Fantasy Lady Bits Posing

I stumbled across some interesting discussions about book covers (particularly genre book covers) and what they say to readers.

Jim C. Hines is a male fantasy author.  He decided to try recreating some of the poses (in costumes as close to the original as he could in most cases) on the covers of his and others' fantasy books.  Be sure to open the link and go check this out because it is hilarious and thought-provoking.

"To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with being sexual. I can totally see Snow from the princess books flaunting her stuff, for example. But posing like these characters drives home exactly what’s being emphasized and what’s not.

"My sense is that most of these covers are supposed to convey strong, sexy heroines, but these are not poses that suggest strength. You can’t fight from these stances. I could barely even walk."

Ils has some interesting things to add to the discussion in a Tumblr post.  "I guess some people find torso dislocation sexy? I’m not one of those people."

That post was pretty popular, and she discovered she had some additional things to say, so she made another post that included these gems.

'Oh, no, sorry, have females that are awesome in their own right, but don’t let them be awesome without being sexy.'

'We don’t need that pose to show off the good ol’ T&A. We know they have them. And there are plenty of times they show them off. I mean come on, they are females, and they’re moving around. A fellow black belt from my TaeKwonDo class has fantastic kicks. I mean yeah, I can kick, I’m proud of my kicks, but hers could knock you back from the sheer awesome. Her perfect stance also happens to show off her perfect body. It’s a byproduct. It happens. So the extra push that takes “sexy” over into “that…what, no,” why does it seem so necessary?'

Good question.

This whole argument ended up leading me to another Tumblr blog with the awesome name of "Women Fighters in Reasonable Armor," wherein the author proves that it is possible to clothe the fighting ladies in more while subtracting none of their deadliness or sexiness.  It can be done!

This Tumblr inspired an actual armorer to post a pretty good explanation of the nature and purpose of armor and how it could be practically applied to females, as well. 

And we're not even talking about how the men often get to dress with complete modesty and weather-responsiveness while the women don't . . .  : )