magic-rhyme
04-10-2012, 04:34 PM
I get very tired of the unthinking bias against superhero tights shown by many players when they first decide to join a superhero campaign. If they are really that ignorant about superhero fiction as a thriving subgenre with its own legitimate history and its own logical bases for its tropes and traditions, why would they pretend to want to play in a superhero campaign?
The original superhero tights were worn in imitation of the professional athletes of the time. For example, in the first half of the 20th century, macho wrestlers wore tights and then shorts on the outside for modesty's sake (and to camoflauge from the public any protective gear they wore over their "unmentionables"). Superman's original tights and shorts was similar to that of professional athletes in part to demonstrate his raw virility and masculine prowess.
The shorts worn by wrestlers of the time were just like the shorts many modern men wear when jogging or working out at the gym. Deriding those shorts as "underwear" is juvenile; it's like mocking professional basketball uniforms and baseball uniforms as pajamas!
All people who outlaw tights in their superhero games might as well outlaw the shorts of professional bicyclists, the tight wetsuits of SCUBA divers, the outfits of professional wrestlers, of baseball players, of basketball players, of soccer players, of rugby players, of weightlifters, of bodybuilders, of fencers, and of Olympic level acrobats, as well as the speedos and bikinis of Olympic level divers. They might as well outlaw the tight pants and tight uniforms of many military branches throughout history and the tight outfits of many professional martial artists. Any other response would be hypocritical.
Some people will claim that superheroes are warriors not athletes, but as I have pointed out, tight outfits are also found in many militaries and many martial arts competitions. In fact, in many martial arts competitions, tights are considered preferrable to loose clothing because tights provide nothing for your opponent to grab.
I have yet to witness anyone win an Olympic medal wearing a trenchcoat, and I can recall no professional basketball or rugby team wearing denim trousers instead of shorts during a serious game. Anyone who thinks poorly of men who wear tight pants needs to attend a Marines training camp.
On a related subject, some people also mock capes, specifically because they might be grabbed. They forget one major real world truth: that most capes if worn in battle at all were designed to be immediately detachable. Someone who grabbed a person's cape didn't end up inconveniencing the former cape-wearer but instead ended up with a faceful of cape entangling himself or herself. The jokes about capes in The Incredibles were amusing, but they were based on a fundamental ignorance about the workings of capes that appeared on military uniforms. Such capes were always instantly detachable!
Historically, in Europe, the rare cape-wearer who did not put aside his (sometimes her) cape just before a sword duel was bragging to his opponent that he was so skilled that his opponent would never even get the chance to pull off his cape. Thus, an opponent who lost the duel but managed to yank off the cape managed to attain coup against the cape-wearer.
The major reason The Batman wears a cape is that it looks cool, of course, and the major reason Superman wears a cape is that it reminds us that he is something of a modern paladin, but another early reason they wore capes was to show that they were so awesome they could get away with it.
Obviously, if the game is not a superhero campaign but instead a military bughunt campaign with superpowered PCs or a campaign about a biker gang with superpowers fighting an evil cyberpunk empire, to list only two possible examples, none of the above necessarily applies.
Additionally, some of the grittier superhero comic books have turned away from capes and tights as a statement against idealism -- but they have done so to make a statement, not as a thoughtless reaction against something they failed to understand. Again, in those cases, the above does not apply. Yet on the other hand, the classic gritty superhero has been The Batman, who has yet to abandon his cape and who could probably clean Rorschach's anti-cape clock without sweating.
Whenever I meet a potential superhero player who mouths this kind of anti-tights, anti-cape inanity, I find it hard to imagine that player could be anything better than a disruption in any authentic superhero campaign. Does this person really know anything about superheroes at all?
Sometimes such players simply don't know any better (I've met players who think Wolverine was created before Superman!), but more often, this is a player who has absolutely no interest in superheroes but only wants to hack and slash in a modern city. (Often, the same player also scoffs at capes on superheroes -- but loves the cape on his D&D or WoW character!) This is great for a superpowered hack'n'slash campaign, but what about those of us who want to game actual superheroes?
The original superhero tights were worn in imitation of the professional athletes of the time. For example, in the first half of the 20th century, macho wrestlers wore tights and then shorts on the outside for modesty's sake (and to camoflauge from the public any protective gear they wore over their "unmentionables"). Superman's original tights and shorts was similar to that of professional athletes in part to demonstrate his raw virility and masculine prowess.
The shorts worn by wrestlers of the time were just like the shorts many modern men wear when jogging or working out at the gym. Deriding those shorts as "underwear" is juvenile; it's like mocking professional basketball uniforms and baseball uniforms as pajamas!
All people who outlaw tights in their superhero games might as well outlaw the shorts of professional bicyclists, the tight wetsuits of SCUBA divers, the outfits of professional wrestlers, of baseball players, of basketball players, of soccer players, of rugby players, of weightlifters, of bodybuilders, of fencers, and of Olympic level acrobats, as well as the speedos and bikinis of Olympic level divers. They might as well outlaw the tight pants and tight uniforms of many military branches throughout history and the tight outfits of many professional martial artists. Any other response would be hypocritical.
Some people will claim that superheroes are warriors not athletes, but as I have pointed out, tight outfits are also found in many militaries and many martial arts competitions. In fact, in many martial arts competitions, tights are considered preferrable to loose clothing because tights provide nothing for your opponent to grab.
I have yet to witness anyone win an Olympic medal wearing a trenchcoat, and I can recall no professional basketball or rugby team wearing denim trousers instead of shorts during a serious game. Anyone who thinks poorly of men who wear tight pants needs to attend a Marines training camp.
On a related subject, some people also mock capes, specifically because they might be grabbed. They forget one major real world truth: that most capes if worn in battle at all were designed to be immediately detachable. Someone who grabbed a person's cape didn't end up inconveniencing the former cape-wearer but instead ended up with a faceful of cape entangling himself or herself. The jokes about capes in The Incredibles were amusing, but they were based on a fundamental ignorance about the workings of capes that appeared on military uniforms. Such capes were always instantly detachable!
Historically, in Europe, the rare cape-wearer who did not put aside his (sometimes her) cape just before a sword duel was bragging to his opponent that he was so skilled that his opponent would never even get the chance to pull off his cape. Thus, an opponent who lost the duel but managed to yank off the cape managed to attain coup against the cape-wearer.
The major reason The Batman wears a cape is that it looks cool, of course, and the major reason Superman wears a cape is that it reminds us that he is something of a modern paladin, but another early reason they wore capes was to show that they were so awesome they could get away with it.
Obviously, if the game is not a superhero campaign but instead a military bughunt campaign with superpowered PCs or a campaign about a biker gang with superpowers fighting an evil cyberpunk empire, to list only two possible examples, none of the above necessarily applies.
Additionally, some of the grittier superhero comic books have turned away from capes and tights as a statement against idealism -- but they have done so to make a statement, not as a thoughtless reaction against something they failed to understand. Again, in those cases, the above does not apply. Yet on the other hand, the classic gritty superhero has been The Batman, who has yet to abandon his cape and who could probably clean Rorschach's anti-cape clock without sweating.
Whenever I meet a potential superhero player who mouths this kind of anti-tights, anti-cape inanity, I find it hard to imagine that player could be anything better than a disruption in any authentic superhero campaign. Does this person really know anything about superheroes at all?
Sometimes such players simply don't know any better (I've met players who think Wolverine was created before Superman!), but more often, this is a player who has absolutely no interest in superheroes but only wants to hack and slash in a modern city. (Often, the same player also scoffs at capes on superheroes -- but loves the cape on his D&D or WoW character!) This is great for a superpowered hack'n'slash campaign, but what about those of us who want to game actual superheroes?