[HOE] Urban Renewal Cover

["Ashley Smith" <ratqueen13@hotmail.com>]

Okay, you've touched on a subject that's fairly dear to me, so I'll throw my 
hat in the ring.

First:

The Urban Renewal cover does not offend me.  Taking offense at something 
means that it disturbs me greatly, that a number of people are being 
affected by its continued existence and I can find no excuse for it to be 
occurring.  You know, like genocide, racism and the continued publication of 
Family Circus in the newspaper.  Honestly, I don't feel that the presence of 
a mostly-naked woman on my gamebook warrants any anger.  It's just not 
important enough and I feel my energy is best directed towards other avenues

However:

The cover does disappoint me.  Throughout all of Pinnacle's books, the women 
in the artwork are competent and beautiful without being unrealistically 
proportioned.  They're wearing clothes suitable to their occupations.  There 
are a few exceptions, like the cowgirl in the main rulebook of Deadlands, 
who's wearing a short vest without a shirt (sunburn much?), but that doesn't 
bother me.  That's not the majority of the art.   I feel like Pinnacle took 
some care to choose their art and their presentation of women, which I find 
applaudable in a field that is demographically dominated and thus, mostly 
marketed to men.
That's why the appearance of a woman wearing nothing more than her holster 
and the shreds of a shirt (?) was a surprise on a Pinnacle product.

I think that deserves a qualifier.  I am only a lowly player; I haven't read 
the adventure.  But from what I gather from the previous posts, the scene 
depicted on the cover does not appear in the adventure, nor does it have any 
bearing on the plot.  I have noted the possibility that Allan brings up, 
about a mistake in the commission of artwork.  If this is true, okay, 
mistakes happen.  No big deal. If the adventure gives the posse the 
opportunity to find and rescue a woman who is naked for some reason, okay.  
Leave the cover as is - it has a purpose, or at least a justification. 
However, if the cover doesn't reflect the story, then why is she naked?  
What element in that picture states that she can't have any clothes?  See 
what I'm getting at?  The nudity is unnecessary.  There is no reason for her 
to be drawn naked, so the only thing I can conclude is that the flesh is 
there just to give someone a sexual thrill.  And that's not what I like to 
see on the cover of my gamebooks.

Why does unnecessary nudity bother me?  Oh boy, there's a dissertation in 
the making...
Most of you are smart, aware people so you've probably heard all this before 
(possibly ad nauseum).  Please don't think I'm taking a condescending tone 
or address you as if you're mouth-breathing Neanderthals - you're not.  I'm 
trying to keep this as simple as I can, because entire books and degrees 
have been devoted to this discussion and I don't want to get bogged down.  
I'm going to use some generalizations for brevity's sake; I realize there 
are always exceptions.  Okay, caveat over.

I'm 27 years old.  I've been overweight to varying degrees all my life.  
I've never been obese, but I'm not Kate Moss, either.  Some people have 
found me cute, some have found me hideous, but no one has ever NOT had an 
opinion on my looks.  Many times, people have felt compelled to offer their 
opinion, invited or not.  Every stage of my life, every accomplishment I 
have made is also qualified by my appearance, as in, "That's great Ashley 
got her degree.  Now if she could just work on that little weight 
problem..."   I'm not joking.  This has been said to my face, to my parents 
and my fiancé.  This is the way most women grow up.  No matter what we do, 
it's too bad we're not prettier, or it's wonderful that we're so pretty as 
well.  With people calling this much attention to our looks, is it any 
wonder we get so neurotic about them?

Then there's movies and television populated with thin, beautiful women 
whose looks are dissected and analyzed by magazines labeled "for women."  
Beauty is only skin deep, they say, but have you seen the condition of your 
skin, dear?  We are told that as long as we are beautiful, we are important. 
  If we're not sexy, we're not worth mentioning.  Moving on to 
role-playing...

Game books have traditionally been populated with fantasy equivalents of the 
women in magazines and movies.  Comics center around women with waists the 
size of my ankle and breasts that would rest on my keyboard even if I held 
it arms' reach.  And somehow, they all manage to wear clothes of little more 
than bandaids and dental floss.  So once again, I am confronted with the 
idea that I have to be beautiful to be a badass.  And it's even better if I 
take off most of my clothes.  This was reinforced by the guys I played with 
(not my current posse - you guys are wonderful) who couldn't seem to look 
any higher than my sternum as I described what my character was doing.  Or 
would say, "Wadda ya mean your character doesn't have big boobs?"  I mean, 
hey, if I'M not pretty, at least my characters should be, right?

My point (and I do have one) is that over the past few years, it looked as 
if some games and some gamers were moving away from that idea.  Part of it 
was that we grew up, but I think part of it was because companies, like 
Pinnacle, were seeing more women in the hobby and having more female input 
in the games they produced.  The chainmail bikini is still alive, but it 
isn't the uniform anymore.

So the unexpected appearance of the naked-and-helpless woman on UR's cover 
came as a surprise and, to me, a bit of a throwback.

Does this mean it's a bad adventure?  No.  Judging from the comments I heard 
my Marshall making as he skimmed it, it's going to be more fun than watching 
a bug zapper.  For those of you who've never had this pleasure, you should 
give it a try.  It's a hoot.

Would I refuse to buy the adventure because of the cover?  No, I like 
playing HoE.  I want to play this module.  The cover is not as important as 
my entertainment

Is Pinnacle showing its sexist roots?  Oh, please.  I personally think that 
the women in HoE and Deadlands are stronger and have more power than they 
would if the bombs actually dropped in this world.  To accuse Pinnacle of 
being sexist is to ignore a huge amount of evidence to the contrary - the 
artwork, the use of "her", and the prevalence of strong women.  I haven't 
met Michelle Hensley, but from conjecture, I suspect she would have some 
pretty choice words if it were otherwise.

To sum up, yes, scantily clad and helpless women have been a staple of 
role-playing and fantasy literature and art from the beginning.  It was nice 
to see a game that drew women with their clothes on and capable of kicking 
the crap out of someone who deserved it.  The cover of Urban Renewal went 
back to the old naked-and-helpless schtick for no discernable reason and I 
don't think it enhances or contributes to the game one bit.

I know this will generate some (okay, a lot) a disagreements, but I'd like 
to keep this as mature and rational as possible.  In other words: don't 
flame me.  It does nothing to further the discussion.  Feel free to send 
responses to my personal address if you'd like.

Still wearing my clothes,
Ashley

"It takes thousands of nuts to hold a car together.
But only one behind the wheel to scatter it across the highway."
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