Female Representation: Concerns with the Necromunda Escher models

The new Escher models largely maintain the classic look of the Escher gang from the original Necromunda: sports bras, spiked leggings, and crazy hair.

It is no secret that Games Workshop does not produce many female miniatures. Recently, that has started to change with the release of the Sisters of Silence and Inquisitor Greyfax. While the inclusion of female models is a good thing, virtually all of these female models ascribe to the same questionable imagery: lithe and voluptuous characters in form-fitting battle armor that always accentuates their breasts. This imagery does not send the message that women are welcome in the Warhammer community. The newest collection of female miniatures to be released by Games Workshop is the the Escher gang from the re-release of the fan-favorite game, Necromunda. I had high hopes for this release, and am disappointed to report that Games Workshop has not used the release as an opportunity to present women in a less objectifying light. Read onward if you want to hear more about my concerns about this release.

Female representation in wargaming

When properly armored, you should not be able to tell whether a model is male or female.

Our post about sexism in Kingdom Death prompted a reasonable amount of discussion, and made us realize that there was more that could be said about how women are represented in miniature gaming. When seeing a game which objectifies women as much as Kingdom Death does, it is easy to look at other games which don’t portray women as egregiously, and give them a pass. In reality, all of the popular miniature companies today have issues with female representation.

Kingdom Death multi-part kits: their place alongside the other KD models and miniature gaming as a whole

In addition to creating the single-pose starting survivors and the monsters for them to battle, one of the main drives of the Kingdom Death Kickstarter was to design multi-part plastic kits for creating new survivor models. After defeating each of the different monsters in the game, your survivors are able to craft new weapons and equipment with the remains of their slain foes. To represent this in model form, they created a range of different multi-part sets with different weapon options and armor types that could be crafted in the game (Rawhide armor, Leather armor, Lantern armor, White Lion armor, Phoenix armor, Unarmored). This system was designed to allow players to continually build new models of their survivors as they progress in the campaign.