Armor designs for females?

[Max_Killjoy]

No one directly said that, but people keep saying things in the vein of "If I wanted to see scantily clad people I would just watch porn!" or "The emphasis on physical beauty degrades the work into soft core pornography!"

I think the concern has been "emphasis on (supposed) sexiness over everything else degrades the work into soft core porn".

While I think over-emphasis on physical beauty is its own semi-related problem, I don't think the two are synonymous.

Ok, yeah, I am aware of the difference between realism and verisimilitude, I should have used more precise language rather than using one as shorthand for the other.

Now that you have me thinking about it though, where do you draw the line?

For example, are you ok with fantasy creatures being handwaved in standard fantast? For example dragons flying and breathing fire or giant spiders being able to breathe and walk up walls? If so, why doesn't a similar handwave work for fantasy armor (and weapon) designs?


Would you have a problem with a fantasy setting where it made sense?

For example, say I make a campaign world where:


It is very hot and tropical. Heavy clothing (or armor) cannot be worn for long periods of time, and the society has no taboos against public nudity.

It is a fiercely matriarchal culture. Woman are expected to dress in a manner that shows off their virility, while men are often treated as property and are told to keep covered as a sign of ownership.

For whatever reason the weapon's technology vastly outperforms the defensive capabilities of armor. Maybe metal is too rare to make full suits of armor but still plentiful enough for weapons, maybe we have a situation like Star Wars where laser weapons (or the magical equivalent) render even the heaviest armor useless, maybe people are protected by Chi energy (or force fields) that are deactivated in the presence of a lot of metal. In any case, it is always a better idea to avoid an attack than to be hit and armor will impede the latter without really helping with the former.

Certain silly design elements have cultural or religious significance. Maybe random spikes, nipple pasties, high heels, or those stupid metal wrist covers are signs of status in the same way that many religious leaders in our world wear oversized and overly elaborate hats, shawls, collars, etc.

This thread has seen repeated conflation of "armor that doesn't work as armor", "the specific context is not one in which the character would be wearing armor", and "the setting doesn't feature armor".

In most of those cases you describe, the character wouldn't be wearing armor, or wouldn't be wearing it some contexts, which is not synonymous with wearing armor that is blatantly non-functional as armor.

I'm not sure how boob windows and plate armor bustiers and stealthed-in fetish gear really serve to enhance the setting and gameplay in the way that fantastic creatures might. Dragons need a little leeway to be dragons... armor doesn't need "playfully" exposed skin to be armor.

I would personally prefer them to dress like athletes, not strippers.

But, as I said way back when, ancient athletes attire (or lack thereof) would look pornographic to modern audiences, and modern active wear would look anachronistic, so we have to create these weird hybrids when imagining what athletic women would wear in an ancient world that didn't have the same mixture of misogyny and prudishness as our own.

I think even ancient athletes might have appreciated the practical aspects of modern athletic wear, separate from any discussion of prudishness or misogyny.