Team Valkyrie FTW

Well this took a turn for the awesome. A quick aside, I’m pretty sure I’ve reblogged Apple Cider Mage before, and I’m doing it again, and ACM you should know I’m making you a friendship bracelet, and I hope I can finish it before summer camp is over, it’s got really pretty colors and everything.

So, like, we all know what the term “slut plate” is describing — the super-skimpy armor that the female characters don, while the male characters get reasonable head-to-toe coverage that might actually keep them alive in a fight. Allow this video to explain what this is, and why this is a problem:

But where you might think ACM is going to say “get rid of this skimpy armor, it’s awful!” she takes a different approach that requires more nuance and makes me much happier.

I’m not here to talk about abolishing the many, many sets of evocative armor in World of Warcraft. I’m here to talk about getting rid of the disgusting language and thoughts that surround them!

…

Calling it “slut plate” even mean in jest or in a seemingly positive way, or even just as a “neutral” descriptor implies that being scantily clad indicates a certain character point, one which is tangled up a very harmful word from our society. A harmful word that reduces a woman’s expressed sexuality into an ever-shifting, very narrow definition: one that has little to do with her feelings or choices in the matter. Using it in a negative way or expressing that people that choose to dress like this need to cover up is one facet of that narrow definition of feminine sexuality. Both opinions basically reduce the choice to wear such armor to a simple message: “This isbad, except when I feel it is good.”

Instead, ACM proposes something else: let people dress how they want! (Shocking, I know.) If someone wants to wear head-to-toe plate, let them! If someone wants the chainmail bikini, have at! We’re here to have fun, aren’t we?