ohh i watched that video, i was wondering if you watched it. and if so what are ur opinions on their findings/data?
I hadn't watched it when I posted that
but since you asked, I will have put all my thoughts in this post while I watched it:
My thoughts before watching
okay, one big personal preference of mine, that I believe could very easily change, or simply become more subjective: I currently don't have a problem with artists who enjoy focusing on men.
Sometimes, someone likes something for a very personal reason, maybe a deeply psychological one. But sometimes... It Means Nothing. Or at least, it doesn't mean anything bad or incriminating. I've met countless people who could easily be incriminated and characterized as someone they're not, if you only looked at one of their interests or artstyles and none of their actual personality traits. Hell, even you and me could be EASILY falsely incriminated. I saw a mutual of mine (also a markiplier ego fanartist) get incriminated by one of my other random friends out of nowhere... simply because they were judged on the surface level based on a single artwork. This kind of thing is infuriating and can be genuinely dangerous when it extends to harassment, so I do care to be critical of any behaviors resembling this. (I'm also glad you asked about what I thought about this, it's nice to know someone would willingly prompt my yapping)
... But what do I mean by me not having a problem? Well, as I just explained, I never want to participate or condone harassment. Of anyone, mostly... but especially of an artist of this small scale, and even moreso when incriminated of a social crime of this ambiguous scale and uncertainty. So that's what I mean by not having a problem.
What I can have, however, is a hunch that they wouldn't enjoy my tastes in female OCs, or maybe an impression that me and another artist aren't compatible. I can appreciate many artstyles, and I do like male OCs. I might even become a huge fan of someone who only, or mostly, has male OCs. But I also might think "well, this artist has a lot of OCs that are similar, and it doesn't quite overlap with my own taste anymore..." and I'd leave it at that.
Unless they literally said "I HATE WOMEN!!!" ... then I'd be like, Oh! They hate women, that's not cool. Or something like that.
Gonna watch the video now. I'll edit this post with more of my thoughts as I watch.
"i will not attack/revenge if all your OCs are men."
Honestly, slay. I like it when people are honest about their preferences.
It doesn't surprise me that it pissed people off and led to some users blocking OP. I'm assuming that OP didn't instigate anything further and just simply stated their preference on their profile, nothing more. People just get upset way too easily about others' preferences.
However, sometimes I do read something like this on a profile that irks me. Not exactly this, but similar, just harder to understand, and also laced with a curious aggression, instead of how ^ this was stated so plainly. What I usually do in those cases:
Nothing
Research more about it so that I can grow in knowledge and come to understand this better (Succeeded at this many times, so I do recommend it. But if it doesn't click, sometimes you have to accept that it may just be an odd or incompatible individual)
Block them if it's actually upsetting me, or if I don't want them to find my profile, which is usually out of respect for their boundary
On rare occasions, I respectfully ask to learn more about what they meant
What I Never do:
Start drama
Argue with the person
which seems to be what OP may have meant by "friction" ... It's very common to see this behavior online, but I personally believe it's a pointless waste of time to endeavour.
The Data
13 minute mark. OP is explaining the means of collecting data, and then providing the first pie chart.
I have no complaints about the data collection methods. Doing both a strict and expansive collection was considerate. I don't know much about data collection to actually criticize this.
30% women and 60% men, with 10% stated as otherwise. (rounded to closest tenth)
Does it surprise me? It shouldn't, but having the proof now kinda does surprise me a little. But that's just because I enjoy creating female characters, so it's a bit hard for me to imagine having only male characters right now. If you asked me at some other point in my life, maybe I would've leaned towards having more male characters, but I think I've always leaned towards an even mix, or more feminine than masculine. I also consider making all my OCs non-gendered, or maybe all-female like Touhou. This video is inspiring me even moreso to commit to that. It's kind of a funny way to spite misogyny. But alas, I enjoy having a diverse cast of experiences...
Ok, here's something I have wanted to say... And I already read one comment that explained this better than I could:
Media-messaging. Art reflects reality.
I think the misogyny is REAL, but the majority of it is not intentioned, it's subconscious and internalized (I mean, duh, bigotry always starts that way, and it doesn't make it any less bad)
So far, I fully believe OP making this video was a good move. It shook things up in the AF/OC community and gave an opportunity for artists to become aware of this issue and be more critical about their own habits, as well as discuss this topic together due to the relevancy initiated by the video. At least, that's the purpose I imagine it serves.
"That's on them to unpack." is a fine way to say it.
Other Metrics
Bro... the "Percent of characters that are nonwhite" being only 9% is insane. Not to mention the metrics that came before this, but the statistics and implications of this is the most shocking one.
Ah, the caveat about Japanese (Anime) characters not being counted as non-white if their ethnicity isn't actually considered as something real outside of the generic setting of anime. I can understand that, yeah.
"Most of the non-white characters had an ambiguous racial identity"
Okay, NGL. this is the first time I've been called out in the video. I'm gonna talk about this in a separate post, because it doesn't relate to the video anymore, and is more of a heavy/personal topic that I usually cover in #vent or otherwise on this blog.
The Challenge
Ok, this is the last part of the video and my favorite part of the video.
I wonder when exactly it was that I started reframing how I saw female characters. I think it came in waves numerous times in the past years, occasionally receding when I started to focus on male characters or even question my sexual orientation (since currently I identify as a lesbian and it does admittedly play a lot into my OCs since I like to create what appeals to me) ... and eventually, I made breakthroughs that lead me to the comfort and understanding I have now for what I like and how I feel about women (both real and fictional)
The "Challenge" in question is essentially genderbending your favorite male character/OC. I love this idea. I have done this numerous times in the past couple years. And the past decade, actually.
That's the main practice that helped me reach this point of view about my OCs (and about gender & attraction IRL as well) ... It's a good creative exercise. Very good, actually.
Anytime anyone criticizes genderbending is when the genderbending appears to be Badβ when it changes the design to fit the stereotype of what a woman is.
Bishoujo figurines do this. The majority of genderbends do this. I actually still like those. But I like non-conforming designs even more, because they're much more interesting and believable.
That's where I started to develop using this practice on my favorite characters as a kid. It was more often female-to-male than male-to-female, but that still worked at teaching me non-conformity, and it was a pretty even mix, as well. Genderbending was the toy starter kit to gender theory and deconstruction of gender roles for me.
