But! I have strong feelings about this. In america we have a gigantic weight problem, but it's not just the number of overweight people...it's the discrimination. We changed the limit for what qualified as obese and then ALL OF A SUDDEN more people that were previously 'normal' were now 'overweight', and we had a 'obesity epidemic' on our hands when in fact nothing had changed from the month prior to then.
In the arts it's especially bad. Not only to people assume I am a less competent person (let alone a less competent artist) because I have a 34 to 36 inch waist, they pass those same assumptions on to drawn female characters. I ditched the thesis I wanted to do on my own IP because of this exact issue. One of the core races in my IP is genderflopped, with more traditional male fashion issues (muscles, overweight is ok, etc) applying to chicks and vice versa...aaand I knew that if I brought it into class, I'd be forced to change it. I've seen more females painted in the past six years than males, probably on a 2:1 ratio at least, and of that number I cannot recall one single fat chick that wasnt also old or a villian (Ursula from the Little Mermaid). Not one.
Honestly it seems fat has become a visual shorthand for some type of failing or character flaw- especially for chicks. Of course, individual people can deviate in mindset quite completely from the norm, but, that's the undercurrent I've seen.
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But! I have strong feelings about this. In america we have a gigantic weight problem, but it's not just the number of overweight people...it's the discrimination. We changed the limit for what qualified as obese and then ALL OF A SUDDEN more people that were previously 'normal' were now 'overweight', and we had a 'obesity epidemic' on our hands when in fact nothing had changed from the month prior to then.
In the arts it's especially bad. Not only to people assume I am a less competent person (let alone a less competent artist) because I have a 34 to 36 inch waist, they pass those same assumptions on to drawn female characters. I ditched the thesis I wanted to do on my own IP because of this exact issue. One of the core races in my IP is genderflopped, with more traditional male fashion issues (muscles, overweight is ok, etc) applying to chicks and vice versa...aaand I knew that if I brought it into class, I'd be forced to change it. I've seen more females painted in the past six years than males, probably on a 2:1 ratio at least, and of that number I cannot recall one single fat chick that wasnt also old or a villian (Ursula from the Little Mermaid). Not one.
Honestly it seems fat has become a visual shorthand for some type of failing or character flaw- especially for chicks. Of course, individual people can deviate in mindset quite completely from the norm, but, that's the undercurrent I've seen.