Are miniature wargaming sculpts sexist?: Part 2

This is continued from part one found here. I would strongly recommend reading part one in its entirety, or at the very least the introductory sections and our thoughts on Infinity, before continuing here. Our evaluations build off of methodologies and initial conclusions we lay out in detail within part one, and which very much require that background information.

Warmachine 8/10

Warmachine ended up with our highest overall score for an entire range. There are very few double standards in terms of clothing and posing between male and female figures; this combined with the prevalence of steampunk power-armor ensures that the majority of the female models here are very practically dressed. Whether they are in flowing robes or hidden beneath slabs of armor they always match the unit they’re a part of and nothing ever feels impractical or needlessly sexualized.

For characters that are not part of a specific unit (warcasters/solos) not only are they also practically dressed, but they're bolstered by some great backstories and narratives that ensure these characters are just as fully realized as their male counterparts.

There are one or two hiccups amongst the cryx sculpts. While the raiders/skarre feel powerful and assertive despite their sexualisation, the deathwalker and coven witches appear gratuitous, with Deneghra being somewhere in the middle. But overall Warmachine is unquestionably one of the best ranges out there for portraying women.

Best: Major Katherine Laddermore

A great female figure that is well-armoured and totally badass/heroic looking.

Worst: Coven Witches

As mentioned above, the poses here seem really needlessly sexualized and submissive.

Hordes 7/10

Hordes continues in the vein of Warmachine by having the vast majority of its female sculpts dressed and posed in quite practical ways. This is helped by the fact almost all of the women portrayed in the range are non-human. However there were one or two disappointments that brought the overall quality down.

Special note: We feel we should mention our approval of the female trolls. It would have been really easy for Privateer Press to copy GW’s depictions/fluff for their orks and totally obviate any female presence amongst the trolls, but they manage to not only include women trolls but make them really interesting characters. While their equipment/armor might leave a little to be desired in comparison to their male counterparts it is great to see a company make this effort with a homebrew fantasy race.

Best: Makeda

Makeda is fully armoured, extremely scary, and looks righteously pissed off. This is a great rendition of a villainous female character that isn't exploitative.

Worst: Bloodreaver Night Witch

This figure feels very out of place in the Hordes aesthetic. Note the arched back pose that exposes as much of her midriff as possible. It seems the sculptors tried to mitigate this by having her hoist a sword in a rallying cry, but when combined with the lack of clothing it makes any such pretense seem absurd. If her upraised sword arm was behind her back this would be a textbook "pin-up girl" pose.

Freebooters 6/10

Freebooter’s Fate occupies an interesting position in relation to its depictions of women. On one hand there is certainly a double standard in the depictions of men and women within Werner Klocke’s sculpting, with a strong trend towards sexualized female clothing that sees many women figures showing a fair bit of skin. This is particularly true of the Pirate and Amazon factions. Although there are also instances, particularly among the Armada faction, of women being quite practically dressed.

However the posing on Klocke’s figures is typically excellent, and tends to be closely tied into the character’s persona or fighting style with little by way of gratuitous “pin-up” style posing. While the amazon figures may be scantily clad, they all genuinely look like they’re ready for a fight, and aren’t just thrusting their butts out for no reason like some of the Infinity sculpts.

This is bolstered by Klocke’s ability to sculpt faces so that his male and female characters have actual expressions. Again the range of facial appearances tends to reflect the characters well, from the no-nonsense angry gaze of the amazons, to the confident smirk of the Queen of Shadows.

Through a combination of clothing, poses, facial expression, and detailed fluff write-ups for each of Freebooter’s figures, the game manages to convey a very strong sense of character for each model in the range. Women represent a significant portion of Freebooter’s models, and contain a real mixture of sexualized and non-sexualized figures. Yet each manages to feel like a fully realized character that is dangerous on the battlefield in their own way. Owing to this, we felt that there were only a few instances where Freebooter’s was really gratuitous.

A few points to note:

We really liked the occasionally different female body type being displayed in a manner that wasn’t comedic. Figures like Momma Galina, the Maid, and Big Jenny all look sexy and dangerous in their own way without it being a gag. There are very few miniature ranges that really attempt to portray bigger female bodies in this way.

Much of one's thoughts on Freebooter’s depictions of women will come down to how you feel about the Amazon faction. Given that the idea of an Amazonian matriarchal culture is part of Greco-Roman mythology, we did not feel it was overly culturally appropriative of the designers to use it as a basis for designing their faction. The fluff seems a little generic but is generally well handled, and there are only a few figures that seem in poor taste. Consequently we ultimately decided it didn't have a notably  positive or negative impact on the overall score.

 

Freebooters presents a relatively diverse range owing to its Caribbean-inspired setting. There are a decent number of non-white characters that are subject to the same general mixture of sexualisation as the rest of the range. It is not as large a percentage of the models as you might think considering the setting, but it’s a lot better than most systems.

Best: Queen of Shadows

This is a good example of how to do a "sexy" female figure well. While there is obviously cleavage, her breasts aren't enormous and there is plenty of clothing everywhere else covering her. Yet she still conveys power and lethality alongside that seductiveness.

Worst: Curly Ann

This is just out of line. Not only is the figure absurdly posed and attired, but that she is a black character and a pirate in additional to this heavily sexualized appearance suggests this is an attempt to present an "exotic" sexuality. This implies a "tokenism" towards characters of color that we discussed in our analysis of Malifaux. Thankfully there are few figures that feel this sexist within the Freebooters range.

Guild Ball 7/10

Guild Ball does a solid job of portraying its women characters in a positive and respectful light. It is a game built around sport as much as combat, and we felt the inclusion of women here was a really positive decision given how much society sees athletic ability as inherently gendered. Furthermore, while there are few instances of heavily-armor figures owing to its “medieval ballgame” aesthetic, there is little by way of double standards in terms of clothing. Each team looks cohesive in terms of their appearance, and clothing leans towards things that make sense within the logic of the game world.

With regards to posing, there are one or two instances of women appearing less “combat ready” than their male counterparts. Angel (Fishermen) being an obvious example, while Friday (Brewers) over-the-shoulder butt shot seems out of place relative to the dynamic motion of her teammates. But generally the women here look capable and ready to play/fight.

A few points to note:

It is nice to see some diversity in female body types across the range and some unconventional appearances such as Vitriol’s scars. There are short and tall women, skinny and curvy, with a variety of body/facial proportions. There is also the case of Esters (Brewers), who we felt was quite badass, albeit somewhat comedic as well. However there does seem to be a lack of any female figures showing a lot of muscle tone relative to the prevalence of beefy men.

Not exactly rushing into battle. It's a pity the sculptor felt the need to drop that collar-line six inches.

A few of the figures, specifically Siren, Decimate, and Myst appear to be almost gender-neutral in regards to their proportions and clothing, which we felt was a really cool touch. Obviously these characters aren’t intended to be, yet the idea of a player being able to decide on the gender of their figure themselves without being obviously contradicted by the huge muscles and/or breasts of said miniature is a really cool idea.

Decimate actually did change gender if we compare her against her original artwork.

In their most recent round of updates Guild Ball has added a bunch of non-white characters both male and female alike who all seem really well done. It would have been easy for Steamforged Games to excuse this lack of representation by pointing to its “Medieval Europe” setting, but this would have been very flimsy and it’s great to see them add some diversity to the game.

Best: Siren

Siren is one of the only miniatures we saw in this whole project that has relatively small breasts. Despite this, she is still incredibly bad-ass looking. She connotes a mixture of sensuality and power without being overtly sexualized, and there is also a hint of gender-neutrality to her that we thought was really engaging and fits with her "ethereal" presence/fluff.

Worst: Brisquet

While it's nice to see the variation in body types, Brisquet is dressed far too much like a generic fantasy "tavern wench" to be taken seriously. Thankfully she is pretty much the only figure we felt was really gratuitous within the range. But it did stand out.

Conclusions

The general conclusion from this reflection was two-fold. On one hand we were pleasantly surprised by how well a lot of these ranges held up under a critique of their female sculptures. My partner noted the representation of women isn't nearly as bad as she thought it would be, especially in relation to how women are presented in a lot of popular culture like blockbuster films, etc. However on the other hand there are many, many egregious examples of female figures that are demonstrably sexist and pandering to straight male audiences in a way that cannot help but hurt the potential for women to engage with miniature gaming as a hobby. There are also several systems, from Games Workshop in particular, in which women are an extremely small minority of the figures being produced, which is also a significant barrier to entry. Here are some key observations we discussed afterwards:

• There is a clear and demonstrable tendency across several systems for a female sculpt to be "sexy" in a way that male figures are not. As much as combatants on a battlefield are typically physically fit individuals, it is only ever women whose poses and clothing suggest they are being sculpted in a way that panders to the sexual orientation of the consumer. There is nothing wrong with a woman being sexual, but it's important to consider who it is that is representing woman in this way and why they're doing it. There is very little female agency  between both consumers and creators that might influence the depiction of women within miniature gaming. We question whether a female sculpt designer would portray a "sexy" character using the methods seen above with outthrust hips, a lack of armor, and lots of bare skin. This is not to say that men can't represent a sexually empowered women in art/games/books/whatever, but it is important to be critical when these representations are so extreme they make one question the validity or purpose of this apparent sexual empowerment. The solution to this is not, we feel, to make the men equally sexualized, but rather to encourage sculptors and designers to create figures that make sense within the logic of their game world, and have both men and women appear equally combat-ready.

Hark a Vagrant, with a comic on Marvel's Cloak and Dagger.

• How female sculpts relate to their male counterparts is a key measure of how problematic the representation of women is in a particular range. Some of the best and some of the worst representations of women occur when female sculpts are part of a larger combat unit that includes men, since it really highlights the parity or double-standard between them.
• The best female representations often stem from sculpts of individual characters who are developed within the fluff background for the games setting. Women who are important characters within the universe they're depicted as part of seem to be taken more seriously by the sculptors. Our theory is that it introduces a dash of consequence to poor representations of women. For example: if you have a scantily clad female sculpt in a "pin-up girl" pose who is supposed to represent an important and respected military commander then you have effectively undermined the credibility of your game-world.
• There is a lack of diverse body types among female figures in many systems. Obviously this is something that applies to male figures as well, yet male figures typically enjoy a slightly wider range of relative muscle mass. Yet there is a demonstrable lack of muscle tone or bulk of any kind across most female models. This is really noticeable when many of these women are supposed to be highly-trained combatants, and is especially problematic when we consider that these are fantastical depictions where there's no reason for women to not have a bit more muscle than might be realistic in the same manner as their male cohorts.
• Breasts are a problem in miniature gaming sculpts. With very few exceptions, the women presented in 28mm scale have absolutely enormous breasts by any bodily standard and they are almost always presented in a wildly impractical or gratuitous fashion. The prevalence of big boobs as a shorthand for femininity is nothing less than a lazy design-trope at this point. Especially when figures like Guild Ball's "Siren" and Infinity's "Joan of Arc in Mobility Armor" demonstrate that huge bazoongas are in no way a requirement for making a figure distinctly feminine. This is particularly jarring given that female sporting/athletic wear is designed to compress a woman's breasts and keep them out of the way. (Olympic female swimmers are the example being discussed in that video.) Accordingly it seems even more absurd to constantly have all this armor with huge boob cavities, which would technically only help guide projectiles towards your center mass. For a superb examination of the problems with female boob-armor (amongst many others) check out "Bikini Armor Battle Damage", home of the famous female armor bingo card, and its follow-up the female armor defensive rhetoric bingo card, both of which have a lot of application to depictions of women in miniatures systems.
• Miniature wargaming does a poor job of representing characters of color. This point really deserves its own article and shouldn't be tacked on as an afterthought here, which is possibly something I will do in the future. But for now we think it's very obvious that as much as the representation of women in miniature wargaming, both as players and within the models themselves, might be poor, the representation of non-white individuals of any gender across the player/miniature spectrum is even worse. Many ranges have almost no representation of racial individuals, and those that do frequently contain a lot of problematic tokenism. (ex: If it's an Asian lady then she's a ninja with a katana. If it's a black man he's a brawler.) Of course there might be a few figures or even factions that are an exception to this but they are few and far between. The point is that miniature wargaming puts up a significant barrier to entry for any people of color through their poor representation, both in number and quality, on the tabletop in the same manner as its representation of women.

Analyzing all of this led us to the question: what is the cost to the individual gamer if those depictions of women which are problematic or downright offensive were to be altered? And how does that individual cost weight against the prospect of making the hobby more inviting towards women participants?

We were also intrigued by the idea of gender neutrality within miniature figures. Again, the idea of being able to assign your models their own gender without being obviously contradicted by their appearance sounds like a really cool idea to us, another personalized layer of customization for your tabletop forces. Obviously this won't be possible in every instance, but one could definitely argue that androgyny is a hallmark of individuals who are dressed for combat, whether fantastical, historical, modern, or futuristic.

Final Notes

As much as I would like to hear peoples thoughts on this I do have one last thing to state: If you've read through all of this yet still disagree that we, as gamers, need to be performing this analysis in the first place, or insist that there is no issue with the depiction of women in miniature games, then I would strongly encourage you to check out this video series. They are extremely well crafted discussions from a male videogame critic that go over some of the reasons male communities can be so resistant to this sort of criticism owing to the discomfort it produces. The parallel to miniature gaming is striking, and it helps explain why this type of discussion is important. Parts five and six are particularly relevant.

I know that miniature gamers are, by and large, a really decent group of people both in person and online. The recent controversy over the rampant sexism contained within Prodos Miniature's "Space Crusade" line of figures on dakkadakka.net indicates that many gamers already have some level of critical awareness about the depiction of women in miniatures. This article aims only to expand that awareness. Being self-aware and critical about our pastimes does not make them inherently wrong or un-enjoyable. Acknowledging the problems inherent to a form of entertainment does not mean you have to stop enjoying it, nor does it automatically mean those problems apply to you. As much as I take issue with representation of women in miniature gaming I am still painting, playing, and enjoying my time with figures from all of these systems.

I'd also encourage you to remember that I am just as much a member of the community as you. Miniature gaming is something I love, and I have gone through the (extensive) effort of crafting this article because I want more people to have the opportunity to love it too.

edit: I originally posted this article on May 22nd and shared it with only a small circle of friends and acquaintances to get their feedback before promoting it further. In that time I have incorporated comments from over a dozen people that represent a mix of avid wargamers, doctoral students in gender studies, and women both within and outside the miniature gaming community. I think this helps to lend further salience to the criticisms we have presented here.

Warmachine Cygnar Army 2011-2013

This Cygnar army marks what I’d consider my first real commitment to the miniature hobby, in that I was actively playing Warmachine games as I worked my way through these models and painted them. That said, the span of time it took them to reach this state was positively glacial. I recall painting my starter box immediately after finishing the empire army three years ago.

These were initial color scheme tests that I later went back and repainted over to bring them in line with the rest of the force. I also added highlights to the jacks.

My brother also bought an old Menoth starter so we could play games together. I painted these fairly quickly and didn’t get too bothered about the final result. Pretty basic stuff but I can’t bring myself to sell it off and its worth next to nothing now anyways.

pNemo has a special place in my heart for being the first miniature I felt I’d painted to a high standard and was very satisfied with. Unfortunately he’s an extremely fragile warcaster on the table and not very competitive, and I’d posit my frequent use of him (at least partially) contributed to my huge losing streak with Warmachine. More generally I think I only very recently started to grasp the mechanics of the game properly and be a truly competitive player, but unfortunately this happened right after I’d come to grips with Infinity, which I’d now consider my primary game.

This gunmage UA represents the first time I was really happy with my highlighting, having just discovered glazing. (wet blending remains a bit beyond me at the moment)

Siege was one of the first figures I painted after moving to England in fall of 2013, and came after a several-month break in painting. For all that I think he turned out alright and is a lot more fun on the table than pNemo.

Kraye was painted very recently and I think he effectively represents my current ability to paint warmachine figures. He’s such a large and detailed figured that it took me far longer than my usual “5 hours per figure” rule but I’m relatively happy with the result.

There are still a small handful of pieces I need to get around to painting. In particular there is a stormclad that I undercoated two years ago which is still guilting me about not being painted yet! I also recently built an eCaine blister which I’d had lying around for ages, and between eCaine, Siege, and Kraye I’m hoping to have my three primary casters.