mydnd:

craftybugger:

captainboobs:

geekgirlsmash:

rpggtswizard:

mydnd:

its a topic that has been covered before but its still worth the read

I hope some of my female followers read this, and give their opinions.  And not necessarily here.

Okay, I am going to just lift some questions straight from the article (seriously, it’s a good article of the trying to start a discussion sort).

Where do you stand on the depictions of characters in fantasy, and specifically in D&D?

In fantasy, and in D&D in particular, I want varied characters. It’s fine if there’s a sexy woman, so long as she’s not the only female character I see, some women are sexy, some aren’t.

Also, don’t use female sexuality as a shorthand for “evil” Orson Scott Card (not fantasy I know), did this horrifically in the Shadow series. When the awesome girls grew up, they were either good virtuous mothers, or evil manipulative whores (yes, I know Card’s a major douchenozzle but good example). 

It’s actually something I love GRRM for, his women are are different, and interesting, and people. 

Do you disagree with depictions of “perfect specimens” of humanity? Do you want to see normal-looking folks charging into battle?

Perfect specimens get boring, and it is astoundingly sexist when your “perfect specimen” battle hardened warrior is a super muscular if they’re a man, yet a total sexpot if they’re a woman. When if we’d held them to the same standards, our women would be built more like this:

The short of it comes down to the often held conversation about comic book characters about how, yes, they’re both ideals, but the women are most often sexual ideals, while the men are powerful ideals. 

But since this is fantasy, and not everyone’s wielding a sword or needs to be athletic, I say all body types are game, I’d love to see an awesome fat sorceress.

Do you want to see folks only in poses that look “natural”?

Yes, dear god yes, no more tits and ass at the same time poses. I hate the twisted impossible sexy poses I see all the damned time.

Do you want to cover all skin on an armored warrior (male or female)?

Yes, if it’s meant to see combat, please make it plausible that someone might survive combat wearing it. The chainmail bikini trope needs to die.

Do you want to see an equal number of depictions of men and women?

Most of the D&D groups that I have been a part of have been nearly a 50/50 split or slightly favoring the women. I think D&D needs to update to reflect the real living people who are playing the game.

Do you want to see depictions of equivalent visual strength?

Always it pisses me off that most of the time in fantasy art, things look like this:

Do you want to see both men and women in distress, not just damsels in distress? 

Yes, I want to see women rescuing men, and women rescuing women, and men rescuing men. If you’re resorting to save the princess, you’re lazy. Women can be in trouble, women can need help, but when their primary role in the story is to be rescued? We have a problem. 

This.

i like girls being girls in fantasy… plus ^^ draenei women look hot with not many clothes on xD

I help a friend run a blog (mostly about D&D) and i agree 100% on his answer to the article. In short, if it makes sense, do it, if it doesn’t, don’t. 

Antioch:

Rather than get into the topic of sexism in fantasy art, I am going to focus on what I would do if I were in charge of the visual guidelinesfor Dungeons & Dragons, starting with what I said about wizards awhile back; have characters that are dressed for the occasion. Like, no female wizards scantily clad in skirts while going dungeon crawling, or warriors with “boob” windows, breast-molded armor, or shoulder pads with little-to-nothing else. I guess a simple rule of thumb would be for artists to think about what a male character would wear, and then have them change it into a woman (pose and all).

Read more here:

http://daegames.blogspot.com/2012/05/dragons-eye-view-sexism-in-fantasy.html

THIS. ALL OF THIS. <3