Less Tits n' Ass, More Kickin' Ass

I think the best way to reply to this is the phrase I used before: Sexualisation is adding sexual content without sexual context. Also, sexiness is about the person himself or herself (or whichever gender identity applies to them) feeling like they are appealing, being happy with the way they feel, and that confidence is thus sensed, perceived or otherwise noticed by the viewer (in the drawing/photo and out of it) who can interpret it as “this person/character is sexy”. 

Therefore, pinups can be sexy, if the character drawn in the pinup is designed as acting like they’re aware and happy of the effect they have on themselves, and secondarily on their audience. This is what I mean by story. If you look at the picture of Wolverine and Jungle Girl (or whoever she is), the story the picture tells you is that Wolverine is grinning like he’s a psychopath about to slice and dice someone, and the girl is posed as if she’s trying to seduce someone who’s off camera. I’m not seeing a team-up here. I’m seeing passive poses, eager-to-hack-and-slash Wolverine standing next to eye candy I can’t take seriously as a person, and I have no interest in learning more about her, or about what Wolverine is doing in that jungle in the first place. This is bad storytelling, when comics are about telling stories with pictures. 

Porn, Playboy photos and pinups ARE sexual context by nature. They are designed to titillate, to excite, and the participants are willing. Yes, some art is tasteless, some drawings are bad, some photos are awful, but it doesn’t change the fact that the context is there. If the content of the photo showed a woman in only an apron in the kitchen making googoo eyes at her man/the camera while baking a pie, I might call it sexist, but not sexualised, because she’s doing the sexy thing on purpose and within a sexual context. 

Hope that clears it up!

maverynthia:

lesstitsnass:

Hi guys, I missed you and I missed doing this! 

I got this question sometime last week, and I had to mull it over for a while because whether it’s intended or not, this is a loaded question, and I had a hard time finding the words to properly respond. Then, I got somewhat caught up on Laci Green’svideosandtumblr, and that’s when it hit me: how to answer this question. 

Your question confuses Sexism, Sexiness and Sexualisation.While related because they are all questions about sex and society, they are not the same thing. 

[snip]

 Drawing a woman with sexy clothing is not sexist if you’re doing it because that’s the way your character is - her personality, her motivation, her story.

That’s loaded right there because MANY.. MANY artist use that as an excuse to support their sexist artwork “Well that’s just how the character is!!” The author/artist is behind the characters motivations and the character only does what the author/artist wants them to do. The character has no free will. It’s the author’s/artists personality for her, the author/artists motivations for her and the story set out by the author/artist. The character is not alive and has no free will.
So saying “Well that just the character!” Won’t hold water with me and I’ll still call it misogynistic crap. It’s better to own up to it and try to explain WHY you need a sexy character than to just think the character is some how alive and decided all that stuff themselves.

I think you missed my point. 

I know very well that the character is a creation of the author and/or artist. When I talk about the character this way, I’m appealing to the writers and artists to think about their character and tell the story about them, in words and/or art. I’m not giving them a free pass to draw misogynistic crap. If it’s misogynistic, sure, call them out. Don’t assume however that every sexy drawing out there needs to have a Big Reason To Exist As They Are. Sometimes it’s just fun to draw a sexy character, because it makes ME, the artist, feel sexy doing it, even if no one can see me. And I put that sexiness in the character through intent, attitude and body language, not just with clothes or pose-that-shows-the-most.

Hello there! I hope you will accept this post. It’s not my best work - I didn’t spend enough time with it as I should’ve have. Long story short: the outfits on the original picture were simply ridiculous (see here), I had to re-do them! Yes, “Freesia“‘s anatomy is doomed but it would take a complete re-draw to fix, and I was mainly focused on the outfits here. (But I did fix Uni’s and Socie’s waists - not Harmonys’ because I was lazy and I can just pretend that obi is extremely tight.)

I don’t believe you have to cover up absolutely everything to make a outfit seem okay - but dressing them like that… it’s just no. Their outfits doesn’t tell me anything. Nothing but FANSERVICE all over the place. Nothing about the story or their characters - just - HEY, boobs, butts, legs and crotches! I mean god damn - what was that material out of? And why wouldn’t they wear underwear - really? And BUTT CLEAVAGE? Again - I personally don’t mind when they show some skin - just… don’t make it ridiculous. Just don’t.

I also have nothing against shorts - although they were extremely tiny on Freesia - but I found it annoying that all three girls had thigh-high socks.

But yeah. I hope you like it! 

My Tumblr

I do! 

Sorry I didn’t get to post this earlier. You did a really good job here and I should have posted this way before but I got so completely trampled with life and storyboards… anyway. 

Your costume redesigns have turned these girls from sexualised back into sexy (except for that last contortionist pose, no amount of fixed clothing will save that pose from sexualisation) because they now look like they’re wearing actual clothes instead of carefully applied tape (heck, that first one should have areola showing) and carefully applied tape like this is usually a design created to make men horny, not for women to feel sexy. 

(That said, I’ve seen some seriously sexy and well-owned “carefully applied tape” cosplay and burlesque, and wow. What a difference attitude makes.)

Thanks for submitting!

Hi guys, I missed you and I missed doing this! 

I got this question sometime last week, and I had to mull it over for a while because whether it’s intended or not, this is a loaded question, and I had a hard time finding the words to properly respond. Then, I got somewhat caught up on Laci Green’s videos and tumblr, and that’s when it hit me: how to answer this question. 

Your question confuses Sexism, Sexiness and Sexualisation. While related because they are all questions about sex and society, they are not the same thing. 

In the following text, I’m using “she” to make the text lighter, and because this blog is mainly about the sexualisation of female characters in comics. People of any gender can experience the following states.

Sexism is disparaging someone because of their sexual or gender identity. Clothes are not inherently sexist. People can be. Drawing a woman with sexy clothing is not sexist if you’re doing it because that’s the way your character is - her personality, her motivation, her story. 

Sexiness is something a person feels and expresses about themselves. A person who is sexy is a person who is confident in her body, mind, attitude, whether she’s acting in a sexual mindset or not. She is attractive, people may find her sexy even if she’s smudged and dirty wearing unshapely coveralls while drywalling a room, because she exudes confidence and accomplishment. A person might feel sexy because they’re wearing a set of frilly underwear even if no one else gets to see them. Even a person who messes up can be sexy, if they feel like it’s okay to mess up and know they can fix it or do better the next time. Sexy is something a person is, for themselves, that can be noticed and appreciated by other people.

Some examples of my art, where I’ve drawn sexy women:

In a sexual context: 

Sexy in a NOT sexual context (because she just doesn’t give a crap what people think and rocks that corset): 

Sexualisation is using sex-appeal for the viewer’s gaze only. It’s not about the person anymore, it’s about showing choice bits of a person like she’s a thing to titillate the audience. It’s about boobs and butt in the same shot, making sure you break that spine so “dat ass” is up there. It’s about ripping clothes strategically to make viewers horny. It’s about the things done so people see it and go “I’d tap that” instead of “I’d make love to her”. See there? “That” instead of “her”. 

Sexualisation is also very much about adding sexual content without sexual context. “Oh noes! We are being attacked by a horde of zombies! This must be why I’m thrusting my ass at them while turning at the swivel-hip so both my gravity-defying boobs can be seen practically bursting out of my ripped top!” Um, no. 

This is sexualisation: 

As is this: 

Because the poses are exaggerated and don’t make any sense story-wise. 

So go ahead and draw your sexy girls in crop tops: if they own their looks, if they as a character do it for themselves, and not just because you want people to ogle your art and see sexual attributes without being interested in finding the character underneath, then you shouldn’t worry. 

A last piece of art to close this. This is fan art I did for a series of comics made by friends of mine called L’Académie des chasseurs de primes. You could say all three characters are sexy in their own way. All three show their personality through their clothing and their attitudes. Only the last one uses her sex appeal as part of her sexiness, and that works. 

I’m not dead! 

Just a hi and thanks for sticking around and sorry I haven’t been here and all that stuff. This show has been very demanding of my time, so much so that I had to step down from another storyboard gig that I was really looking forward to, started, and was supposed to do part time. I also haven’t had any time to work on Sunset Val, which is my other much loved project, which I’ll hopefully be getting back to bright and early in the new year. There have also been family issues to deal with, and they are ongoing, fluctuating, but at the moment better and hopefully in a direction towards resolution. 

Mostly, I haven’t been reading any comics, or looking at any comics blogs or such because I’ve been swamped with work and deadlines. I’m taking a bit of time this morning to post this because in the last few days there’s been a few asks sent my way and I will get to them, it’s just… aaagh. I do miss this terribly but deadlines and family come first! 

I’ve changed the way I work on Martha Speaks boards, and hopefully this will be less time consuming for me. I’m loving this show, it’s fun and cleverly written stories in a nice looking package. I’m glad to be a part of it, but I miss making comics and the blog. I miss interacting with you guys, getting your feedback, and both teaching and learning from you.

Thanks again for sticking around!