This is a long reply I made to an article with a load of people complaining about Power Girl and her costume's "boob window".
I figured I'd just repost it here rather than lose it to the wilds of the internet.
Also, the original had a lot of weird spelling errors due to my PC freaking out at the time and editing posts not being allowed. That shit drives me nuts, so I'm fixin' it all here.
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See, I get the complaint, but I don't really have a problem with the Power Girl costume itself, only the more exaggerated version of it.
I think when it's at it's more modest levels it's actually great. In fact, she's pretty much the ONLY hero I can think of that wears a white costume and actually looks great in it.
It's when it gets to be this HUGE window that it actually becomes a problem.
People complain about female fantasy armor not being protective all the time, and I agree, that is REALLY logically stupid and shouldn't happen for the most part.
The exceptions being if it were maybe an agile rogueish/ninja character for whom armor is of less importance than mobility, and it's essentially just "armor wherever it won't get in the way.
But none of that applies here.
People actually COMPLAIN about Superman's New 52 armored look (which actually looks much better, minus needing some yellow for balance added to the belt region) because Superman doesn't need armor. No armor Superman is going to find is going to be more durable than Superman himself.
The exact same is true of Power Girl, who is an alternate reality version of Super Girl. Supergirl, according to DC, may actually be MORE powerful than Superman, and Power Girl (as a fully adult version of Supergirl) may be even more powerful still.
NONE of these people need costumes for protection. Logically and pragmatically speaking, wearing the minimal clothing they can get away with makes a lot of sense, since, to them, it can LITERALLY only get in the way.
Obviously, it falls apart a little with "why do they wear capes?" (which I think is just their family tradition "because Superman does it", and Superman's cape is the baby blanket he was sent to Earth from Krypton in - so it's his symbol), and the boob window really serves no functional purpose, aside from making it look less just...solid white.
Would anyone care if this was She-Hulk's costume? She-Hulk is similarly strong and indestructible, but She-Hulk is a rather overtly sexual character. She'll use her sexuality as a weapon if it serves her, and a costume similar to Power Girl's would probably be right up her ally (and indeed not that different from what she already wears).
People seem to have no problem with She-Hulk. Would a "boob window", which kinda makes sense for her personality, suddenly make the difference? Is it somehow because her legs are green instead of just regular white skin color?
What about Black Cat? She, like She-Hulk, is absolutely willing to use her sexuality as a weapon. In fact, in a modesty competition, I think Power Girl's outfit might win.
No one has a problem with Black Cat.
If she was wearing Power Girl's outfit, aside from the issue of it obviously NOT being black, would that be a problem all of a sudden?
Is the real problem here that Power Girl is part of the Superman family, and not overtly sexual as a character?
Is the problem that a "boob window" is just an unorthodox form of showing cleavage, rather than a looooow cut thing starting at the neck, which we're just more used to?
Or is it that it bypasses all that upper chest and neck area to reveal only the actual space between her boobs?
There are a lot of really strange, fuzzy logics and lines of acceptability at work in complaining about Power Girl's outfit.
I'm not clear on what they all are.
And I bet just by mentioning She-Hulk and Black Cat, and saying no one has an issue with them, a load of people who are well aware of those characters and their costumes are going to suddenly feel compelled to say they're just as bad, when they never would have before. And I hope they don't, because that will be disingenuous and only obfuscate our ability to dissect this matter and figure out specifically what it is about Power Girl's costume that draws this ire.
Mind you, I'm well aware of the in-universe reasons given for the "boob window", and I agree they're stupid. But I also don't think it even needs an explanation. Cleavage is totally standard as just a normal element of fashion and, to me, that's enough.
As said, I have no problem with the "boob window" itself, only when it gets exaggerated to stupid-huge, impractical sizes.
I totally back Wonder Woman's "woman shouldn't be compelled to hide their femininity, and they should be allowed to wear whatever the hell they want" idea. An idea which feminists once championed, and a reason they once praised Wonder Woman and her outfit.
This whole debate is very weird to me.