I used to work in the motorcycle industry for years, involved in marketing and sales and working at a lot of trade shows and one thing that was always present and you could not get away from it was... Scantily clad women.
There are some aspects of motorsport and the motor industry that are firmly stuck in the last century and REALLY need to catch up
Sadly fantasy and science fiction art were and to a lesser degree are, still very much similar. Women being used to sell genres and ideas, clad in little more than a bikini (sometimes metal) alongside the muscle-bound hero of the piece, of if the woman is the focus of the art work, wearing bugger all and draped over a large tiger or dragon.
ENOUGH ALREADY! The people that play fantasy and sci-fi games now are probably the most switched on generation with regards to gender and sex ever and I am not sure this use of the female form to sell things is necessary any more.
I am a member of an old fantasy art group on Facebook and if you look at the sort of people that post the pictures of semi naked women, it is predominantly white middle-aged and older men. The sort that had these sort of posters on their walls in the 80's.
And chain mail bikinis? WHY? What is the point? Even in some of the really popular fantasy artists are guilty of this, women warriors in totally pointless armour.
Armour is protection, it is there to stop you being made dead. Protecting your groin and breasts to the exclusion of everything else is just mindless, and clearly there again, to sell the artwork or the game, or the book.
If you insist on painting women and men with no armour who are fighters, please cover them in scars and lost limbs. You do not get out of a fight without armour without cuts, lots of cuts. They have examined the bones of people who were clearly fighters and they had massive disfiguring injuries. You don't get out of a fight unscathed... Ever.
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| A skull found at the battle of Towton England, shows a fighter with a severe but healed facial wound. |
So, apart from being sexist, exploitative, these sorts of images, as skillfully done as they are, they are just not realistic. But but but… It's FANTASY! Yes... And? How many of you have fighters that have had a few hit points of damage in each combat encounter they have had? Do you think all those little cuts and bashes heal without leaving a scar? People scar, people get wounded, artsists are kind of ignoring this fact. Writers often do as well, with the odd exception. David Gemmell wrote of Druss that he was covered in scars, and he wore armour of sorts. David Gemmell did try to have a look at weapons and armour so he knew what they could and could not do at least.
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Modern Day Master | Thomas Christian Wolfe. Joan of Arc |
It is totally possible to do it right and realistically in fantasy art, be inclusive. Don't be sexist, don't be racist and if you want to pander to the sad old sexists that sadly still exist, then expect your market place to die off.
There is a great post on A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry about the priority of armor pieces - if you go for only one, what is that? What is second, etc - needless to say, head and torso are the first things to cover up.
ReplyDeletehttps://acoup.blog/2019/05/03/collections-armor-in-order-part-i/
There will always be people who prefer to fight without armour, my main point is that at least paint these hero's covered in scars, because they would be. Totally.
ReplyDeleteMost of this style of art comes from the days of pulps. They all had lurid covers because sadly, then as now, sex sells. The players maybe the most switched on generation we have ever had but businesses are still using over sexualised art and imagery to sell their products. That having been said, I have been seeing less and less of it. Business will come round in the end but only because it makes sense in terms of their bottom line and their bottom line is their bottom line. They're not doing it because of inclusivity, they're doing it because of the optics.
ReplyDeleteI am seeing less of it too, thankfully. Even in some areas of motorsport they are starting to not have grid-girls and the like. The motorbike shows were depressing, groups of blokes just trailing round after girls in lycra and not paying any attention to the bikes.
DeleteIt's the same in this, people now want the product to be good, not the packaging.
As for the armour - People always seem surprised that it worked. It did its job. It wasn't 100% to be sure. But frankly you had a better chance with a chainmail/gambeson combo than being "fleet of foot" with a pot helm.
ReplyDeleteIn the Kelvingrove art gallery/Museum in Glasgow, they have a militaria section. Lots of armour, weapons and the like. One exhibit is a gambeson donated to the museum. Worn by some young lord. A musket ball had hit in in the upper hip near the groin. The round was stopped by the plate he had covering that area. The only evidence of the strike is a huge dent in the gambeson. There are particle traces of metal in this dent. It must have hurt like a bastard. There are traces of blood on the laces, so he or whoever had taken it off for him, had not come away without some sort of injury.
That is brilliant! Glad someone else gets this. Even been hit by something blunt, leaves marks, scars bruises. People would be limping, have gammy arms and hands. They would have been a mess!
DeleteI love fantasy art and I wish it was all lovely and clean, but the reality (even in fantasy worlds) is it wasn't.
Thanks James.