purpleworm [none/use name] @ purpleworm @hexbear.net

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I think you're leaving out the international bourgeoisie from that estimation.

On President's Day, I like to reach out to my friends struggling with mental health and remind them that even our greatest President, Abraham Lincoln, tragically succumbed to his depression, so there is no shame in their struggles.

I think it's actually quite easy to distinguish between a gacha game where you collect women and girls, some in obviously sexualized costumes, as pets and private assets, from "everything"

It really does read like a freudian slip

I know it's not significant, but why does he keep talking about making America "hot"? Like, I've heard him say this a couple of times and I don't get what sort of idiom he is going for here.

?

I should have been more explicit, but part of the reason that I made the Hulk comparison is also that he's mostly naked. As it is culturally received, showing skin doesn't always have anything to do with sex appeal and there are many ways to do it besides being exposed (e.g. the example of the woman you showed me, who was in one of the portraits in a skin-tight suit but pretty much completely covered, with that being more sexual than the costume where more skin was visible).

My point was: a) the big lady's individual case isn't that significant, b) there are nonetheless not just incidental points of emphasis but genuine contortions in the design to favor sex appeal, and this costume generally does that above communicating anything else, c) you can point to many similar contortions across the cast in costumes and characters in this game about paying money to collect women and girls as pets and assets, and the confluence of these two thing is important to my interpretation.

You're relying on an inadequate rubric for this that I normally only see from comic fans trying to say that there is equality in how male and female heroes are designed (there is not) by completely misunderstanding the most basic concepts of what sexualization is. Nudity can be used to sexualize, but they aren't the same thing.

For example, Cornelius is a fine enough pretty boy, but he's not lewd at all, and for the same reasons that Dwarf mostly isn't, the king just barely counts with the emphatic V figure that, by cartooning standards, does not reach the point of deformity. Like, in the gallery, look at that picture of him with Vulcan, do you perceive the two of them to be on equal footing here? Do you believe that her stockings, by merit of covering her skin, are subtracting from her sexualization? How about the thong? The prince is the only male character you've shared that reads as a meaningful example (on account of framing), and even then he's barely past the acceptable bounds of a Disney prince in that regard. I suppose it probably reads a fair bit differently to some gay men (who are not the target demo, I'm pretty sure), but in terms of designs for appealing to a straight woman, this is all on a range from very mild to non-applicable. The same cannot be said for the designs of the women. Turns out male gaze is a thing.

Wait what the hell is wrong with Gold Ship's design? She's got a bust? I mean is the mere existence of boobs gooner?

This is such bad faith. Do you really believe that encapsulates the relevant part of her design? Her costume is clearly designed to accentuate the large breasts in a way that would be deeply uncomfortable for doing track (and I think a little uncomfortable in general, because it's basically putting a wedge of fabric and a tight strap under the breasts that rides into the ribs, which seems like it'd get sweaty or worse). Like, this isn't some catastrophe of design, there's a reason I didn't put a huge amount of emphasis on it, but it's the clear direction of the costume design to have sex appeal, it is detail being added for only that purpose, and when you can point to many such choices across many costumes in this game about grinding or paying money to get pet girls and costumes for them, that tells you about the sort of game that it is.

Like, I know there are games out there that have character designs that literally come from hentai artists and look it, but for someone who accuses me of having a warped perspective, twice accusing me of "projecting" (one of the more revolting arguments that you can make in this context, given the coding of some of the characters), I really need to question your ability to evaluate it if you're holding up Dwarf as a high example of being a gooner character design. No, not because he's a guy. I'm completely confident there are some people who are really into him and that probably informed your selection, but the design itself from the handful of images that you presented reads much more as a male power fantasy than an androphilic (straight woman/gay man/etc.) fantasy, as often happens with male characters who look bulky to the point of deformity. It's like calling the Hulk sexualized. There are occasional depictions that actually are (e.g. leaning into his dick also growing commensurately with the rest of him), but principally the appeal is meant to be toward (presumed het) men fantasizing about being strong. If you wanted a male character who was still a muscular power fantasy but had more unambiguously sexual elements, an easy (though not extreme) example is Zwei from Soul Calibur V as he appears in his portrait. Classic elements include the framing of the abdomen and unbuttoned pants. Sort of conspicuously missing is an emphasis on the Adonis belt, which you'd sort of expect given the other elements if they were committing to the bit, but SC is a very male gaze series for the most part, so even the more sexualized men are still pretty mild. You get a handful of examples of characters in Granblue who you're probably familiar with who are a slightly more exaggerated version of things like this, like Belial.

I do agree with you that many other games are more gooner, like Granblue in its various forms, I just pointed to the cast being all female for the horse game because it makes it a little more obvious what they are going for.

There was someone here the other day making the "projecting" argument to defend Dandadan and this site at least used to have someone who said the same thing about Goblin Slayer, though at least the latter knew it was cope, I think.

Some people claim it's because of the Bread Book, but it always read to me as either "bread and roses" or some general idea that social welfare (typified by feeding the hungry) is good.

That person looks like Eren Yeager here.

I feel like I'm in a parallel dimension right now. Does gacha where you collect girls as what amount to pets not come off weird to people anymore? Or the designs like the girl on the right and attire of several other characters? Are we back to the kayfabe where the presence of moe blobs mean everything is wholesome and unproblematic?

Is this supposed to be witty? There being worse offenders in some respect does not negate the lesser offenders.

The game is gooner shit, the drawing is banal. I'm sorry for not specifying, it literally just didn't occur to me that someone would take it that way, though clearly a few people did.

It was a sign from God that golf is destructive

Pretend that their position is actually still more liberatory than their critic's.

Especially by painting the critic as somehow a reactionary.

There are a lot of more conservative/fundamentalist protestants who will also tell you that you will go to Hell for suicide, but I'm sure there are places and denominations where that's not true.

I assumed you already hated golf basically the maximal amount short of resorting to stochastic terror attacks because of how much of a greenspace guy you are. I apologize for underestimating the level of fury you are capable of while remaining coherent.

I'm glad the injury doesn't seem to be too bad.

Wonks pretend it's a silver bullet when it is not, but it's still a wildly superior and more democratic method than our current one.

It's frowned upon in Christian countries too, I'm not sure if that has a huge amount of bearing, though I strongly disbelieve the suicide guess.