Thursday, February 10, 2011

Somewhat Relevant to the Sexualized RPG Art Debate

Above is a picture of a Tiefling, from Planescape I believe. I'm not a fan of Planescape (I find it too prosaic considering the subject matter), Tieflings (too "Rob Zombie" -esque), or the art style, but I find the above illustration remarkable for one reason.

It is the only piece of RPG art I can think of that depicts a woman with "Junk in the Trunk." Now lots of women have big butts, and lots of guys find them an attractive feature, but in both RPG art and in pop culture in general, ladies with big butts are practically non-existent.

Now, I'm not a big ass fetishist or anything (although I find all sorts of body types attractive), but I find it indicative of how narrowly women are presented in RPG art and pop culture that such a common (and commonly found attractive) body type practically does not exist in the media.

Aside from that, regarding the Sexualized Women in RPG Art issue, Stefan Poag pretty much hits the nail right on the head as far as I'm concerned; my take is that I enjoy and appreciate cheesecake, IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE CHEESECAKE ALL OF THE GODDAMN TIME; I appreciate realistic depictions of all sorts of men and women (such as Trampiers and Sutherlands AD&D "adventuring dads with mustaches" and the LOTFP Flame Princess), and I'd like to see more of them instead of T&A ALL OF THE GODDAMN TIME.

I'm sure a big proportion of female adventurers would be pretty rugged and hard bitten; both Valeria from Conan the Barbarian and Grace Jones from Conan the Destroyer are some of my favorite depictions of female fantasy adventurers; they're tough, rugged, athletic and almost scary while being sexy in a "realistic" instead of idealized fashion...not that every depiction of a female adventurer has to be sexy for fuck's sake!


And no, even though I think the big butt issue in RPG art is a pertinent issue, it's not like I'm a giant ass fetishist or anything...no...not me...

8 comments:

  1. I'm trying to figure out the connection between Tieflings and Rob Zombie...
    But yeah, always nice to see a woman with curves.

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  2. It is by diterlizzi, yeah, but it's the 3rd ed monster manual version, long past the planescape days. Here's the unmessed with version.

    I'm wonder what 'prosaic' in this case means...

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  3. DiTerlizzi is awesome :) And having seen Rob live at Red Rocks one time, back in the White Zombie days, I can totally see the tiefling thing.. lol.

    As far as the whole point here, I totally agree. I'm completely at a loss to understand the whole hip editing thing. I know that, for some reason, many women themselves actually think wide hips and large rears are horribly unattractive, and it's something MANY strive against and try to 'help' others with. Colour me clueless on that one.

    I'm sure a lot of people would say that couldn't possibly have an effect on what we're talking about, since all the depictions of women are driven by trying to cater to mens' libidos, and therefore it's all about paying attention to men and ignoring women. Or maybe it's not as simple as some people think.

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  4. Oh, and allow me to plaster this guy's link here too. It's basically relevant, and I think it's awesome stuff. I'd love to see his work in an rpg, and if I'm ever able to commission art for a project, he's at the top of my list :)
    http://jedsart.com/main.htm

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  5. Lose the horns and I'm right there.

    I also have a lot of respect for Janet Trautvetter, who drew the art for Thieves' Guild (the Gamelords supplement/RPG). Just some normal beauty, the kind you actually see outside the mass media. Thieves' Guild is a bout real people. Real fantasy people, anyway.
    http://www.therpgsite.com/showpost.php?p=333403&postcount=13

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  6. You might like my friend Nate's comic: Realm of Atland. It's a Fantasy RPG style comic with more than a few characters with all that junk inside that trunk.

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  7. diterlizzi rules! i got back into gaming because of him. you should check him out more. his monsters and characters are in some sense part of the otus/early d&d tradition by demanding 'real' situation for 'real' monsters and characters.

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