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Female Skins vs. Male Skins - Thoughts

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ItsChris_'s Avatar ItsChris_
Level 32 : Artisan Skinner
49
 So I noticed a decent chunk of pop reel skins are female and how female Minecraft players (that I have met in-game) often have a great variety of skins, and little to seldom see females having the same skin. When with males -and correct me if I'm wrong or you disagree- have a somewhat decent percent of using skins used all the time, especially with younger audiences (I don't mean to offend, I'm just sharing my observations) that try to use skins that seem "badarse", that are neon or for an example, that good ol' "teen with plaid shirt" skin.
One reason I brought this up is because I observed that back when I played MC in the 1.7.9 update before quitting - I know, right? - ("Back in my day we didn't have Minecraft merchandise, you hooligans are lucky you were brought up with this life!"~Chris) when ever I participated in skin contests, most of the time the winner would either be a female with a cute unique skin or a male with the unshaded but all-to-common 'plaid shirt teen' skin or a 'neon hoodie w/ bandanna' skin. After noticing this is when I started noticing the previous thought, and whenever I see PMC posts, the female skins are always unique and have a lot more options on what you can add (hair, bow, ripped pants, eyes, color palette, boots, etc.) and with males your limited on what you can add. As with the female:male skin usage, I noticed - like I said before - that mal-
Okay sorry for stopping mid sentence but I realized I was about to repeat myself. So now that I ran out of thoughts, I want to hear your guy's opinion. I know I don't have a strong case, as I have seen males with custom shaded skins and females with unshaded skins commonly used, but the reason I'm using my dinner time for this and not eating (my stomach now has the rumbleys :c) to write this is to get the community's thoughts. So feel free to comment - no thought is a dumb thought - and I don't bite, I love nibble. <3

So now that this is over imma eat. Bai ~Chriz

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1
02/02/2017 6:22 pm
Level 8 : Apprentice Artist
Nman31
Nman31's Avatar
Yeah my skin I designed form the ground up but I realized it looks alot like alot of others DX
1
02/03/2017 3:13 pm
Level 32 : Artisan Skinner
ItsChris_
ItsChris_'s Avatar
Oh well. If you like it, that's all that matters. Plus, personality > looks. In my books, anyway. Sadly people are otherwise
1
02/02/2017 12:31 pm
Level 42 : Master Necromancer
candle_
candle_'s Avatar
tbh most of my personal skins I make for myself end up looking kinda like the teen girl skins everyone complains about

kinda fine with that since I just like using cute things that look vaguely similar to me (but with deer ears and a tail because i can be a kemonomimi if i want to askjdfjgj) as my skins. I prefer having a unique skin that's more personal.

Ultimately that's probably why they do so well. People USE them. They get a ton of downloads, people like making them, and people obviously enjoy using them. A lot of the more experimental skins just don't really get used much at all.
1
02/01/2017 3:11 pm
Level 15 : Journeyman Prince
Lay
Lay's Avatar
There's a strange difference between male and female skins you see ingame, yes. It is quite obvious why that is so, however.
Females on this website are actually quite uncreative when it comes to skins, because they usually all look the same, stockings, maybe some pigtails and other accessories that attain to feminine gender roles. It's very obvious that they are female skins, because of the color palettes and other visuals and aesthetics relating to feminine taste.
When you look at a male skinner's page though, it is most likely NOT filled with skins that are obviously males. The majority of male skinners (not all) don't focus on making attractive cute boy skins, they are quite varied and make skins that are actually androgynous. Goblins, trees, mythical creatures etc. along with characters from games and other franchises. This isn't to say that females don't create these kinds of skins either, it's just not common.
If some 9 year old boy wanted to impress all the pixel ladies, there would be less higher quality skins to choose from, because there are so few people who are focused on making human male skins,
As for the options with accessories like bows and other, this is because gender roles severely limit how a man can dress, while it does not affect women all that much. You'll see pretty often that a man will NOT be wearing some cute bow, while a woman on the other hand would be adorned with a flat cap more often, because it's more socially accepted.
1
02/02/2017 4:03 pm
Level 42 : Master Necromancer
candle_
candle_'s Avatar
I think putting things down to gender is pretty narrow-minded and borderline sexist. I'd say it has more to do with age and demographics in general than gender. Most, if not all older members don't create many/any of the cute girl skins, regardless of their gender. Ultimately, you'd need to do site surveys to truly understand the demographics, but it's pretty obvious the majority of the site is young. Naturally, a lot of them make skins people their age can use. There are also young people who are very, very upset about teen skins. The site also seems to be largely male, at least in the mainstream community. That's much more anecdotal, though, so don't take that too seriously. Basically, though, if there are less women, which seems likely, there are naturally going to be less female skin creators overall and thus less creators of "original" skins.

A lot of the creators of the skins that are often called generic girl skins create a variety of skins of both genders. They often break the gender standards you brought up; Oftentimes male skins will have a bow or some stockings or something along those lines. A significant portion of those skinners are male, too. Like I said, I think it's more to do with age and the wider demographics than just gender.

Personally I think there'd be far less of a divide between the skins if people stopped making it into such a big deal. When the other parts of the community are largely making fun of, demeaning, or generally being a bit of a jerk to people who make teen skins, I can clearly see not wanting any part in that elitist community. Why try to appease people like that? I'd rather just keep making what I was making, even if it wasn't going to appease a group of people who take the creation of pixel avatars very seriously.

I do have to agree on the gender roles, though. It's far less socially acceptable for men to wear feminine things in mainstream society than the opposite. There's just less options for people who want to conform to social norms. Like I said though, a decent chunk of those skinners I know of do make male skins that break gender standards.
1
02/03/2017 2:33 am
Level 15 : Journeyman Prince
Lay
Lay's Avatar
Thank you for sharing your points. :)
1
02/01/2017 4:40 pm
Level 32 : Artisan Skinner
ItsChris_
ItsChris_'s Avatar
Yeah I know thats why there is accessory gap, I was just saying. And you have some decent points too.
1
02/01/2017 8:12 am
Level 12 : Journeyman Miner
anonpmc786113
anonpmc786113's Avatar
[deleted]
1
01/31/2017 4:17 am
Level 27 : Expert Princess
[DevilScarlet]
[DevilScarlet]'s Avatar
You got a point here but that's just how it is in the gaming industry, not only for Minecraft. Female char always have more option when it comes to cosmetic things. But remember that games with female character as main protagonnist are fewers than for male char so I think it's a fair trade...
Finally, we can say everything we want but in real life too females will have more clothing choice.
1
01/31/2017 8:15 am
Level 32 : Artisan Skinner
ItsChris_
ItsChris_'s Avatar
Very True, actually. Now that you bring that up, Global Strike (a game I play) also has so many exclusive female characters. And it really is a fair trade. I mean the only game that I own that has a female protagonist is Alice In Wonderland, and it's forced to have a female protagonist because you know.... she's Alice xD. Thats 1 out of like 30 of the games I own (for Xbox 360), and I bet you the male ratio in the female:male would only get higher if I got more games. So yes, it really is a fair trade, good point.
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