Art, arse and the sexualisation of Transformers

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 11:22 am

So I was helping make a short film recently - just a little zero-budget 10-minute ghost story featuring the girl from Human Centipede 2 and Spider from off of Coronation Street (amongst an all-star cast). Some of the filming was done in our guest bedroom - I lent the director my keys and they shot in there while I was at work, hobnobbing with Sir David Attenborough - and while they were there a couple of the crew (who hadn't been to my house before) went into my room for the now-traditional gawp at the Transformers on the shelves.

Our make-up girl is quite an uninhibited character, very much a free spirit, and she turned to the director and said, "You know what you should do with all those Transformers? You should do a shoot where there's a naked girl and she's covered in them." The next night, I was helping her carry her bags back to the bus stop and she told me the same story. She said that she wanted to be that naked girl and while the director was up for shooting her, they'd only do it if I came on board as an art director - to make sure that no harm came to the Transformers themselves.

Now I've always been against the sexualisation of Transformers themselves - chickbots with metal boobs really doesn't do anything for me - but the more I thought about this idea, the less I could find wrong with it. It's not sexualising the Transformers themselves, it's just placing the toys in a sexy context. And while Hasbro would most likely contest any use of the images in a commercial sense, I think that they would, in a very real sense, be art and that can't be a bad thing. As for the young lady in question, well, she often has to be persuaded to keep her clothes on. There's no question of explotation here as it was her idea in the first place. And when a lady like that offers to come round your house and take all her clothes off so that she can be covered in toys, well, I'd be a fool to say no, wouldn't I?

Basically, on Friday I'm shooting Transformers porn. Boo yah.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:24 pm

Metal Vendetta wrote:It's not sexualising the Transformers themselves, it's just placing the toys in a sexy context.

This. Well, my immediate instinct is this. It's certainly not engendering the objects.

Have fun. Bastard.

Anybody I know?

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:37 pm

Did you meet Ellie? Blonde, bit crazy, probably at least half naked?

Post by **Kaylee** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:37 pm

Speaking in my close, personal capacity as 'a guy you had a couple of drinks with about a decade ago', I feel it my moral duty to tell you: you may have a smidge too much time on your hands.

It's tough, but I can't shirk my ethical duties.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:42 pm

Karl wrote:You may have a smidge too much time on your hands.

Between working full-time, filming and building websites part-time, I'm lucky if I get a moment to paint my Blood Angels these days

Post by **Kaylee** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:49 pm

Metal Vendetta wrote:
Karl wrote:You may have a smidge too much time on your hands.
Between working full-time, filming and building websites part-time, I'm lucky if I get a moment to paint my Blood Angels these days

Outsource! I'll paint 'em. You like polka-dots, right?

Post by **snarl** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:52 pm

Who's going to be the first to make the Scattershot reference?

Post by **Kaylee** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 1:40 pm

See I'd have gone with 'Erector' or 'Wideload' myself: too obvious?

Post by **snarl** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 2:53 pm

I'm just rehashing somebody's observation that scatershot's alt mode resembles the shape of a cock.

But she might know the names.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 3:04 pm

Metal Vendetta wrote:Did you meet Ellie? Blonde, bit crazy, probably at least half naked?

Ah yes. Never met, but had her pointed out at the Houseparty 6 prem party. Well, I say "had her pointed out" but mean "couldn't really miss her."

Enjoy.

Bastard.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 3:28 pm

I don't have a Scattershot

Anyone wanna lend me one before Friday?

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 6:29 pm

Wideload on her arse!

Rack n ruin on her breasts

what a fun game....

Love the blood angles, the sanguinor is soo shiny cool!

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 7:31 pm

I heartily endorse this. Now to discuss the idea with Mrs. Bumblemus...

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:15 pm

Wow, crazy!

Yeah, so this is more in line with Suicide Girls/Geek Porn/Chicks with Bongs type stuff. Broadly, it lines up with the sexualization of niche subcultures (mirroring the sexualization of society overall).

When we get into geek porn, I think this also has to do with sort of a forced alignment of a new (and I say the next part carefully, knowing the audience as well as my self-implication, but I can't think of a better term) immature masculinity with sexuality. Like "Triumph of the Geek Culture" has gone beyond acceptance, beyond normativity, and into claiming geek culture and geek space as part of hegemonic masculinity and thus both desired and desirable by women.

And of course, there's the whole bio/mech thing there, with the boxy coldness of the Transformers playing against the curvacious warmth of the human figure.

So there's my "Wow, you're reading waaaaay too much into this" two cents. As long as she isn't using Omega Supreme's rocket as a dildo, it should be all good.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:23 pm

bumblemusprime wrote:I heartily endorse this. Now to discuss the idea with Mrs. Bumblemus...

That's the weird thing - I've had shelves full of light-piped eyes staring down at me for years and years now and not once has it crossed my mind to take them all down and tastefully arrange them on the missus. Not once. And now I'm all like, but it seems so obvious! T'choh!

impy wrote:Love the blood angles, the sanguinor is soo shiny cool!

Not got a Sanguinor yet - I'm going for a gritty down-to-earth feel with them at the moment, lots of pre-Heresy armour and stuff knocking around, got some really nice bits off of maxmini

Karl wrote:Outsource!

Haha, yeah been teasing my unemployed art-foundation student mate about this recently. £1 a marine sound fair?

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:50 pm

Shanti418 wrote:So there's my "Wow, you're reading waaaaay too much into this" two cents.

I think you've more or less hit the nail on the head - though I'd contest the word "forced" in this instance. Like my other friend who does a Darth Vader burlesque routine and played the dominatrix in our recent movie, it's the girls who are thinking up this stuff - they're only coming to us because we're the guys with the cameras.

Shanti418 wrote:As long as she isn't using Omega Supreme's rocket as a dildo, it should be all good.

I don't have an Omega Supreme

Anyone wanna lend me one before Friday?

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:15 pm

Metal Vendetta wrote:
Shanti418 wrote:So there's my "Wow, you're reading waaaaay too much into this" two cents.
I think you've more or less hit the nail on the head - though I'd contest the word "forced" in this instance. Like my other friend who does a Darth Vader burlesque routine and played the dominatrix in our recent movie, it's the girls who are thinking up this stuff - they're only coming to us because we're the guys with the cameras.

Yeah, I don't mean forced in the sense of non-consensual, I mean forced more in the sense of that "macho, violent, mechanical and working-class" masculinity is not giving up its monopoly on what girls really want in men (and this is all working on generalizations and stereotypes obviously - it's theory, so sue me), but that these new masculinities are taking it.

I wouldn't go so far as to put it all on female agency, either: we're all products of our culture on some level. And if we want to be Marxist about it, I'm sure the Darth Vadar routine draws more attention and dollars than your average one.

Seriously though, I don't want to spoil the moment of "random girl walks into your room and wants to be photographed naked with Transfromers" any more than I already have with my gobbeldy-gook.

saysadie · Post by **saysadie** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 11:48 pm

Metal Vendetta wrote:Haha, yeah been teasing my unemployed art-foundation student mate about this recently. £1 a marine sound fair?

People make money painting armies on the internet... I'd toyed with the idea in the past, but then I'd have to buy and paint an entire army. I couldn't even finish my Tyranids, after switching colour schemes about three times I ended up selling the bastards off (along with a healthy amount of Orks that the ex left behind, ha!).

I miss my Carnifexes. And I'm still toying with collecting Vampire Counts. I suck at the game, but the models were pretty pretty.

Have fun placing your toys on your friend's wimmen parts!

Post by **Kaylee** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 3:11 am

Haha, yeah been teasing my unemployed art-foundation student mate about this recently. £1 a marine sound fair?

Sounds most equitable. Course I'd undercut him - I'd do it for attention

Will we be able to see this magnum opus once it's completed?

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 10:28 am

Metal Vendetta wrote:That's the weird thing - I've had shelves full of light-piped eyes staring down at me for years and years now and not once has it crossed my mind to take them all down and tastefully arrange them on the missus. Not once. And now I'm all like, but it seems so obvious! T'choh!

Speaking of whom, how does the missus feel about your bedroom ornaments being in contact with another laydddeee's unmentionables?

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 8:35 am

Brendocon wrote:Speaking of whom, how does the missus feel about your bedroom ornaments being in contact with another laydddeee's unmentionables?

Well, she's picked out some nice bedsheets and asked if we're going to want dinner afterwards.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 9:11 am

Post by **Best First** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 11:34 am

This is all going to end in tears when she gets into your bedroom and you whip out your micromasters.

"No really, i call it Big Shot"

saysadie · Post by **saysadie** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 4:03 pm

Best First wrote:This is all going to end in tears when she gets into your bedroom and you whip out your micromasters.

"No really, i call it Big Shot"

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Sat Nov 19, 2011 2:24 pm

Well as it turned out I really, really regret not owning a Kup now. Because then we could have got the classic shot "2 girls, 1 Kup"...and another girl (partially) dressed as a Stormtrooper... Singularly the most surreal day I've had in ages. Turns out lots of models have boyfriends who like Star Wars and Transformers, so once word got around we were inundated with girls looking to make geek porn. And then two plumbers turned up to fix the dishwasher, it was like a Robin Asquith movie.

"No really, i call it Big Shot"

Erector was quite soundly mocked. Cybertron Defence Red Alert, on the other hand...

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Sat Nov 19, 2011 6:11 pm

I just had to Google that. Do you not have a Countdown amongst your Micromasters?

I'm stunned you don't have a Kup. Not even one a homage surrogate figure?

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Sun Nov 20, 2011 1:09 am

Metal Vendetta wrote:Well as it turned out I really, really regret not owning a Kup now. Because then we could have got the classic shot "2 girls, 1 Kup"...and another girl (partially) dressed as a Stormtrooper... Singularly the most surreal day I've had in ages. Turns out lots of models have boyfriends who like Star Wars and Transformers, so once word got around we were inundated with girls looking to make geek porn. And then two plumbers turned up to fix the dishwasher, it was like a Robin Asquith movie.

"No really, i call it Big Shot"
Erector was quite soundly mocked. Cybertron Defence Red Alert, on the other hand...

The plumber showed up?

Please, please tell me it went like this:

Plumber (with rakish grin, seen through mustache): I'm here to clean the pipes.

MV: Oh ****, I don't have Pipes. Can you wait here while I call Legion?

inflatable dalek · Post by **inflatable dalek** » Sun Nov 20, 2011 4:57 pm

Metal Vendetta wrote:and another girl (partially) dressed as a Stormtrooper...

I'm sorry, Transformers porn is cool, but Star War is where any sane person would draw the line. You should have demanded she remove the offending outfit immediately. Right before introducing the Beast Machines inspired part of the shoot and whipping your penis out whilst shouting "I AM TRANSFORMED".

More seriously, impressive work. But you realise you've now made something that Tramp will definitely masturbate over at some point in the near future? He can pretend the naked women have just given birth to all the Transformers toys...

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 11:23 pm

Obvious question, can we see the pron ?

saysadie · Post by **saysadie** » Tue Nov 22, 2011 7:57 am

I second the nekkid.

TransFans.co.uk

Art, arse and the sexualisation of Transformers

Re: Art, arse and the sexualisation of Transformers