Why Are Warrior Women Never Ugly?

[Hairfoot]

Why is it that female heroes are always depicted in art as lithe, flawless beauties with perfect skin and chainmail miniskirts?

Whoa. Silly question. It's because the fantasy genre caters to hormonal teenage boys and...hormonal adult men.

A better question - why are female heroes NEVER squat, muscly brutes?

It's a hard call for oxymoronic "fantasy realists", like myself. Anyone who lives by the sword can expect scars, disfiguration, and a physique which favours function over form. Why does this only apply to heroes, and not heroines?

So, is anyone out there is running a non-catwalk-worthy female character, and can anyone recommend some art/ists which depicts them?

 

[Dark Psion]

There are, we just call them Half-Orcs.

 

[Turjan]

I suppose that your first answer still stands:

It's because the fantasy genre caters to hormonal teenage boys and...hormonal adult men.

This doesn't concern a warrior, but I have to think of Joe Kushner's recent review of Necromancer's "Eldritch Sorcery", where he mentions that he doesn't like the Rick Sardinha cover. It depicts a female wizard or sorceror who is not particularly beautiful. Personally I find the picture very evocative, and it sets the perfect mood for a book about spells.

It's a fantasy rule that women must be beautiful. I remember a discussion of exactly this topic on rpg.net with the recent FR "Waterdeep" book as an example. It was pretty enlightening.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Why is it that female heroes are always depicted in art as lithe, flawless beauties with perfect skin and chainmail miniskirts?

I wouldn't play such a character. Role-playing games aren't about personal fantasies or wish-fulfillment for me.

 

[Oryan77]

Why Are Warrior Women Never Ugly?

Because if they were ugly, male roleplayers wouldn't play female PC's.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Why is it that female heroes are always depicted in art as lithe, flawless beauties with perfect skin and chainmail miniskirts?

Whoa. Silly question. It's because the fantasy genre caters to hormonal teenage boys and...hormonal adult men.

A better question - why are female heroes NEVER squat, muscly brutes?

It's a hard call for oxymoronic "fantasy realists", like myself. Anyone who lives by the sword can expect scars, disfiguration, and a physique which favours function over form. Why does this only apply to heroes, and not heroines?

So, is anyone out there is running a non-catwalk-worthy female character, and can anyone recommend some art/ists which depicts them?

The same reason why male characters are nearly always handsome in some way, unless they've got a broken nose or something.

A fit body is one nearly universal sign that males use to evaluate the beauty of a female, the same way a symmetrical face is also considered universally attractive (to both genders, in fact).

Particularly muscular women are rare as well, and in D20 women do not suffer penalties to Strength (or bonuses to Wisdom - at least I think the latter). While that may be realistic, it would limit character choice and be politically incorrect as well. So in D20, a strong woman can have the same Strength score as a strong guy but be shorter and lighter than him. In novels, at least, it's rare for the female character to be about "brute strength" anyway. Some novels, such as Wheel of Time, will mention how a female character can't wrestle with the boys, but she can pwn them in her own way. They're often portrayed as faster, which means less scarring, to make up for the lack of damage-dealing strength. And, of course, female spellcasters are overrepresented (they often don't wear armor, which means one less layer between male eyes and their physique, they give off heat when spellcasting, you don't end up with a party full of muscular females, etc). I can't think of any series where the main "tank" warrior was a woman and the main spellcaster was a man.

Now, it's not realistic that all warrior women would be unscarred and have beautiful faces, however, and we all know nobody would ever wear a chain mail bra.

 

[Banshee16]

Flawless bodies and chainmail mini-skirts help to lure their opponents closer....so the amazon can whack them with a big, sharp weapon..

Banshee

 

[Storyteller01]

Why are warrior men depicted as muscle-bound adonis's wearing 70 pounds of shining, unblemished armor?

Ever see picks of fighters, including those that used heavy weapons? Muscular, yes. THAT huge, no. Even the big fighters tended to be trim, compared to our current body builders.


The genres cater to what we consider to be heroic, as opposed to 'true to form'.

 

[Storyteller01]

Flawless bodies and chainmail mini-skirts help to lure their opponents closer....so the amazon can whack them with a big, sharp weapon..

Banshee

Unless you believe the rumor that amazons removed certain body parts to improve their archery skills.

 

[demiurge1138]

Unless you believe the rumor that amazons removed certain body parts to improve their archery skills.

Rumor? What do you think a-mazon means, anyway?

Demiurge out.