dev_chieftain (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dev_chieftain) wrote2012-05-14 10:49 pm
dev_chieftain) wrote2012-05-14 10:49 pm
Finished: Isle of Dread!
Ugh, today was really bonkers! I worked almost two hours late to finish something, and then we had the final session of the module monday D&D game right when I got home. I'm utterly exhausted now, though the ending was kinda fun. Derek decided that Bek's other-self (who was some boring businessman that Bek became when he dreamed) had killed himself, so Bek was getting better sleep and still shining a bizarre light upon the nature of mortality in the creepiest way possible. King's to you, Derek. King's to you.
Dyrr's character got to ride a sabretooth tiger, kill a tyrannosaurus rex (or one of us did, anyway; we all helped ♥), and accidentally ended the world for the cat-people whose tribe he'd conquered. More on that below. Dustin, Bret and I tried hard not to die, and very nearly failed. There was a dramatic mountain climbing scene where we nearly all fell and died! And then a mysterious village within the crater at the center of the island. And another ruined village on an island in a lake inside the crater. It was all pretty weird.
Ultimately, the black pearl we'd sought turned out to be a receiver to a nearly-dead machine of such incredible magnitude that it WAS the entire island. We wished the storm away and of course the island started sinking after the machine powered out. (Oh, but before that, we killed some wacky magic-wielding rebels from the village inside the crater who'd gone mad with power. One of them turned into a red dragon, which Dustin's mage hilariously struck the final blow on with her dagger.)
Surprisingly, we survived! 'Ro at least is of the opinion that they should never, ever speak of it again, but I think we all went crazy when we finally escaped anyway. It was pretty awesome.
I then checked my email to find out that my kid brother has bronchitis! I'm worried for him, but he sounded grudgingly tolerant of being sick and how crappy that is. He neglected to mention whether the doctor who diagnosed him also prescribed medicines, and whether he is taking them, but it's late to call and big sister at him, so I'll do it tomorrow.
And, unrelated, but after seeing another of her arts on her tumblr in the midst of some drama, I commented to Natash Allegri (one of the animators on Adventure Time) in the hope that she might read it and take it under consideration. The picture in question is here: It involves the gender-flipped cast of the show.
She had received a polite, earnest critique of the work's poses and choice of layout that I don't really feel quite got to the heart of what was sexist about the picture (and the gender flipped stuff in general), and then a lot of people chimed in to bash whoever dared critique it and assure her that the picture is great.
That's just the thing; the picture IS great, but it's also sexist. It's not like they're mutually exclusive. So here was my comment. I really do hope she reads and considers it; I like her work and I love Adventure Time, obviously, so it's not like I don't want to see her post lots more of her stuff.
"Hi Nat,
I really like your art, but I feel that leosboots's opinion is perfectly valid. Number one problem I have with your response is stating that you're a woman, therefore exempt from being sexist. That is completely untrue; women can be and often are very sexist. We're our own worst enemy. Society teaches us to draw women as dainty, beautiful, covered in bows, smiling, and in dresses. This is true of your picture, and it doesn't make your picture less pretty, but it does make it sexist.
Being sexist isn't something absolutely terrible. It's something that needs to be acknowledged and worked at, a little bit at a time. You can be a really nice person, and a woman, and still be sexist; it doesn't make you really horrible, or anything, but if you willfully ignore it or laugh it off, you can never stop being that way and that's hurtful in the long run to the rights of women everywhere.
I wouldn't say that the girls here are oversexualized. I do think that they are postured and dressed in gender-normative fashions. Most notably for me, I think Marceline and Marshall Lee are the clearest "same person" character. Both of them are showing some skin, postured with the obvious intent of looking sexy-- and that's the character, so that makes sense.
PB's dress and pose are a little unusual for her, which makes her stand out as not really looking quite like PB to me-- girlier than PB of the show. Flame Princess we honestly don't know very well, so as far as I can tell, she and Flame Prince are pretty much the same.
The notable difference, to me, is Finn and Fionna; specifically, the fact that Fionna's wearing a backless dress with a huge ruffly skirt that would make it hard to fight in. This compared to Finn's tuxedo seems way less functional and more objectifying as a dress. I'd write it off because Finn (and thus by extension Fionna) is complicated, as we know, except that it doesn't seem like a "character-quirk" type of dress so much as a "pretty, societally approved girl-ideal" dress. So as someone just glancing at this, it'd stand out to me as setting Fionna apart from Finn. It feels like her sword is for show, while his is a real sword.
The ribbons look nice but since there's no equivalent for the boys it's another element that separates them by gender. And as someone else pointed out, Fionna should be with the boys, and Finn should be with the girls- I think it's safe to assume that that, however, is a stylistic choice since the piece is supposed to be about them as counterparts to each other, right?
Anyway-- my point is, I'm someone completely unrelated to this person, and I had a really similar reaction. I feel like leosboots expressed her thoughts pretty calmly and rationally, and I'm disappointed to see you dismissing them. I'm really sad that a bunch of people apparently then commented meanly to her, on top of it all. That's pretty sucky."
Dyrr's character got to ride a sabretooth tiger, kill a tyrannosaurus rex (or one of us did, anyway; we all helped ♥), and accidentally ended the world for the cat-people whose tribe he'd conquered. More on that below. Dustin, Bret and I tried hard not to die, and very nearly failed. There was a dramatic mountain climbing scene where we nearly all fell and died! And then a mysterious village within the crater at the center of the island. And another ruined village on an island in a lake inside the crater. It was all pretty weird.
Ultimately, the black pearl we'd sought turned out to be a receiver to a nearly-dead machine of such incredible magnitude that it WAS the entire island. We wished the storm away and of course the island started sinking after the machine powered out. (Oh, but before that, we killed some wacky magic-wielding rebels from the village inside the crater who'd gone mad with power. One of them turned into a red dragon, which Dustin's mage hilariously struck the final blow on with her dagger.)
Surprisingly, we survived! 'Ro at least is of the opinion that they should never, ever speak of it again, but I think we all went crazy when we finally escaped anyway. It was pretty awesome.
I then checked my email to find out that my kid brother has bronchitis! I'm worried for him, but he sounded grudgingly tolerant of being sick and how crappy that is. He neglected to mention whether the doctor who diagnosed him also prescribed medicines, and whether he is taking them, but it's late to call and big sister at him, so I'll do it tomorrow.
And, unrelated, but after seeing another of her arts on her tumblr in the midst of some drama, I commented to Natash Allegri (one of the animators on Adventure Time) in the hope that she might read it and take it under consideration. The picture in question is here: It involves the gender-flipped cast of the show.
She had received a polite, earnest critique of the work's poses and choice of layout that I don't really feel quite got to the heart of what was sexist about the picture (and the gender flipped stuff in general), and then a lot of people chimed in to bash whoever dared critique it and assure her that the picture is great.
That's just the thing; the picture IS great, but it's also sexist. It's not like they're mutually exclusive. So here was my comment. I really do hope she reads and considers it; I like her work and I love Adventure Time, obviously, so it's not like I don't want to see her post lots more of her stuff.
"Hi Nat,
I really like your art, but I feel that leosboots's opinion is perfectly valid. Number one problem I have with your response is stating that you're a woman, therefore exempt from being sexist. That is completely untrue; women can be and often are very sexist. We're our own worst enemy. Society teaches us to draw women as dainty, beautiful, covered in bows, smiling, and in dresses. This is true of your picture, and it doesn't make your picture less pretty, but it does make it sexist.
Being sexist isn't something absolutely terrible. It's something that needs to be acknowledged and worked at, a little bit at a time. You can be a really nice person, and a woman, and still be sexist; it doesn't make you really horrible, or anything, but if you willfully ignore it or laugh it off, you can never stop being that way and that's hurtful in the long run to the rights of women everywhere.
I wouldn't say that the girls here are oversexualized. I do think that they are postured and dressed in gender-normative fashions. Most notably for me, I think Marceline and Marshall Lee are the clearest "same person" character. Both of them are showing some skin, postured with the obvious intent of looking sexy-- and that's the character, so that makes sense.
PB's dress and pose are a little unusual for her, which makes her stand out as not really looking quite like PB to me-- girlier than PB of the show. Flame Princess we honestly don't know very well, so as far as I can tell, she and Flame Prince are pretty much the same.
The notable difference, to me, is Finn and Fionna; specifically, the fact that Fionna's wearing a backless dress with a huge ruffly skirt that would make it hard to fight in. This compared to Finn's tuxedo seems way less functional and more objectifying as a dress. I'd write it off because Finn (and thus by extension Fionna) is complicated, as we know, except that it doesn't seem like a "character-quirk" type of dress so much as a "pretty, societally approved girl-ideal" dress. So as someone just glancing at this, it'd stand out to me as setting Fionna apart from Finn. It feels like her sword is for show, while his is a real sword.
The ribbons look nice but since there's no equivalent for the boys it's another element that separates them by gender. And as someone else pointed out, Fionna should be with the boys, and Finn should be with the girls- I think it's safe to assume that that, however, is a stylistic choice since the piece is supposed to be about them as counterparts to each other, right?
Anyway-- my point is, I'm someone completely unrelated to this person, and I had a really similar reaction. I feel like leosboots expressed her thoughts pretty calmly and rationally, and I'm disappointed to see you dismissing them. I'm really sad that a bunch of people apparently then commented meanly to her, on top of it all. That's pretty sucky."