Sick, Dude!

On that note, though, as someone who's writing a Style almost novel-length story regarding mental health and stuff in their teens (based on my own experience partly) I got extra interested in Kyle's scarring and how he seemed underweight and unhappy with himself in one of your older pieces of art. Sorry if this is weird or sensitive for asking, you can ignore this if you like, but if you feel comfortable do you have any thought processes behind these choices and such? Or just any headcanons in general?

Thank you in advance and again sorry if this is weird.

Thank you so much! And this isn’t weird at all, I’m fine with people asking about my art or thought processes behind it all - I put it up on the internet for everyone to see after all!

TW for discussions of an ED and SH

How I portray Kyle is both a mix of how I perceive his character and a reflection of myself. In the actual show Kyle is shown to be pretty unhappy with himself often - like in the list he’s pretty fast to feel crushed at being voted the ugliest boy in school and really takes it to heart. In several episodes he’s also just pretty uncomfortable with his hair, his looks, and his body. Overall as a character he seems to really lack confidence in himself. He’s also pretty harsh on himself when he can’t succeed.

So his ED that I portray is a mix of both of that - he’s convinced he’s ugly and hates his body, and he thinks he doesn’t deserve food or to feel okay because he thinks hes ugly and gross, which is failure, so he starves himself. Kyle’s extreme need for success and pressure from his parents is also something I see a lot in the show. The SH part of teen Kyle is way more personal to me. But Kyle does not respect his body at all. He thinks it’s worthless. So when Kyle messes up, or fails, he cuts. His parents are extremely strict and have extremely high standards for him. So as his mental health got worse as a teenager, his grades and home life stopped being so perfect like they were when he was a kid. So his parents got even more strict and judgmental and hateful, so Kyle’s mental health just got worse and worse, leading to him believing he’s just worthless and a constant failure. All the stuff with his parents mixed with body dysmorphia, struggles with his sexuality, and bullying at school lead him to cut. Because it’s hard to be focused on all the abuse and shit he faces when he’s cutting himself daily. It’s basically an escape. Plus it’s something Kyle has all to himself, it’s something his parents don’t know and can’t judge him for.

woah hi… yeah I’m alive. No one’s getting rid of me. I’ve just been trying to handle work and school and life which is difficult because I’ve been struggling to recover mentally from shit that happened last year that I’m still severely messed up from. I’m always either exhausted or napping to avoid flashbacks or whatever else my brain decides to fuck me over with. But I’ve been slowly (VERY slowly. It sucks) trying to heal. I would honestly be either dead or even more scarred then I already am if it weren’t for my boyfriend. He’s the reason I’ve been clean from cutting for the last few months.

Stan: fem nonbinary, he/they. Doesnt care too much about gender, but becomes uncomfortable if anyone refers to him as a boy or a girl. Still uses the label gay though, because he feels it fits him best. Stan hardly puts much thought into how he dresses (he wears the same american flag jacket and broncos t-shirt constantly without washing them. He’s greasy asf) EXCEPT for when he dresses fem. He goes all out then and loves to express that side of himself, especially at Crimson Dawn concerts. He likes sweaters n tank tops and skirts. They especially like their outfits since they can’t dress fem much because Randy would fuckin freak and South Park isn’t exactly an open town to that kind of stuff.

Kyle: cis male, he/him. Becomes pissy if someone asks him his pronouns because he takes it as them not perceiving him as male. For sure answers with “the boy ones”. He’s not transphobic though, just very self-conscious, especially about his appearance.

Cartman: bigender, she/he. Calls you a fag if you ask him his pronouns. But if you get them wrong he’ll berate you. Her pronouns are just kind of implied to everyone. Calls herself both a man and a woman, and is in touch with both sides of herself. She’s very comfortable with her gender. LOVES to dress up and put on costumes. But when dressing casually he usually just wears a t-shirt and either a skirt or shorts. Doesn’t take anyone’s shit if they make fun of him for dressing fem.

Kenny: genderfluid, any pronouns. Like Eric, they’re very comfortable with their identity. And everyone had kind of seen this coming ever since the princess Kenny thing- Kenny had started using any pronouns ever since he had turned like 12 or so. Only calls himself a girl, Karen calls Kenny her big sister, but he’s still fluid. He just has fun with it and dresses however the hell he wants. Usually they just dress comfortably.

Marj: trans girl, she/her. Realized she was a girl at age 14, but struggled internally for a long time because her parents are fucking douches and for sure wouldn’t accept that. But after she started dating Eric he helped her come to terms with herself and her gender, and now she’s out at school and the gang. but NOT her parents, she does a lot to make sure they never figure it out. She’ll usually keep a pair of her girl clothes on her when she goes out and changes outside of the house.