Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I agree with the point Gymnogyps and a few others where trying to make. If a man wants to wear a severed head as a cod piece, then a woman should be able to wear a corset with skulls on it.

I also agree with some one, a few pages back, who said the SOB are an extension of the beauty of having faith in the Emperor or something along those lines, thus, they dress beautifully as well as functionally.

Plus, the curvature of bewb armor would be better for deflecting bullets, where as a flat breastplate would take more damage.

The real debate about sexism here stems from the sculptors themselves. Did these "men" intentionally sculpt said bewb armor with sexist intentions in mind? Doubt it, compared to other fantasy or sci fi figurines, SOB models are mild. Although the uniform is form fitting, they are still at least covered up, nothing hanging out.

Sisters Repentia on the other hand...... nothing modest about them! Well, even they make sense to me in a way. Seeing as how they blindly charge forward to die in battle as a way to repent for their sins; why bother wearing armor or anything that might save you life, and thus, ruin your chance of salvation?

One thing, I might agree is a bit unfair about the representation of females in the 40k figurines:
Diversity of size.

I don't mean bewbs, I mean the size and shape of the bodies. With 40k male figurines they got tall ones, short ones, fat ones, and mutated ugly ones. Like pictured below:
(I'm just using pics from the Dakka Dakka gallery, free advertisements for whom ever I randomly grab an image from)

Tall:

by: lifeofshan

Short:

by: Llamahead

Fat, Ugly, and Mutated:

by: the scarecrow

For the female figurines we have to pick from, there is pretty much only the one standard size. Athletic build with hourglass figure no matter how many bits of armor you stack on or take off from her.

Hourglass Figure:

by: EmpressRosaline

Athletic Build:

by: Loricatus Aurora

Unless you do something like this:

by: illuknisaa (burns the eyes a bit!)

Where are the horribly mutated nurgle plague women? Where are the woman Ogryn or female Halflings? Where are the sculptures of a woman blown open with her guts hanging out from rocket fire?

This sort of one sided/double standard sculpting is borderline sexist. I say borderline because I still don't think the original sculpters had purposful sexist intentions in mind when sculpting. Instead, it falls into that subconcious relam where us as males might not even realize we are doing it. That still does not make it right, just not as wrong as it may seem. Humans come in all shapes and sizes. I know one has to stay physically healthy and fit in a lifetime of battle, but not every woman has that hourglass figure regardless of diet or exercise. Some people are just "big boned", born tall with thick muscle mass. Why not make a Cannoness with a little meat on her bones?

Why not have an all female Ogryn or all Female Halfling chapter for the Sisters of Battle as allies? Sure they might not be full fledged Sisters since they are "mutants" kind of, but once sworn to a life of Faith for the Emperor, why not? Let us put an Ogryn in the SOB armor and see if that looks "sexy".

Gymnogyps wrote: More like a barrel than an hourglass. (one of my favorite models, btw)

Awesome! Nice paint job! That is what I was talking about, the one figurine that feels more like a natural woman.

The only problem with that one, is that it is just the one.

There are Daemonettes:

by: neuminic

But they are still hourglass, even if some of them only have one breast. And how many fat, tall, short, stubby, big boned, mutated, FUBAR male figurines are there?

Was there ever a female space dwarf/squat? If they did make those, why not female ratlings? (sorry, I called them "Halflings" in my prior post, but we all know in 40k that Halflings are Ratlings and elves are Eldar, etc. etc.)

So if they expanded upon the female gender for other races and armies, then that alone would cut down on the sexist feel of the SOB sculpting. Since the SOB are pretty much the only option for us to discuss, the flaws stand out more. If there was more variety of different types of women, then in a way it would dilute the "sticking out like a sore thumb" effect the SOB have. That is more of a "sweeping under the rug" solution, but a solution none-the-less.

I like the way the SOB models look too. A bit outdated since they have new members on the sculpting team and even the old ones have improved their craft, but I like the look. They could use some revamping, shaking the dust off, rethinking or what ever you want to call it, but not too much. Maybe cut down on the missile shaped/torpedo pointy bewb look a bit, but keeping in mind they can still be a woman's badge of honor just like a mutilated Ork head can be a man's cod piece of honor.

(Here is something I think no one will find, prove me wrong if you can: an Official GW figurine of a woman horribly injured or dead. Official events, display cases, pictures from any of the books, anywhere! Go find it!
If we are talking about equality here, this is War! Every one can have chunks of themselves shot off by heavy bolter fire, equally.
Art work aside, feel free to post the hand drawn pics from the books if you want, but we are discussing figurines for this topic.)

Melissia wrote:In any way. So you may stop insinuating I did, because you are wrong. That particular line of discussion is ended as far as I am concerned.

Dear Melissia,
You poor girl, I noticed you've had to end several lines of discussion, only to have them pop back up again. It must be hard being the only drop of estrogen in the storm blown seas of testosterone. I am being sincere, I'm not poking fun in anyway, I feel sympathy for your plight, and you have my respect and support.

I'm calling you out for this message because I am curious about your input on the topic I've been trying to steer this conversation towards. If they are going to be making new SOB models, and if we are talking equality vs if they should be sexy; then why not SOB torn open on a chaos alter for new terrain piece? Why not some SOB gravely wounded but still holding the flag like some of the IG models? Why not Nurgle SOB plague marines? If you want to tone down on the sexist sexiness of the SOB, then what better way to increase the equality than to be blown apart by rockets?

Also, rumor has it that you are SOB/IG/Inquisition expert, so I was curious if there was an reason, fluff or otherwise, why there are not Ogryn or Ratling females? Or also if there is any reason why they would not be allowed as an ally SOB chapter? If they sculpt some of those then it will help diversify and balance the female spectrum of their figurines.

I just had a funny thought: an Ogryn SOB with the pointy torpedo missile bewb armor, grabbing an enemy by the back of the head and smashing them against said pointy torpedo bewb, thus impaling it through their skull!! Now that, is combat effective and stylish!

JohnHwangDD wrote:BTW, painting a fleur on a GW mini is incidental doesn't automatically make that mini a Sister model - that's not the sculpt.

What does seem to make it a sister is the short cut hair, which is a part of the sculpt. Those pics are official GW, painted by official GW employees, posted on the official GW website, so I'd say officially that is a SOB mini for all intent a purposes. And as Melissia pointed out:

"The Asrubael Vect box makes it quite clear that one of them is a Sororitas, as well."

But those are not really what we are talking about here, those are slaves to an insane and twisted Dark Eldar lord, so those, for obvious reason, will be sculpted as sexy play things.

Monster Rain wrote:
That's a lot to pin on a model's hair-do.

Maybe Vect likes his slave girls to look like battle sisters? I hear he's huge into cosplay.

Sorry, I was unclear it seems. Not just the hair-do, which is the standard issue hair-do for SOB, but the fleur as well. See the fleur in the pic? It was said that painting one on a mini wont make it a SOB, which I agree. I can paint a fleur on an Ork but it wont be a SOB. What I was trying to state was that since an official GW employee painted the fleur, on an official model with short SOB hair, and posted the pic on the official GW website: THAT makes it SOB