It's a "I don't care if they do, I don't care if they don't, it's just an observation" topic in my case. :P

: If they (designers;343 or venerance) make the female features more
: pronounced, someone is inevitably going to cry "objectification"
: at the size of hips or a breast plate that has features to make it obvious
: "boobs under here" .

And rightfully so.

: If they don't put in any distinguishable features then someone else
: inevitably cries "I can't tell that's a female" and goes off in
: the other direction.

That's a good thing, as demonstrated below, especially when creators out their support about gender neutral figures in armor. Luckily the only real criticism of Captain Phasma was because of her character's actions, or the lack thereof, and the perception that she had a greater role in The Force Awakens.

: Star Wars recently had to deal with this exact subject, and they handled it
: beautifully ;

: This is the only logical, acceptable solution.

: Halo needs to be more like this. You can't even tell if they are human (ie;
: bad cyborg!), much less gender.

: Faceless.

: Featureless.

: Armor is the great equalizer. (a particular reason why I love it for cosplay)

: It's a uniform. It makes everyone equal because it makes them look all the
: same. You can't tell what someone looks like underneath it.

: The only way you should be able to tell what sex a Spartan is, is when they
: talk, or remove their helmet. (Halo 3)

I pretty much agree on all counts. There will obviously be slight differences so long as you're depicting individuals with different bodytypes and not merely conceptualizing a basic look as is the case here or with multiplayer Spartans. I'm simply suggesting in broad terms that I can't imagine too much of an extraordinary difference between the physique of Spartans on account of gender and not because of individual characteristics, exercise, etc. Sprinters like Kelly are obviously going to have a different body type than someone like Maria, a brawler who wants to punch and kick everyone in the face. Similarly, not all male Spartans are going to look like Jorge or Sam.

Again, it's just a general observation and I'm not really commenting on Venerance's work.