy, I tend to prefer the lighter armored character types (Ranger, Rogue, etc) because I hate the idea of trading mobility for protection, though I have been persuaded on occasion to try my hand at Fighters or Paladins in heavier armor. I just like Strong+Agile more than Strong+Heavy Plating.
I think part of that is my experience with Boffer weapons in the SCA; the heavy armor and shields tended to slow me down more than anything, and I took more hits with them than without them. (Granted, heavy armor means surviving more of those hits, but that doesn’t make it FEEL right.)
Thanks Misty, hoping to see more from you at the Shack…
I guess we play who we want to – I’ve seen PCs who are snivelling cowards and fat, miserable sociopaths as well as “heroes”… Both were played by the same player, I think he was just trying to keep things interesting amidst the other players who had ever-increasing STR and crazy magic weapons. I guess those guys thought their characters were super-sexy versions of themselves too – maybe at least subconsciously – and it’s right that players should be drawn to the genre tropes they find sexy.
My male characters are usually aloof, quick and/or unusual: My halfling summoner, an ex-criminal goblin priest, a Eastern-European flavoured rogue…
My female characters are usually brainy, gutsy, and/or slightly unhinged: The GCHQ agent rounding out the ex-marine heavy SpyCraft party, the bipolar French bard I played in 4e…
Go figure.
Thanks everyone for your comments, greatly appreciated!
Really, what I’m trying to say is that women are sexy, and characters shouldn’t be chastised for wearing bikini mail, or skin-tight super-suits. Also, guys who act like they are upset because of the scantily-clad eye candy helping out at the convention… you’re not fooling anyone. I’ve been to several conventions, and when I put on the low-cut halter top or skimpy armor, I catch many of your eyes! -wink-
Actually, I think there should be a website dedicated to super babes, bar wenches, and bikini-clad warriors!
I think for me, in both sexes power is sexy. I don’t get thrown off by the scantily clad woman who is about to bust out some major ninja moves. It is the scantily clad woman waiting for the guy with the sword to rescue her that bothers me.
Even after more than a year and a code change, one of the most popular posts on my blog is still the one about the Superbabes RPG.