mathman opened this issue on Dec 09, 2005 ยท 36 posts
XENOPHONZ posted Sat, 10 December 2005 at 1:54 PM
The thing that REALLY puzzles me is why none of the male characters has ever REALLY taken off the way V3 did. NOT even the Daz males. It can't be because the Poser users are all male. I KNOW we're a lot of female users too. And I assume that most of us are heterosexual females to boot. So WHY on God's Green Earth do we not render more MEN?!
It's for the same reason that most women's magazines feature cover photographs of beautiful young.....women. Not men (19 times out of 20). Sure, you can point to a few exceptions to that general rule -- but for the vast majority of women's magazines.....it's attractive young women on the cover.
Likewise, men's magazines also feature attractive young women on the cover. Even a men's magazine that has a central theme of subjects like cars or motorcycles still tends to grace the cover with a woman.
Why? Because the publishing industry knows what people will buy. And so they give it to them. Women aren't as sight-oriented as men are. They simply aren't. But with men: what they see can be very powerful. Sure, it happens to women, too.....but not in the same way.
A guy can be terribly turned on by a picture on a page. Most women cannot. Once again, there are exceptions to the rule. But 99 times out of 100........
Here's another deep, dark secret: women are different from men. From birth. Regardless of 60's-style feminist dogma to the contrary.
It's not the mystery that some want to make it out to be. The underlying reasons are actually quite simple and straightforward.
The message to the woman: "Want to attract men? Want to be the Belle of the Ball? Want to look like this babe? Then buy this magazine!"
The message to the man: "Want to have this babe? Then buy this magazine!"
I suspect it's also a reflection of our culture. It's certainly not hard-wired into our brains, because in times past, men spent as much time and money on clothing and hair and shoes as women. (Not to mention padding their calves and codpieces. ;-)
You are reffering to high-born dandies and fops. Not the average representative man of those eras. Being called a "fop" was not a compliment.
Nowadays, some men fill their closets with $1500 suits, or other types of fancy clothes. shrug When you are talking averages, men's clothing stores don't do anywhere near the business that women's clothing stores do. The figures aren't even close. What's more: it was ever thus.
As for EJ...the "Poser users are male and vote with their hormones" argument really doesn't apply, because if anything, she looks even more like a supermodel than V3. And "corporate support" doesn't apply, either, because Jessi and Judy had corporate support, to little avail.
EJ is cute.....but she's not as realistic as V3. And that makes a difference. I know women that look like V3 in her various incarnations. By contrast, EJ carries a hint of being a 'toon figure. That appeals to some. But not to many others.
As for Jessi and Judy and corporate money.....see my post #17 above.
No amount of corporate money will make up for a model that doesn't fit into the strictures of what we could call the "V3 template".
As I've already stated: the Victoria line also has the huge advantage of being the first such models to appear on the scene. As a result of being first, Victoria has built up a gigantic following -- in what is actually a small market. For this reason, any competing figure will have a hard row to hoe playing catch-up. And that makes it tough to do.
But without FIRST fitting into the (loudly despised by some) "V3 template" -- any new figure has virtually no chance at all. Except as a niche figure. Being a niche figure isn't necessarily a bad thing. We have a need for niche figures in order to complete many Poser scenes -- just like the movies require character actors to move a story's plot along.
But even the best niche figures will never be the big star in terms of overall sales. Victoria (and possible future clones like her) will be.
Rationalize it/debate it/argue with it/rage against the unfairness of it/attempt to explain it away........all that anyone likes. Human nature will tell in the end. The relative sales averages aren't ever going to budge much from what they are right now. No matter how much anyone wishes that they would.
I have to say I'm incredibly curious about this too. Especially when the things that inspire me like comic books and cop and sci fi shows are mainly run with male characters. When I do an action or cop scene, almost always it's with a male figure. It's kind of odd that the poser community runs in the opposite direction of Hollywood yet many of the same influences appear in the art just substituting a male with a female figure.
If I am building an action-adventure type scene, then I'll normally use a male figure. But even then -- I tend to dress Michael in much the same way that I would dress myself. Which is always without fashion overkill. Neat is good. But only to a point.
I couldn't care less what Tom Cruise (nutcase) is wearing on the screen. But Keira Knightley.....that's a different matter altogether.