Minajael Crossdressing art
!BOOK 8 SPOILER!
GUYS, WE WIN. HE CANONICALLY CROSS-DRESSES. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH.
this one is pretty poorly rendered. I was trying to finish it quickly since I know I won't be able to draw tomorrow or for the next few days👀
PLEASE READ
One of my oomfs pointed out that it came across as orientalist. Guys, I genuinely didn't intend to draw Mina that way. 😭
I wanted to address it now because one of my oomfs brought it up before anyone else did, and I'm really glad they did. I'd rather acknowledge it myself than wait until people start calling it out.
I was trying to draw Mina and Miyuu in outfits inspired by Aladdin and Jasmine because the game description mentions Mina is playing as the princess with a red dress, and my brain immediately went, "Jasmine." 💀 I only realized how it looked after my oomf explained it to me.
At the time, i was drawing him in one of Jasmine's outfits because I thought it looked pretty. I wasn't thinking about the cultural context behind it or how it could come across, and that's where I was careless.
I drew this between 11 PM and 1 AM my time and was rushing because I knew I wouldn't be able to draw for the next few days, so I honestly wasn't thinking it through. That's completely on me. I should've taken the time to do proper research instead of relying on my first impression.
I'm sorry for being careless. I'll be redrawing the piece and spending more time looking into actual Middle Eastern and Arab clothing so I can portray the inspiration more respectfully and accurately. I don't want to treat a real culture as just an aesthetic, and I'd rather learn from this than repeat the same mistake.
Also, if you ever have concerns about my art, I'd really appreciate it if you talked to me directly instead of making a post about it or "fix" the art. That's exactly what my oomf did, and I'm genuinely grateful because it gave me the chance to understand the issue and fix it before someone calling me out & it became a bigger problem.
