OK... that's just vulgar...

[Lonely Tylenol]

I didn't see it initially, but now I can't look at the pic w/o getting grossed out.

I think it is intentional, running along the whole HR Giger biomechanics tradition combined with the common mysogynistic idea that the female sex = evil. All in all I think it is a great expression of the concept. Still a public site of a large corp is probably not the best place for somthing like that. There is a time and a place. This is more a gallery piece than a gaming book piece IMO.

Of course you're right. I don't know how I could possibly disagree with your thesis that this picture is proof that the artist, and WotC by extension, is terribly mysogynistic and feel the need to express this by reference to HR Giger. It just makes so much sense!

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

In contrast to the nay sayers who say this is just naughty imaginations, I think females are going to pick up on the association faster on average than men.

Which perhaps says something about cultural assumptions concerning women and the imaginations thereof.

 

[Felon]

Mr. Rouse, I have seen you on the boards and in my opinion you are a genial person. That thing you said just there, however, isn't very nice.

Nonsense. It was stated in a perfectly nice manner, you just seem to be of a mind that dishonesty is abhorent in any situation. That's a delusion most folks are dissuaded from very early in life.

In all things, try to be both benign and pragmatic.

 

[Klaus]

At any rate, props to the artist for turning a phallic symbol into a vulvic one!

 

[Lolth]

Which perhaps says something about cultural assumptions concerning women and the imaginations thereof.

Well, uh, there's also the fact that us wimmin usually come equipped with one... and it, erm, requires regular maintenance. As often as several days in a row in one month.

Imagine owning a wreck of a car, and for three to five days a month you drive it to a mechanic-generic handyman for repairs/maintenance/oil job; by now, this mechanic knows the system inside out and is intimately familiar with all the nooks and crannies of the engine.

"Oh hullo, I can see right away where's the problem today..."

 

[Felon]

At any rate, props to the artist for turning a phallic symbol into a vulvic one!

It's both, that's what made it so cool.

Personally, I'm glad I have saved the image to my hard drive. It'll make a great T-shirt.

 

[Scott_Rouse]

From the look of the reaction by Rouse, it's more like Charles Keating Jr.

This isn't funny to me.

I just watched the People vs Larry Flynt again a few weeks ago because it was on OnDemand. Keating is not a very likable fellow and I don't like the comparison.

 

[Scott_Rouse]

Mr. Rouse, I have seen you on the boards and in my opinion you are a genial person. That thing you said just there, however, isn't very nice. On the one hand, you have already stated in this thread that you see what some of us see in the image. Doesn't seem very honest to later state that you'll deny having seen a lady's naughty bit if you end up on the receiving end of a complaint from an irate mother. Now, I'm somewhat confident that you won't receive any complaints about the image and I think you made a smart move alerting the right folks to the possibilities of what the image may convey while also agreeing to let them do their work and decide for themselves what to do with the picture. I'm hopeful, however, that you were kidding just there when you said "sorry ma'am, all I see is a cool looking sword." Without an emoticon or any other contextual information, I felt I should mention that while I didn't find the picture offensive and don't mind it's being on the net or on WotC's website, I did go "Huh?!" when I read your most recent remark about deniability.

Again, you seem a nice person. With the onset of 4E, I'm happy to have seen you posting on EN World. I didn't think what you just said there was very kind, but that's okay. My own husband sometimes isn't very kind, nor am I. I hope you were joshing.

Sorry, yes I was joshing.

 

[jgbrowning]

Imagine that, someone admitting their error on the Internet?

Big of you to do so, however, you do realize that this means the robot masters of Internet-Face will be dispatched to your door shortly, right?

It was nice knowing ya man.....

joe b.

 

[Scott_Rouse]

Jesus H Christ!

Guess what I get to go and ask to be fixed tomorrow?

After a little less than 24 hours this has given me quite a few laughs. Thinking about my initial response I think it was out of surprise more than anything else (like: "wow how did we miss that" ).

as you can see we changed the image. In most cases we wouldn't do this but after talking about it briefly with some of the R&D folks and showing the image to some people internally who had not seen this thread or the art, we decided to replace it with another version we had from the artist.

This does not mean we are going to change D&D art from now on and make it G-rated but in the "oh wow" response was enough and this case the switch was easy enough to warrant a swap .