Rename or Redefine: Sensual Spandex

The current Image Pickin' discussion regarding the page image for Sensual Spandex caused me to realize that the description given for the trope does not really match the way it's being used. The description specifically regards form-fitting clothes worn for sports/athletic purposes, but most of the references I've seen the trope linked to have been using the trope name literally to refer to sexy form-fitting outfits worn for all kinds of purposes.

The existing wicks break down something like this:

• 11 examples of clothes worn specifically for some form of athletics (2 of these are suits worn by race drivers, which I figure is close enough).
• 34 examples of spandex/form-fitting clothes worn for combat purposes, including 4 instances of Superheroes Wear Tights, 6 Spy Catsuits, 2 Leotards of Power, 1 pair of Painted-On Pants, 6 plugsuits worn for operating Humongous Mecha and the like, and 15 other general examples of fighters wearing tight clothes that don't fit those categories.
• 8 instances of spandex worn for completely non-action-related purposes and other misuse of the trope (specifically, the Form-Fitting Wardrobe page lists the trope for comparison but the context given completely misses the point).
• 1 use that simply doesn't give enough context to be clear on its intention.

The other 30 wicks are from indexes, comparisons from related tight-clothes and sexy-clothes tropes without detail given, and duplications of examples counted above. Overlooking these and the one completely unclear one, we've got 20.3% use that matches the description given, 62.9% use that doesn't really fit but is at least action-related and therefore could count if you squint, and 14.8% completely incorrect use.

I didn't do a specific review of the examples listed on the article itself; skimming them suggests that they're mostly more accurate, but there are still a bunch of instances of things like plugsuits and combat spandex.

What this is saying to me is that we may need to do one of the following:

1) Keep the trope limited to sports and athletic clothing, and rename to something like Sensual Sports Spandex to make the intended meaning clear. This has the advantage of making the trope name more indicative of its intended meaning, which should cut down on misuse. (If we use that name it would also keep the Added Alliterative Appeal.)

On the other hand, it may be a case of People Sit On Chairs; spandex and similar tight-fitting outfits are worn in a lot of sports for various practical reasons like comfort, freedom of movement, and the general need to make sure that your clothes stay put and don't get in the way during vigorous motion, and athletes by definition tend to be in good shape and therefore have attractive bodies that look good in tight clothes. It seems hard to determine when it's specifically being used for Fanservice, and hard to enforce limiting the trope's use to intentional Fanservice since - as the argument over the current page image illustrates - people don't always agree on what's intentionally sexualized and what isn't.

2) Expand the meaning of the trope to cover spandex being worn for all action-related purposes. If we do that, the percentage of wicks that actually fit the trope description would jump to 83.3%, which is plenty healthy even without the trope name being adjusted to reflect the action-specific part of the definition. On the other hand, that makes it overlap significantly with Superheroes Wear Tights, Spy Catsuit, and Leotard of Power (and there may be others I missed).

1 or 2 would be my preference, if it were up to me.

3) Expand the trope description to match what's indicated by the trope name: sexy spandex outfits on attractive people, making it a supertrope of the other tropes mentioned above plus Latex Spacesuit and any other relevant sexy-tight-clothes tropes. This may make it too broad and general, or simply redundant.

4) There is probably another option that I'm not thinking of; suggestions?

edited 7th May '11 4:39:37 PM by JoieDeCombat

The trope as it's laid out is a perfectly fine trope "Stripperrific spandex (or spandex like clothing) worn for practical reasons such as ease of movement for sports, martial arts and such." none of those tropes in option two really cover this. It might be Fanservice but it's explained / reasonable Fanservice Example of a Fantastical Sport using the: Infinite Stratos (which I posted pics of in the image picking thread.)

The name is Horrible for it though.

Plug Suit s and such are fine too I think if they are used in the freedom of movement thing as well like G Gundam.

edited 7th May '11 5:14:22 PM by Raso

Sexy Sports Suit?

I've just realized I should probably have clarified: when I was reviewing the wicks, I counted competitive martial arts (tournaments, etc) as a sport, so wicks related to that went into the first category.

If that makes a difference to anyone.

edited 7th May '11 5:07:00 PM by JoieDeCombat

Option 2 could work.

Also, The suit should be chosen for practical reasons like not restricting movement, not getting snagged or being easy to grab in a fight, it might even enhance performance.

Any Fan Service provided can be intentional on the part of the author/designer but only a coincidence by the wearer, so a dancer dressing so intentionally shouldn't count.

Agree however if say the wearer wears it for one if those reasons as well as decides to show it off to whoever it should still count. Like a girl wearing spandex bike outfit to a race then decides to show it off in front of the Love Interest as an added bonus. (not a real example from a series)

Anyway @ the OP I could see a super trope / spandex index for all these tropes and just place the examples that don't fit any subtrope (this trope in question and the ones you listed in number 2) wearing spandex and not fitting those is pretty much only aimed at Spandex Fan Service. We don't have a Spats trope do we?

edited 7th May '11 6:17:07 PM by Raso

Wow, and here I thought this was about superheroes. Once again, it looks like a case of the "overly broad name for specific trope" type of problem (i.e. Snarky Nonhuman Sidekick). It should be renamed to something clearly about sports.

edited 7th May '11 8:05:36 PM by nrjxll

Leotard of Power appears to be the superhero version, but only if it's skimpy. There doesn't seem to be a general superheroes wear spandex trope.

Super Spandex?

Possibly worth YKTTWing

edited 7th May '11 8:51:23 PM by SakurazakiSetsuna

The superhero spandex trope is Superheroes Wear Tights. It's not limited to the sexy ones, however.

edited 7th May '11 8:54:43 PM by JoieDeCombat

I just made Superheroes Wear Tights.

I really think we should expand on it instead of narrowing it to only sports, there are lots of other situations where supertight suits are more functional but happen to be a source of Fan Service.

Plus all the other Clothing Fan Service tropes focus heavily on how sexy but impractical they are, this is the opposite.

Practical Spandex?

That would allow 400lbs men in bike shorts.

Imagery there, shima.... is a harsh mistress.

edited 8th May '11 12:29:34 PM by Raso

Copying over DQZ's wick check information from the other thread started at the same time as this one and locked as a duplicate.:

As for the wicks:

• Characters.Batman: Catwoman is Spy Catsuit and Superheroes Wear Tights, not this.
• Characters.Batman Beyond: Again, superheroes wear tights.
• Batman Beyond: Same character as above.
• Characters.Darkstalkers: That's just straight Leotard of Power.
• YMMV.Degrassi: Not worn for sports as far as I can tell.
• Doki Doki Majo Shinpan: Can't tell the context.
• Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons Of Liberty: That's more Painted-On Pants if anything.
• Characters.Metroid: The Zero suit isn't for sports (no, Super Smash Bros doesn't, or else Peach's Pimped-Out Dress would be for sports). There's a ykttw for futuristic spandex, by the way, which should cover this when launching.
• Characters.Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Trinity: Can't tell the context, although this might be Who Wears Short Shorts instead of this trope.
• Characters.Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: I know Heero's clothing isn't this trope.
• Characters.Tales Of Legendia: Unless she's a Captain Ersatz of Evel Kineval, her outfit is not this trope.
• Characters.Tenchi Muyo: Would be closest to superheroes wear tights.
• The Ultimate Fighter: Correct.
• Tron: Again, the future spandex in that upcoming ykttw.

edited 19th May '11 8:43:02 PM by Madrugada

This seems to indicate that something is badly wrong.

The page quote doesn't help either, being absolutely wrong about the trope as well.

Created a page action crowner Here.

I couldn't think of a few pros or cons, please add if you think of one.

edited 2nd Jun '11 3:44:55 PM by pokedude10

-bump-

It troubles me a little that the leading option in the crowner would effectively redefine "spandex" to mean "sexy-tight-clothes" of any sort.

Well that's kinda the point. Sexy tight-fitting clothing would become a Supertrope to other more specific Tropes. This would hold general examples that wouldn't fit into things like Spy Catsuit, and ones like that.

Currently we have a 4:0 lead for the above action. Should we keep this open for a while befoe we close it?

edited 4th Jun '11 3:22:26 PM by pokedude10

And Superheroes Wear Tights is a bit broad in what counts as well.

-bump-

Time to do something with this one.

Crowner has been stable at 4 -1 in favor of

"Expand the trope description to match what's indicated by the trope name: sexy spandex outfits on attractive people. Would also become a supertrope for any relevant sexy-tight-clothes tropes. "

for nearly two weeks.