#body positivity criticism

[caitlinjohns77]

Liberal feminism is a disease

[gorgynei]

fearne pov: ashton just stole from you again

[anti-terf-posts]

hot take but plus size/fat people shouldn't have to sexualize themselves for you to be accepting of them.

[mauesartetc]

Redesigning Helluva Beelzebub

Hoo boy, roll up the sleeves for this one.

The Original

In my review of Helluva Boss 108, I mentioned that Beelzebub's character design put me in mind of how some DeviantArt kid's fursona might look. And... Yeah I stand by that statement. The most likely reason I can figure Viv Medrano wanted her to be dog-like was to make a reference to her Die Young music video, which featured an anthro wolf singing a Kesha song (for context, Kesha herself voiced Beelzebub and co-wrote a song for this episode).

But for those who are unaware, Beelzebub's traditional depiction looks nothing like this.

Really the only visual similarities the Helluva version shares with the Infernal Dictionary version are the insect wings, six limbs, and the crown thingy over the head. (At least I think that's a crown-? Kinda hard to tell on both counts.)

Bee's eyes get somewhat more insectoid later in the episode, but that feels like a cop-out. Wow, her eyes and colors changed. Totally a bug demon, right?

They had the same problem in Hazbin Hotel with Katie Killjoy, who's allegedly supposed to be a praying mantis but barely resembles one, even after her transformation.

I understand the desire for fresh takes on old figures, and taking creative liberties so the new interpretation doesn't feel generic. But the changes should at least make sense. By now it's pretty clear Viv couldn't care less about representing Ars Goetia demons faithfully, as demonstrated with Paimon, Andrealphus, and now Beelzebub. You could slap completely different names on these characters and it wouldn't change a thing. I posted this meme a while back but it's never been more relevant:

On top of that, what reason could there possibly be for the design to be this damn complex? Why did she need so many markings on her face? Why did she need so many layers of hair? Why did she need flowing goo for her hair, tail, and body, each requiring dedicated effects animation?

When it comes to a hand-drawn production, less is more. Any superfluous details on a character just make unnecessary work for the animators.

Anyway, here's what Viv has to say about it.

Alright, I'll admit: The lava lamp bit is a little clever. Basically it works as a regular stomach does, but on demonic steroids. But it wouldn't look so much like Viv's making this up as she goes if we'd seen Bee's stomach performing its intended function in the episode. Let her chow down on a giant piece of food (maybe that cotton candy she's been handing out-?) and swallow it, and let Loona (and the audience) see it dissolving in her transparent belly. As a general rule, if it's not shown or explained in the work itself, it's not canon. Like I've said before, Viv: Elaborate on the nuances in the story you're telling, not on social media.

Also, "Her ears are designed after beehives"? Wh...Wha? Ma'am have you ever seen a beehive.

(Hell, even if you told me the ears were inspired by the generic cartoon beehive we're all familiar with, I wouldn't have guessed. There's a difference between being subtle and being vague.)

I can kinda see it in the overall shape, but that's a very specific design inspiration that wasn't clear at all in the design itself. Same with the "animal trainer" thing: I never would have picked up on that if Viv hadn't pointed it out. If a character design doesn't visually convey all the necessary information, it's not a successful design. Show, don't tell. There's a communication breakdown between what Viv's telling us and what Bee's design shows us.

(It's possible she actually meant "Her ears are designed after honeycombs", but even then, each compartment has a specific pentagonal shape that's not coming across at all here.)

I also find it interesting that Bee and Loona have almost the exact same body type. Of course Viv's pretty infamous for samebody syndrome, but it's actually unnerving how similar these two are.

Might this be a reference to Vortex's "type"? Is this foreshadowing a relationship with Loona? Am I overthinking this? Yeah, probably. Viv's demonstrated a clear preference for tall, skinny body types over the years, so it's safer to assume that's the explanation. It's all aesthetics. It ain't that deep. Occam's Razor and all that.

Finally, Bee how the hell does your shirt work.

The Concept

So at this point it seems most logical to lean into the "bee" thing for the redesign, and scrap all the canine elements. As for the blobby hair and tail... yeeeah let's nix those too. We're going for a streamlined version that's easier to animate. And because I ignored the ringmaster look for my redesign of Asmodeus, it only makes sense to do the same for Bee's animal trainer vibe (what little there is) for the sake of consistency. I know this version of Hell has a circus theme with its highest-ranking demons, but there's never been an in-universe explanation for why that is.

Let's look at actual bees, then. A quick peek at Google has informed me that certain insect species have smaller, "simple" eyes (also known as ocelli), in addition to their compound eyes. In bees, this manifests as a triangular grouping of three beady eyes on top of the head.

In her Helluva Boss episode, Bee's full demon form has three eyes, which could be a reference to this triangular arrangement, plus her regular form has two spots on her forehead in addition to the third eye. So it's possible Viv actually did research for something. Pleasantly surprised on that front.

Next, the body. I've noticed that some folks find Bee's skinny body type refreshing, as the sin of gluttony is too often personified with fatness. And that's fair. That's valid. But consider this:

Imagine any Vivziepop character saying that about a chubby person. Imagine the series sending the message that fat people can be sexy too, and that they have worth outside of their appearance, enough for at least one character to consider them girlfriend material. That they're valued and appreciated regardless of this culture's beauty standards (which we know nothing about since the worldbuilding is as thin and flimsy as tissue paper, but whatever). Imagine if this show finally had a fat female character who wasn't relegated to the background. Don't know about y'all, but that would be refreshing to me. And when you take into account all the fat-shaming of a character who isn't even fat, portraying a fat character as attractive would be a nice change of pace for this show.

Now let's talk about clothing. In the episode, Bee's clothes show off a lot of her body, with a cutout crop top and short shorts. We can take a similar approach for the redesign (something that still shows off her chest, belly, and limbs, in keeping with the extroverted "party girl" persona), but that perhaps includes more queenly elements.

The Redesign

Because this is a redesign, many elements were already in place, but I still had to figure out how this character would look as a bee. Here's where the preliminary sketches came in. Lots of trial and error in this process.

Wrestling with this character's face got a lot easier once I realized I could mold it into a pentagonal shape akin to a honeycomb compartment. It took a few tries, but at last, I had a final sketch.

All that was left to do was test out some color combinations.

I tried a few different approaches, but in the end, this is the version I felt worked best.

I used many of the colors from the original, but pushed the orange much harder since orange is the symbolic color of gluttony as a sin. And overall it gives Bee a nice honey-ish look rather than the generic black and yellow we already see on so many bees in cartoons. I thought the colored outlines on her clothing would add a soft, feminine touch, as well.

And just for kicks, here's a quick sketch of her giant form, inspired by the Infernal Dictionary drawing of Beelzebub.

Conclusion

The canon version of this character exists in the form she does for no reason than to stroke her creator's ego. "Hey guys, remember when I animated that Kesha fan video? Remember how cool that was? Wanna see me foist this unnecessarily-complex character design on other animators while I take a victory lap?" I wouldn't mind so much if Viv animated any of this herself, but she didn't. I could almost excuse this if she had no animation experience and didn't know how much work it requires, but she does. The self-aggrandizing entitlement is just off the charts. But a nonsensical design is leagues better than a stolen one, so... brownie points for that, I guess.

[languill]

The body diversity in the Daggerheart art is making me emotional.

There are even fat elves!

No one makes fat elves!

[boudicasrage]

Arvida Bystrom

[sergle]

this might just be the pessimism talking but there are times when I feel the body positive movement is straight up Over. even stuff from now that’s meant to be body positive, or is packaged in that way, is of a lower caliber. like it feels like it’s gotten worse.

[sbd-laytall]

[mai-333]

The resurgence of 90s ‘Heroin Chic’

Kate Moss for Blumarine Fall/Winter 1996

Characterised by pale white skin, extreme skinniness, dark eyebags, and an overall sickly look. Heroin chic has long been criticised for romanticising drug use and disordered eating. Rising to trend in the mid 80s, peaking in the 90s, and continuing through the early 2000s, it wasn’t until quite recently in the 2010s that Heroin chic slowly started to die out. Though it never truly went away, from the 2010s it has been far more popular to be curvy, and have an hour glass figure. However, with many thick ladies such as the Kardashians who were renowned for their curvaceous figures now liquidating their BBLs, many fear that heroin chic will return.

Heroin chic grew into popularity mainly with super models, as well as fashion photographers such as David Sorrenti. It was made very clear by the media, and fashion labels, that the ideal body type was one achieved through unhealthy methods. It showed and glamorised this malnourished look, and ultimately led to disordered eating of countless women and girls. As well, in order to be a model many women had to lose weight, and were forced into strict diets to keep their petite size.

Though heroin chic is what was promoted, this didn’t stop the media from attacking and accusing women of ‘encouraging’ heroin chic. Artists such as Fiona Apple have faced lots of backlash for apparently promoting heroin chic, despite speaking out about following beauty standards shown in popular media. The media has shown countless times how quick they are to attack slim women for promoting heroin chic when it isn’t done in a way they can market off of.

Currently, despite the abundance of progress made by the body positivity movement, the social climate still seems to be tipping more towards thinness again. Many people are opting for a more slim look, dieting is increasing, clean girl is trending, more women are going to the gym. However, there has been an increase as well in disordered eating, and body insecurities. These seem to never have truly gone away. But by tackling some of the root causes, such as encouraging unhealthy dieting etc, we can help to prevent this from starting.

I do truly believe that thanks to the body positivity movement that maybe this time around it will be more positive. Being skinny is not a problem, it’s just the methods people take to achieve it. So with proper self care and the new knowledge on mental health, maybe this time heroin chic will truly die, and be replaced by a healthier alternative. With all things trends come and go, it is truly just a shame that women’s bodies are one of these trends.

[caitlinjohns77]

The erasure of women and women’s health

[butchysterics]

people are so quick to laugh at other people for taking extremely loaded and upsetting representation in media ~too seriously~, but also conflate the words of some of the most powerless marginalized people with censorship by the FUCKING US GOVERNMENT. it’s so disingenuous it’s so silencing it’s so fucking shitty

it also very much feels like the cultural moment we’re in right now, where bringing up issues rooted in deep irl power structures is automatically written off as oversensitive and reactionary. it’s just media, until it’s an example from real life—then it’s just not that serious, or it’s childish to draw those connections, or it’s censorship to bring it up in the first place. allusions to irl violence are chump change but irl violence is always an isolated incident. and no one cares that this attitude magically seems to exclusively benefit the extremely conservative worldview that holds power

like lmfao no i don’t think it’s your right or anyone’s right to cover your eyes to obviously shitty offensive media writing laden with cultural baggage…. so that you can ~just enjoy it~! does this say nothing about you when you jump to silence the critiques of folks who noticed the harmful shit that went over your head? hot take… media is actually made and consumed by human beings who live in a society

[i-am-trans-gwender]

Me realizing wanting wings wasn't a metaphor for wishing to be free. It's literal species dysphoria

[ghostlycandydreamer]

Hey yall is it just me or is there a new eugenics version of body checking going on.

Canthil tilt, facial Harmony, face symmetry, that philthrum things?????

Like I know body checking is usually for Ed and all. But waYyyyyyyy to many people are checking if they fit into this weird white Supremisist beauty standard.

Like am I wrong?????

I'm seeing so much weird shit popping up in today's generation????

Like flexing a strange new beauty standard is weird af

[boudicasrage]

Arvida Byström for Calvin Klein

[oddities-collection]

I wish there were more fat characters.

I wish there were more complex fat characters.

I wish there were more fat characters.

I wish there were more androgynous fat characters.

I wish there were more complexity confident fat characters.

I wish there were fat characters I could see myself in.

I wish there were more fat characters.

I wish there were more fat characters so I could laugh with them.

I wish there were more fat characters so I could cosplay like my friends.

I wish there were more fat characters to they could lead by example instead of me.

I wish there were more fat characters.

I wish for you to wish this too.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

“Body positivity but only for bodies that don't make me jealous“

-- Reply

“One of the things that is a classic trope of the religious bigot, is while they’re denying people their rights, they claim that their rights are being denied. While they are persecuting people, they claim to be persecuted. While they are behaving colossally offensively, they claim to be the offended party. It’s upside down world.“

-- Salman Rushdie

-

It’s remarkable how much body shaming of women comes from other women who have deep-seated self-hatred and envy. And especially from the “body positivity” set.

The problem isn’t that Bekkah lost weight, it’s that her weight loss shows Leah could too. Since Leah has committed her identity to this obese persona, and seeks attention and validation through it from others with the same anti-science, reality-denying ideology. Bekkah losing weight is akin to ex-Muslim apostasy. It’s a moral-religious betrayal.

Not only is the language hyperbolic and emotionally charged, it’s intended to reconfigure and hide the dynamics here, in the hope that you don’t notice. Which is that this tirade could never go in the other direction. Only one of these people could scream at the other and not just get away with it, but perhaps even be cheered on. Only one of these people can disparage and dehumanize the other as a matter of moral virtue.

This shows you where the real power lies. Who is the Rebellion and who is the Empire.

P.S. Way to go girl, going from 363 lb to an under-10 minute mile. Amazing. 👍

Link:  ‘I was 20 pounds over the weight limit. This is it, Bekkah. You have to change.’: Mom credits ‘the power of a mother’s love’ with kickstarting incredible weight loss journey