#also have some gender fuckery going on. i am a guy but I don't hate how i look and also I think i don't hate being called a girl and also I

[foxgloveinspace]

*cracks open a starbucks energy drink*

hey guys, I know I've done this like, 80 times, but I'm pretty sure I'm bi with a preference of men. I'll probably still say I'm a gay, but like. just so y'all know.

[aseriesofunfortunatejan]

Listen, I hate sexism as much as the next guy (in case this post falls into the wrong hands, this is a quirky way of saying I am a woman and a feminist) but drawing tutorials that explain how to draw masculine and feminine shapes are not the enemy.

When your character design teacher tells you that when your viewers see a tall silhouette with broad shoulders, they'll assume it is masculine, it is not them enforcing anything - it is them acknowledging what is already there.

It's common knowledge in art that you need to know the rules in order to break them. It's not always to be taken literally, but this is a situation where it applies. If I don't know what comes off as manly in the first place, how can I make it so it subverts expectations when I reveal my character is a feminine woman? How do I challenge the status quo if I refuse to acknowledge it?

It is a fact of life that by presenting outside the binary or outside your birth sex, you are "breaking the rules". How are visual representations of humans to go by different rules? I yearn for more diverse artworks and characters just like you do - but you can't expect artists to represent everyone accurately if you don't allow them to learn the basics. It would be unfair to blame artists for the extent of gender fuckery in their representations bring "androgynous nonbinary teenager" if you don't allow them to sit with a teacher who tells them how to draw what could be a beautiful and accurate pre-op trans woman.

I focused on subverting ideas of gender, but I have also observed issues with artists who don't know how to draw a feminine silhouette - leading to uncanny character designs, and to making women feel misrepresented, as though their bodies are misunderstood. Similarly - have you never wished some artists with anime styles would stop drawing all their gay men as thin pretty boys with soft features? There's more than just skill playing a role, of course, but when it comes to young artists I know for a fact many are intimidated by broad shoulders, fat and muscle mass. Perhaps a tutorial titled "how to draw a fat person" would sound offensive to some, but something along those lines is needed if we want to represent fat people, be it neutrally or positively, in media.

This is not to say all tutorials are made equal or that most tutorials are perfect. Far from that. This post was written in reaction to a post I saw, which mocked a tutorial for giving an example of how to draw a female shape and a male shape. The guidelines were widely different and the drawings were made to look like the average woman and the average man - but all their labels said was "female" and "male". Comments complained that this tutorial implied sexist things or enforced the binary... It's like some people forgot what "male" and "female" mean. And I don't mean that in the USian Conservative sense. I mean to remind you that I know men who are born female. Sex is different from gender - this is also one of the basics.

Of course, cis women don't all have a hourglass shape, and cis men aren't all over 170cm tall. But your art teacher isn't being an idiot if he tells you that if you tease a character by showing their silhouette with a short stature and curvy features, people will be surprised when they turn out to be a guy. He's helping you make an informed choice.