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Friday, March 21, 2014

My Thoughts on Skimpy Armor Bikinis

K forwarded me this hilarious link to the Female Armor Bingo, where you can rate a fictional warrior lady based on the impractical components of her outfit and see if you get five in a row. It's definitely true – many video game costumes are strategically designed to show key body parts. I know a lot of real-life women who are highly offended at these characters for various reasons and/or don't feel comfortable with their significant others viewing them. I guess I must be in the quiet minority because I've been known to put together outfits like this:

Monster Hunter Freedom 2 female kirin armor
Guilty as charged... at least I didn't win Bingo ^_^;;

Why do sexy video game girls not bother me? On one hand, I recognize how males are highly visual creatures, and for many, even glimpsing a scantily clad set of polygons is a dangerous temptation to be avoided. I have a personal conviction about dressing with modesty and not being a stumbling block for men. That being said, I am not affronted or intimidated by beautiful women (much less digital ones) who may not follow these same beliefs.

The summer after college, I went on a summer-long mission trip to South America. Long story short, God really made me face these body image issues I didn't know I even had. I hated my fuzzy hair, acne-prone complexion, wide hips, you name it. And yet, He showed me that my true worth comes from Him, not what the world thinks of me or even what I think of myself, and I am truly precious and wonderful and beautiful in His eyes.

Now I have a much better understanding of who I am and what makes me beautiful. Of course I have my moments of weakness where I crave reassurance from K (especially during pregnancy >_<), but ultimately he's not my source of confidence. Therefore, I see no reason for me to get jealous of any lovely ladies (real or not) that may cross my husband's path, and that attitude encourages K to openly tell me if anything does tempt him, rather than hiding it from me. Besides, I am seriously the best thing that has ever happened to K (and vice versa), and he knows better than to mess up a good thing. ^_~

Demon's Souls female armor sets
Demon's Souls wins the award for "Least Sexy, Most Practical Female Armor" in my book. (Source: Demon's Souls Wiki)

Question:
What's your stance on letting your significant other play video games with skimpily dressed girls in them (or even playing those games yourself)? Do those characters bother you?

3 comments:

Missy said...

I almost always play a female character. And it doesn't bother me that the clothing/armor is ridiculous. I can be a bad-a$$ no matter what it looks like I'm wearing (in game). And I think the ridiculous armor looks cool. I wouldn't wear that clothing or even anything similar in real life, but then again I can't shoot fire or frost bolts in real life either.

Unknown said...

I don't really care if R plays games with girls wearing skimpy clothes. I am not a huge video gamer myself, and the main game I play is Skyrim. I find the women in that game are not dressed too badly. I haven't noticed R playing a lot of games that feature half-naked ladies, actually. Those aren't the games he seems to want to play. Most of the games he plays are set in space where you don't really see characters or are in post-apocalyptic dystopias where everyone wears torn and dirty clothes, but seem to be covered. The only time I had a really hard time with the poorly-covering armour issue was when I was trying to find a picture to use to represent my character for a Pathfinder RPG campaign. She's a ranger, wears Chainmail, and needed full coverage!

The other issue you bring up is about your own personal code for dressing. I don't feel like it's my job to protect men from myself--men should be strong enough to do that themselves and I feel that telling girls they are responsible for how men react to them by the way they dress perpetuates a culture of victim-blaming and slut-shaming which I don't agree with. That being said, I dress in a way that I feel sets a good example for my daughter and that means staying covered up for the most part (that and no one wants to see a 38-year-old Mom of 3's midriff anyway)

In contrast to the bingo game your husband shared with you, I will share this Tumblr: http://womenfighters.tumblr.com/

A Gamer's Wife said...

Missy - Haha, your comment is spot on about video game characters not being reality-based anyway.

Jennifer - Funnily enough, K (who has seen his fair share of impractically dressed VG women in fighting games, RPGs, etc.) probably cares more about the way I dress than I do. I have this really cute bikini I once bought early in our marriage, but haven't had many chances to wear it because K said he doesn't want to "share" me with other guys. So cute! :P

Love the link you shared! Forgot to mention this in my post, but XCOM: Enemy Unknown also intentionally designed viable, modern day female armor:
http://xcom.wikia.com/wiki/File:Concept_-_Soldier2.jpg