As Chibi says, a rejection of outmoded misogynistic objectification of women is in no way a ‘fear’ of female sexuality, but rather a desire to see female agency represented in wargaming, rather than just seeing every sculpt depict women as different flavours of ambulatory sex toy. This is the important difference between a woman choosing to present herself in a sexual fashion voluntarily, and imagery that sexualises women and womanhood while eliding women’s sexual agency entirely.

The prevelance of objectifiying imagery in society is so utterly ubiquitous that it is insufficient to say ‘this is just fiction, so its OK’ – the mentality that a woman’s worth is primarily determined by her desireability (for certain values of desireability, mostly determined by a very narrow and unrealistic set of aesthetic values) can be seen every day in every walk of life. Even the relatively small contribution of wargaming to that overwhelming burden of sexism is unacceptable, since every microaggression makes the lives of women that much harder.

Loincloth clad, over muscled barbarian minis and sexualised minis of women are not equiviIant; the barbarian minis are not sex fantasies of men for consumption by women – they are power fantasies of masculinity for consumption by other men that, while related to the sex fantasy representation of women in miniature form, are in no way the same thing. Both are expressions of the male gaze. Both are created to appeal to men, not women.

Just look at the poses. Even a male barbarian mini wearing nothing but a loincloth will be in a combat pose; they will be depicted as capable, empowered combatants, not passive sex objects. The same simply cannot be realistically said of the chainmail bikini brigade, where any honest interlocutor would admit that the primary purpose of the mini is to titillate, with any depiction of capacity as a warrior in the mini being secondary at best.

Your analogy falls at the first hurdle.

And even if these images were equivalent as images, it would make no difference, since there is also the issue that these images do not exist in a social vacuum. We live in a soceity that is still highly misogynistic and discriminatory, where the glass ceiling still holds women back, and where fundamental rights over things like bodily autonomy are not extended to women in the same way as they are to men in the majority of jurisdictions. The ‘playing field’ (so to speak) is not equal, and so the effect of the same kind of imagey is different depending upon who it is applied to.

As for women who like that depiction of female minis, that is their perogative, but wheeling out some women who like that type of depiction doesn’t just eliminate its problematic character – what about other women who don’t share that opinion? Women are not a monolith; their tastes differ from individual to individual, but this is not an issue of personal taste, but rather one of structural attitudes toward women and womanhood, and how things like the depiction of women in wargaming contribute to those attitudes.

It may be comfortable for you to write off feminism as a fear of female sexuality, but it simply doesn’t reflect the reality of the topics under discussuion or the positions adopted by those who object to the ubiquity of sexualised imagery of women, and the social injustices that it helps maintain.

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion @poosh. That said, might I suggest actually engaging with the arguments in future, before venting off about ‘social justice warriors’? Incidentally, using that particular form of language is something of a tell, since it is not a term social justice activists use to describe themselves, and is the exclusive invention of their opponents within the laughably entitled ‘men’s rights movement’. The phrase does inevitably lead one to ask why someone would be opposed to social justice? What is so objectionable about creating a more equitable society? Unless one’s goal is to maintain one’s own unearned social privilege, and that of one’s in-group, of course.

And if you cannot see the power fanatsy characteristics of a grotesquely over muscled character who employs violence to solve almost all problems, and in the process expresses very obvious physical dominance over their opponents, then I have to wonder whether you are approaching this particular issue with some very deep seated preconceptions. There is also the wrinkle that half naked female sculpts most definitely do function as titillation (why otherwise would so many be sculpted wearing so little, with such unnatural proportions, and in such exaggerated, and often suggestive, poses?), and the point I was making was that the male Barbarian sculpts are power fantasies designed to appeal to (probably straight) men rather sex fantasy material aimed at women or gay men, as can be seen by the fact that grossly muscled men don’t actually tend to fit the most widespread sexual aesthetics among straight women or gay men. You still haven’t demonstrated how this is wrong, and the way in which the loincloth wearing male barbarian mini is somehow actually equivalent to the chainmale bikini wearing female mini. Angry ranting about ‘social justice w**kers’ alone does not a counter argument make.

Chibi also makes a good point when discussing the intersection between the sexist aspects of the female minis and the way in which the male barbarian minis play up to the deeply problematic ‘noble savage’ trope. Sexism is not the only issue within wargaming by any stretch of the imagination, and the tendency toward that stereotype within the sculpting of male barbarian minis comes from the same place as the origin of chainmail bikinis – it is a convenient visual shorthand that continues to be employed despite the sociol harm that it contributes to, and even though the social justice advocates you despise so much have worked for decades to raise consciouness and make readily available materials demonstrating how those kinds of shorthand stereotypes contribute to harmful trends in society. There simply is no longer a credible excuse of ignorance left to hide behind, which makes it ever more likely that outright sexism is the true motivation.

By all means, have a go at feminism if it makes you feel better – trust me, we are more than used to it – but it won’t make the issues, or the arguments surrounding them, go away.