Mixing it up some more

Oct 26, 2007 12:34

I'm not the only one out here doing this now - here's kkglinka's redo spoofing a recent Catwoman cover, and I've seen a couple takes on the Tigra Beatdown* and a couple others, which even in rough form have (along with a grisly/implausible real Red Sonja cover which still doesn't come near the usual objectification/eroticization of violence against women in pop culture) made at least a couple of male posters concede that they now begin to "get it," so it's having effect, just like raising holy heck about the use of femaleness as an epithet is beginning to result in change on the political forums (yes, mirabile dictu, I really did see a dozen strangers smack someone down for casually using "pussy" as a synonym for "coward" the other day on dKos!)

Here's something from a different genre, the recent Heavenly Sword video game which of course has its "strong" heroine posed in an impossible/implausible skimpy costume and ass-focusing position on its cover, and of course has fanboys drooling over it and proclaiming it not gratuitous simultaneously.

Out of curiosity to see what the costume alone would look like on a male figure, and if it's something likely to be seen on a hero avatar any time soon, or if it was just the butt-out pose that made it seem gratuitous, I rejiggered the promotional wallpaper for the game that has a frontal view of the main chara in what is a surprisingly non-sexified stance and would not be at all problematic - if she weren't wearing an "Oriental Fantasy" version of the Battle Bikini.


Here's the original: (click pics for full size image)



and the genderswapped version, using the Hiro 3 figure with "realistic" and "muscle definition" morphs applied and the clothing retailored in Photoshop:



Oh yeah, that's obviously a practical costume, isn't it? I'm sure we'll see it on a cover dude any day now, right!

* Shorter Bendis: "Nobody cares about uppity catgirls getting randomly depowered and beaten up." Shorter Bendis fanclub: "Catgirls only exist to be exploited, so why complain about it?" So much for the enlightened 21st-c. treatment of the chara introduced to be the embodiment of "Hear me roar!" back in the '70s...

sexism, pop culture, gandersauce, fandom, art, privilege, gaming

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