2nd Lieutenant Mira: a woman in sensible armor

2nd Lieutenant Mira - 203 Cadian Gaurd

I recently discovered Women in Sensible Armor over on Tumbler and I'm not sure that this sort of nerd feminism is anything new, but it certainly puts a fine point on the realization that all of us have made after playing through our first few RPGs.  And that realization is, why the hell would that chick be dressed like that to fight Orcs?

Now, this site certain gets it's share of traffic thanks to digital boobs and hot chicks in video games so I'd be a little hypocritical to say I haven't been guilty of the "digital male gaze" from time to time.

But still I was pretty gratified when I stumbled across this character in the recently released Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine.  Full disclosure, I work at THQ, so I should probably point out that I am a huge warhammer nerd and would have played this game even if I didn't work for the publisher.  But I am also going to give any sort of review.  But what I will give is kudos to the character designers who chose not to give 2nd Lieutenant Mira a cleavage revealing slit in here breast plate and chose to let her wear pants into battle.  She's even a pretty imposing figure when stood next to the emperors own champions, the Ultramarines:

Working at a video game publisher and playing through a lot of games co-op with my wife I find that I am often more than a little embarrassed by some of the crop up.

Take for example a character from the recently released Wii title Conduit 2.  She basically fills the same role in the script for Conduit 2 that 2nd Lt. Mira does in Space Marine, she's a tough military woman that the main character meets up with early on in the story.  She wears battle armor...but of course it's been designed  to ensure maximum "cleave":

Hell, even Red Faction Armageddon had a Kara, a "tough military woman the main character meets in Act 2" role in the script that 2nd Lt. Mira has.  Let's just take a look at her next to the main character for a second:

Sensing a pattern here?  As I'm writing this I'm starting to realize that there are two overlapping tropes here. One is the "cleavage armor" and the other is the "tough military woman the main character meets in Act 2".

Follow up post?  Most likely, but for now, let's all make the sign of the aquilla in honor of 2nd Lt. Mira and her sensible armor: