alienbabydraws - Tumblr blog

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the way i love sis strider

i just dont have words for it mmkay

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Would you guys be terribly upset if I started updating YKW only on Saturdays for a while?? (Like a month max)

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You Know What (A Homestuck Rarepair Fancomic)

Oh snap. The adventure begins.

(Update every Saturday)

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Davis Meltzer

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In Defense of Shitty Queer Art

Queer art has a long history of being censored and sidelined. In 1895, Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray was used as evidence in the author’s sodomy trials. From the 1930s to the 1960s, the American Hays Code prohibited depictions of queerness in film, defining it as “sex perversion.” In 2020, the book Steven Universe: End of an Era by Chris McDonnell confirmed that Rebecca Sugar’s insistence on including a sapphic wedding in the show is what triggered its cancellation by Cartoon Network. According to the American Library Association, of the top ten most challenged books in 2023, seven were targeted for their queer content. Across time, place, and medium, queer art has been ruthlessly targeted by censors and protesters, and at times it seems there might be no end in sight.

So why, then, are queer spaces so viciously critical of queer art?

Name any piece of moderately-well-known queer media, and you can find immense, vitriolic discourse surrounding it. Audiences debate whether queer media is good representation, bad representation, or whether it’s otherwise too problematic to engage with. Artists are picked apart under a microscope to make sure their morals are pure enough and their identities queer enough. Every minor fault—real or perceived—is compiled in discourse dossiers and spread around online. Lines are drawn, and callout posts are made against those who get too close to “problematic art.”

Modern examples abound, such as the TV show Steven Universe, the video game Dream Daddy, or the webcomic Boyfriends, but it’s far from a new phenomenon. In his book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, queer pop culture analyst Matt Baume writes about an example from the 1970s, where the ABC sitcom titled Soap was protested by homophobes and queer audiences alike—before a single episode of the show ever aired. Audiences didn’t wait to actually watch the show before passing judgment and writing protest letters.

After so many years starved for positive representation, it’s understandable for queer audiences to crave depictions where we’re treated well. It’s exhausting to only ever see the same tired gay tropes and subtext, and queer audiences deserve more. Yet the way to more, better, varied representation is not to insist on perfection. The pursuit of perfection is poison in art, and it’s no different when that art happens to be queer.

When the pool of queer art is so limited, it feels horrible when a piece of queer art doesn’t live up to expectations. Even if the representation is technically good, it’s disappointing to get excited for a queer story only for that story to underwhelm and frustrate you.

But the world needs that disappointing art. It needs mediocre art. It even needs the bad art. The world needs to reach a point where queer artists can fearlessly make a mess, because if queer artists can only strive for perfection, the less art they can make. They may eventually produce a masterpiece, but a single masterpiece is still a drop in the bucket compared to the oceans of censorship. The only way to drown out bigotry and offensive stereotypes created by bigots is to allow queer artists the ability to experiment, learn through making mistakes, and represent their queer truth even if it clashes with someone else’s.

If queer artists aren’t allowed to make garbage, we can never make those masterpieces everyone craves. If queer artists are terrified at all times that their art will be targeted both by bigots and their own queer communities, queer art cannot thrive.

Let queer artists make shitty art. Let allies to queer people try their hand at representation, even if they miss the mark. Let queer art be messy, and let the artists screw up without fear of overblown retribution.

It’s the only way we’ll ever get more queer art.

_

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[alienbabydraws]

some soldirks lawl

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I saw your art in Flavor of the Week before I found your page, and when I found that fic again, I was like OH MY GOD, It's Him

I love the way Dave looks at Karkat like he's pining so hard it's lovely great work also I hope your little meatball is doing well <33333

AH Yessss I love that fic, it's by my beloved mutual @hippofox <3

Here's a link to the piece.

And thank you so much that is really sweet!!!!

[alienbabydraws]

You Know What (A Homestuck Rarepair Fancomic)

(Update every Tues & Sat)

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for an au where bro is possessed by (demon) cal

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Reigen’s apartment

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John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead in America #4 (2024)

written by Simon Spurrier art by Aaron Campbell & Jordie Bellaire

[alienbabydraws]

You Know What (A Homestuck Rarepair Fancomic)

(Update every Tues & Sat)

First page || Back || Continue ==>

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Pregnancy exhaustion??? Sir good luck godspeed soldier I hope everything goes smoothly for you. Fuck bro's banging out some hella art meanwhile?? Hell yeah good work ily

I also work on my grandparents property so there has been a lot of physical stuff going on

pictured: [what i be doing while creating a lifeform the size of a meatball rn vv]

edit: also thank you, this is genuinely so sweet

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@curiouscrux

Okay so it's just basic stuff right now but...I was thinking about striders being mandolorians because I mean...never taking off the helmets/shades. Bounty hunters by trade too...just seemed apt. And then I thought about Bro having the black saber but that was mostly just for aesthetics, I haven't actually figured out a plot element for it.

i'm thinking Hard about a mandalorian au

[alienbabydraws]

You Know What (A Homestuck Rarepair Fancomic)

(Update every Tues & Sat)

First page || Back || Continue ==>

[alienbabydraws]

i'm thinking Hard about a mandalorian au