Myrdin Potter
Hero
I think some women had an issue with some images. Some men did as well. Generically claiming all women is pretty wide and not true. There are also plenty of men that find the chainmail bikinis between silly and and offensive.Not entirely so.
Some images in older rulebooks were quite repulsive for women I know, because of very light and unrealistic dresses and strange poses.
No to speak of attribute maximums for female characters of very old editions.
5e art did a great job of potraying women as equally fit adventurers.
Of course we see more equal female heroes in television too.
I should have read your entire post before responding...
I honestly don’t think that there was immediate magic in portraying an overweight with glasses guy in the book that suddenly won that demographic over to playing the game. Remember that the cheesecake is also beefcake and the magnificently muscled men in loin cloths are just the other side of the same thing.
I actually don’t find that type of art offensive but I have 2 daughter, both in their 20’s, that are both gamers. They told me that a cheesecake cover or anything with an overly sexualized picture (usually women) means that the book starts out at a -1. They still might buy it or read it, but it starts as a deterrent. I imagine that in a society that was rough enough on male nerd would have made it harder for nerd curious women to overcome that -1 in that same society. Tastes changing made a bigger difference and then not starting with -1 helps.
