You and me both...but hey I'll be awkward over douchebag any day
You and me both...but hey I'll be awkward over douchebag any day
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This is 21 century, do we still have to be so much obsessed about female form? Shadow Era is a fantasy card game. In fantasy worlds characters usually represent an arctheype. Heroes are too good looking, monsters are too ugly, powers are too extravagant, evil usually is pure evil, good is always good. You can find countless examples of this in fantasy literature. Thats in a way is the nature of it.
But you see nobody, mentions about the ugliness of the monsters, nobody complains about the heroes constant need of fight and destruction. Nobody cares about the violence. Why? Because everybody knows this is just a fantasy world, and even if it was real we still accept the competition and struggle as natural.
Instead we are focusing on the female body. Yet it is not even a real body. It's just a imaginary representation of it. It bothers us though. We are not sure how it needs to be dressed, how it is supposed to stand. Is it too sexy? Not sexy enough? How to approach it? How to deal with it? We are confused about it, almost scared by it.
Individual cards mentioned in this post: Jasmine, she seduces her opponent hence disables for a turn. The art fits her ability. Sandra, is she even sexy? Maybe her only offence is not being ugly. Erika mostly covered with leather. What is bothersome here? Her breasts? Layarian Seductress, just a woman in a dress. What is troublesome about her? A bit of skin showing her legs? Bloodlust, it's a grey vampire.
This card game doesn't objectify women. As I said It's a fantasy world and in fantasy worlds there are archetypes. They'll be beautiful, powerful, scary, evil etc.. What objectifies women is our obsession, our worries, our confusion about the female body. It's just a physical form. Every living thing has one. Every gender has a bit difference compared to other. All this is natural.
And if we don't start making threads about it, most people won't even pay too much attention to it. They'll just be thinking about which card to play on their turn.
Last edited by PriestAmar; 12-05-2014 at 04:06 PM.
With Sandra and Erika - Heh, what reason would there for wearing armour in some places than leaving your stomach bare? And there's the little... I dunno, loop?(Dunno what to call it :|) around Sandra's chest that's bare as well.
Stuff like that is what I would call the point. With cards like Jasmine as Seductress (and I agree that Seductress isn't anything I would call ridiculous either) there's a reason and it makes sense. With, say, Erika... Well, black clothing or something (hide in the shadows) would make a lot more sense.
For the most part I think you're right that it doesn't come up much. I hadn't actually noticed the details I mentioned above about Sandra before this thread.
But I have found it an interesting discussion. I will say that the thought of sexualization came to me independently a couple times - Mostly because of Elinor.
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After reading the entire 13 pages of comments, I have to say I'm impressed that this hasn't devolved into a massive freakout on either side. Speaks volumes of the SE community compared to others (I'm looking at you, Kotaku/io9). I say this due to how hard people lost their minds when the Milo Manara variant cover for Spider-Woman came out. She's in a crawling pose (one that we've seen Spider-Man's fantastic ass in repeatedly and no one cared), and the community at large lost their shit about how oversexualized it was.
The thing is, sexualization is something that happens in the mind of the viewer, much like some people sexualize hands, feet, or people in furry animal costumes. Just because something looks sexual to you doesn't mean it does to everyone, nor should said thing be stifled because some people don't like it. That's the sad hypersensitive world that we've ended up living in where, like Preybird said, you can't even compliment a woman without anyone within earshot thinking you're a massive pervert.
So, HumanPriest, how do you feel about women in bikinis on the beach, or girls in microdresses up in the club? Is that just oversexualization that should be stopped as well? I'm not trying to start shit; just posing a question that I probably worded more aggressively than it's intended, and I'd like to have more of a discussion than I did with Rob Bricken of io9.com who just deleted my comments and suspended my account. I mean, I like seeing attractive women in bikinis/short skirts; does that mean I stroll the beach/club with a perpetual hard-on? No, because that's 1) dangerous if it lasts more than 3 hours and 2) nothing that's overly sexualized to me. Maybe I'm numb to it, or maybe I'm missing out on something which is why I'd like to actually talk to people who can be sensible about all this (and so I take it to my SE people).
I'm sure some women and men like seeing overly ripped comic book heroes, others like busty girls with waists that look like would just snap in half under the weight of their cans, others like lean David Tennant on Doctor Who types, others like perpetually-covered emos, others still like other body types, even non-humanoid ones, and if that's what gets them going: have a field day. Different strokes for different folks IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!
But despite my views on an obviously sensitive subject, like I said, I appreciate the civility here and look forward to more discussion, even if in the end we just agree to disagree, at least the conversation happened and we walk out with a little more of other viewpoints.
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I may set you on fire. It's not personal, I just like fire.
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The females are depicted sexually because 99% of SE players are male. A company simply pandering to its fans. If the ratio of players was 50-50 then it could be inappropriate. Wth is with the internet lately with unnecessary feminist articles and posts popping up(Cracked.com is among the worst for this)?
You're a SE fan? Excellent! You're rare as a SE player because you're a woman? True, but understand because of just that you are playing a game that was designed for a majority that was in this case not yourself. Don't define your actions by being a female gamer to just perpetrate stereotypes. Cosmopolitan has male readers you think they complain there are no articles about cars or engineering (or SE lol) in the mag?
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Bob, this REALLY struck home so hard for me...
Because I had been experiencing street harassment from the same group of guys for few weeks few months ago until I had to change my bus route and take an earlier bus to just avoid them....
It infuriated me that I had to change my routines for them but I had to look out for my safety from the harassers.
Thank you, Bob. Men, especially gay men, do experience street harassment but it is not just on the same par as it is for women, in terms of frequency and intimidation.
In real life, women have the right and decision to dress however they want to and not everyone struts around in cleavage-baring outfits or bikinis.. or even clothes that expose their midriffs. All I would like to see is that card art reflects that reality - I would accept 50% of the card art showing women half-naked if the other 50% of the card art shows women appropriately covered up. The way it is now - it is like 85% of the female card art sexualizes women as in showing unnecessary cleavage, showing midriff, or being half-naked. Only very select few would be considered appropriately covered up.
Magic the Gathering had some buff and half-naked guys on their card arts; that helped make up for some sexualized female card arts there. Here in Shadow Era, I cannot find any. Even the hottest guys (such as Knight of Ellos) are covered up.
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