If you’ve ever read any science fiction, played any video games, watched any anime, or if you’ve just generally seen any Escher Girl-like drawings, you know that women in pop culture are typically designed with the male gaze in mind. That is to say, they’re normally drawn in unrealistic poses and terrible costumes in order to cater to the tastes of straight heterosexual guys. (Dom even did a post on this recently.) That’s why sites like Repair Her Armor are so important. Much along the same lines as The Hawkeye Initiative, Repair Her Armor attempts to show uncreative designers the error of their ways through collective group shame:
This blog is dedicated to show and change the looks of ridiculous female armors (and other outfits) that women tend to have in media; such as games and comics. The purpose is to show that over-sexualized women is not “empowering”, but clearly offensive and ridiculous – not to mention it’s also clearly out of context. We’ll also show that their clothes could be greatly improved with a touch of common sense, equality and character.
In other words, Repair Her Armor goes by the idea that even small changes to an outfit or design can be much better (and make much more sense) than whatever the original is. They also accept submissions for characters who don’t have armor in their source material and spotlight existing good costumes for both men and women, among other such things. Some of my favorite RHA armor redesigns are below the cut!
Warning: possible NSFW images past this point.
Lady Geek Girl and Friends 