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What do you think about how GWS models their female minis?
All except SoB in power armor have, well, big bewbs, IMHO. (wyches for instance)

What do you think about it..

Probably because most Games Workshop writers, designers, sculptors and artists are largely heterosexual males producing books, rules, miniatures and artwork for largely heterosexual male teens and young men.

You can say what you like about GW, but they certainly know their target audience!

I like it.

How is this at all strange in the gaming industry?

GreyHamster wrote:How is this at all strange in the entertainment industry?

Fixed to make it a bit more accurate.

filbert wrote:Probably because most Games Workshop writers, designers, sculptors and artists are largely heterosexual males producing books, rules, miniatures and artwork for largely heterosexual male teens and young men.

You can say what you like about GW, but they certainly know their target audience!

That and the fact that Americans (at least) are a very breast focused culture when it comes to judging women. I can't say i approve of it because i wouldn't want to see male models with giant cod pieces (cough sanguninary guard cough), but its an attempt to appeal to the hetrosexual male gaze. Honestly though its not a strange view on women; most things in pop culture have demeaning views on women. Speaking from an American perspective; i can point towards the modeling industry which portrays a body that only 5% of women have, take a look at movies many women are in movies just because they are the "current hottie" (jessica alba, Megan fox, etc...).

Point is we live in a patriarchal society (most modern civilizations are) and as long as we do women will always be subjected to such degradations.
BUT and i'd like to make this perfectly clear, I'm no feminst and honestly enjoy the society we live in and wouldn't lift a finger to change it, but i would be accepting if change came about.

For now big boobs = good; so everything marketed at men that wants to be good has to be associated with boobs.

For Wyches, their beauty is as important as their ability to kick ass. In a society where you can have your bones hollowed out and be turned into a birdman, getting a boob job wouldn't be hard.

Their boobs aren't big enough. We need more Linsey Dawn McKenzie style models.

Platuan4th wrote:

GreyHamster wrote:How is this at all strange in the entertainment industry?

Fixed to make it a bit more accurate.

That's a good point actually.

Joetaco: Your new avatar is horrible/disturbing

This is hardly unique to GW or anyone in the entertainment industry. I wouldn't fault GW for sculpting that way at all.

I think we've been over this a few times in the past month alone.

If you want to make an obviously female figure in such a small scale you have to make the female features, well, obvious.

Otherwise the same people who complain about big breasts will complain that the mini looks androgynous.

What's wrong with huge boobs? I love 'em!

another thing:

when you have a 28/32 mm imodel its really hard to make it a recognizable female on the tabletop without highlighting feminine attributes (read: boobs)

i know there are sculptors out there who can pull this off but when you have to not only make the figure obviously female AND adhere to the aesthetics of the game you're sculpting for...sometimes bewbs is the answer


Automatically Appended Next Post:
i see lord blackfang has said the same thing i did

An experience of GW's interaction with the opposite sex I had was a few weeks ago: I had stopped into a GW to have a look around when my friend and his girlfriend walked in. He's a bit of a fan but his girlfriend doesn't have anything to do with it. Anyway, we're looking through and a few guys are just staring at his girlfriend, and staff member come over offering a painting lessons, as they do, but my mates gf looks a bit uneasy and refuses. The staff member then goes into the back then returns immediatly with a pot of Tentacle Pink. She then decides to have a painting lesson.Nevertheless, my mate and I just give him a weird look as he then proceeds to give her an excruciatingly long painting lesson.

For those who don't know, GW have stopped producing and selling Tentacle Pink for about 5 years, yet they somehow had a pot in pristine condition almost as if they use pink paints to attract female hobbyists.

lord_blackfang wrote:I think we've been over this a few times in the past month alone.

If you want to make an obviously female figure in such a small scale you have to make the female features, well, obvious.

Otherwise the same people who complain about big breasts will complain that the mini looks androgynous.

Horray for "Male as Default"?

Really though, that claim is silly. Even something as simple as feminine hairstyles will mark a figure as "Obviously Female", if you really must have such a thing. If the only thing that can make you recognize a figure as female is a pair of twin-linked missile launchers on every figure.. that's just.. sad.


Even then, as someone who does complain about oversexualization of female representations I'd take heaping helpings of androgynous over what we have now.

Bakerofish wrote:another thing:

when you have a 28/32 mm imodel its really hard to make it a recognizable female on the tabletop without highlighting feminine attributes (read: boobs)

i know there are sculptors out there who can pull this off but when you have to not only make the figure obviously female AND adhere to the aesthetics of the game you're sculpting for...sometimes bewbs is the answer


Automatically Appended Next Post:
i see lord blackfang has said the same thing i did

Honestly that was the point I was going to bring up. Out of all the sculptors and minature lines that produce lady sculptures for production how many of them can really produce a good, B cup female miniature. Irl I likes me a good B cup, in a mini - I've never seen it pulled off well.

As far as the entire DE line (which before I start bashing I will say I like very much) it's funny to me that all you need to do is swap in a breasted torso to change the entire mini from male to female. Arms and legs are the same size - and super muscled. 50% of the heads are metrosexual. No sexual dimorphism in the models at all. Smooth from a production standpoint, but I must say that it wierds me out a little that a female wytch mode is about a head taller than a marine and is ripped like Conan the Barbarian.

These ain't dainty ladies, and they come packing the double D's!

-MightyG

Platuan4th wrote:

GreyHamster wrote:How is this at all strange in the entertainment industry?

Fixed to make it a bit more accurate.

+1


Also Banshees don't, nor do Harlequins nor Farseers. So pretty much its just dark eldar, and that makes sense

meh... This topic...again.

MightyGodzilla wrote: 50% of the heads are metrosexual.

To be fair, this is an Elven problem all around. Excepting those systems where Elves bear facial hair, the only way to distinguish Elves as the fair and exotic race they always tend to read as is to make them a fair bit more androgynous than your average human facial and body structure tends towards, meaning that Elven genders will resemble each other more than human genders do. This leads to problems that at a scale such as 28mm, you require certain, shall we say, assets to distinguish the male and female, especially when they are all wearing the same thing.

Platuan4th wrote:

MightyGodzilla wrote: 50% of the heads are metrosexual.

To be fair, this is an Elven problem all around. Excepting those systems where Elves bear facial hair, the only way to distinguish Elves as the fair and exotic race they always tend to read as is to make them a fair bit more androgynous than your average human facial and body structure tends towards, meaning that Elven genders will resemble each other more than human genders do. This leads to problems that at a scale such as 28mm, you require certain, shall we say, assets to distinguish the male and female, especially when they are all wearing the same thing.

To be honest it wasn't the heads that got me, I perfectly understand and accept your reasoning, and I didn't really have a problem with it so much as just pointing it out. It's the Uber muscles on the lady wyches that make me lol. In the fluff and art they're depicted as lithe and agile, but the minis make me think that they could pick up a scout by the face and throw him through two metres of plascrete.

...as he plays with his new box of Scourges, the one unhelmetted head is metro, maybe slightly, ever so, guyish than girlish. But be that as it may when you slap it onto some massive chesties we can call this one...chick.

-MightyG

Chongara wrote:

lord_blackfang wrote:I think we've been over this a few times in the past month alone.

If you want to make an obviously female figure in such a small scale you have to make the female features, well, obvious.

Otherwise the same people who complain about big breasts will complain that the mini looks androgynous.

Horray for "Male as Default"?

Really though, that claim is silly. Even something as simple as feminine hairstyles will mark a figure as "Obviously Female", if you really must have such a thing. If the only thing that can make you recognize a figure as female is a pair of twin-linked missile launchers on every figure.. that's just.. sad.


Even then, as someone who does complain about oversexualization of female representations I'd take heaping helpings of androgynous over what we have now.

Well then here is a tasteful female mini for you http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440165a&prodId=prod1160025a&rootCatGameStyle=

Chongara wrote:Really though, that claim is silly. Even something as simple as feminine hairstyles will mark a figure as "Obviously Female", if you really must have such a thing. If the only thing that can make you recognize a figure as female is a pair of twin-linked missile launchers on every figure.. that's just.. sad.

Yeah, but then you go down the path of "what's a feminine hairstyle?"

Valkyrie wrote:For those who don't know, GW have stopped producing and selling Tentacle Pink for about 5 years, yet they somehow had a pot in pristine condition almost as if they use pink paints to attract female hobbyists.

Excellent, that was excellent! It's funny how this just contributes to the stereotypical nerd profile hobbyists get. I mean, its like most of them have never seen a girl, or are so deprived that a single female hint in a GW store freezes al activity.

Still, the tentacle pink thing is excellent. Made my day!

Man. That hits close to home.

We were going to have a painting day in July to knock out 30 Mantic Zombies for our D&D campaign. One player's wife volunteered to paint one zombie, but only if she could paint it pink...

I remember tentacle pink. Funny that the guy still had some.

Why'd they stop making tentacle pink? it looks like a good color for those doing rat tails and such...

Anyway, from talking to a woman I game with, finding RPG character minis for female characters can be 'interesting' in general if she's not in a chainmail bikini mood. It's certainly not GW going it alone here.

On the other hand, male human RPG characters tend to fall into a handful of steretypes as well: The 'conan steroidal fighter', the 'knight big warrior', the 'sneaky slender ranger/thief' and the 'old wizard.' There's more stereotypes, but not man, really. Then again, RPG characters tend to be idealized a bit in general, so it's not a huge deal: I don't really want to play an overweight, average hieght guy with poor vision, so i don't mind my mini being in better shape than I am.

Im glad that GW stocks female models. I hate it when people think: war = man vs man. it should be: war = a pointless struggle were man and woman can stand together and fight for there country with equal might!

Balance wrote:Why'd they stop making tentacle pink? it looks like a good color for those doing rat tails and such...

It's also the best color for edge-highlighting purple.

kronk wrote:Man. That hits close to home.

We were going to have a painting day in July to knock out 30 Mantic Zombies for our D&D campaign. One player's wife volunteered to paint one zombie, but only if she could paint it pink...

^

I can sympathise with that, part of my Eldar army is now pink...

Chongara wrote:Horray for "Male as Default"?

Is that really such a shock, being a war game? Particularly in the nearly global social context where warriors are predominantly male?