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cimoreneI need to paint another fantasy portrait of a niece, so for about a month I've been immersed in brainstorming character building and costuming and style sketches, which somehow (I can't quite remember how) led to me watching a couple of eps of the original Lynda Carter Wonder Woman this week.
This led to thinking about Wonder Woman's costume design at length and also, eventually, to some very rewarding googling about what female mixed martial artists wear.
Because fannish osmosis has taught me that current canon WW's powers come from the Greco-Roman pantheon of gods, I had been assuming that she was basically equivalent to Superman. In that case, she would be in the same boat as Superman, which is that if you're completely invulnerable, temperature and weapons alike have no meaning, which means the sole purpose of your clothing is modesty. And decoration. (I'm not claiming that her costume IS modest, just that an invulnerable deity could go naked if they felt like it without any serious ill effects, aside from having no pockets or hooks for hanging their golden lasso on.)
This means Lynda Carter's costume wouldn't pose a real problem for this hypothetical invulnerable WW, except that realistically it's quite likely she'd eventually pull some gymnastics or martial arts or contortionist moves that would cause her breasts to pop out of the corset top. I mean, an inconvenience at best, embarrassing at worst, but still probably not completely ideal, but something similar with shoulder straps and maybe a racerback would probably solve that.
Anyway, then I went to Wikipedia and found out that apparently Wonder Woman isn't supposed to be invulnerable. According to the W, she's able to approach the speed of light in flight thanks to a gift from Hermes, but her skin can be pierced by projectiles or edged weapons with 'sufficient force'. I gather that means her skin is way tougher than human, but still, the speed of light should be stripping any non-invulnerable skin from bones so clearly this is a magical divine flight that doesn't have anything to do with physics.
The point is, though, that even if she is unusually resistant to projectiles and edged weapons, as well as being able to speed out of their way most of the time, wouldn't some flexible body armor be the most logical outfit for her? Especially considering that since she has such immense super strength, keeping the weight down isn't a consideration. And it's not like she's gonna get hot and sweaty either. Perhaps in the real world effective body armor that doesn't interfere at all with your range of motion for purposes of gymnastics and martial arts is not a thing, even if you remove the weight restrictions. But in comic world(s), I'm pretty sure we already believe that it is and Batman and Black Widow both wear it even though they don't have any superpowers (so obviously it's not even heavy enough to require a superhuman). It's not like comics deem catsuits unsexy. Take, well, Catwoman.
In summary: Wonder Woman actually SHOULD be invulnerable and then her outfit should be whatever the hell she wants, except NOT a corset or otherwise strapless unless she wants her divine breasts to escape it from time to time, which could get inconvenient. But if she ISN'T invulnerable, then her outfit should incorporate body armor.
This led to thinking about Wonder Woman's costume design at length and also, eventually, to some very rewarding googling about what female mixed martial artists wear.
Because fannish osmosis has taught me that current canon WW's powers come from the Greco-Roman pantheon of gods, I had been assuming that she was basically equivalent to Superman. In that case, she would be in the same boat as Superman, which is that if you're completely invulnerable, temperature and weapons alike have no meaning, which means the sole purpose of your clothing is modesty. And decoration. (I'm not claiming that her costume IS modest, just that an invulnerable deity could go naked if they felt like it without any serious ill effects, aside from having no pockets or hooks for hanging their golden lasso on.)
This means Lynda Carter's costume wouldn't pose a real problem for this hypothetical invulnerable WW, except that realistically it's quite likely she'd eventually pull some gymnastics or martial arts or contortionist moves that would cause her breasts to pop out of the corset top. I mean, an inconvenience at best, embarrassing at worst, but still probably not completely ideal, but something similar with shoulder straps and maybe a racerback would probably solve that.
Anyway, then I went to Wikipedia and found out that apparently Wonder Woman isn't supposed to be invulnerable. According to the W, she's able to approach the speed of light in flight thanks to a gift from Hermes, but her skin can be pierced by projectiles or edged weapons with 'sufficient force'. I gather that means her skin is way tougher than human, but still, the speed of light should be stripping any non-invulnerable skin from bones so clearly this is a magical divine flight that doesn't have anything to do with physics.
The point is, though, that even if she is unusually resistant to projectiles and edged weapons, as well as being able to speed out of their way most of the time, wouldn't some flexible body armor be the most logical outfit for her? Especially considering that since she has such immense super strength, keeping the weight down isn't a consideration. And it's not like she's gonna get hot and sweaty either. Perhaps in the real world effective body armor that doesn't interfere at all with your range of motion for purposes of gymnastics and martial arts is not a thing, even if you remove the weight restrictions. But in comic world(s), I'm pretty sure we already believe that it is and Batman and Black Widow both wear it even though they don't have any superpowers (so obviously it's not even heavy enough to require a superhuman). It's not like comics deem catsuits unsexy. Take, well, Catwoman.
In summary: Wonder Woman actually SHOULD be invulnerable and then her outfit should be whatever the hell she wants, except NOT a corset or otherwise strapless unless she wants her divine breasts to escape it from time to time, which could get inconvenient. But if she ISN'T invulnerable, then her outfit should incorporate body armor.
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(no subject)
Date: 11 May 2013 04:00 pm (UTC)I mean, say what you will about the costuming in XWP, but you could totally move and fight in it.
(no subject)
Date: 11 May 2013 04:19 pm (UTC)I've seen some fan costume proposals for WW that are obviously gladiator-based, and with the ancient deity connection it's logical, but I also think it's never gonna happen - outside of AUs, or flashbacks - because the character is, generally, actually pretty modern.The shape isn't bad, though. AS LONG AS IT'S NOT STRAPLESS. I mean, I get that they need the design to be sexy and so they want cleavage, but - come on.
(no subject)
Date: 11 May 2013 06:44 pm (UTC)I don't think gladiator-style WW is going to happen, either, but they could do worse than looking to Xena for how to do light armor/fighting wear for women that is also sexy and skin-baring.
(no subject)
Date: 12 May 2013 08:19 pm (UTC)http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130101093632/tardis/images/f/f9/JennyFlint-DrSimeon.jpg
http://www.anelnoath.com/docsnowmen2.jpg
http://heydontjudgeme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Doctor-Who-7.11-TCH-jenny-is-an-awesome-ninja-for-five-secs-375x209.jpg
(Did I mention that she's married to Madame Vastra, a lizard woman detective who's supposed to be the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes? They are my absolute favorite recurring secondary characters in the whole damn show.)
(no subject)
Date: 12 May 2013 08:36 pm (UTC)