What are the problems with "female" armor?

[nostalgicroxas]

I'd utilize the designs in the armor to tell male from female apart in that kind of example. Like maybe the woman has more plant motifs on her armor embossed in, while the man has geometric patterns. That's how Japanese kimono and yukata work - girls get flowers and vibrant colors, men get muted gray/navy/green and large geometric patterns (largely fat stripes, or diamonds/orbs clustered in some areas).

[MK_Wizard]

Well number one, it should actually protect the girl. Aside from it being too exposed, high heels are a hazard (one falls move and you can twist your ankle, not to mention they aren't for all terrain) and such armor could be hazardous even for the wearer (it could cut into the girl).

Now keep in mind... I myself make heroines with unrealistic battle clothing, but I also do the same with guys. A tuxedo is not practical wear for a battle field even though it does keep the guy covered. I think the one true problem is what you are comfortable with drawing and writing. If you bring too much reality into a fantasy, it stops being fun and unless, you aim to be realistic and practical with your armour designs, sit back and have fun. And keep in mind with this, even if you did draw them realistically, people would still see fault.

So when it comes to clothing, don't ask yourself what will make others happy. Ask yourself, what makes you happy and comfortable?

[gh0stcr33p]

I guess the real problem is that the female armor is usually less practical and skimpier than male armor in most media just to appeal to the audience... for my comic I try to keep the male and female armors similar. of course they have their differences, but one isn't exactly more revealing than the other. they're still not exactly practical, but it's fantasy so I just go with designs that I like

[Cavechan]

I will respectfully disagree with this chart. I'm probably thinking too much into this since I get it's supposed to be simplistic, but context does matter. The quality of the characters, the way they act, the world they live in, the situations they're in, author intention, etc etc all play a role if a woman wearing skimpy armor and a man wearing full armor is "sexist". Things aren't so black and white.

[TAMAnnoying]

Ooo i do like this point, Even tho i agree with the chart in general, context is very important! I think internal consistency within stories is very important! If women are put into skimpy armor for the simple fact that the story is based in a traditional patriarchy of society and women are only allowed to wear and buy skimpy armor cause thats the rule, then thats the established rule of the world, that rule becomes completely destroyed when every other women that arn't the main characters are wearing full plate non skimpy armor. So long as you follow through with the reasons behind why that set up exists in world and you don't contradict yourself then it goes back to the entire "its fantasy" rule.

Another thing is to just... simply be honest about your intentions as an artist/content maker

2B is my fav example of this. when asked why 2B looks the way she does the creator states very plainly "I like women." And you know what. Thats awesome!

[Samuraiflame]

I'm laughing because the first example that came to mind was Quiet from MGS5, where Kojima tried so hard to explain why she was designed this way.

"she breathes through her skin, therefore she must wear skimpy clothes" ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I'm all for everyone wearing whatever they want, including both skimpy and full-plated armor. But very rarely will there ever be a good reasoning for fantasy clothing being practical, so I'd rather go Yokotaro with it and just design what I like. I don't think you need a 100% even ratio of female and male skimpy outfits at all times or even a good reasoning for it, but why not have the best of both worlds. :3c

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I kinda wanna play devil's advocate here. ^^ Sure, it's all fine and good to just "design what you like", but keep in mind that when it comes to what people "like" about female characters, interests tend to converge, if you know what I mean. 9_9

People who ask for female warriors who don't wear bathing suits into battle aren't always accusing character designers of sexism or demanding that they deny their own wishes. I think a lot of the time, they just want a little diversity in what "likable female" can look like. "I like women" and "I like women in miniskirts" shouldn't mean the same thing, y'know? Women who *gasp * don't wear miniskirts do exist...

I mean, what's led to some of the most harmful stereotypes in the entertainment industry today? Things like "main characters should be white supermodels" and all the ridiculous ideas they spawn? Most of it isn't the fault of evil racists and sexists; most of it comes from people just following their preferences based on things they've seen before...which leads to future generations following those same preferences, based on things THEY'VE seen before.

And eventually you end up with 'unspoken rules' in the industry. Like, no one says explicitly that a woman who isn't conventionally attractive can't be the star of a franchise...but how many franchises do you know of that even come close to breaking that unspoken rule? Heck, even "Ugly Betty" was cute as a button, to be perfectly honest.

What am I trying to say here...I guess, like ethnic background and personality type, wardrobe is another type of character diversity that I don't think should go totally ignored. If nothing else, imagine all the girls out there who won't have to suddenly get half-naked in order to cosplay their favorite characters. ^^;

[ISNEKO]

I've only just realized after browsing this thread that I have lots of ladies in armor but never took the initiative to make them anything other than full-on heavy knight or WH40k-ish with no female-specific modifications.

But if you were to take a glance at the MMO characters I use.....

[vothnthorvaldson]

Trying to put aside the emotional part, and sticking to the strictly objective side:

I would need a VERY good lore reason for this kind of armor to not be completely immersion-breaking. But let's be honest, it's difficult to give good justifications. Generally women don't want to be wiped out and men don't want them to be either. But I can imagine cases where it can work: eg. Crazy tyran forces females subjects to dress like that for fighting, or females become very reckless due to circonstances and fight dressed like that as proof of courage, or other (still pretty unlikely) scenarios.

But then... I want to see the consequences! That's maybe the most important! Women have to die at an an appaling rate in fights (or of hypothermia depending on climate), otherwise it does not make sense at all, and it's simply.. a story badly told, that's all!

[HGohwell]

or females become very reckless due to circonstances and fight dressed like that as proof of courage, or other (still pretty unlikely) scenarios.

This is actually an interesting point. There are historical accounts (although how accurate they are given translations and history is another matter) of warriors, particularly around the times of the roman empire, who would fight completely without armour or completely naked and were considered some of the fiercest warriors, partly because they're going in fully prepared to die. So there is at least a little historical precedence for this.

[skicoak]

Don't know if it has a weapon/armor equivalent, but in hand to hand combat there are principles of directing/predicting your opponents attack by presenting a false "weakness".

So maybe an argument could be made that intentionally exposed areas in "female" armor are cheese to a specific trap.

[TAMAnnoying]

Although I understand and agree with this statement I do believe we have to give SOME guilt to the consumer as well as the creators. Especially when a creator is compleatky honest and outspoken about the fact that they are making something high fantacy where it’s more about the magic and dragons then being historically/realistically accurate.

When it’s laid out clearly and precise the intent of work form the creator and the consumer chooses not to educate themselves and chooses to believe this is a “norm” you can’t put guilt on the creators for just... wanting to create something they enjoy.

Creating content is a two way street. Creators make content for what they enjoy as well as to appeal to an audience. An audience should be willing to keep themselves educated and consume media responsibly if they wish to show that they want more “ugly Betty’s” watching more movies with plump actors as main leads and buying games with more relistic aproches to armor as well as expressing your wants and desires when content creators have polls and ask audiences for what they want to see more/less of.

You can’t deny that some people just wanna see skimpy women in armor (I do) just like you can’t deny that people wanna see skimpy men in armor (I do) is it relistic? No but again so long as the creators are consistent with their reasons and have passion for what they do I think it’s fine.

Content creators should not be blamed for the fact that their IS an audience that wants bikini armor.... cause it is hot.

[ajcrwl]

I'm guilty, I made one of my characters wear boobplate.

I already knew back then that tittyarmor was stupid and not something that actually existed. But I also knew that this comic was going to be stupid just for laughs. You can literally point at any page and say "This is so dumb". So, I put boobplate in there as a pointless stereotypical fantasy thing. I was also kind of maybe a little bit inspired by a certain comedy fantasy novel with a lot of city guards in it, which had great illustrations, so the rest of this outfit is something men from that book would easily wear.

[phoenixrenaissance]

Obviously there are a lot of problems out there with female armor design but I think this video is actually a smart take on how boob-plate could be a thing, even if impractical.

[chickknightgreenleaf]

that would be the Celts. The Celtic Naked warriors, they will put on freaky make up, ashed their hair to look white, painted their body with magic symbol and use as shock troops to charge in to break enemy's will to fight (the warrior likely under influential of drug). it might effected with other Celtic tribe though but i doubt they have much effect to the highly disciplined Roman soldier. But the truth is they're not exactly naked because they do carry a big shield with them as a mean of protection

[ArtGremlin]

High heels are stupid for practical armor. They’re often used in bad female fantasy armor. I decided it would be funny to use high heels in a different way, rather than being for the purpose of showing off legs, they show how this warrior has immaculate balance and ankles of steel. This is especially impressive because he swings around a 180 lb sword. (Ok he normally doesn’t have 6 in heels more like 3 in most of the time)

Heels are great for fantasy comedy