Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26516813-20190711012913/@comment-43304259-20190729025250

Gilgameshkun:

I am aware of the issues of the designs which Venus had presented in her tenure during the Next Mutation run. As a reptile, she should be nearly indestinguishable from the males-- Jennika's mutation design does own up to that being a reptile but even Sophie Campbell has said that she would've liked to introduce Venus, but that the design would've required a massive overhaul, which to me in my opinion.... isn't really that big of a deal. Of course, we are talking about a franchise which deals with walking, talking, bipedal martial artist Turtles-- what's realistic about that in any capacity whatsoever?

Venus could be designed differently, albeit without the design she had in the Next Mutation. She doesn't necessarily have to be as big in terms of muscle size as the brothers are, but she could be more slender but still toned and very muscule. For example, look at cross-fit trainer and competitor Heba Ali, or Alyssa Loughran to get a rough idea. Feminine but strong. I've seen some fan art depicting Jennika as still androgynous looking but she wasn't big in muscle mass like the brothers. I saw this on Facebook and I figured that was a good compromise.

As for your... statement regarding Venus design being sexist... I'm sorry but I would have to respectfully disagree with that. The design was flawed and definitely poorly executed but I don't think it was a happenstance of sexism in mind but rather just plain flat out bad choices which weren't thought out very well. I don't think the team at Saban/Fox knew how to pull off the concept of a mutant female very well because no one saw what a mutant Turtle looked like... They tried and well... they failed. Considering her conception which was mandated by Saban/Fox, to where Eastman and Laird kind of had their hands tied to create a female Turtle otherwise the show wasn't gonna get greenlit, well... of course there were gonna be problems.

Venus De Milo was a bad idea...But she didn't have to be.