Ryxander's Rules for Sexy Women in Entertainment

[ryxander]

OK, so much has been bandied about lately on the internet about the oversexualization of women in just about everything (but often comics), and I can no longer resist laying out my own opinions.

It's pretty simple, for me.  I have no problem with the fact that heterosexual boys like to look at scantily clad girls.  I have no problem with people

Comments

[funwithrage]

Yes, this. All of it.

I often use James Bond as an example of why #1 is important and why women don't get equal treatment that way. Sex is definitely part of Bond's arsenal, but so is shooting people and driving fast and, I don't know, crawling through heating ducts. For Berry!Catwoman or whoever, OTOH, there don't seem to be a lot of great options once "seduce the guy" fails, and...that's not always gonna work. Or even often, in combat situations: I don't care how hot someone is if he's trying to kill me.

So, examples!

Buffy, of course. Fairly realistic high school/college girl fashion for the time--at least if you're decently well off and you live in SoCal so you don't have to mess around with puffy coats--abilities that have nothing to do with her appearance, and some fairly tasty guys.

Starbuck from New!BSG. Again, costumes that make sense and some serious skills. (And, much like Buffy, her degeneration into OH MY GOD SHUT UP in later seasons is not a result of her sexuality, which is the only silver lining from the respective Dysfunction Junction messes.)

Bioware is pretty damn good about this in their PCs. FemShep, the female TOR characters I've played, and the female Warden/Hawke all look like they're reasonably prepared to kick ass; the video game mechanics mean that physical/magical ass-kickery actually is always a thing; and the guys are for the most part (except TOR, which inspired just a little ranting from me) eight or higher.

My comics-fu is relatively weak, but I do like what I've seen of Wonder Woman.