Wherein I delve deeper into some complaints I raised in the +City of Heroes Freedom "Freedom Friday" earlier today.
Embedded Link
What’s the Matter with Penelope Yin? | Blog of Heroes
The Paragon Studios team does a Freedom Friday weekly quasi-chat on Google Plus, answering questions that people pose, etc. Today, after getting my actual
Google+: View post on Google+
95 view(s)
Yeah, I largely made the same complaint. With a bit more vitriol.
Glad to hear I'm not alone
Actually, I remember the first time she trotted up during the first Signature Story Arc (I think it was), and my first reaction was, "Penelope, what the hell are you wearing?"
Dave,
A real live female gamer reporting in here. I’m about 90% with you here. Yin’s just…squicky. I liked her in Faultline, but the whole Princess bit with her and the Clockwork King in the LGTF struck me as pedophilically squicky at the time and still does. The convenient ‘aging’ struck me as badly as it did you. And her outfit now is just…UGH. I could attribute Yin’s presence to anything from a wish to get as close to some kind of Japanese anime-ish character as possible without actually *doing* anime, or to a wish to appeal to a younger audience. IMO, I don’t care if she’s supposedly the ‘most powerful psychic in the world’; she just does not have the gravitas to do it for me, and never will. Psyche was, granted, more than a little of a witch, personalitywise, but she was, at least, an adult and had been through enough that even if you didn’t *like* her, she’d earned respect.
Yin’s expression in the splash bothers me more than her pose. That expression demonstrates *exactly* what I mean when I say she lacks gravitas. She doesn’t look like she’s fighting; she looks like she’s auditioning to be a cheerleader. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if she landed and started chanting about two bits for a dollar, all for Yin, stand up and holler. By contrast, her position just looks poorly drawn (although I bet it’s a chiropractor’s dream pose.)
The costume is just…AWFUL. I was stunned by how horrible it was. It looks less bad in the splash than it does in person. A friend described her as a ‘hot mess’, and I utterly agree.
Yin? Please. After Faultline AND Praetoria AND replacing Psyche…I’m sick of her.
But you do make one comment which troubles me, and it’s a huge peeve of mine. Some (but by no means all) of my female characters DO have revealing costumes, if I think it appropriate to the character. I’m about as feminist as you can get (and not a Palinesque parody of one, thanks), and I have no problem with that kind of outfit. If anything, I get extremely annoyed with the people who complain about revealing costumes; I blame them for the fact that pretty much every new somewhat classic superheroine style costume that’s been introduced in the last year has been BORING repetitions on neck to toe garbage. The new chain mail and leather additions are no exception.
I guarantee you, by the way, that as a) an attractive woman who can get away with the skimpy stuff if she chooses and b) one who’s actually *worn* some of that hot as hell neck to toe leather crap, if I were a superheroine, I’d be wearing the lightest, skimpiest stuff I could. You don’t wear head to toe leather in ballet or dance class for a damn good reason: it’s hot and doesn’t flex. You wear skin-tight, sheer leotards because sweat evaporates and you can *move* without dying of a heatstroke. Why wouldn’t a superheroine wear something equally light and comfortable to increase her agility, especially if that superheroine had other protective powers?
However, desexualizing female characters and costumes is NOT un-objectifying women, IMO. It says that women should be ashamed of their sexuality. There’s no difference between the overly politically correct comic fan who wants all female characters to be covered in neck to toe formless outfits and the uberconservative who thinks we should all cover our hair and dress in Little House on the Prairie dresses. Both are saying that being a sexually confident, attractive woman is something of which to be ashamed. And it isn’t!
The answer’s not to make US dress our characters differently — which just feeds the premise that being a sexually attractive woman is somehow wrong — but to crack down on those who act like idiots about what they see. We have butts and we have breasts. Deal with it, people. One can admire a beautiful woman and manage to also look her in the eye and address her brain. If one can’t, then one should grow up and learn to do so.
Yes, I belong to the Susie Bright school of feminism. So sue me. 🙂
But the long wind in a nutshell: I agree with you. The costume stinks and I’ve grown to thoroughly dislike Penelope Yin. Hopefully the rest presents a different point of view.
~Elizabeth
Elizabeth, thanks for the lengthy feedback.
I don’t mind revealing costumes per se. I find that women have a lot of inappropriately* revealing costumes, compared to men, or compared to what someone would wear if they actually had a costume to provide protection. So, Power Girl? What the heck, she’s invulnerable. Black Widow? I’d expect her to wear something to cover up vulnerable skin.
*Propriety not being defined as “Eek! Decolletage!” but “Gads, why isn’t all of her exposed body a mass of scar tissue?” (I’m looking at you, Red Sonja.)
(A large number of my toons just dress in civies, though they might have a costume for “formal” purposes.)
So bringing it back around to Penelope, I don’t mind a bare midriff in and of itself. But a bare midriff while her shoulders and chest are all covered with apparently armor and buckles and stuff? That makes no sense.
Dave and Elizabeth,
How much do you take the intent of the creator into account (assuming you feel that you can correctly divine such)?
@Avo – It has at least some influence, but the creation has to stand on its own as well.