#tvoyh

Let’s start with some context. Soy Frankelda is a prequel to the animated series Los Sustos Ocultos de Frankelda. Both of them are stop-motion productions from Mexico. Unfortunately, getting your hands on Los Sustos Ocultos de Frankelda if you don’t live in Mexico or the US is pretty much impossible legally. This means that most of us will probably discover the prequel before the show itself.

Soy Frankelda is a gothic tragedy in stop motion that doubles as a dark fantasy musical featuring a romance between a raging female horror writer and her devoted but tortured monster love interest.

So yes, it basically has it all. It fits in many many genres and at the same time feels like its own type of niche. That’s why in order to do it justice, I had to break down the many ways in which that film shines.

a gothic universe in service of art

Okay, okay. First of all. I have to address the artistry of this film. As we all know, stopmotion is one HELL of a job. The film not only does it justice, but also does so while having a lot of things happening on screen at the same time. From a technicality point of view, this is extremely difficult. Other than that, the amount of details put on screen at every scene makes it a film you want to rewatch to make sure you haven’t missed anything.

Some of the characters and element of Soy Frankelda seem to be reminiscent of another mexican artist, Remedios Varo, who specialised in Surrealist paintings such as Creation of the Birds, The Gathering, or Character. The inspiration for Herneval’s species seems directly inspired from them. However the universe of Soy Frankelda knows how to distinguish itself from its inspiration, and rivals in stopmotion. Its maximalism and choppy animation gives it a lot of character. It might not be as fluid as a Laika or Aardman film, but somehow this does not become a flaw and instead contributes to the eerie aspect of the story.

Speaking of its animation, something that the film does brilliantly is mix its puppet animation with another style of animation during musical sequences. During the ballad Yo Ya Había Estado Aquí, Frankelda and Herneval are represented as different real life objects, being together in every universe. Whereas in El Principe De Los Sustos each character is has a hand-painted animated sequence.

Speaking of the music, it is banger after banger. I personally watched the film in Spanish with subtitles in my native language, so I don’t know what the English Dubbed version is worth. However, I can assure that the Spanish version does not disappoint (unless you’re the type of person who hates musicals–but if that’s the case, what are you even doing here?).

There is just something about the songs that feels very Shakespearesque. I know he didn’t write musicals, but it feels like that type of theater. The film is definitely a tragedy in my opinion. I also saw a lot of criticism regarding the plot, what was developped and wasn’t, etc. Personally, I think the issue comes from the fact people looked at it with the expectations of a standardised 21st century scenario–which, fair enough, we are in the 21st century– when the story and the way it is laid out is much closer to the plays that adorned stages way before the era of television.

There is a love story between characters from two different worlds, a tensed political climate, a royal family. Most of the element you would find in plays they make you study at school. Except that here, it is presented before you in stop motion with musicals. It reads like a revival of almost-forgotten arts.

the revival of tragic romance

The Principe de Los Sustos, Herneval, is ultimately the tragic hero you find in most plays. He is torn by love and duty during the entirety of the film, every move he makes towards Frankelda’s affection has legitimately awful consequences on his kingdom, and every action he makes out of duty to his people–by a wonderful butterfly effect in shape of the antagonist–results in driving Frankelda away from him and damages their relationship. His caring nature is the source of his internal conflict, because he cares deeply for his parents and would do anything to save them and his kingdom, but he is also helplessly in love with Frankelda.

Except that he can’t repress his love for Frankelda, he doesn’t just love her, he lives for her. They have been connected ever since they were kids, when she started writing about his world and he quite literally became her comfort character (I’m not kidding, her child-self carries a stuffed animal version of him). The link was so strong that it allowed him to cross the border of their world as a child, but that’s the thing, he was equally obsessed with her as she was with him. Growing up, she wrote and wrote about his world, as a whole, thinking it fiction, while he didn’t care much for the human world but watched over her nonetheless because he was enamoured with everything she made.

If you like devoted male character, well then Herneval is your next tumblr sexy man. But careful, it is impossible to talk about Herneval without mentioning Frankelda. So let’s learn a bit more about her incredible character.

She is a young woman in the 19th century who has been writing horror ever since she was little, and longs to share her stories with the world. But after many rejections in her world, she barely hesitates when Herneval invites her into his world. She willingly becomes a ghost and joins him in his kingdom, a kingdom she has been writing about for years.

What I love about Frankelda is how real she feels. The animation lets her be very expressive in all her emotions, positive or negative. She is allowed to rage, cry and be scary, to a degree that we all know women capable of, despite Hollywood trying to freeze our face in one singular lookmaxxing expression. Frankelda has passion, and feels everything to 100%. She believes in the quality of her work while at the same time crumbling and questioning everything for every bit of criticism she receives, a sentiment that can probably be shared by many artists.

She rightfully completely shuts out Herneval when he betrays her (it’s a bit more complicated than that, but from her point of view that’s what happens), only to quickly forgive him when he rescues her with an open shirt (Let’s be honest, you too would probably forgive the real-life version of your book crush if he saved you shirtless).

Frankelda feels like a self insert in Topus Terrenus (Herneval’s Kingdom) and that is entirely the point.

the soul of Soy Frankelda

I believe the strenght of this film is the people it will speak to. Frankelda wants to escape her world in which she feels out of place and rejected. She uses writing as an escapism but also a tool to channel her eotions, something most writers and readers can relate to.

“Lo que imaginas lleva tiempo imaginándote.”

In the film, what you imagine also imagines you. It follows the theory that everything you think about is already true in another universe, somewhere. Frankelda was lucky enough to pass that threshold and enter the world she has been dreaming of. If you have been on TikTok during 2020, you will probably make the link between what Frankelda does and shifting2. If you don’t, you can still recognise that–while not true for everyone– a lot of readers and writers would jump at the opportunity to live in what they so far believed to be a fictional world.

But what I find most interesting about Soy Frankelda is that, if you pay close attention to the details, you will see that what she was wishing for was already there. Fiction is inspired from reality, and while the film quite literally tells you that one of the Sustos is based off her Abuela, there are two other characters that are slightly more subtle. The Royal Writer is eerily similiar to the Editor who rejects her book without even reading it, the antagonist was present in both world. Sure, even less of a reason to stay in the boring version of the two you would say. But so was her love interest. There is one male character with little screentime, who was present in the human world, and was eerily similar to Herneval.

I genuinely believe that, had she not left, there could have been a love story between the two. And funnily enough, the obstacle was her insecurity. During every interaction Frankelda has with that character, you can see that she has fully internalised that the people in this town will reject no matter what, so she misinterpret every kind action he tries to take as a mockery or a trick. In that aspect, Frankelda also warns to not fully detach yourself from reality because what you’re looking for may be right under your nose, if only you lift it from the pages from time to time.

Frankelda is the soul of the film, if she had existed nowadays she would be that talented fanfic writer who desperately tried to shift in 2020 to be with her comfort character, and tends to prefer maladaptive daydreaming over real life interactions. I loved Soy Frankelda because I looked at the screen and I saw parts of myself. I believe I won’t be the only one.

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I went into that film completely blind, I had seen some clips of Marilyn Monroe’s films on social media but had no idea which were from where. Imagine my surprise when I realised all of the ones I had seen were from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes!

That film was an absolute delight, I knew people kept moaning about the loss of Technicolour but now I know why. The images were just stunning and the colours… MY GAWD THE COLOURS. I love colourful things and this was simply a feast for the eyes, at least in my opinion. The outfits were absolutely stunning, I want their entire wardrobe (props to David C. Woodard, he did a fantastical job with the costume design). The musical numbers were also great, there is such an enchanting aspect to the way people sung back in the 50’s and I was genuinely having such a good time. Truth be told, on the way there I was scared I might fall asleep, I had had a pretty long (and rough) day at work and hadn’t slept much the night before— I was going through some dark times and was constantly exhausted. Yet the second it started I was wide awake, eyes glued to the screen, a smile on my face.

I enjoyed the film from start to finish, there was just one moment when the poc representation made me scrunch my nose a little. I wouldn’t be able to pinpoint exactly what made me uncomfortable but something was off, it was kind of the same vibe as the little centaurette in Fantasia from Disney. However I’m white as a ghost so probably not the best person to tackle that subject hence why I won’t delve into it much, just a little warning for people wanting to watch.

This moment aside though, there was something from the film that I really enjoyed, when the girls are in France, the characters speak French! I feel nowadays we tend to completely remove language barriers for the sake of storytelling and it was refreshing to see a film who didn’t shy away from not translating a language, and just working your way around it with gestures and quick explanations that make sense in context—it also makes for great comedy. I can also 100% confirm they picked native French speaker, not an American they gave a phonetic script to who would then butcher the whole thing with a terrible accent like Netflix enjoys doing so much.

There was a lovely intro before the film by Rógan Graham and I was surprised to learn this whole shabang was adapted from a novel by Anita Loos, a woman! Furthermore, while I did know Marilyn had inspired many people— obviously she’s an icon— I learned she had directly promised to sit at the front row of all of Ella Fitzgerald’s shows in a specific venue which drove paparazzi insane and gave Ella the marketing she deserved. There seemed to be a wonderful friendship between the two, and I loved the way Marylin used her privilege. They are said to both have bonded over the complications of their childhood.

Anyway, now less about the technicality and more about the story itself.

I loved to see a female friendship at the center of the story, sure both of them were dealing with love life problems, but it really felt like their relationship with each other was the center point. The solidarity between Dorothy and Lorelei is absolutely lovely to see, despite having different goals and ideals. Dorothy is interested in love and looks, she wants to have fun (who can blame her) while Lorelei is our diamond obsessed girlie who believes financial security is necessary for romance to flourish (a valid point imo). Both of the girls do try to influence each other for what they think is best for one another, however they still support each other’s choices.

I really enjoyed watching Jane Russel’s character interact with the people around her, Dorothy is very free in her sexuality and it is never portrayed as shameful nor vulgar. She simply is a beautiful woman existing and enjoying life while knowing what she’s worth. She radiates such confidence, despite being 24, I felt back in the shoes of 10 y/o me watching a beautiful woman pass by and thinking how cool she is.

Also, funnily enough, while the sexualisation of the girls never feels in your face or too much (like genuinely, it literally just feel like beautiful women existing, no weird angles or anything), I would almost say the men were more objectified than women in the film. That Olympic team on the boat, and the whole musical number when they are working out with Dorothy doing a musical number in the middle almost felt like a role reversal. I don’t know, maybe I’m just seeing what I want to see but I really enjoyed it. It was a nice change.

Despite being portrayed as the « dumb blonde », Marilyn’s character is actually quite smart in terms of how life worked back in the days. She puts financial security above all else, and while she does love diamonds, it is hard to detach them from financial security. The history of women and jewels has always been tied to financial security, it was something they could sell if the situation ever came dire, it all derived from a time when we were not allowed to open our own bank account (this was the case until the late 19th century, so barely more than 50 years before the release of the film)

Not only does Lorelei know what she needs for financial security, she also clearly displays knowing how to obtain it. Whether it be through her behaviour throughout the film, or the line her character clearly states near the end « I can be smart when it’s important, but most men don’t like it ». Her character of the dumb blonde is, indeed, a character. I find it very interesting that this line is thrown at the very end of the film, because it forces the audience to reconsider their opinion of Lorelei and the judgement they may have casted too promptly.

The film ends with Dorothy and Lorelei marrying their love interest, at the same time, wearing the same dress, walking down the aisle together. I’m sorry if that is not the epitome of ambiguous female friendship I don’t know what is. Lorelei and Dorothy walked so that Liana and Alexa, and Anneliese and Erika could run. These two women were each other’s soulmates and you can remove that take from my cold dead hands, I don’t care whether you interpret it as romantic or platonic, in both cases, soulmates.

cue in that song that goes “I will fall in love with you, over and over again, I don’t care how where or when, no matter how long it’s been”

Side note : The BFI is having a Marilyn Monroe season and I was originally going to make one piece of all the films I went to see. But I’m just out of the first one and when I see how much I’ve written……… Yeah this one had to be its own thing lol

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A princess who has all the potential to win…

a) Materialistic advantage

Briar Rose is born into a wealthy kingdom, her parents are not in need of anything. She has had access to everything she ever needed in life, and most probably has been given a comprehensive education with the teaching of numerous skills useful for royals and court.

Furthermore, one of the gift from the fairies was referred to as the gift of “riches”, it is however unclear if this gift was immediate with various riches appearing in the room or if it was mean to say that no matter what, riches would always come the princess’s way throughout her life.

Either way, should she had ever need any type of weapon or object for her tale, she could have easily gotten it.

b) Flawless Personality

She has received numerous gifts from the fairies to assure she would be a perfect human being. There were 11 gifts, however only wisdom, beauty, and kindness were mentioned. Despite the mystery of the other gifts, the one we do know about made the princess a girl loved by all. Love quite often being needed to win a fairytale.

Besides, the gift of kindness is also a must-have role-model quality, although one could argue that it is a little strange that it needed to be brought magically by the fairies, would Briar Rose not have been kind if that gift was not given?

Beauty is a debatable requirement as a princess, after all, it is said the Evil Queen used to be the fairest of them all before Snow White grew up. The Tale of the Ugly Duckling also emphasise on the fact we should not judge someone’s goodness by their appearance. Yet, we still give beauty a considerable importance in today’s society so I will say being Beautiful helped Briar Rose in finding her prince (a hero I will tackle later).

And last but not least, wisdom. Wisdom is not necessarily intelligence, but being wise will definitely help avoiding stupid mistakes that can get you killed. And being alive is necessary if you want a happy ending.

…but somehow wins without it…

a) Luck has its favourites

Briar Rose’s family has a history with luck. Her whole birth comes from the fact the Queen met a frog who told her she would be with child, which is incredibly lucky. Her birth could be considered a miracle, considering the King and Queen had tried for years without success.

It is without all the quality attributed to her that Briar Rose ends up being saved. She follows the spells and falls into a deep slumber. However, she was lucky enough for the legend of her asleep kingdom to still be mentioned and talked about for the centuries to come, allowing princes to come and try rescuing her. Many of them died which is unfortunate. The Prince who does succeed, only happened to be lucky enough to learn about her existence and come the day the spell was coming to an end.

You could argue that the beauty she was given by the fairies was the reason people kept talking about her for the following years, which honestly makes it kind of sad that it was the only thing she was remembered for when the fairytale clearly mentioned she was loved by all for her kindness and wisdom.

b) Patience is key

In the end, Briar Rose story was all a game of patience. Despite the King and Queen trying to destroy all the spindle as fast as possible, the princess still fell asleep after 15 years. And once she fell into slumber, no matter how many people tried she only woke up once the spell came to an end. There was never a mention of True Love’s kiss breaking the spell, besides, how could she have known True Love if she had been asleep for 100 years? The only love she could have met was either asleep with her in the kingdom or long dead.

Morale of the story, listen to the formulation of your curses properly and act accordingly. If there is nothing else to do other than wait, just wait.

…despite the unhelpfulness of everyone around her.

a) Surprisingly irresponsible parents

After wishing for a child for so long, one would expect her parents to be more responsible and smart when it came to dealing with her. There are 13 fairies, and they have only 12 golden dishes, the tale said they were very wealthy, why not buy a 13th set of golden dishes? Why risk angering a fairy? Why not send her the invite and explaining you only have 12 golden plates but that you would be happy to lend her another type of plate if she wished to come? Why not send the invite to all the fairies explaining the problem to all of them so that the kindest one could choose to not have a golden plate? Let them argue together and save your daughter. There were numerous ways that could have avoided Briar Rose getting cursed in the first place.

Destroying all the spindles could have been considered intelligent, although one could argue that since magic was involved, a spindle could have still appeared out of nowhere, but let us assume it did not. Why keep all the remains of the spindles in the castle where the princess is living? Why did they not tell her about the curse? Of course young Briar Rose would not be suspicious when that old lady was spindling in the castle on her 15th birthday, she did not know and everyone loved her. How could she expect harm to come her way?

Furthermore, why were the King and Queen absent on her birthday? They knew about the curse, I cannot imagine how any duty outside the kingdom could have been more important than protecting their daughter on that fateful day, especially since they had not warned her about the danger. The King and Queen may have been good parents when it came to affection and education, but they were terrible when it came to protection and basic survival skills, even in court! Why would you not invite a fairy but all the others? Where is the Etiquette in all this?

b) A prince who actually does not do anything

I have to say I was rather confused about the prince. I do not mean any offence but he ended up being rather useless. He went through the barrier of thorns with no troubles since the spell ended that day and so there was no barrier of thorns anymore. Then he walked up to Briar Rose, sleeping, he kissed her and she woke up. It never says it is the Prince’s kiss that woke her up, the spell was ending that day, she was going to wake up either way. And right after that they apparently get married?

I like to believe some parts of the story got lost in between the awakening and the wedding. Maybe after the kingdom woke up, the Prince offered to help Briar Rose adapting to the 100 years advancement she had missed in her slumber, and during that time they gradually fell in love. I am hoping that is how it went, because if it is not, the Prince is just an entitled royal who kissed a defenceless girl in her sleep and married her right after because reasons.

Overall, I would say Briar Rose teaches us to be true to ourselves, and have confidence that everything will work out the way it is intended to. Be patient, and that’s it. Probably do not count too much on the people around you since they all seem to be wildly incompetent.

I will say though, it was a fun read. Reading the Grimm version of fairytales with the eyes of an adult in the current society can lead to some funny The-Office facial expressions.

Here it is if you want to have a read : Briar Rose - Grimm Brothers

I also feel it is important to note that the Grimm Brothers did not invent the stories they tell. They collected fairytales and recorded them— probably including a few personal changes.

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the soldier

a questionable quest

I have a hard time considering the soldier a hero. We do not know how old he is, but he does not seem to be quite young. He is said to have fought for long and the oldest sister even makes a remark about how, judging by his state and physical appearance, he would have fallen asleep even without the potion. I assume he would be barely younger than the king.

So this man, who is not so young anymore, hears about a King who wants to know where his daughters sneak off to, and will reward the winner with the hand of the daughter of his choice, as well as the crown. And he does not see any issue with it? The princesses are not in danger, but sure, I guess their father is worried, however if the King considers them old enough to be married off to a stranger, he should also consider them old enough to go out without his constant supervision.

In other words, the soldier’s quest is to help a controlling father rip off the fun from his daughters’ lives and then marry one of them without their consent. Hardly a noble quest to pursue if you ask me.

a happy ending that isn’t earned

So I have established why I consider the quest not fitting for a good person to pursue, but now I would like to address the fact that he does not even earn its completion. The soldier is terrible at sneaking and spying.

He could have taken just leaves from the golden, silver, and diamonds trees, but no, instead he choses to break off a whole branch of each, even after realising the youngest sister noticed the noise the first time. Listen to me. The first branch was noticed, and he still decided ripping out a whole branch was the best course of action two more times. He does not learn from his mistakes and does not try to do better.

During the balls the princesses attend with their prince, he dances too, taking the risk to accidentally bump into someone, and he even drinks directly from the princesses’ glasses! Not only is the absence of liquid noticed and an unnecessary risk, he also reduces his reactivity by consuming alcohol while on a spying mission where his life is on the line!

I will excuse the stepping on the gown because he had to follow them fast, and the getting in the youngest sister’s boat because he then decides to go into the oldest, so there is evolution. But he shows more often than not that hewas not fit for the job.

The only reason the soldier succeeded in his quest is because he had been given an invisible cape by an old woman, which helped cover all his missteps, and because he was tipped off about the enchanted wine that would put him to sleep. Had he not been warned or given that cape, he would never have had his happy ending and would have been executed like the others before him.

the old woman

a fairy godmother or a witch?

I must admit I am very confused about the old woman. She could definitely be considered a fairy godmother. After all, it is only thanks to her that the soldier won his quest, the same way that, Cinderella could only go to the ball because the fairy gave her the dress. So she definitely has all the qualities of a fairy godmother :

good advice “Do not drink the wine offered by the princesses, and pretend to fall asleep.”

magic items “Take this cape that will make you invisible.”.

However, the nature of the “hero” she is helping makes me question if she is a fairy godmother or a witch. Why would she help someone win such a questionable quest? Besides, she is apparently an old dame, and while I am usually not one to judge by appearances, I cannot help but connect it to the fact that, for some reasons, fairytales often put old women on the side of Evil and makes them not to be trusted (which is kind of sad for all our grandmothers out there.)

So to me, the old woman could be a witch, after all, who has an invisible cape just laying in their bags? Especially since the power of invisibility is more often used for nefarious purposes than good ones.

mysterious motives

Why is she helping the soldier? Why is she giving him a magic cape? What did he do to deserve it? The tale does not mention anything he did for her, if she had this cape all along, why give it to him specifically and not the sons of the kings from other kingdoms who lost their lives during the quest? These crown princes were actually needed by their kingdom and died, we do not even know if there were other heirs to replace them, meanwhile this old soldier does not have any responsibilities that make him a priority to be alive.

I am not saying his life has less worth because he is not a royal, nobility has nothing to do with it, I am talking about responsibilities. If you had to chose between a parent of three and a random person who did not have any children/pets to take care of, the parent would be a priority because by helping them you are helping more than one life. The reason why she helps the soldier is very mysterious and not explained in any way. And my problem is, if it is from the goodness of her heart, he was definitely not an ideal candidate.

By the way.

How did she know all of this? How did the old dame know about the wine? Did she know where the princesses were going? How did she get all that information? Was she a spy? Did she work in the castle? None of these questions ever get answered, and because there is so much mystery surrounding that woman, and the questionability of the quest she helps, I have a very hard time trusting her.

the dancing princesses

needed to be rescued, from the King

I guess we could call the sisters the only “good” characters in that tale. If we gloss over the fact they were poisoning the princes to fall asleep, thus making them fail their quests. Now I wouldn’t say they were directly responsible for their deaths, their father was since he was the one gave that ultimatum “Figure out what my daughters are doing or I’ll kill you.” and the princes sall igned up willingly.

So this could be debatable.

Regardless, the princesses could definitely be considered princesses in distress, needed to be rescued from their father. They are not allowed to go out and have fun, and the second they do, the King employs men to discover how they do it and prevent them from doing it again. He kind of has a similar role as Mother Gothel and Frollo towards Rapunzel and Quasimodo. The ultimatim is also huge, “I am hiring these princes to figure out what you twelve are doing behind my back, and if they can’t I’ll have them killed.” That is a huge psychological threat put on them. Although it didn’t seem to affect them that much given the poisoning.

not a happy ending

I do not believe this qualify as a Good Wins ending. The princesses will most probably be forbidden from seeing their princes from the enchanted underground again now that they are discovered, and the oldest sister is being married off to a man she does not love and who is the reason she lost her prince. If anything, I would say this is a story where Evil wins.

the King

The King is a Villain. There is no doubt about it. He keeps his daughter locked up in the castle, and kills a load of princes for failing at a quest. He could have just sent the princes home, no, he decided to kill them. Preventing probably a good chunk of the nearby kingdoms from having heirs, and thus, making their unstable politics easier to take down and conquer. He is a cold-blooded, controlling man, and a Villain.

I don’t have anything else to say. I hope his death was painful.

the princes

illusions or reality?

I really wish the story dwelled more into what this enchanted place was, and the people that lived in it. Is it a place similar to wonderland? Who are these 12 princes? Are they brothers? Are they princes from different kingdoms? What is the name of their kingdom/s? Could the princesses have escaped there and married them?

the true heroes

I believe the enchanted princes to be the true heroes of the story, because they were the one rescuing the princesses from their sad life and bringing love to them. Ultimately, they were also the princes that the dancing princesses were actually in love with.

Or if we take into account no one was good in this fairy tale, maybe it was all a Coraline type of situation and nothing in that enchanted world was to be trusted.

Given that I mostly use stories to escape the harsh realities of the world, I will stick to the Barbie version.

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It’s literally natural

why do we have hair

The fact is, arm hair is actually the equivalent of super cool coat that you don’t have to pay for. During cold temperatures, it raises to keep in the heat, and it also protects us from UV rays. Remember how every single skincare video insists on applying that UV protection? Well our arms have it built in! It can also help evaporating sweat, thus keeping us cool during hot weather.

Furthermore, it helps with tactile functions. Hair can sense changes in the environment and it is connected to the nerve endings. I bet you would prefer knowing if a bug is crawling on your arm, well it is the hair that alerts you the quickest because it is more sensitive to the motion than your skin.

The same goes for leg hair.

Now before I start getting attacked about armpit hair, let me just. Let me.

Armpit air is there to prevent chaffing and irritation (and evenly spread pheromones but there aren’t enough studies on that subject yet). Okay? So next time your armpit is all red and you get an irritation, remember that would not have happened if you had just let it be.

Also, armpit hair, just like any hair, is not going to be unhygienic if washed properly.

the body is a symbol

The human body is celebrated in plenty of different way. I feel that if you look up any parts of the body you can think of and follow it with the word ‘meaning’ you will find a result for it. Whether it is a widespread idea like the heart being tied to love, eyes referring to the soul, the hand to unity, the arms to hard work, legs to stamina and foundation, etc, or a very specific meaning originating from a specific spiritual belief, you will still find something.

We have found ways to celebrate every part of our body with a celebration. Why should body hair be left out? The hair at the top of our head gets to be brushed, rearranged, braided, and tied to memory. Why can’t our body hair be a symbol for armour when it’s very purpose is to protect our body?

why isn’t body hair represented in media

capitalism

It is actually insane the amount of things we can blame on one specific economic system. Here, we can even narrow it down to one brand. Gillette.

They are the ones who made shaving cool in the 1915 by publishing ads in influencial magazines such as Vogue and Harpers’ Bazaar. This was the start of the war on armpit hair.

Okay, I will admit blaming only Gillette would be foolish since numerous brands jumped on the trend (Nair comes to mind as it is still pretty established nowadays.)

It then started spreading when nude tights became in vogue, but were then harder to obtain in the midst of the war. The closest thing ended up being hairless legs, so the war extended onto leg hair. They had started earlier on, but the war gave them the final push they needed for it to really work.

I am unsure when the war against arm hair started as I believe this more of a recent thing. Less of an expectation, but still considered ‘abnormal’ enough to earn a comment or two when wearing a sleeveless top. Basically enough of a thing for people to wonder why you’re not hairless like you’re “supposed” to be

From a financial point of view, the behaviour of these brands was understandable. After all “According to SNS Insider, the Hair Removal Devices Market size was valued at USD 1.46 Billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 3.32 Billion by 2035.” (Yahoo Finance) There was money to be made. Besides, shaving wasn’t new, people were already shaving based on their own preferences. If that hadn’t been the case, these brands would have never existed in the first place. So what was the harm in doing a little self-promotion?

Well, simple. Instead of going “our products are great, buy them!” they went for “ewww you’ll look horrible, disgusting, and no one will ever love you UNLESS you buy our products ;)”.

Shaving as a concept isn’t bad and has existed for millenia through different cultures. The issue is that these ads and that entire —still ongoing— marketing campaign made it an expectation for women to be competely hairless.

Wrong word. Sorry. Not an expectation.

Much worse. A norm.

a culture of shame

That is my main problem with it. Like I mentioned, shaving has been a concept ever since Antiquity. Even if you look at Renaissance paintings, most of the nudes do not feature any body hair— on both women and men alike funnily enough.

“Ew, your arms are so hairy!” — a boy sitting next to me, I was 7

My issue is that a concept that depended on everyone’s own preference has become a norm and therefore is expected. What was an individual’s choice became an expectation set specifically for women. Enough of an expectation to get turned into judgement against whom did not get in line. Enough of an expectation for people to allow themselves to make unprompted comments on other people’s bodies. Enough of an expectation for advice to be given on how to get rid of body hair, without a question ever being asked. Enough of an expectation to be asked why you have hair in the first place.

“Why do you have so much [leg] hair?” — a male colleague, I was 23 and him 34 (I will say though, the look on his face when I simply answered “Because I don’t shave it?” — as if he had asked me the stupidest question I had ever heard— was top tier comedy gold. To be fair, it was indeed a stupid question.)

Enough of an expectation. To be asked WHY you have hair. On a body part that NATURALLY produces hair!!!!!!!

“Are you sure you want to keep your bush as it is? Some guys don’t like that.” — a family member, I was 16

You don’t go around asking people why their eyes are that colour. You don’t go around asking people why they’re short or tall. You don’t go around asking people why they grow teeth. You don’t go around asking people why they have hair at the top of their head, or why they’re bald.

You don’t go around asking people why their body looks the way it looks(or at least you shouldn’t).

“Wow you have a lot of [arm] hair!” — a girl student at the school I work at, I was 22

Your brain is not stupid. It would not ask something if it is obvious. There are plenty of questions that we don’t ask because the answer is simply “The body works like that.” Why isn’t it the same for body hair?

“You didn’t wax your legs before the summer? You could always shave them if you’re scared of the wax hurting.” — a family member at the beach, I was 18

We not only have stopped representing hair in media, thus slowly getting it out of what the norm is (despite every single one of us clearly being able to see it grow on our bodies), and worse we perpetuated the idea that body hair is undesirable. Who you are, as you are, is shameful and you need to get rid of it. Painfully. Wax it. Laser it. Torture your own body for daring to exist in its natural form. To be pretty is to suffer, isn’t it?

“It might be time to go get your mustache waxed, it’s starting to show a little on the corner of your mouth.” — a family member in the car, I was 12

Well no. I don’t want that. They made a campaign to change people’s minds? It’s time we do the same.

how do we go back to normal

a hypothesis I have tested on myself

For my next point to make sense, we need to dive back into my late-teenage/young-adult years.

I have a roman nose. Which I hated. It was the only thing I could see when looking at myself in the mirror. I have been lucky enough to not feel insecure about many things with my appearance, but my nose was a big issue. However, I tested out a theory.

I had noticed that if I applied mascara every day, after a while, I couldn’t bear to look at myself in the mirror without it. “I look dead/sick/depressed.” you name it. Whenever that happened, I forbad myself from using mascara until I liked my bare face again.

It worked every. single. time.

So there was my hypothesis, my brain accepted as “my normal state” something it saw consistently.

Now why wasn’t it working for my nose? It was right in the middle of my face every day. Simple, it wasn’t represented in beauty standards around me. I learned to draw with those very misogynistic cliche of man strong-square with a big nose and woman small-petite with almost the complete absence of a nose.

I liked drawing myself as a character for different shows, universes, etc. And from that day on, I made a point to always draw a roman nose on myself, even to the point of exagerating it. I hated it at first. I felt like I was drawing myself ugly, when I think about it now, the fact I had that thought in the first place makes me want to burn alive the people who put those ideas in young girls. All for money to. Anyway. I tested out that method over months, and then years.

It might have been very narcissitic in a way. But now? I love my nose, even on pictures (which was a huge step for me). I love drawing different noses on characters. If I draw myself without a big nose, it just feels wrong. It worked after about a year or two of doing that.

uno reverse

So for our society to go back to normal. The method is quite simple. We just need to do the whole thing in reverse. We propaganda right back.

There needs to be hairy girls and women everywhere.

Ads. TV Shows. Illustrations. Photographs. Films. Etc.

And most importantly, it must not be adressed. It cannot be mixed with a marketing strategy. I know it’s tempting but please do not. It needs to be normal. If we point it out everytime as something groundbreaking we are inevitably alienating it. That is not the point.

The point is to make it something common that people don’t second-guess thus slowing reinstating its place in the common understanding of the human body.

“Normalcy is what you see repeatedly.”- Above the neck, SOPHIA ISELLA

Now you might wonder why I say we. Not all of our jobs have an influence on media or even a big reach. But we don’t need to. Like I said, it does not need to be loud. It needs to be consistent, and omnipresent.

I’m an artist, and a writer. I depict human likeness, and that now includes body hair. I am not delusional, I know that all projecst done with big corporations will be at the mercy of shareholders and they sure as hell won’t let us depict hairy women unless it’s to say they are ugly (would help if not so many of them were pedophiles). That is why it becomes our responsability as independent workers to do what we can.

Art is political. Being independent means doing what we want. That is the whole point of it. Only we have the power to do this. And if you are not in the creative arts, I want you to think of the amount of times you depict human likeness. Do you have an Instagram account you post on? A Facebook page? Do you exist in public spaces?

It starts with small things like this. It needs to be within small things like this, because that is where “normal” is. Please, do me a favour. Next time you are planning a shave or a wax. Ask yourself why.

Do you do it for yourself? Or because you are afraid of what others might say? I’m not asking you to go full wilderness from one day to the next. I myself still shave my armpits (sweaty girls rpz), but just take the time to wonder. Question it. Keep practicing that critical thinking skill. Then see what the result of it is. Maybe you’ll keep doing it for your own comfort. Maybe you see the point of stopping but still need a bit of time to take that step. Maybe you want to push against your fear so that our daughters don’t ever have to ask themselves the same question. Maybe you’ll simply realise you can’t be bothered to spend time shaving/waxing.

No matter the reason why you stop or keep going, I just want you to make sure it is your own educated and conscious choice. Because we were born with hair, on our bodies, it is us who decide whether to keep it or shave it or wax it or trim it or braid it or heck even dye it if we want.

No one else can say anything about it. And there is only one response the people asking why you’re not hairless deserve,

Girls are hairy. Deal with it.

Thank you for reading! Subscribe for more updates

If you enjoy my writing or my takes you might want to check out my book :D

And if you like cats, pink and purple (and would like to support my work) I currently have an exclusive collection of prints, stickers and more on my website for a limited time.

Sources

Your Health Magazine - The Surprising Truth about Arm Hair

Your Health Magazine - The Benefits and Myths of Embracing Armpit Hair

Psychology Today - How Women are Shamed for Having Body Hair

The Persistent - The Tangled History of Women and Body Hair Removal

The Bustle - Photos Of Shaving Ads From The Last 100 Years

the blur of a character

It all started with some funny tumblr post, a billboard, and a book. I don’t remember exactly why, but I remember reading some posts on tumblr about vampires and people analysing how certain things would work realistically. I also saw this billboard of Dracula which I found pretty cool, and before I knew it I was buying Dracula at the only local English bookstore—I lived in France back then— and delving a bit deeper in vampire lore.

After finishing it, I knew I wanted to write a book about vampires. However, I like funny things, so I wanted mine to be a comedy. I had a rough concept, a classic vampire in a manor, and a human that she has to keep alive for a year (this later evolved into three vampire sisters, and one uncle in a crypt).

BUT.

Carnita was the OG. When the idea of the book was just a few sentences, I made a concept cover (yes, I know I do everything backward). While the cover has its flaws—obviously, it was a first concept— it still established a clear baseline for me.

I wanted her to have the classic red/white/black colour palette associated with vampires. I wanted her hair to be plastered at the top of her head considering many adaptations of dracula seem fond of that hairstyle, and I wanted her to be menacing. Also she would be italian, because vampires and garlic.

I wanted her to be a textbook vampire. Not a sexy one. Not a harmless one. I didn’t want her to have any regards for human life because why would she? How many people feel bad about the steak they eat? Either way, I had the blur of a character.

an aesthetic through words

I knew I wanted my book to have illustrations, but I also didn’t want the character’s appearance to reflect only through the pictures. They needed to be felt through their personality without me having to repeat 100 times what they looked like. In the end, the construction of the character’s appearance and personality ended up fusing and one would influence the other.

Carnita is very spiky/triangular. She is dangerous so I wanted her to look sharp—literally. Pointy chin, loosely triangle-shaped eyes, pointy lips, roman nose. Her leather jacket needed to have spikes on the shoulders. The impossible redness of her hair is there to accentuate how uncanny she is, but also to link to blood/violence. She is a character you should fear.

Yes she is funny haha too. But the only reason the reader feels that the human is safe around her is because if he comes in harms way, her loved one will be impacted. Now an average joe she meets in the street? Is he safe? Depends if she’s hungry or if his death would be convenient. She does not have morals per se. Her code of conduct is not necessarily aligned with current-time values. After all, she has been alive for more than 500 years.

The way she dressed needed to reflect her age, but not to make her look like a sweet old lady. She was turned at 16, her brain never fully developped. Carnita has been stuck in the emotional turmoil of puberty for more than 500 years.

She does have an attachment to the first centuries of life she experienced, and has a hard time letting go of gowns, no matter how impractical they are. This could seem out of character considering how much she likes to move around, you would think she jumped on trousers as soon as they were available to women. But that’s not the case. She would never admit it out loud but the dresses she has owned for centuries provide her with reassurance and comfort. It is one of the rare things in her life that stays the same, and provide her with a semblance of stability.

She was however not immune to the punk movement that took over in the most recent years. Girlie had to get her hands on some big chunky shoes and leather jackets.

not a disco ball type of vampire

As I mentioned, out of the three sisters, Carnita is meant to be the scary one. She has experienced actual battles, can fight with any blade you hand her—not necessarily because she is an expert in every type of blade that has existed, she is only well-versed in the most common one used in European countries— because she can adapt very easily. She has this feral survival instinct that means she will use teeth and claws if need be. She is a fighter, not in a girlboss type of way, but in an animal-caught-in-a-trap type of way. This absolutely unhinged agressivity you will only find when someone is certain they will die if they don’t get out of that situation.

She has good reasons to fight in such a manner, because she has been in a fight-or-perish situation more times than she can count. As I said, she has experienced proper war battles. Her and Uncle Joe’s residency have been found by hunters numerous times. Also, she is stuck in the body of a 16 y/o girl, is quite short, and mostly comes out at night to hunt, I don’t need to paint a picture of the type of encounters she faces frequently.

Given her situation, and the fact I wanted her to be as close to the original myth of vampires as possible, it felt fitting to give her a dragon bat transfiguration. In this universe, each clan of vampires has a specific power, hers is transfiguration. Each member of her family can transfom into a varying degree of monstrous version of an animal. Hers is bats.

She very rarely transforms in just a regular bat. The form she feels most comfortable with is the dragon bat. A huge beast for a small girl. It was perfect. It is what she aspires to be. The dragon bat is monstrous, but it has the potential to protect her family. She absolutely adores this form despite how ugly one might find it. Carnita relishes in terrifying people off of her property to ensure they don’t get too close to the manor. That is the thing, she loves being a vampire because it gives her agency.

amusing to read

Carnita has a very funny haha aspect to her. As I mentioned, she is italian and so I wanted her to be very expressive (before anyone says that I am generalising, this trait is based off of me. A big side of my family is Italian and I promise the body language and facial expressions are contagious, I love them). The book needed to remain a comedy, and the fact is she has spent so long on her own with Uncle Joe that social masking is not something she would bother to do anymore. She is the equivalent of a goblin.

I wanted her to have that cartoony aspect to her so that she would still be a character people could like. Besides, only someone with weird rules of immortality would allow themselves to be that unhinged without fear of consequences. Above you can find a few early concept of what she would look like, as well as a reference sheet for her final appearance.

Carnita is a terrible liar for the simple fact that she wears her emotions on her face. At least the big, loud, confident ones, like anger.

Fear is probably the only emotion she still knows how to mask, because it is the only one she never feels comfortable sharing with her loved ones. She is the goblin who carries swords around, throws knives at the wall, shoots darts on cushion and would tear off a man’s arm with her teeth. She is the protector of the house. She cannot be afraid.

Which is ironic considering the entire baseline of her character is actually, led by fear. The weapons, the dragon bat, the feral behaviour, the spikes and pointy aspect of her design, the loudness of her anger… One does not fight this hard for survival, unless they are utterly terrified.

In summary, despite where the idea originated, there was a lot of fleshing out and distancing done when going from Dracula to Carnita.

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If you’re curious about Carnita you might want to check out my book :D

And if you like cats, pink and purple (and would like to support my work) or want to meet Carnita’s youngest sister Salem, I currently have an exclusive collection of prints, stickers and more on my website for a limited time.

the boomerang effect

In social psychology, the boomerang effect, also known as “reactance“, refers to […] a situation where people tend to pick the opposite of what something or someone is saying or doing because of how it is presented to them. Typically, the more aggressively a position is presented to someone, the more likely they are to adopt an opposing view.

the push for Artificial Intelligence

AI appeared a few years ago, quite innocently. People were generating landscapes based off of memes during a phone background trend on TikTok, then people were generating videos of Will Smith eating spaghetti and laughing at the weirdness and inaccuracy of the AI, apps like c.ai started being launched. It mostly seemed innocent at first, but since its apparition, AI has gotten more and more prominent and has quite literally started being thrown in our faces.

The premise of it was never legal, but as long as it remained used for memes and “What would I look like as a [show] character?” people were mainly okay with it. But then, AI made an entry on the job market. Every app added AI as a non-negotiable feature. Data started being taken with dubious consent from users who were never made aware it was taken in the first place–the toggle to turn it off being perfectly hidden deep in your settings, if at all present. Every brand was selling AI to us as this wonderful thing, and ignoring all of the bad stuff that went with it. That is what they are good at, isn’t it? Something terrible happens, they throw a few sparkles in our faces and we stop thinking about it. Ironically, the symbol massively used to represent AI is sparkles. De la poudre de perlimpinpin as we say where I come from.

Except this time, it doesn’t seem to work. We keep hearing AI is inevitable and we need to just accept it, but the response to this is not quiet compliance. It is a roar of people actively refusing it.

the witch AI artists hunt

Amongst all of this, AI “artists” showed up. Some claiming proudly to use AI. Unfortunately for them, by then people were already pretty mad. Anyone using AI and calling it art was getting severe backlash (now while that backlash is justified, I wouldn’t go as far as saying that the death threats were okay, like we really need to chill on the cancel culture guys–but that’s another topic).

Then the horror happened. People hid the fact that they were using AI. This launched a witch hunt, everyone is looking for signs of AI anywhere they can find (speaking of, AI can take the em dash out of my cold dead hands, it does not exist in French punctuation and became my favourite punctuation to use when I studied English so I won’t stop using it just because people are calling it a sign of AI).

Artists have to prove they actually drew what they post, so they release videos, but then these videos are fed to AI who is then able to reproduce them and it keeps getting more confusing.

But in a way, this isn’t surprising. The mindset of these people is in itself confusing and absurd.

“AI is so great that I am going to hide the fact I used it.” They know AI is terrible. They are ashamed of using it.

All and all, we have reached a point where it becomes practically impossible to tell who has used AI. Some illustrations are going to feel off, but that may simply be that the artist is still struggling with proportions and perspectives, others are going to feel genuine but it is simply because the AI was prompted to give it that sketch/authentic feeling.

walking away

Overall, the consensus is clear. People want to avoid AI. The fact is that it is becoming more and more complicated to do so online. Therefore, people are moving away from it.

With the rise of AI amongst the techbros and greedy CEO of the entertainment industry, there has been a rapidly increasing desire of the public for something human and real. Something imperfect.

More and more people are taking interest into supporting indie artists, discovering mixed media, going back to physical zines, trying out new crafty hobbies themselves as a form of rebellion.

Let’s face it, the current art industry is in shambles and it keeps getting harder to get a job because of AI. But we have to look at the silver lining here. Whenever something is made independently, whenever an art style or form breaks the norm, it blows up. The people are loving it, sharing it.

AI was the wake-up call humanity needed to start yearning again for something true. LAIKA recently released a trailer for their stop motion film Wildwoods, and it is stunning. Smaller studios like Cartoon Saloon are starting to get more and more recognition. People are turning to local artists and businesses.

The world and history work like the learning curve. AI has just been introduced into the ecosystem of our society and we need to learn what to do with it (and by we, I mean that our reaction and behaviour will change the statistics that the people actually in charge follow religiously with complete disregard for empathy or any human emotion) Right now we are into the discouragingly realistic part where everything is horrible.

But everything is horrible because we are transitioning. They brought us AI and are trying to shove it everywhere, that model is not sustainable, people hate it and are walking away from it. If we give it time, it will balance itself out. And in the midst of it, we will see a resurgence of the appreciation for human-made art. It has already started, we just need to let it stabilise and have faith in ourselves.

If we give up, it will never get better. This is a war and your best weapon will be your pencil. So go and create, make mistakes, mess up and share it. Show everyone the beauty of trying. Art is the process. And if you don’t feel like making something, then treat yourself to the creation of an indie or local artist–whether it be an amateur play in your local theatre, an indie book bought at a book fair, a small exhibit at your community centre, an independent short film on YouTube, etc, etc.

The horrific consequences of AI forced us to face the fact that most of the corporate art industry is no longer after telling stories and only after making money. But humanity isn’t that stupid (although the use of AI sure is trying to make us so).

This reality-check brought people back to art pieces made with soul–no matter the art form.

And for that, ironically, AI might be the best thing that could have happened to art.

Thank you for reading! Subscribe for more updates

If you enjoy my writing or my takes you might want to check out my book :D

And if you like cats, pink and purple (and would like to support my work) I currently have an exclusive collection of prints, stickers and more on my website for a limited time.