Why are bows always defaulted to female characters?

Women being able to be more stealthy, probably. If anything women should use guns and men should use bows. Older bows require crazy strength to fully draw back.

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because women are always pulling at our heart strings

if you want an honest answer, it's because most fantasy media creators are unaware of the huge physical demands of pre-compound bows and it's a weapon that keeps women out of melee combat (which DOES obviously require huge physical strength)

also, bows have graceful curves and so do women, so it works aesthetically

They're not. A few male archers I can recall of the top of my head:
Raven from Tales of Vesperia
Hanzo in Overwatch
Link from LoZ uses a bow in (almost?) every game
A host of Fire Emblem characters like Wil or Innes

There's also the quintessential Robin Hood, Green Arrow, Hawkeye, and Legolas if you count them.

>>382606682
Since when?

Swords are phallic, bows aren't.

>>382607194
Link is a girl, though.

>>382610930
t. gay in denial

>>382611034
It was that old joke, i'm not really talking about gerudo link.

>be me
>used to bow hunt
>hunger games comes out
>huge influx of tumblrinas at the archery shop
>I stip going because I feel like a huge faggot
I should have gotten into black powder, but the shit is just as expensive

It's a classic meme, bows require agility or dexterity, it's the same kind of games that scale bow damage with those stats

>>382606682
It dates back all the way to classic mythology with the Amazons and Artemis, among others, which were themselves influenced by real-life practices in ancient Greece, among others. Men go off to hunt and go to war, leaving women behind. Women still need to be capable to defend their homes and hunt while the men are away, therefore they take up archery.

>>382606682
Aren't most of the bow users in Monster Hunter cutscenes male?

Its because women would get their asses kicked up close so they are better with a ranged weapon they can use.

>>382606682
women are more agile making stealth characters with bows reasonable.

>>382607181
Pretty much. It's an attempt at compromise between "we want strong women who can fight for various reasons" and the historical fact that pretty much any time women have taken a battlefield, that side has lost (though generally the women only went out to fight as a last-ditch because their side was losing anyway)

>>382606682
bard gear looks universally awesome in ff14

>>382606682
Because the devs don't realize that IRL bows are STR and swords are DEX.

>>382606682
Fire Emblem Echoes doesn't even let females class into any bow class

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>>382606682
>requires strength to string
>bows are dexterity

>>382606682

Women have never been good archers, Archers were always fucking big burly men with long bows.

REEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

fuck your short bow you little bitch

>>382614025
What is going on around his hairline?

>>382612582
Germanic barbarians used women and they were never conquered.

>>382614449
Badly blended makeup

>>382606682
Its an ancient meme that survives to this day, hunter goddesses are in a lot of cultures. My uneducated guess is women hunting small game was a common sight for early civilization, and despite anyone that would suggest every pre-compound bow is 100lbs+ draw weight they likely had a draw of 60lbs or 70lbs at most to kill small game.

tldr; its not a recent invention and its fucking ancient imagery not influenced much by today's narratives

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>video game realism

When you autists learn to let this go

If you got magic or tech in it, anyone should be able to do anything

>>382615030
What outfit?

>>382614025
It's a meme from D&D, but idiots don't realize D&D includes bows that are based on strength, both requiring a high strength to use and providing a bonus to damage based on strength. Dexterity is only for aiming, which is also true in real life.

>>382606682
The actual problem is that female arches should not be big breasted.

They should either be small-chested or have one of their breasts removed or bound, otherwise it would negatively effect their archery ability.

>>382614841
>they likely had a draw of 60lbs or 70lbs at most to kill small game.
More like 25-30 lbs draw weight. American Indian bows - used by males - that have survived in museums are almost all in this range. Heavier weight bows are for war where you're trying to kill armored enemy at hundreds of yards, and even a man can take many years of training to even pull one back. A 40lb bow with a simple broadhead will shoot clear through the body of a deer.