SSA Blogathon – ‘The many kinds of girl’ (7 of 9)

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I’ve previously spoken about how media portrays women and how the general messaging leads women to believe they aren’t “pretty enough”. Comics are especially guilty of this, with women being generally identical only with anatomical impossibilities intended to facilitate the male gaze.

Some folks are trying to counter that message, though. And thank goodness. DeviantArtiste vonnie-seiyuki-chan has built a lovely image pastiche of what “beautiful women” might look like. Now comic book artists have no excuse in thinking that every woman is built like a porn star with a swivel spine!

Girls be proud of your shapes! Use them to your advantage, you’d be surprised how great you feel when you find the style that goes with your figure.

My favourite is the cute little black girl in the middle. She so adorables.

1. Tall Column (Thin with little variance in hips waist and bust)
2. Round shape (Waist is larger than hips and bust)
3. Bottom heavy 1 (Waist and bust are smaller than hips)
4. Short column.
5. Top Heavy (Large bust with hips and waist roughly the same size)
6. Square shape (Wider than column, little variance in waist, hips and bust)
7. Bottom Heavy 2 (Hips larger than waist, waist larger than bust)
8. Classic hourglass (Usually quite tall, large hips and bust small waist)
9. Cutey Hourglass (Slightly larger than the classic, often average height)
10. Itty hourglass (A very small hourglass, large breasts and hips comparative to size)
11. Apple Shape (Breast and waist larger than hips and legs) Somebody mentioned this shape so I added it, thank you, I didn’t know this shape before :3
12. Well toned (Usually small waist, small breasts, varying hip sizes. Well toned and slightly muscled) 2 people mentioned this, it’s the kind of shape common in swimmers and marathon runners.
13. Tall Round (A taller, larger version of round shape) Loosely based on Mellissa McCarthy.

The last two shapes I had wanted to add to the original picture in the first place but didn’t because 1. I’m lazy. 2. I’m not very good at drawing muscles or larger women. But I gotta practice.

If there’s any particularly different shape I’m missing you’d like me to add tell me and I might.

This is a grand effort. I can think of a few missing shapes, but it’s a start. Also, if you’re naturally “classic hourglass” (e.g. you’re what the media portrays as the only adequate body shape), your beauty rests on a razor’s edge, understand that you could lose your position of privilege at any moment — but your body type is fine too, it just doesn’t qualify you for the privilege you enjoy, and you should take especial care as a person of privilege not to mistreat others with different body types. And most of all, learn to love who you are, however you are. Especially if it changes for whatever reason.

The SSA protects you from religious bigotry. It also tries to protect you from other sorts of bigotry, like appearance. You should support them.

This is post 7 of 9 for the SSA Blogathon. Total donors is at 593 with $83,134 donated! You can still donate to the SSA by supporting other blogathoners, art contributors, personal fundraising pages or through a direct donation to the SSA. SSA Week lasts through June 17th. Spread the word!

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SSA Blogathon – ‘The many kinds of girl’ (7 of 9)
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One thought on “SSA Blogathon – ‘The many kinds of girl’ (7 of 9)

  1. 1

    To be fair, I don’t think it’s sexist that women in the comics are so physically “perfect” (for conventional values of the word). Everyone in the comics (except for some villains, comic relief, and “very special episode” characters) is an idealized (and homogenized) reflection of the real world. What I DO find sexist is how the characters are written, and how they are POSED. The male heroes always seem to be posed in powerful ways (muscles and groins bulging as they may), and the writing uses them as a lens through which to see the fictional world. The female characters (even iconic giants like WW) are always posed like they’re tween models at a Lolita convention, and writers always, ALWAYS inevitably derail even the strongest, smartest female character with “She’s in lurve with the bad boy derp derp” or even worse “She doesn’t have confidence in herself so she needs some big male hero to rescue her and show her whats what”. DERP DERP.

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