Titillation red and pink

If your mind is still out on the red planet, Secure Immaturity has a review today of Total Recall. He's revisiting the work of Paul Verhoeven, and also covered Robocop recently. Yep, that means more nudity, and ultra-violence now too. But also sympathy for mutants. It needs mature reflection.


On the subject of nudity, I've been reflecting as maturely as I can. What follows some may find uncomfortable or even offensive - if so, skip this and the next eight paragraphs.

At The Book of Worlds at the moment are some illustrations by Thore Hansen, three of which feature female nudity. The images seem to me less garish, shallow and deceitful than they would be in a modern RPG or on the cover of a magazine today, despite being more revealing than we might expect nowadays. The sexuality seems matter-of-fact, projected as part of the experience of a living person, more substantial for it and fairer.

Compare these with the newer pulp images at Jasoomian Dreams mentioned in the last post, with Warlord of Mars #3 and the cover of Red Planet itself at top left, and with the miniatures a few posts back, here and here. In the first two images at least there's not much we haven't seen in Return of the Jedi, or elsewhere besides - and both women have a healthier-seeming, less gaunt figure than we might be used to - but the effect is, to my eyes at least, more exploitative.

Attractive yes - yes, indeed - but I'm left uneasy. A key point to make is clearly that these are only illustrations and not actual people - I realise that. But the images are an extension of the existence of women, and women are half of humanity.

In both the pulp and the Thore Hansen pictures the women are all seemingly tools for the stimulation of men, and women are arguably lessened as people as a result. That said, in the Thore Hansen the objectification seems more incidental to the nature of the women. This is subjective of course - maybe you don't see it? Whether or not you do, you might find this an interesting article if you've got a few minutes.

One way of getting around the problem in the pulp cases is to say the women are intended to be slaves. That narrative would definitely explain what we see, but internally consistent or not, couldn't it in some cases be a cover for what the audience is believed to want? I've used the argument about cultural mores being fluid myself enough times not to have thought of that already - I'm playing devil's advocate a little, as usual.

Digression almost over anyway. I should clarify I'm not holding this particular blog up as 'bad' - it's just the one that set the thinking off. No one is being picked out as guilty of having interests and behaviours a vast number of us certainly share. Unease over aspects of the images aside, I like Jasoomian Dreams plenty and enough to go back, and Red Planet looks a lot of fun. If anyone has played, I'd be glad to learn more. The cover is striking for its landscape and interactions, as well as the female form itself. 

My philosophy on this kind of thing can be summed up well by the conclusion George Orwell comes to in his famous essay "The Art of Donald McGill". Things may have changed since then, but change is not necessarily the solution of a linear equation.

If anyone can point out flaws in my thinking or add to it, you're very welcome to do so. Feel free to get any constructive thoughts on the subject off your chest. If you've been following Andrew Rilstone's thoughts on political correctness, you might well have a sense of the frustrations and dangers of not doing so.

Back to Total Recall then. There may be a remake of course, and on the subject of remakes and humanity changed, space1970 is trailing a coming post on the The Omega Man with Charlton Heston. For the novel on which it is based - I am Legend - and the Will Smith version, there's a to-the-point review at Books for Nerds.

For more mutants you need A Field Guide to Doomsday.

Or Skaven, who will probably soon have an official miniature for the Hellpit Abomination. Some ideas for uses at Dark Future Games.