D&D 4E Women in 4E

[Minicol]

How about...




...or an "equal oppotunity skin" pic...

or one of the 3E classics?



There is one thing about a character's looks...they are supposed to make the player think "Damn, I'd LOVE my character to look like that...I'd love to look like that myself sometimes!". And for guys, a buff and strong body that doesn't need to be hidden can be a drawing factor...same goes for women with a sexy body that doesn't need to be hidden. Sometimes I wonder if those illustrations aren't misunderstood as "eye candy" for the opposite sex, while they actually are aimed at those players who'd want to LOOK like that muscled, bare-chested barbarian that has scantily-clad women hanging from his arm, or like the sorceress who's not only powerful enough to blow a guy's brains out, but does so by pure looks already. *shrugs* After all, they try to sell us a game where you PLAY those characters, not spend hours looking at them drooling.

Aaah, thank you for the pictures.
And the comment : Yes, I think everybody would like to BE these characters.

Aren't RPGs the cure for a boring life after all ?

 

[Minicol]

To be fair, women who already play D&D wouldn't have a problem with it. If they did have a problem with it, they wouldn't play.

We'd have to find women who were sort of interested in playing, but chose not to, in order to determine if cheesecake has a negative effect.

D&D does have a stigma for being the province of less socially adept (especially with the opposite sex) young men. What are the markers for that stigma? How do we convince people that it's not just for the awkward geeks?

QUOTE]

yes, but read the rest of my post : the women who don't like roleplaying I mention later have reasons other than the art. Of course, that is only IME, so this is not necessarily the whole story.

 

[Gloombunny]

To be fair, women who already play D&D wouldn't have a problem with it. If they did have a problem with it, they wouldn't play.

Um. Hi. I'm a woman who plays D&D and does have a problem with it. Nice to meet you.

I'm not sure why you think that the only possibilities are "totally ok with it" and "hates it so much that she refuses to touch the game at all", but let me assure you that a middle ground does, in fact, exist.

 

[Lorthanoth]

I have two friends who both have doctorates in Victorian Literature and Culture - the chair leg skirt thing is a myth! Victorian society wasn't 'repressed' - it expressed sexual desire in a different way. We consider it 'repressed' because of chronological snobbery and the fact that we're presented with sexualised imagery on a daily basis.

 

[S'mon]

While there are plenty of buff, Conan-esque figures which appeal to our fantasies of what we'd like to be like ourselves, there are also many subtler, more nuanced male characters represented. I'd simply like to see the same type of balance for female characters.

I agree - I'd like to see a greater variety of female characters in the artwork, and miniatures. More fully armoured female fighter types with plausibly athletic rather than amazonian-bikini-babe build (or the 3e style skinny thong-wearing type) would be nice. There is definitely a place for the latter types, as there is for the Schwarzenegger-esque loincloth clad barbarian, but if I play a female PC she is going to be fully dressed and bearing little resemblance to typical fantasy artwork.

 

[GSHamster]

Um. Hi. I'm a woman who plays D&D and does have a problem with it. Nice to meet you.

I'm not sure why you think that the only possibilities are "totally ok with it" and "hates it so much that she refuses to touch the game at all", but let me assure you that a middle ground does, in fact, exist.

Yeah, I should have phrased it as "are more likely to not have a problem with it".

 

[Aloïsius]

I think male barbarians who run around in a loincloth look ridiculous too, for whatever that's worth.

Barbarian is associated with primeval cultures. And in many case, primeval cultures don't use a lot of vestments, because the only surviving ones we know in real world are hidden in equatorial forests... Of course, during the middle age, Mongols or Vikings were considered as barbarians, but I would just call them "fringers" : they lived close to the main civilisations, knew how they work, what were there weakness. And their aim was to dominate them.

So, a loincloth barbarian is not a problem, as long as he is not using a greatsword, but rather bow, club, spears....

 

[Gloombunny]

Barbarian is associated with primeval cultures. And in many case, primeval cultures don't use a lot of vestments, because the only surviving ones we know in real world are hidden in equatorial forests... Of course, during the middle age, Mongols or Vikings were considered as barbarians, but I would just call them "fringers" : they lived close to the main civilisations, knew how they work, what were there weakness. And their aim was to dominate them.

So, a loincloth barbarian is not a problem, as long as he is not using a greatsword, but rather bow, club, spears....

Skimpy clothing in general is fine, as long as the barbarian in question is from a warm climate. I was thinking of the classic burly white guy wearing a loincloth or furry panties along with boots and a horned helmet while tromping through the snow with his greatsword.

 

[Lurks-no-More]

As I said earlier:
I'm aware that the pictures aren't attractive. But it's an example of a double standard. Even in a picture not attempting to be eye candy, they're still showing comparatively more skin. It illustrates a mindset.

You might have a point overall, but focusing on those race comparision pics is a really lousy way of making that point.

Also, Klaus: great pic of the druidess!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Sigh...I spend way too much time around women.

Life can't always be easy...