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Images of females in armour designed for protection, not seduction!

kiwidockiwidoc Member Posts: 1,437
edited April 2015 in Off-Topic
This thread is for sharing pictures of females in sensible, sane, and above all safe armor!
An update - I've had a major rethink about what this thread and it's accompanying blog are for. I want to tackle the sexual objectification of women in fantasy/sci-fi art in a positive way. Instead of criticising the negatives (and there are loads of places to do that) I'm going to share the positives. I'm pretty much applying the same rules to women in armor that you see in most images of men wearing armor i.e. covering everything that needs covering but still allowing silly spikey bits, boob or keel plates (as men have these as well!) I've chosen to forget the rules that apply to male barbarians as images of both genders running around in the snow in leather swimwear are just utterly barmy and should be ignored!

Please include the name of the artist, and preferably a link to their gallery or web site. Don’t pirate art, and always give credit where credit is due.

One of my personal bugbears is images of females in armour. The vast majority have gratuitous displays of naked midriffs; buttocks and upper thighs in skin tight cloth or nothing at all; acres of uncovered cleavage held up by serious uplift metal corsetry; or in the worst case ridiculously large breasts barely hidden by thin strips of whatever that miraculously never fall off. And don't even think about the chafe factor!

Armour is supposed to protect your vulnerable bits, not put them on display. As the wise woman said - Never go into battle wearing leather fetish gear or metal lingerie.

Click on the artist's name to link to their gallery.

What Can You Get Away With In These Pix
I know these are not strictly sensible and practical, but I'm going to allow the following list, or else this would be a very short thread, and we would miss too much great art:- Breast plates with actual breast shapes in the metal/leather; high heels; silly sticking out bits - spikes, hooks etc ; Pauldrons (over the shoulder) that are way too high or big; anatomy that's not very realistic, but is part of the artist's style; grab-able long hair or braids; daft or silly helmets.
Also, although I started with medieval or pseudo-medieval armor, lets include all historical, fantasy and sci fi

For the absolute opposite of these pix, check out this wonderful thread http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/21721/unrealistic-fantasy-art/
Post edited by kiwidoc on
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Comments

  • iuventasiuventas Member Posts: 95
    I like the second one from breast level to ankles - naked shoulder and these heels are definitely no-no, probably experts would criticise the rest, but looks nice to me.
  • SionIVSionIV Member Posts: 2,689
    kiwidoc said:

    iuventas said:

    I like the second one from breast level to ankles - naked shoulder and these heels are definitely no-no, probably experts would criticise the rest, but looks nice to me.

    I wondered about including this one - but I wanted to make the point that armour posted in this thread doesn't have to be all that realistic, and it can still be sexy but not some soft porn aimed at pubescent boys. I also wanted to include as many types and styles as I can. The bare shoulder is believable, if she is an archer. You cant fire a longbow freely with a metal shoulder piece. But the high heels - yeah, they a re bloody ridiculous! (speaking as a women who has totally refused to totter in heels throughout her entire life!)

    "speaking as a women who has totally refused to totter in heels throughout her entire life!"

    This is why you aren't a superhero!
  • kiwidockiwidoc Member Posts: 1,437
    Talking about high heels in general is another of my bugbears, but perhaps we should stay on topic here.
  • meaglothmeagloth Member Posts: 3,806
    mlnevese said:

    I'll never understand why women wear high heels. They look tremendously uncomfortable. My wife has always refused to wear them.

    I believe it's because they make you taller, and (at least in western cultures) tallness is often associated with being attractive, specifically, long legs, with women. That's just my deduction though.
  • NonnahswriterNonnahswriter Member Posts: 2,520
    The second one looks (to me) to have sustained some damage though. The tatters in the cloth and scratches on the metal work are indicators of this. Perhaps she did wear a second shoulder guard, but it had broken off mid-battle? Though if this were the case, she'd probably have some wounds or at least some bruising where she might have pried the metal off. Hmm...
  • kiwidockiwidoc Member Posts: 1,437
    @meagloth - That's one of the best cosplay/reenactment photos I've seen. Many thanks for it.
  • meaglothmeagloth Member Posts: 3,806
    Could someone google and find out where it came from and I higher resolution? I'm on mobile.
  • kiwidockiwidoc Member Posts: 1,437

    UPDATE

    To keep things a little more under control, I've decided to include all pix from one artist in the same post. This means I've added another pic to the Diane Kraus post near the top of this page.
  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    On my "unrealistic fantasy" thread, another commenter claimed that women *should* wear unrealistic fantasy armor, because if the pictures were truly realistic, you wouldn't be able to tell they they were female. Needless to say, I disagree.

    Oh, and one of the reasons to wear high heels is because it stretches out your leg muscles and creates a more elegant (slender-looking) looking leg. And I say this as someone who has never worn a heel higher than 3/4 inch.

    There is also a blog which posts pictures of women in realistic armor: http://womenfighters.tumblr.com
  • kiwidockiwidoc Member Posts: 1,437
    edited June 2014
    @LadyRhian Great minds think alike. I am slowly working my way through that tumblr and a few others, but the problem with Tumblr is it can be damn hard to find the artist behind a pic.

    And as for the .... umm trying to be polite here ... misguided fool who said fantasy women shouldn't wear realistic armour - that's daft. You might as well say all those long haired male elves in robes all look exactly like women!
  • iuventasiuventas Member Posts: 95
    In the second picture she looks more as if she's wearing some kind of (ridiculously snug though) jerkin. It lacks sturdiness to be a fabric, restrictive corset and is much less ridiculous than metal corsety armour, the latter usually also begging to ask "how is she going to sit in it".
    As I said, I actually quite like this picture and I enjoy wearing high heels a lot. Just... not to battle.
  • kiwidockiwidoc Member Posts: 1,437
    edited June 2014
    @Squire
    Squire said:


    Seriously, boob armour is a bad idea, and mail worn against bare flesh is even worse...if you really must not have a jack, at least have a shirt or tunic under the mail, otherwise just walking in it is going to hurt.

    I've always thought wearing chain over naked skin is a short cut to an inadvertent nipplectomy.

    A spleenectomy is an operation to remove the spleen so you get my drift
  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    I love the lady tending her friend. "See, Revek? THIS is why you wear armor!" ;)
  • kiwidockiwidoc Member Posts: 1,437
    @Squire Many thanks for all the great pictures. Hubby and I absolutely loved the video. It shows the problems but in a lighthearted way that doesn't come across as being too rigid (please ignore the inadvertent pun), or pompous.

    When I see pictures of people with a two handed sword and a shield, I always presume that they are just posing for the camera. Their shields have to be just decoration to make them look good, or to be a little more generous maybe its to use with a lance. If they actually want to USE their sword, they have to lose the shield. That's what the lowly peasant squires are for .. to hold their shields for them :)

    Long hair - yeah that's another problem. All those rogues with long braids just begging to be grabbed, and elves with flowing tresses that seem doomed to get entangled in their own weapons. I used to work in a secure hospital with very, very dangerous patients. If you wanted to keep your scalp intact, you put your bloody hair up! And just don't even think about wearing long, dangly earrings ...
  • kiwidockiwidoc Member Posts: 1,437
    @LadyRhian - I agree totally. Doesn't her face just radiate sympathy .... not!
This discussion has been closed.

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