So this is how you make a point about sexism in gaming
“Brosie the Riveter,” the prank who made a point.
This week I walked into the Idea Room at HUB Seattle and met two people whose office prank calling out sexism in gaming went all over the Internet as a positive story.
A positive thing. Really.
One of them, “K2″ and @k2_said on Twitter, won’t reveal her name in public. The other is artist Sam Kirk. Both work at Meteor Entertainment, a Seattle gaming company that runs a free online mech war game called Hawken.
The more we talked, the more convinced I became that something a lot of people do wrong these two did so very right. From inception through execution, their prank was hardly a prank at all. It was a thoughtful, careful statement. And it rode on the power of playfulness to teach a lesson: maybe this is the way to spark conversations about gender stereotypes in male dominated industries.
Their story starts and ends with sexy posters.
In the beginning, there was “Ruby Underboob,” as K2 not so affectionately called her. She is Hawken comic art that Meteor Entertainment CEO Mark Long commissioned for a gallery show (he’s partner in Seattle’s Roq La Rue gallery) then hung on the out-facing wall of his office. It was the first thing people saw when they entered Meteor’s Pioneer Square office and the last thing they saw when they left.
K2 loves Meteor. But she did not love Ruby Underboob.
She hatched a plan, brought in artist Kirk and on April Fool’s Day the two replaced “Ruby Underboob” with Kirk’s new creation, “Brosie the Riveter.”
http://www.geekwire.com/2013/point-sexism-gaming/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Too often when these visual comparisons / analogies are made, people don't use images that are actually analogous.
Like that director who compares seeing the chest (no abs) of the guy in Star Trek with the from-just-above-the-knees-up shot of the woman in her underwear.
We are all so used to seeing sexually caricaturized women, that most think it's no big deal and are either slack-jawed and incredulous or downright hostile that anyone would dare question what they've come to think of as 'normal'. And we're so not used to seeing men depicted that way, that simply seeing a man's pectoral muscles and shoulders, to many, apparently seems analogous to a woman's entire body.
I'm glad one of the writers apologized for that shit. And that knuckle-draggers are having little shit fits about it, too. 
host of pics of such 'well endowed' men showing up all over the place! 
I would often use the ubiquitous posting of teh sexxxy wimminz as an excuse to post some 'eye-candy' for those who find the male form enticing and attractive.
It was an eye-opening experience one day, when one of my threads was locked, while the one showing women's bodies was left to stand.
So if you do, do not be surprised if -- as is the case on facebook, with their censoring of breastfeeding and post-mastectomy photos, while the porny pics and violence-promoting pics are left to stand -- you are subjected to a different set of rules. Especially now that it's not moderators, but juries enforcing community standards, which decide such things.
I can think of a few who would stroke out!
I still can't believe they took it down, or that it was contreversial in anyway. But there we are
Only certain kinds of images of women's bodies are deemed acceptable.
Have had breast cancer, one had a mastectomy with immediate reconstruction, as she had a potentially virulent form. She suffers from significant depression right now, she says she has to get used to "the new normal"
The other has had her mastectomy, but is still getting radiation. I know originally she was going for reconstruction but her cancer had spread. She's beating it, but has terrible radiation burns. I don't know what her choices are right now.
I find the tattoos beautiful and compelling. If I ever go through what my friends have, I think I would choose this option.
I don't have any tattoos, in my youth it was more out of protest; everyone in my little world was getting ugly-ass bad prison tattoos, this was before they quite as popular, and there weren't as many talented people around. As I grew older it was to spite my kids (c'mon Mom, you're chicken) as they all have body art.
I said if I could find decent Mandela I'd do it. Heh
This one was designed for cancer-- mastectomy survivors.
Mandala nipple tattoo for post-mastectomy survivors. [p-ink.org]
Repinned from Tattoos/Body Mods by Oscar Carter