Starfire's Outfit

[sistermagpie]

I saw a comment on tumblr about Starfire, the character. Now, I love Kory. I think she's awesome. If I was listing great DC females, she'd definitely be on it. Where I differed from the one comment I read was about...that outfit. Yes, Starfire's outfit. It was described on tumblr as "fairly fan service-y" but the commenter liked the way George

Comments

[elements]

So true.

Also, if Kory is really comfortable in her body AND to her that translates as liking to show skin despite its impracticality for fighting, you'd think a basic bikini style outfit would do the trick, giving boob support and covering the bits that can't get shown here, without looking so explicitly designed with titillation over functionality. Even if it were basically bikini briefs and a bandeau top for support. IMHO that's be pretty hot, too, anyway.

[sunnyskywalker]

I didn't know anything about this character or her outfit history, and after doing a Google image search, yeah, I agree with you about the bikini. Since characters wear bikinis on kids' cartoon shows all the time, then obviously showing skin isn't in itself necessarily a problem for the "family-friendly" set - so why did they have to alter the Starfire outfit so much for TV? So that tells me that yes, they weren't looking for any old skin-showing outfit. Otherwise she'd just wear a bikini. This one's fanservice any way I look at it.

Apologies if I've gotten anything wrong about the various iterations of the character.

[sistermagpie]

It's the bra part that really seals it because even if that clothing worked without being, like, bent medal or something (fabric wouldn't curve around with her boob) it's so uncomfortable. A bikini is barely anything, but they still had to find a way to remove some of the support the bikini would provide.

[tamerterra]

In the Teen Titans cartoon, that's pretty much what she does wear - a quite short skirt and a bikini-type top.

[schmevil]

This is a great post.

[sistermagpie]

Thanks! I feel nude bowling improves any post.

[dungeonwriter]

I have to agree with you, Starfire's costume seems designed to titilate. If they came from a planet where bodies were not erotic, than wouldn't clothes be designed for comfort or fuction since covering up isn't as important? If her showing her boobs is the same as me showing my neck, it's a bit silly for her to carefully drape her nipples.

I'd like to know why she picked this outfit. Most costumes should be created out of some purpose, comfort, religious, tradition, function, some personal taste.

I'd need an explanation of why Starfire would choose this particular design.

[sistermagpie]

Yes! I mean, what is it designed for if you don't care about nudity? That seems to be the only function it actually serves is highlighting her sexiness.

[mildlunacy]

It starts with body type-- you can say wide-hipped women can be charmingly flawed too, etc, but it's sort of like how you don't see a lot of wide-hipped women in sports-- to some degree, your activity type correlates with your body type. So Cass has a lot more realism built-in just with her body-type. The construction of the character was clearly trying to reflect her life

[sistermagpie]

Wow, this is great--especially that last paragraph. (And it's also hilarious because it does totally sound like you've been reading a lot of litcrit!) They do seem like they live in different universes. And they kind of do, only that there's one character that stars in each and she sleeps with him. Apparently she designed his most ridiculous outfit too, but at least it had the proper physical support.

I'm trying to think about whether the other character appeals to older or younger people. On one hand Batgirl's a character that usually appeals to younger women. But Cass seems to have a lot of older male fans.

[slytherincesss]

God, this is such an uncerebral comment, but the first girl's hair looks like a chicken drumstick.

Yeah, I got nothing . . .

[sistermagpie]

I've never looked at it that way before but now I can't unsee it!

Her hair is like an entity in itself.