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Some of you may have already seen my recent video on YouTube & Bitchute. However, I still feel like the point isn't getting across to some people who really need it. Perhaps they aren't able to hear the message in the video? I figured that writing out a little bloggy blog post about the topic might help, just in case. So let's get into it!
Re-purposing Existing Characters...
At the peak of when several classic & well-loved franchises were getting rebooted and overhauled across all forms of media there was an outcry from those who were upset that some of their beloved characters were getting twisted into things that no-longer resemble their original forms. Some, because they were upset that their childhood was being rebooted into something different and others were upset that they were being restricted to representation in the form of gender/rage/sexuality swaps of existing characters rather than getting their own, well-rounded, characters to look up to or be represented by in some way. Of course, even though these are the most common reasons a person is upset by these sorts of changes, that doesn't stop the screeching morons from insisting that the only reason to be upset is some sort of moral shortcoming.
The "Ists" & the "Obes"
What were those people met with? Aside from being told that the only reason they were upset was due to racism/sexism/homophobia etc., people were being told that they "new" version of something they loved "Isn't for them" anymore. These people continued to screech from what they assumed was the moral high-ground about it. They have lost the plot to the point where, now, they feel like EVERYTHING has to be remade to fit their personal ideaology. Otherwise, everyone is an "ist" a "obe" or an outright "Nazi" or "Pedophile". You've seen this sort of character assassination happening all over social media. It's impossible to avoid it at this point.
Let me make this perfectly clear: It is IMPOSSIBLE to make a well-rounded judgment on someone's character, morality, or personal beliefs, based on a couple posts on Social Media. The most you can do is speculate and make assumptions. Neither of which equal being able to definitively state that someone is a racist, sexist, homophobe, Nazi, or Pedophile. Sure, there's cases where a post will contain what appears to be clear-cut "evidence"... but with the current age of technology making a lot of that easy to fake, how can you be confident enough to make such horrendous allegations to someone's character? Especially, when you're not even directly involved or have any connection to said someone? The logic is lacking, to say the least.
Blood in the Water
Once these small groups of overly-vocal and highly aggressive people got it into their heads that they were righteous and could force change however and whenever they saw fit - they started lashing out at artists who dared to draw anything they didn't approve of. I'm forgoing putting up screenshots of examples in this post, because I know that it's easy to find an example of this behavior with VERY LITTLE EFFORT on almost any social media platform.
The only small amount of humor to truly be found in all this, is the lack of self-awareness these people have. I'll get to that in more detail later. For now, is suffices to say that instances of these "cancel-culture" cretins "eating their own" or having their own tactics turned against them with ease are popping up more and more frequently these days.
These people don't seem to understand the concept of artistic expression or the notion of interpretation. They think that whatever pops in their head when they look at artwork, has to be the motivation or intentions of the artist who created it. They will re-post the offending artwork and make grand proclamations of disgust towards the artist, without ever actually trying to speak to them first. Oftentimes, they will accuse an artist of being a "White Male Incel who hates women" without bothering to check if the artist is female, gay, or not-white. When confronted with their mistake, they will often double-down and go for the "Self hating" or "internalized isms" route, rather than admit their mistake and move along. Whether they think the back-pats will get them clout or they just want some attention, these people are ravenous at this point.
Big Boobs & Small Waists are for Misogynists!
The most common artwork that is attacked by these cretins, is artwork of female characters. It would seem that all representations of the female form are now only permitted to be shapeless or rotund. Gone are the days of stylized artwork or exaggerated body-types. We're only allowed to draw women that meet THEIR standards of what is allowed to be beautiful or appealing.
They will tell you that the only reason to enjoy artwork featuring, feminine, shapely, curvaceous, and sultry bodies is sexual desire. Specifically narrowing that down to only people who "hate" women and what to "objectify" them or "treat them like objects". There's a few things wrong with that...
Gay & Bisexual women exist, & are allowed to enjoy sexy art of the female body.
These body-types occur naturally in the wild. Insisting they don't is disingenuous.
Most of the time, the conversation is regarding a fictional character that exists only in media. Which, would make them more of an actual object than a human being ANYWAY.
You'll see posts all over Twitter that feature amazing artwork with the caption "men are no longer allowed to draw women" or "men are trash and hate women" or "dudebro's that don't know how female bodies work are at it again". The artwork in their post is typically BEAUTIFUL and skillfully created. The only thing they all have in common is that they always feature a beautiful women with a stylized variation of the small waist, large breasts, body type.
These people go so far as to "fix" official artwork via edits to censor outfits, body-types and more with smug indignation. Sometimes, an actual artist will do a "redesign" of a character. If it's done in an effort to appeal to the "woke" crowd, it will feature a formally-sexy female character that has been reworked to look like a man. They aren't drawing the same character anymore, they aren't changing the design of a character. At that point, you are drawing someone else and trying to give them the same name. It's not entirely worth your time to state your opinion on it either, because someone will just insinuate that you're a misogynist & begin scrolling your feed for anything they can report.
Want to draw a sexy version of your favorite character? Be careful! Someone is bound to make some sort of comment about how you don't understand the female body, how boobs work, or where organs live. If you draw fan-art of a character that involves you aging them up so they can be posed more provocatively, you're going to be labeled a pedophile. When this happens, check the feed of whoever said it & I can almost guarantee you will find them talking about young male anime characters sexually with no sense of irony.
"It isn't FOR YOU!"
I'd like to take their script, and flip it. When existing characters are changed and twisted into something they never were, we're told that it isn't "for us" anymore. Okay. That's fine. It was for us, at one point, though. They can't take that away. However, when they are scrolling through Twitter or whatever and see art they don't like and start to screech about it, politely inform them that it isn't FOR THEM. Because, at the end of the day... everyone should be free to express themselves however they like with their artwork. Pictures can't actually hurt anyone. How people react to them can. Sometimes, artists will draw things that are upsetting for a REASON. They may have gone through trauma they are processing, dealing with internal emotions they can't understand, or just playing with shapes. It is not for you to decide what they can and can't create.
I could go on for hours...
This post could stretch on and on, if I let it. So, I'm going to try to wrap up my thoughts here. I'll never be supportive of the concept of censoring the arts. Freedom of expression is something I believe in and am passionate about. We're all entitled to our opinions, but we need to remember that they are just opinions. Not everyone will agree on or like the same things. If we can learn to see that as a beautiful thing again, rather than some sort of plague, I think we'll all be a lot happier.
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