soberbobmonthly-blog - Tumblr blog

[soberbobmonthly-blog]

Be at @bettysespresso bar to see me be drunk. I’ll give you a free high five maybe around 6.15pm before I get tired and want to go home. @pastelthemagazine is the shiz come along and buy one. My photos are in it and they did a sick bio on me. . . . . . #zine #zines #brisbane #magazine #pastel #sober #bar #haircut #cute #selfie #love #vaporwave

[soberbobmonthly-blog]

My drawings of Brisbane have become a bit more abstract as of late. . . . . #prismacolor #pencil #abstractart #art #psychadelic #beautiful #rainbow #brisbane #stilllife #park

[soberbobmonthly-blog]

I’m drunk and this is dumb. . . . #illustration #comic #pencil #whatever

[soberbobmonthly-blog]

I made this comic about my mam. She knits and spins everywhere and everyone always respects that work space (except the dolts that call her rude). It used to be common for men to spin and knit in public, it was considered a public service for the less well off and the war effort. . . . . #feminism #knitting #spinning #craft #illustration #comics #procreate

[soberbobmonthly-blog]

This has been my weekend please send help. . . . . #comics #illustration #zine #secondhand

[soberbobmonthly-blog]

Instead of doing anything useful I’ve been sitting on Discord and drawing people’s pets. . . . . #cat #feline #illustration #comic #procreate #linework

[soberbobmonthly-blog]

Lesson two: nitty gritty shit about ways we react. Some people only have a gut reaction, others only on the skin. Some both, an some neither! It’s a varied world out there, so don’t assume because someone doesn’t have a deadly reaction, that it isn’t debilitating. . . . . #comics #procreate #ipadpro #illustration #drawing

[soberbobmonthly-blog]

Here, have a shitty comic I did about allergies, because I’m finding it harder and harder to explain to people over and over again how it works. From people serving me macadamias in mustard to accidentally touching a hand rail with peanut dust on it, my life is nothing but anxiety from allergies. Hope it explains things. . . . #comics #illustration #lesson #allergies #disability

[soberbobmonthly-blog]

Neurotypical Body Positivity

TW: Discussion of dysphoria, body hate, disabilities and medical stuff

Without trying to make claims as to the state of mind of the artists I mention, I must simply say that this is not necessarily about the artists themselves, so much as the people who rampantly espouse body positivity without giving clear thought as to what goals it tries to achieve beyond feeling good in the moment.

Through both Tumblr and Instagram, I have been exposed to great body positive artists, whom are often incredibly inclusive and thoughtful. An example is Francis Cannon with their depictions of trans folk, PoC, and disabilities, in beautiful and often realistic ways. Pimples on the butts, fat folds… they are not considered things to be edited out, but as parts of the art to accentuate the beauty.

However, through seeing these pieces and the ardent followers of them, who use these images at the very base value they have of making a person temporarily feel better as opposed to throwing down the systems that make unrealistic bodies the norm, I’ve encountered a hive mind that reacts badly the moment you say you don’t identify with these images.

One piece of work, by Francis Cannon, I’ll concentrate on as it accentuates my point as a whole, and is the piece I find the most problematic when it comes to the body positive movement. The ‘This is My Body” piece, depicting a lovely nude woman, with natural hair and normal body features in a graceful pose, comes adorned with the phrase “This is my body and I love it. Why are you afraid of loving your body too? All your body bits are worth love and care and attention!”

The depiction of the nude woman is not problematic at all. Cannon consistently depicts bodies that, although stylised, accentuate points many mainstream outlets seem to ignore, such as body hair, tummies, rolls, moles, and scars. In this, she begins to deconstruct the aspects of art that seek to ignore these very normal parts of humans, and choses to place them as the centre decorative pieces of the art, drawing attention to them.

The words next to it, however, are where my problem began to lie. Upon seeing this picture on instagram, the only thing I felt was this dread in my heart, that maybe I am not loving myself that much… WHY am I not loving myself that much? She clearly was, she was depicting other people doing so, and the people commenting all seemed to feel the same way. But no matter what I felt, that one piece of art has stuck with me in my mind, making me wonder why on earth I must constantly feel good about myself in such a way.

While I in no way choose to identify with the mainstream idea of constantly needing to fight my body in order to fit into the norm of being a clean skinned, straight toothed, tall, white, cis woman, I in no way am every entirely ok with my body just the way it is. And this is where the body positivity crowd begins to show their weakness; in rejecting the idea that those who have suffered bodily or mental trauma are allowed to manifest their issues in their own way.

“Why are you afraid of loving your body?”

Coming from the experience of having a disability that causes my body to kill itself upon consumption of certain foods or inhalation of spores (or fuck it, for no reason sometimes), in order to give something love, I must feel safe within it. I must feel as though I have acted gracefully towards it and it helped me back. And as much as I can bitch and moan about the issues I must suffer through, the final nail in the coffin of keeping me away from body positive art is to demand that I wholly and truely love something which has caused me so much grief and suffering. I will reach out to any medical claim that might fix my issues over all, no matter how much pain it may cause. I will physically change my body, exercise it, train it, cut it to pieces, just to feel as though I can do something to it that matters, that will fix it.

Why should someone whose lungs fill with fluid every day, drowning them, suddenly fall in love with every aspect of their bodies? Why should a trans guy feel ok with the mammory glands that provoke severe dysphoria and cause distress?

There are so many examples I could rattle on about, but I’ll try and keep these things within my own experiences. I have long since struggled with trauma done to my body due to disabling medical issues, physical violence in institutional settings, and the resulting drug abuse to mentally handle the trauma. I do think that the movement towards bodily love will prevent others from suffering some of the things I did, but there are many issues many people can not suddenly prevent. Scaring from an operation or accident, being born the wrong gender, abuses instigated against us by others… are we not allowed the bodily autonomy to be dissatisfied with the results of what was done to us?

“Why are you afraid of loving your body?”

Because I am afraid of my body. I’m afraid of its reaction anytime I eat. I’m afraid of every rash that it brings up that might get infected. I’m afraid of the moles that mutate into potential cancers… I can love my aesthetic, my “cute” little double chin and the armpit hairs that tumblr and other places keep telling me to love. But I am gaslighted by not only my own body, through half or psychosomatic reactions, but also by other people who either ignore my medical issues altogether, or who tell me they are a part of me. That its a part of me to want to kill myself. That its me that causes pain and trauma.

So to all those whom have sent me messages or feel as though I am unappreciative of “progressive” art that does, all in all, try and break down walls, remember that you’re not on the right side here. Rampant body positivity and love simply serves as an easy way to get people to feel better for a short period of time, like a feel good headline. It grabs your attention, while you leave all the small detail of what the art is actually about in the background, out of your focus. The rest of Cannon’s art does not make me feel the same way. It is very clearly there to break down the barriers that cause people to fall into the trap of hurt and hate. But when someone who has suffered trauma tells you “This isn’t something I can identify with”, you don’t get to tell them that they are wrong.

[soberbobmonthly-blog]

doin more terrible comics before the art pop up. be thar or be squar. . . . . . . . . #comic #comics #illustration #mystery #desert #design #ink #draw #drawing #lame #poser #shit #story #art #artist #sunset #creative #out

[soberbobmonthly-blog]

Yes Sharon, I'm sure your pasta is amazing, but I can't just scrape off the pine nuts your nutty brain decided to sprinkle onto the spag bowl. . . . . . . #allergies #allergicreaction #allergiesgotmelike #nuts #pinenut #pasta #food #foodporn #cartoon #illustration #comic #celiac #vegan #death #disability #draw #drawing #ink #colorful #dinner #friday #spring #australia #creative #picoftheday

[soberbobmonthly-blog]

i need to work but all i can think of is how vampires can get drunk. Do they need to drink alcoholics? What if they had alcoholism and had to breath test their victims? . . . . . . . #question #vampire #ghost #spooky #spoopy #sketch #work #drunk #hungover #pencil #draw #drawing #graphite #bite #blood #alcohol #cartoon #illustration #mullet #hipster #zine

[soberbobmonthly-blog]

these people haunt me. . . . . . . . . . #lgbt #queer #comingout #parents #parentsbelike #christian #fittingin #pen #ink #illustration #art #artist #hate #sad #bnw #monochrome #gatedcommunity #isolation #mumanddad #zine #indie #underground #cartoon #comic #drawing

[soberbobmonthly-blog]

colour inspiration from Australian stamps. some of this 80s art is amazing. . . . . . . . #design #stamp #mail #postage #color #colorstudy #retro #80s #90s #watercolor #paint #art #artist #practice #study #artdeco #creative #palette #rainbow #train #yellow #green #blue #pink

[soberbobmonthly-blog]

The cover for my next zine about trying to live in a world that hates what you eat. . . . . . . . #food #allergies #eat #eating #eatingdisorderrecovery #glutenfree #mentalhealth #tulips #watercolor #flowers #lettering #handlettering #calligraphy #handdrawn #zine #comic #illustration #art #artist #creative #friday #underground #cute #shit #foodporn #pain

[soberbobmonthly-blog]

Fave patch print from #ZICS this weekend. Met some lovely peeps and bough too much shit. . . . . #zine #zinefair #loser #poser #patch #patchgame #patches #battlejacket #pin #pingame #patchgamestrong #killmyself #creep #creepy #cannonfilms #indie #independent #design #art #artist #angry #feminist #feminism #femme #love

[soberbobmonthly-blog]

The Death Valley Camp flag is up! So glad all these lovelies got to sign it at the camp. Will be making another colour for next year. @deathvalleycamp and @paehoddy ur tha best. . . . . #deathvalleycamp #deathvalley #death #southsidetearoom #thegrates #brisbane #queensland #bar #drunk #cafe #flag #hadmade #draw #sign #cute #colorful #camp #bnw #handlettering #logo #handwritten #diy #festival #camp #sharpie #pen #ink