Women and Armor!

[Remilia_Nightfall]

Good question! Why is that?

[Zedd702]

Darklight Gloves of Casting

Thank you, my kind sir!

[Amused]

Meanwhile, dragoon armor has women's stomach exposed. Why? What is that even for?

Meanwhile, dragoon armor has massive spikes all over it. Why? What is that even for?

[Xhominid]

This topic just keeps exploding with more and more stupidity at random bursts...

[Edellis]

I can't believe this has turned into the discussion it has.

The VAST MAJORITY of outfits in this game are gender neutral, if it's armored on the male then it's armored on the female. With the exception of DRG stomach and BRD lacking an undershirt, I can't even think of exceptions to this rule. I'm not understanding the amount of silly conversation in this thread.

People are complaining for the sake of it. If you're all for "gender equality" in outfits, this is a game you should be vocally praising.

If you're bitching about this game's protrayal of females in armor, either you have severe tunnel vision, or have literally never played or seen a screenshot of any other MMO on the face of the planet.

[Arkine]

Why you funpires gotta be such killjoys? Let the thread die.

[Erudain]

They know and are working on it

Can I get those in black please?
Yours faithfully, a Ninja

[NozomiKei]

What is the name of that hand gear?

Also the Saurian boots are nice Thigh-highs boots

Looks like I was too late! Sorry Zedd.

There are a few thigh high boots I can wear but I'm really talking about socks.

I can post pictures of some irl guys that look delicious in thigh highs and skirts to dispute, not to mention that knee highs and kilts (essentially skirts) are totally a thing for certain countries. edit: read more and the brainwashing is killing me. If you hadn't noticed, men used to wear tights and heels and preen themselves like birds of paradise then guess what happened? Society got stuck on the weird notion that if you were male and you put effort into your appearance you were gay. King Louis XIV (hehehe) of France even designed his own fancy shoes.

[Gralna]

Can I get those in black please?
Yours faithfully, a Ninja

body and leg at least

Fuma Hakama

Fuma Koromo

[LineageRazor]

It is "natural" in the sense that it's how our civilization has developed over the centuries, and NOT in the entertainment industry, unless you are claiming that movies and videogames shaped the concepts of male and female since time immemorial.
It was a "natural" evolution in the sense that there was no extraterrestial force dictacting it - humanity reached its current state by itself, thus every decision that brought us to the current situation was "natural".

I never said, or even implied, that the entertainment industry is what has built our gender roles over the years, just that the people within it are as bound by them as anyone - possibly moreso, since a large part of entertainment is trying to predict what folks will be entertained by. The status quo is godly for them, and a predicatable audience is easier to entertain. Regardless, on to the important bit of your post:

One could use the same argument to say that enslavement of other humans is natural. You'd simply need to make the argument two centuries ago. Humans keep slaves, therefore slavery is natural. Marginalization of women throughout history in much of the world has often put them in a position where they had as few rights as slaves do. Also quite natural by this argument. No god forced humans to take other humans as slaves. No god forced men to make women slaves. And yet it happened. All perfectly natural, no?

It has been dreadfully recent that people have started to come to the realization that women as slaves to men, whether it is natural or not, is NOT okay, and this is a realization that is STILL not universally accepted throughout the world. "It is the way it is" is not an excuse or a valid explanation. That's exactly why debates like this are worthwhile. "A heroine can be badass, but she must also be pretty." That's the way it is, sure. WHY is that the way it is? Is that they only way it can be? Is that the way it should be?

Sexualization of women in media is a remnant of womens' previous expected role as servants to men. Women were property in all but name (sometimes in name as well), and part of owning property is bragging about how your property is better than the next guy's. Beauty became a large part of what defined one woman as "better" than another, since women were not expected to excel in things like warfare, scholarly pursuits, and so on. (This isn't to say that there aren't plenty of women who DID excel in those things - but such was not expected, and those exceptions were noted as being, well, exceptional for their time, even when studied today.)

So, beauty became a standard in what makes a woman good, in the eyes of both men and women. That is how it is. Things have changed a lot, now, though. It's become widely recognized that women not only can, but SHOULD excel in pursuits other than homemaking, just as men do.

tl;dr: "Things turned out that way" doesn't equate to "things are the way that they should be". Humans aren't perfect, and can never be perfect, but should always strive for perfection. "It's just the way things are" is never an acceptable answer.