Boobs Don't Work That Way

cathywhut asked: So I love your blog and I think it's great. It's fun reading the responses and seeing all these pictures of women and theyre strange breasts. But I want to know what your opinion is on drawings of women that are clearly unrealistic. Like the anatomy is cartoony and is supposed to be ridiculous (just look at some of my drawings/pinups) what do you think of those? In regular comics (like DC and Marvel) theyre going for realistic anatomy but what if it's just how that artist draws women?

That’s a great question! It’s actually something Satya and I have discussed before and something I’ve been trying to make a post about for a while now.

Often times we get submissions that I believe don’t really belong here because they are so stylized. Sometimes an artist who has a good handle on anatomy will purposefully play with it, exaggerating somethings to achieve an effect that they want. You can’t really criticize someone for not accurately depicting female anatomy when that’s not what they set out to do in the first place.

Satya however made a really great point. She mentioned that a lot of female body types are stylized for the sole purpose of sexualization, which over time becomes normalized and damaging.

What this means to me is this: Cheesecake for the sake of cheesecake is something I don’t have a problem with. You enjoy drawing and looking at pinup art? Cool! That’s all good (had a browse through your tumblr, and quite like your stuff actually). However if all the female characters in a story are drawn like pinup girls regardless of their character or function in a story, then the stylization becomes a real issue.

satyabear:

eschergirls:

I’ve been putting off writing this for a while because my personality is such that I get really scared people think I’m egotistical or that it’s really unfair for me to ask for stuff. :\

But basically I don’t really have a job anymore, and I’m having money issues because of it, so I’m just pointing out if you want to, and can afford it, and you like Escher Girls, that there’s a paypal donate button on the sidebar of Escher Girls, and I would really appreciate anything people could donate. :)

I’ve always had the donate button on the sidebar as a tip jar, but I never pointed it out because I don’t want people to think I expect to be paid for running EG or anything (obviously, I don’t), but just right now with everything going on w/ my life, I wanted to point it out just in case some people didn’t know, and that it would really help me out.

Thank you so much :)

Ami

I absolutely love Escher Girls guys, and if there’s anything you could do to help Ami out I’m sure it would be much appreciated!

-Satya

Anonymous asked: How is it slut-shaming to be pointing out that a female character is scantily-clad because her horny male creator drew her that way? Female characters are not real, they have no agency, and being dressed in a way to titillate guys removes the illusion that they can be real.

That’s a really good question, and to answer it I’m going to combine a couple things  I posted on my personal blog on response to that comic ( that I believe you are responding to.)

I  think there is a huge difference between a sexual woman. And a woman as a sexual object. 

Does this character enjoy expressing their own sexuality and makes their decisions based on their own desires? COOL!

Is this character more of a prop whose sexuality exists solely for the enjoyment of others (or the reader)? Icky.

For example:

This is a representation of a woman as a sexual being.

And this an example of a woman as a sexual object.

I do think that confusing the two could lead to slut shaming attitudes, but for the most part, you are right. Criticizing the way a creator chooses to a portray their female characters isn’t inhearntly slut shaming.

SUBMISSION: lilaxthegreat

This is from Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic. Apparently based off of the Old World or something, but apparently it’s ridiculously fanservicey as shown.

WELL that’s a 

thing

-Satya

Anonymous asked: I have to agree that women are often put into demeaning positions in the media - especially video games. However, in some situations, could the role of the female simply be the artist's vision? The main character (who is often the leader) can be male or female, and the side characters (often weaker, non-independent) can be male or female as well. I believe that 9/10 the artist doesn't have sexism in their mind while creating their art. Someone's gotta be the main - male or female.

I’m not quite sure what you mean about “the artist’s vision”? Of course it is, everything an artist produces is their “vision”… but maybe I’m misunderstanding you here.

I think people oftentimes forget that people, like… never have sexism “in their mind” when they’re producing a product. The whole point of sexism is that it’s subliminal. Similar conversations recently on FeministDisney about racism being subconscious: here and here. Issues like these are subconscious because they’re normalized- which is why we need to work extra hard to push back.

Also, just because a dude’s the main character doesn’t mean something’s sexist. Similarly, just because a woman is the main character doesn’t make something feminist. The issues are much greater than who’s the main character, as I hope this blog helps to point out.

Thanks for the ask!
-Satya