Amazona Gothique inspired mini by Kev White / Hasslefree

Willmark said:
Aquanet Pink and huge spiky heels, it was the 80s after all.
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Sure, it was the 80s, but I think there was something deeper behind that aesthetic. The Games Workshop studio was steeped in rock and punk culture at the time, with a genuine spirit of freedom and provocation.
And really, for a world of miniatures and role-playing games that you might imagine was populated by spotty teenage boys and bikini-clad warrior women, the place given to women was sometimes surprisingly progressive!

From Richard Halliwell's Amazons to Jes Goodwin's female Elven warriors and their place within Elven armies, and then, in the decades that followed, the Escher gangs of Necromunda, the Sisters of Battle and the Sisters of Sigmar, we see powerful, independent, rebellious women who answer to no one.

Of course, the stereotypes hadn't disappeared, but I think John Blanche's Amazonia Gothique already embodied that very punk attitude: "My body, my life, my choices, and fuck what anyone else thinks!"

Maybe those 80s punks were a little ahead of their time after all!
 
Dreadaxe said:
And really, for a world of miniatures and role-playing games that you might imagine was populated by spotty teenage boys and bikini-clad warrior women, the place given to women was sometimes surprisingly progressive!
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I was slightly thinking of similar juxtapositions just the other day in other media of the period. So it was interesting reading your post. I was watching Ralph Bakshi's Fire and Ice animated "barbarian" movie (1983), if you're familiar with the movie one critique is that Teegra the princess spends the entire film in the most miniature of miniature bikinis and a lot of the "cinematography" illustrates her, lets say from angles that well draw attention to her figure. Frazetta was certainly not one to shy away from the human form! However to counter that somewhat sexist aspect she most definitely is not some ditzy damsel in distress: escapes her captors several times, does a good bit of killing, saves the "hero", isn't stupid, etc, etc.

Anyhow I think your observation rings true.
 
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