Unclear Description: Chainmail Bikini

It seems to be used for two different things:

"In general, in fantasy, women tend to wear skimpier armor than their male counterparts."

and simply

"Skimpy armor."

I support getting rid of the former definition, since the latter is enough for its own trope, and it isn't really worth splitting.

Also, this trope gets treated as if it is Always Female, even though it's not categorized (or really used, for that matter) as such. What do you guys think?

edited 14th May '12 8:28:26 AM by TropeEater

The definition is actually "Skimpy female armour, normally skimpier than male counterparts if they exist."

Does this include form fitting chest plates?

If they cover less than what they're actually supposed to protect. In games, they tend to actually be equal in practice, or even better, than the fully covering ones. In non-gaming media, they just tend to look like they wouldn't do the job they're meant to.

Form fitting breast plates in general are impractically sexy which is part of what this trope covers.

Good point. As someone pointed out in a discussion elsewhere on the internet: if you're in melée combat with swords, you do not want two conical projections on your breastplate that will direct incoming blows straight to the middle of your chest.

It's not quite as dumb as female fighters wearing what looks like swimwear made out of metal, but I believe it still falls under Rule of Sexy (i.e. sexiness trumps practicality).

edited 15th May '12 1:04:00 AM by DoktorvonEurotrash

As pointed out lucidly on fantasy armor and lady bits, the problem is not that skimpy armor is impractical; that can be taken as part of the fantasy aspect. (Ask yourselves: in Warcraft, how useful would full plate be against mages throwing fireballs or the seemingly fast-firing guns?) The problem is that:

a) Leaving large areas of the body naked whilst others are covered in metal plating looks wrong, without needing any knowledge or experience of actual fighting.

b) If men and women are fighting the same battles with the same rules, they need similar cover, armor that looks as if it was made to the same specifications.

I could also add that:

c) Unlike, say, Conan's loincloth, the basic bikini (covering the nipples and genitals) is a modern invention. Plenty of times in history women's clothes left their breasts exposed. Being form-fitting was rare for normal clothes and impossible with armor.

So I suggest we define the trope as: armor where Rule of Sexy is obviously overriding other concerns. So it does not cover exposed heads (which is its own trope), breastplates that leave the breasts evident (as long as they do not dominate the shape), partial armor cover if the rest of the body is clothed normally, or, say, thin strips of flesh showing between joints. Those have holes from a realistic, historical point of view, but may have other storytelling reasons (the obvious one being making women look distinct).

I would also say that bikini-shaped armor might even be a Sub-Trope.

Another problem: How does this relate to Thong of Shielding? It feels like Thong of Shielding is being interpreted as "skimpy thong armor" under the assumption that Chainmail Bikini was simply (and literally) just "skimpy bikini armor."

But that's not the case. So doesn't that make Thong of Shielding redundant?

EDIT: Wait, is Thong of Shielding not meant to be specific to armor? Its description implies it isn't, but its examples (while not exclusive) are heavily tilted towards females with metal thong armor, especially in the videogame section. Perhaps it should be looked at for broader misuse?

The point of that trope is that as long as there's a hint of cloth you can show as much ass as you want. More of a censor shield than damage shield. Examples referring to the protective quality of armour should probably be reworded, but the examples aren't likely to be wrong themselves, since the trope is broader than just that.

They're heavily tilted that way because for some reason it's much rarer for a character to run around in just a thong outside of fantasy armour. It's basically a trope that's auto-tilted by how it's used.

I agree, although I think it's also quite common with modern swimsuits, particularly in fanservice-heavy works.

Eh, even on swimsuits, actual thongs are very rare in media. The beach is a different issue, but even in fanservice works they tend to give a little more than a thong.

If you really want impractical armor for ladies, then put them in man-shaped armor:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2012/0531/Body-armor-for-women-Pentagon-is-pushed-to-find-something-that-fits

Modern armour doesn't have the same fit as medieval plate armour, though.

I think this should be about fanservice armor being treated as plausible and correct, ignoring the fact that it leaves parts of the body exposed. It's quite simple.

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