Sif vs. Sif

Thor fans are all up in arms, because of a post I made on Babes in Armor comparing a Jack Kirby illustration of the war goddess Sif with a shot from Kelly Sue Deconnick's Sif issue 1. The first image depicts Sif being prepared to forcibly marry Loki (I'm told). She wears a Las Vegas showgirl style plumed headdress, a nipple-enhancing long-sleeved, midriff-less bodice, and a sort of sheer, girdled skirt. Plus some killer boots. Clearly, this was not Sif at her most Sif-like. She's even commenting on it in the image, saying, "My Lord Thor!  [...] I prayed thou wouldst not find me -- so."

The second image, penciled by Ryan Stegman, shows Sif describing her own godliness. She wears a fitted suit of red and white plate mail, and a short red cloak with white fur collar. She rests a short sword over her shoulder. You can't really see her boots in this picture, but I'm sure they're great.

The main complaints were that there are obviously decades of time between the Kirby image and the final splash page and that the second images showed a wedding dress. I will admit I went absurdist rather than literal in my comparison. Maybe this means I failed to make my point in the initial post, so let me do it now. Here is a series of depictions of Sif that are contemporary with the Deconnick one, and offend my armor sensibilities:

This is the cover image for Deconnick's Sif one-shot. Yes, this impossibly proportioned Asgardian in stripper-gear was the reader's first introduction to the redefined Sif in 2010.

This is an image of Lady Sif posted in 2011 on Comicvine.com

Here's Sif straddling (I'm assuming) her brother Heimdall, because hey, why not? This  issue was published December 2012.

There is an argument to be made that Sif is a goddess, and therefore doesn't need armor. But have you seen the Asgardian men? Sure, Thor might have bare arms sometimes, but let's not split thread count, or kid ourselves, he's outfitted for war. What makes this issue more confusing is exactly the dichotomy we are faced with in Sif #1. The cover shows a posed, weak action shot with an implied lack of ass-coverage. Maybe this was a metaphor for the feelings of vulnerability and weakness felt by Sif in this issue? Or the artist was going back to the old classic "sex sells." In comparison to the emotional themes explored in Deconnick's comic, and the power the character ultimately regains, the cover is pathetic.

That hyper-sexualized fight show on the cover of Journey Into Mystery was paired with this description on Marvel, and other comic distributor's websites:

ASGARDIANS GONE WILD! • Newly minted with an ancient version of the Berzerker spell, Sif returns to an unsuspecting Midgard…and with no patience for relative peace, she starts putting out fires with gasoline..! • When the All-Seeing Heimdall pulls big brother rank…will Sif find herself in the ultimate time-out?!

The wording evokes a metaphor of Sif as a child throwing a tantrum. It might be reaching to point out the possible sexual themes implied when a woman has acted badly, and needs to be punished. The one putting her down is her brother, after all. But that cover makes one wonder.

The earlier issue of Journey Into Mystery had Sif dual-wielding long swords in Jeff Dekal's cover, or striking fiercely towards the viewer in Phil Noto's variant. Journey Into Mystery 648 has yet another fierce Sif by Dekal, those this time she's covered in blood.

Journey Into Mystery #646,
Cover Art by Jeff Dekal

Journey Into Mystery #646,
Cover Art by Phil Noto

Journey Into Mystery #648
Cover Art by Jeff Dekal

Other artists have tackled Sif successfully. For instance Adam Hughes, a purveyor of extremely sexy women, has mastered the depiction of comic book heroines such as Catwoman, Supergirl, and Wonderwoman, and still managers to show Sif resplendent in armor, as is only appropriate. Ryan Stegman, the penciller on the Sif one-shot, Noto, Dekal, and others are able to show Sif living up to her Asgardian heritage as an armored warrior but she's still being shorted by other artists. Plus, her replacement in Marvel's film version of Thor by the weaker, and poorly-scripted Jane Foster doesn't help her legacy. Let's hope there's better prospects for Sif soon, in comics, and on screen.

-BiA Out

The Mighty Thor #2

Babes in Armor: Deciding Xena

I've been on a Xena: Warrior Princess kick recently. Babes in Armor this week has, and will, be saturated. However, for the first time it has me questioning my Babe in Armor standpoint.

Brace yourself.

Generally speaking, I never considered Xena a Babe in Armor. While she's certainly a babe, and does wear some form of armor, I found it too easy to initially dismiss her skirt and fitted breastplate. Then I began to think about Xena's movements: She's an acrobatic, fast fighter who actually uses the armor she has on.

Could it be that I was dismissing the warrior princess for occasionally dressing like this...

Fur bracers, baby!

and this..

Always historically accurate!

when she most often looks like this:

and this?

When we actually look at Xena's armor, it seems to make sense for her movements, and her accompanying weapons. However, does this make her a Babe in Armor, or a Woman Fighter in Reasonable Armor?

Armor "of the Time"

Gwyn-Teir from Xena

The timeline of Xena is very difficult to pin down. Her relationship to Hercules and a couple Caesars throughout the series connects her to a Greek region, Roman Empire background. All in all it is still a fantasy world. That being said, her armor is not so offensive when compared with that of the Greeks or Romans.

Xena's casual leather suit of armor doesn't stray very far from traditional Roman armor. I'm not going to get into a break down of every time period, but the leather skirt was popular for centuries. From before the Hellenistic period to far into rise of the Romans, fighting men were sporting the mobile minis. Later, we see skirt-style leg armor make a comeback in articulated or "lobstered" plate.

Skirts & greaves seem to just make sense for many fighting styles. We even see it in other parts of the world. For example, a proper suit of samurai armor has varying numbers of layered thigh guards that resemble skirts in some sets, and are always paired with greaves, or suneate, as opposed to pieces resembling a European knight's cuisse (thigh & knee piece).

In versatility, mobility, and fit the skirt is often makes the most sense. However, those weren't my only problems with Xena's set. Her fitted breast plate leaves a lot of collar bone exposed. Ares even used the term "straining at the breastplate" to describer the warrior princess in one episode. Though Greek & Roman cuirasses once again look similar in construction, with the exception being it's lady-like fit. The straps and lower cut of Xena's plate offers her mobility. Additionally, as someone that's had problems in breast plates and other clothing items not fitted for a lady, let me tell you it's a lot more comfortable if your breasts are well-cupped, and held close to the body.


Defining Babe in Armor

Varia, Queen of the Amazons

I started Babes in Armor as a reaction against the traditional chainmail bikini uniform of the fantasy female fighter. I rant and rave as Babe in Armor here, and I post images of ladies in full armor on my image blog. I try to avoid suits of armor that are on the line of making sense and being a flesh show, because there are other forums for those types of armor. I think I've done a good job of remaining firmly on the full-armor side of that line.

Unfortunately, this means I've had to pass up chances to show case some truly artistic suits of armor, fan art, costumes, and so many other modes of expression. I've also had to ignore some excellent female characters. It has been a struggle for me to remind myself that there are so many other forums for fighting women in less than sufficient armor, and to stay focused.

That being said, Xena offers killer characters in both design and writing, even if her suits offer varying cleavage coverage. I've already been cheating on my guidelines to post images from the show, simply because I think other shows can still learn a lot from it. As of now, Xena's classic suit of armor will stay off of BIA. There's plenty of images of Xena around the internet, and I think it's more important to continue showcasing women in full suits of armor.

All in all, things seem to be getting better for the scifi/ fantasy female. It will be interesting to see where we are in 10, even 5 years. There is still a lot of work to be done, and I will do my part by pointing out the cliches, but we do more important work as a community by setting examples and highlighting positive images. In the end, this is more than creating a better fantasy world for female nerds. Our independent areas of nerd-dom are reflections of, and even affect, society's views of women's roles at large.

-BiA Out

Diablo 3 Armor Sets

I ask you...

At what level does the Demon Hunter get pants?



Probably at the same level the Wizard gets a shirt.



But also, check out Diablo 3 day on Babes in Armor. Please send me pictures of your ladies (with a link to your website or blog, if you like) in their D3 armor!

Over all, I am very pleased with character design this game around.

-BiA Out.

Ladies and Male Privilege

I am illustrating this entire post with images from Shutterstock. Enjoy!

Gaming & Nerd news site Kotaku made waves recently by publishing a 2 piece article entitled “Nerds and Male Privilege.” IGN published a piece in a similar vein last week, the same week they release not one, but two Babeology videos. This forward-thinking feminism in the gaming community should be just the kind of thing we need. However, my knee-jerk reaction was offense, followed with a lot of eye rolling.

Then I took a step back. I was offended because I live with this bull shit every day. I was offended because suddenly the Kotaku and IGN fairies made it all real. After decades of preaching to the choir, somebody in Man-town did their fact checking and was finally able to prove that yes, it does suck to be a female nerd that is totally uninterested in staying within in constrictive bounds of Powerpuff clubs.
I was pissed two websites that sometimes made a living listing off 10 kinds of tits suddenly breathed sexism into existence. How could they not know?

I went through some of these nerdy websites that cater to males. Those lists I remember of the “hottest babes” from video games have all but disappeared. That was when I sat down, and read Part 2 of O’Malley’s fantastic “Nerds and Male Privilege.”

Suddenly, everything appeared in perspective and I stopped my perma-eye-rolling. My disbelief is not going to change the fact that gentlemen have no idea. In the same sense, I have no idea what it is to walk into a game or comic book store and not feel out of place.

This reminded me of the shock I felt when nearly every man in my life (I spent most of my childhood

surrounded by males) did not know what having a period was like, remotely. I scarred my brother forever by telling him it’s like having the Battle of Thermopylae in your pants- simultaneously ruining our favorite comic book and women for all of time. For me, it was an off-hand comment that I would have felt comfortable saying to anyone female that I knew. To this day, I am surprised by the number of men that actually don’t understand how a tampon works, or exactly the timing and purpose of a period.

I could go off on a tangent, describing the encouraged ignorance in sexuality, female experience, and general vagina-hate in our society. Indeed, these all have bearing on the state of geekdom today, but this is not the rant I’m looking for. Instead, I’m going to try to keep this on the topic of Nerdery.

There are more women being loud Geeks than ever before. While this does not make it any easier, it is wonderful to finally have some place to retire after a day of battling it out. This still does not change the fact that we want to play with the boys, and I must say it’s a damn shame they don’t want to be in our tree house, too. When some of these female-oriented sites were starting out, there was a focus on LOLCats, My Little Pony, anime, and making every previously male-dominated thing more pink. I loathe all of these things. I’m not saying I’m a “tomboy,” “one of the guys,” or even special. I just prefer mechs in gun metal gray, Hanna-Barbera (& homages- Venture Bros FTW) cartoons, and finding every Elder Scrolls meme the Internet has ever created. I do not deny my interest in any areas of “girly” nerdy. I felt these websites were over-compensating for so many years of female nerds having to go underground, with our interests being entirely ignored.

That being said, being a nerd has always been safe for me. I was raised by a female nerd, have only brothers, and have a DIY Dad that made sure I knew I could do whatever I wanted, as long as I could handle a screw driver. I’m not pretending I’ve had a particularly difficult experience “breaking in” to the geek-o-sphere.

As a woman, however, I’ve dealt with plenty of male privilege. In a management position, I was repeatedly sexually harassed. On the street, if I wear a skirt, I get drive-by cat called. If I ask someone to stop using the term “bitch” like punctuation around me, or walk away in the midst of a rape joke I’m labeled a prude and a kill joy. These are just a few of my experiences, and I have to say they are the tame ones.

There are other, geekier experiences I’ve had in this vein. Once, at a party, I criticized a gentleman that was pretty seriously trying to pick me up for not knowing that Fallout 3 was a sequel. He informed me that I was full of myself, and went into another room (not exactly to my chagrin).

During a tabletop campaign, a man I had known for years decided it would be funny to call me a whore for 10 minutes straight because my character decided to flirt her way to some information. This prompted the end of that campaign for me.

To be a female nerd means that interactions with males are even more strained. Going over to some guy's house to kick his ass in Soul Calibur will most assuredly end in a hand on my thigh. Demonstrating a basic knowledge of a comic book's universe becomes a test: before they will talk to you as a fellow nerd, you have to prove some level of understanding they will find acceptable. On the other end, if they accept that you are their equal, or even superior, in that particular dialect of Geek, you then have to continue to uphold this appearance of omnipotency, or risk losing all cred. I will not even start on the power dynamics of healthy adults that are able to consent to sexual activity, and the instant murdering of nerd respect that brings.

I think these musings have gotten too large for this post. Mostly, I am thankful that Kotaku published two articles on nerdy male privilege. I'm happy to see it written down, and being talked about, and so grateful that there are some penis-wielders out there that realize it's a thing. IGN, your one-shot attempt at fighting misogyny is an eye-brow raising departure from your other content. I dismiss you, until your scientists spend less time studying babes, and more time on game guides I can navigate without also owning the game's manual.

-BiA Out

Commentary on LEGO for Girls

Lego launched Lego Friends a couple of weeks ago: a pink-hued attempt to reach the "other 50 percent of the world's population." The Hairpin, the Mary Sue, BoingBoing, and Lego enthusiast blog the Brick Blogger have been a few of the sites covering this new line of "Lego for Girls" since mid-December. In a similar vein, a video of young girl named Riley discussing color coded marketing between the sexes is once again circulating. Toys and gender is the hot topic this winter, and it's not an easy one.

Having a child in your life is a complicated affair these days. Especially when it

comes to buying toys. No child will display a natural predisposition to colors or themes because they are considered male or female, without prompting from elsewhere. For instance, my youngest brother (Casmir, now 8), loved pearls from birth (he's got class), always found purses useful, specifically handbags (mostly to store the toys he turned into weapons), and will forever love copying the most violent scenes from his cartoons. While in day care, he was only around ladies. Ladies that were really, really pink. For a while, he insisted he wanted a Hannah Montana microphone for his birthday. Then he went to school, and learned gender norms.

While I hardly think my brother has been ruined by school (Thank god he got someone to play with that was not 13 years older than him), he had a small stint of testing the water. Specifically the moat around my Citadel of Feminism. We both learned a lot that year, but still all of my brothers are surprising me with their active feminist views. A couple nights ago, Casmir and I were going through the images in Babes in Armor and the Smurfette trope came up. I explained to him what it meant (token female), and he immediately began listing off series he's into where there is only one female, and they were all Lego. I asked if he had seen the new pink & curvy Lego lady figurines, and he said not only had he seen it, "It's in Lego Magazine this month!" Which he promptly ran to find for me. While going through the pages, Casmir gave me his thoughts on the new series, including some interesting thoughts on the characters in it,

The beauty parlor and things like that we just aren't really into, but the cafe has some unique pieces. ... me and my friends just think that it really ticks us off because it's like it is all girls - the characters in it are all girls.

I would like to play with the sets, but not the people. It is just Lego is a boy and girl thing, but most of the sets are headed towards boys. And the girl's sets I just want them to like equal out boy and girl like the boy sets. Because Lego tries to put boys and girls into their boy sets - that are targeted for boys, and that is what I really like.

I have my own thoughts on the series and its characters, but I think the people that could be actively using it should have the floor on this one. Therefore, I leave you with this 8 year old's words of wisdom.

-BiA Out