BaconCatBug wrote:
Sgt_Smudge wrote:the_scotsman wrote:Cronch wrote:I am wondering tho, why do we even discuss the realism of it when males in the game aren't realistic either (maybe for the neanderthals?).
pssst:
You know the reason why realism always comes up whenever a female model comes out.
We all know the reason why realism always comes up.
Pretty much. It's a blatant dogwhistle.
Sounds to me like you're seeing imaginary Boogie-men when people make valid criticisms.
feth me, I can't believe I'm even responding to this, but a few people have raised the "
bu-bu-but muh shredded men..." point.
Look at these two images.
Like, actually look at them.
Now, Barbie has tiny arms, no core muscles, and a thin, weedy neck. A whole host of psychologists and scientists have made countless comments about how unrealistic she is, and how she
can (not always, but
can) help to create negative self-image in women from a very young age. She's physically diminutive, and those proportions project a caricature of 1950s feminine fragility.
Again, properly contextualized, there is
and I say this as a card-carrying namby pamby pinko commie feminist whatever-other-epithet-you-small-dick-energy-wieners-wanna-chuck-at-me nothing wrong with this if it is properly contextualized, and not the only thing we condition people with.
He man, on the other hand?
Well, those of you with like a roughly 4-year-old's grasp on society, and how humans are socialized, may have noticed
holy moly! He-Man isn't wearing much in the way of clothing! How scandalous!
The
critical difference, however, is that He-Man is such an unabashed male power fantasy that he fully blasts up the ass of lampoon and pastiche, and out through the other side to po-faced, completely unironic depiction of 80s heavy metal phallic ultramasculinity. He belongs to the same nerdy canon as Warhammer, in terms of portraying male virtues - physical strength, youth, bravery and leadership - in an overblown, fantastic-to-the-point-of-escapist way.
That's not to say that that specific kind of masculinty
can't be sexualised. Because we all know that's not true. However, it's not really there
to be sexualised, in the first place. Innumerable superheroes are shredded, and wear revealing clothes, mainly just to showcase that they are indeed, shredded as hell, and physically very strong. This is like "show, don't tell" at it's most insultingly simple level.
Just imagine for a second. You're in the pub. Both of these characters walks up to you and calls you a jackass.
How many of you are about to go toe-to-toe with fething He-Man? Sure, he's naked, but I bet He'd curb stop practically any of us pasty nerds in a bar fight.
Now, here's the bit where we're gonna get fething mind-blow-y. So hold on to your fething butts.
I've already given lip service to how, as we all know, the negative impact Barbie can have on young women.
But, what if I told you
feminism has literally always said the same thing of male role models? Because it's deadass true.
Male power fantasies such as superheroes have predominantly been marketed towards disempowered males in society - nerds. It's the self-perceived failings of these men, who
try to hold themselves to the suffocating standards of contemporary...
...masculinity, and find themselves falling short, that lead them to be so taken up by big manly men, who are powerful, independent, successful, just and influential. Finding He-Man an unrealistic beauty standard
is literally the fething same as finding barbie an unrealistic beauty standard. You are emasculated and
de-humanized by him, by not being able to be him, in
literally the same way as women are
de-humanized by barbie, and there are a whole slew of businesses looking to capitalize on that.
And there is nothing wrong with this. This is a symptom of being prayed upon. If you look at an unrealistic depiction of masculinity, and it kinda makes you feel bad about who you are - be it a space marine, He-Man, or Arnold Schwarzenegger - yo, that's because it's kind of designed to do that.
But,
the critical difference here, is that while men in these fantasy environments get to be objects of male power fantasy - like I said, courageous, outgoing, physically powerful - while retaining the Barbie body type for female characters, we leave very little space for women to be anything other than dainty, weak, frail and, ultimately, in settings which feature war, and brutal, simplified extrapolations of violent male power,
victims.
Now, to get back to the topic in hand?
Lelith is
slightly more muscular than, say, your average American woman. Some people
are spitting the dummy over this, for whatever reason.
The rebuttal is that
there's no reason 40k can't, or shouldn't have a sort-of-variation on the slender body type, only this time she's done a few more situps. To pull an absolute gibbering gak-show of a counter argument, we have...
...He-Man??? There are already a
bunch of different male body types in 40k. To say "every male in
40k looks like He-Man" is such a fething oversimplification. And to say that "He-Man exists, so that proves sexism rubs both ways" is a
fething redundant point.
Anyone with any notion of feminism in their brain knows this.
Because patriarchal oppression oppresses everyone, barbies, He-mans, you, me, your dad, everybody.
We're all held to unrealistic standards, and
40k is no different, but trying to cry discrimination because one power fantasy is a fething barely-able-to-stand emaciated sex doll, while the other is a shredded metaphor for just being stronger and more fighty,
rather than solely an object of beauty. feth me. I hate the He-Man argument so much. Find me 10 other male characters who wear as little as him.
