Any Gender Critical people here who are in the Art World?

submitted by Kai_Decadence from self.GenderCritical

So art is a big part of my life and I've been drawing since I was like 5 years old and because of my love for drawing and looking at art, I do take part in the art community. DeviantART and now kinda Twitter, I like to look at and continue to draw art of characters and all that good stuff but I have to say that ever since I became Gender Critical, I've been VERY unsure of my place in the art world, at least online anyway since that's where I interact the most.

For example, while I'm not really involved in many art fandoms, I notice that A LOT of people in this community are huffing the Trans cult house fumes. Like on Twitter, you have so many artists playing that whole pronouns/identity game and "Trans rights" and all that jazz and it really makes me feel so uneasy to even try to make friends with other artists on these social media because I know that they would hate my guts and think I am literal Hitler when they learn that I don't believe in Transgender/Gender ideology. And it just got me wondering if there are any other artists out there who do not buy into the ideology. I'd love to find these people but I've had no luck at all so far.

I try to keep the Gender critical stuff out of my art social media in general but I was just curious if there were other artists out there who haven't fallen into Gender Identity ideology and if so, how has it been for you navigating through art social media.

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[–]slushpilot 19 insightful - 1 fun19 insightful - 0 fun20 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Sorry to say, but "art social media" sounds like a hellhole. You've got edgy meme culture on one side, and pandering regurgitated tropes on the other. No room for nuance or actual art there.

I think you just have to do your own thing, on your own site, and ignore "social media" except for posting links to your work there and let it go.

Something like what Tatsuya Ishida has been doing with Sinfest maybe? Or what kind of message do you have in mind for your art, since you're bringing this question into it?

[–]YoutiaoLover 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Sorry to say, but "art social media" sounds like a hellhole.

I agree, it'd be tough to make online friends on the social media these days. It's still great to post things on to get exposure and appreciate other artists' works, but not for socializing. Artists who don't believe in trans ideology are a plenty, but it's hard to find them anyway since most of them understandably stay quiet about it.

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I mean you're not wrong that unfortunately it can be tough to make friends on social media in this whole "WoKe" culture crap but I just get lonely. I could never really make friends IRL and the internet was the place I turned to to try to make connections and I really miss the time of 2004-2009 when life was so simpler when it came to social media.

Artists who don't believe in trans ideology are a plenty, but it's hard to find them anyway since most of them understandably stay quiet about it.

Yeah I can see why they would stay quiet lest they endure the wrath of the gender specials within the art social media community that have been multiplying since 2016, The reason why I want to meet more artists who don't believe in trans ideology is mostly because I want to be with people who won't try to rip me to shreds because I don't believe in the ideology while we still share a passion for drawing/art.

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Well a lot of my art is very cartoon-based. Like nothing realism or surreal or anything like that. Just simple Disney inspired art and a lot of the people I follow kinda do the same thing whether they be character designs, web comic artists, or animators. They're all on Twitter for the most part while some are still on DeviantART.

[–]slushpilot 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I guess I'm curious why you feel like you have to incorporate these issues into your art then. It's refreshing to even see anything that isn't consumed by it one way or the other.

Is it the social media that pressures it?

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Incorporate the issues? I'm sorry I'm not sure what you mean. Like I'm not trying to shoehorn Gender Critical stuff into my own stories or anything like that. I just mean that it can feel a little alienating since it seems like most are all TWAW or "Trans lives matters" and I'm just sitting there trying not to blurt out what a load of bull it is lol.

[–]Climblikeabee 15 insightful - 1 fun15 insightful - 0 fun16 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I feel this so hard. I'm not an artist but I did take a lot of art history in college and it's one of my big interests. I've run into the same issues - pronouns everywhere and it only takes a minute of scrolling to find some TWAW bullshit. It sucks.

Do you follow anyone on ig? Jess De Wahls is gender critical and promotes other artists (usually ones who've been affected by cancel culture and believing in biology) so I've found more to follow through her. What kind of art are you interested in? I can send you some ig profiles if you'd like.

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Nice to know there are others who understand the struggle, makes me feel less alone lol. Yeah the pronounds and TWAW bullshit is just horrible on Twitter and it's why I try not to venture too far out lest I see annoying crap. It was already bad enough during the JK Rowling is a Terf nonsense and how so many artists were just denouncing her and saying all these awful things about her.

I'm not really on Instagram when it comes to my Art. I have an art account there but I hardly ever upload because it's been a little difficult to try to build an audience there. The kind of art I'm interested is mostly character design. I'm heavily inspired by the golden renaissance style of Disney and other artists who take that as inspiration so I mostly just follow other character designs and animators. I haven't been canceled yet when it comes to my art but I know that as soon as I come out as Gender Critical on my YouTube channel, my art may get affected since I've been very open about my art on my social media.

[–]Syranoe 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I'm an artist but I no longer use DeviantArt. Twitter just seems so toxic and hive mind that I just avoid it completely. I just use Artstation because of the no drama and I've never seen any weird furry art on there XD

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Oh my LOL Haha well I have to admit that I do sometimes do Furry art, not even gonna lie lol. Yeah I still use DeviantART, been there since 2005 and it just feels like my main base of operation even though the latest site change still sucks and I much prefer the old layout. I made a Twitter mostly because some of my favorite artisrs up and left DeviantART and migrated to Twitter. Twitter can definitely be a hellworld when it comes to the politics and I try to avoid it.

How is ArtStation? Have you been able to make friends on there?

[–]crodish 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

raises hand

It's despairing to see how much a picture with tits and ass and bedroom eyes gets mass upvoted and produced, even badly drawn. It's so sickeningly popular

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Well I can't lie and say I don't do some softcore NSFW stuff though of the gay male variety. Not like straight up sex but just pinups every now and then when I'm not doing my character design studies. But yeah it's depressing that clean work doesn't get nearly as much attention as NSFW does. That's part of why I miss the early 2000s of art social media because NSFW wasn't as big back then in the sense that people were still much more open to seeing clean stuff.

[–]Greykittymomma 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Yes I dabble in art but mostly on my own blogs and such. I sell art at markets too and I always find it hard to meet like minded creative people. I'm fairly libertarian so I get crap from all sides.

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Oh really? Even out at the market where you sell you find it hard to meet like-minded people?

[–]Greykittymomma 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Farmers markets are a bit weird I suppose (I grow flowers and produce too.) Farmers tend to be pretty conservative but many newer businesses that set up are liberal. I try to keep politics out of it as much as possible but I get comments on rainbow things I sell for instance. I have a few people there I relate to but it is a very diverse market.

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Ah I see. Well at least you're able to find a few people to relate with in the market.

[–][deleted] 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

In art school right now. Very scary to be a rad fem here.

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Oh no, i can only imagine. Is it really bad? I haven't been in art school since 2009 and it was a lot different back then since the gender stuff wasn't a huge thing at the time but it was slowly emerging.

[–]dollyllama108 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I started digital art in June and am releasing a webcomic in November, if that counts. Luckily, because the AI-aided nature of my work forces it into a genre few people are willing to read, everyone ignores me anyway. But I do fear that I'll lose the few readers I do have if I'm explicitly GC. (There are a couple female characters who identify as 'nonbinary' in my main work whom I'm using to address and explore gender dysphoria in ways that stealthily don't align with trans ideology.)

I'm also lucky enough to frequently collaborate with two gender-critical IRL friends. That's been keeping me sane. For the most part, I don't have a Twitter, I've given up on Tumblr, and you have to believe me when I say it is damn near impossible to get people to interact with my work. So I was already isolated from social media for non-GC reasons.

What's with the otherwise well-executed webcomics that seem to have a Tumblr rainbow explosion of every gender, sexuality, and race combination the author can think of? I'm tempted to go on a new comic binge and drink every time the author shoehorns in a black trans woman. Feel free to rant at me about that and I will listen, ugh.

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I started digital art in June and am releasing a webcomic in November, if that counts. Luckily, because the AI-aided nature of my work forces it into a genre few people are willing to read, everyone ignores me anyway. But I do fear that I'll lose the few readers I do have if I'm explicitly GC. (There are a couple female characters who identify as 'nonbinary' in my main work whom I'm using to address and explore gender dysphoria in ways that stealthily don't align with trans ideology.)

I totally understand. I plan on making my own game and possible short animated series and I know that if I'm very out with my GC beliefs, I may not find any success or people who will be interested in them because they think I'm literal Hitler for not buying into the ideology. It's something I struggle with quite a bit so I totally feel you there.

I'm also lucky enough to frequently collaborate with two gender-critical IRL friends. That's been keeping me sane. For the most part, I don't have a Twitter, I've given up on Tumblr, and you have to believe me when I say it is damn near impossible to get people to interact with my work. So I was already isolated from social media for non-GC reasons.

Oh that's nice to hear. Cherish those friends for sure. I could only wish I had at least one Gender critical IRL friend but sadly I don't haha. And I so understand what you said towards the end. Even before the GC stuff, I never really fit in that much in social media, including the art spaces. It was hard for me as well to get people to interact with my art, even those who I thought were my friends... Not a good feeling but life goes on as they say.

What's with the otherwise well-executed webcomics that seem to have a Tumblr rainbow explosion of every gender, sexuality, and race combination the author can think of? I'm tempted to go on a new comic binge and drink every time the author shoehorns in a black trans woman. Feel free to rant at me about that and I will listen, ugh.

Oh no lol Haha I think if you were to do that you may get liver poisoning haha. But yeah I've noticed this too. I was never really big into Tumblr but I've browsed a few times and yep, all these shoehorns of trans and non-binary and just bleh.

[–]dollyllama108 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Liver poisoning doesn't sound too bad right now.

I'd try to guess which fujoshi artist you're talking about in that other comment, but am afraid I may guess wrong too many times and that would just bring the mood down.

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Haha I'll just share her because I know there are a ton of Fujoshi artists on Twitter. She goes by the name "DrunkenFix". Very comic-like art style and i genuinely do like it but every now and then she'll do a trans post or share a picture of her totally "male" self and I just have to bite my tongue lol.

[–]PeakingPeachEater 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

So art is a big part of my life and I've been drawing since I was like 5 years old and because of my love for drawing and looking at art, I do take part in the art community.

Hey, same! Drew since I was young (around 4-5yrs) and used to be very active in the art community. Though, I'm currently having a terrible "art block" just due to some...personal stuff in life and how much things have been changing so fast...Sadly, been about a year or two since I've drawn. I like to draw a but of everything, was an aspiring comic book artist. Wanted to try my hand more in animation and programming my own video game and make my own art/music for it.

For example, while I'm not really involved in many art fandoms, I notice that A LOT of people in this community are huffing the Trans cult house fumes.

Yeah, that's typically why I stay away from places like Tumblr(back then), they are deeply entrenched in gender identity politics...I hardly check DeviantArt anymore, it's usually just the same-o, same-o art that I'm not quite interested in...Twitter, I've seen a mixed bag of people. There's a couple of political cartoonists that are right-wing who mock gender idenitity politics(stonetoss comes into mind).

Whenever I want to look up art...I...just google search something specific and it leads me to different forums/places where I discover more art. I don't really keep track of those places much anymore but if some come to mind I'll let you know. It just depends on what type of art you like to though, there's some websites and forums that are specific to videogame art, or 3D art, etc. Sometimes it loops me back to Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, etc.

I try to keep the Gender critical stuff out of my art social media in general but I was just curious if there were other artists out there who haven't fallen into Gender Identity ideology and if so, how has it been for you navigating through art social media.

There's nothing wrong with keeping politics out of your art. If that's not what you're interested in doing, then don't worry! I thought about doing political art but it seems like a headache, for me, personally... BUT some people do good job of it, I don't feel I can keep it up though lol.

If you were wanting to see some gender critical art, however, I would recommend the artist lesbihonest-art, aka Rusty. She makes a comic called Leasebound that tackles the autogynephile issue for lesbians. But it's not necessarily a political comic, it has a story.

Surprised to find it on Tumblr...I guess more of tumblr is starting to become more gender critical. I haven't fully read the comic, just skimmed here and there. Found the AGP portion of the comic interesting.

[...]if so, how has it been for you navigating through art social media.

Perhaps you can ask Rusty that question as an anon if you'd like on her tumblr page since she does post quite a bit of gender critical stuff on her Tumblr.

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Hey, same! Drew since I was young (around 4-5yrs) and used to be very active in the art community. Though, I'm currently having a terrible "art block" just due to some...personal stuff in life and how much things have been changing so fast...Sadly, been about a year or two since I've drawn. I like to draw a but of everything, was an aspiring comic book artist. Wanted to try my hand more in animation and programming my own video game and make my own art/music for it.

Nice to meet you! And oh man sorry to hear about the art block but hopefully it passes and you can get back to getting your ideas out there. It's ufnny you mention wanting to get more in animation and video game production, I'm trying to do the same as well. Already have a few ideas that I'm slowly still building but it's still nice to run into other people who are trying to do the same. :)

Whenever I want to look up art...I...just google search something specific and it leads me to different forums/places where I discover more art. I don't really keep track of those places much anymore but if some come to mind I'll let you know. It just depends on what type of art you like to though, there's some websites and forums that are specific to videogame art, or 3D art, etc. Sometimes it loops me back to Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, etc.

Yeah I've been on DeviantART since 2005 (I'm 29 currently) and it just became a home of home for so long when it came to art however while I did make a Tumblr, I never used it too much for the reason you pointed out. That's where the gender madness crap really was and I just didn't want to see that so I wasn't really active on Tumblr and Twitter yeah, it's a mixed bag but all the people who left Tumblr went to Twitter haha. I guess the main reason why I still try to participate in Art social media is because I like to talk to people. I don't really have anyone to talk to in my real life so I always escaped to the internet to try to connect with people. I just miss the simpler times before all this gender nonsense engulfed the art social media scene lol.

Someone mentioned ArtStation as a good place to look at art so I'm thinking of maybe setting an account up there. :)

And oh I wasn't necessarily looking for Gender Critical-themed art even though I'm digging Rusty's art style (I'll look into more of it!), I was just wanting to find other artists who happen to not believe in the gender ideology. You know kinda like the old days before gender nonsense became a big thing. I just don't want to be walking on eggshells when talking with people and they get all offended that i don't believe men can become women or vice versa haha.

[–]emptiedriver 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The https://twitter.com/womensart1 twitter feed (or just the #WomensArt hashtag) shares consistently great women's art, and is fully clear-headed about biological reality and the history of feminism.

If you're really into cartoons, here is a GC one on twitter: https://twitter.com/TatsuyaIshida9

You can find related stuff by following links from those pages too as there are people out there, but of course there are always risks of how much of a bubble you want to find yourself in... I do think that pro-TRA people have created a bit of a bubble themselves and just haven't been pushed back against that much, so there's more of a silent majority who just don't know how crazy the conversation's gotten and don't care enough to make a difference.

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The cartoonist one is neat, totally my kind of style! Thanks for sharing and I'll be sure to go through her follows to find similar people. :)

[–]cinnaflo 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I used to paint digitally as a hobby but I pretty much fell out of it after some time. I do look into the art community once in awhile (Twitter and IG), and yeah transgenderism is everywhere there (I think more than any other place aside from LGB spaces). Fandom, anime, anything geeky or artsy especially, that’s where trans stuff congregate. I do know a few gender critical artists, but the only ones I know who are publicly GC are: Lesbihonest.art, redkatherinee, and Tatsuya Ishida.

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Fandom, anime, anything geeky or artsy especially, that’s where trans stuff congregate

Very true... I've noticed this too. Like even obscurer games like Ratchet & Clank (my personal favorite) has been getting invaded by the trans crap since 2017 haha. It's depressing and I just miss the simpler times when it came to these things you know?

Oh and some other commenters recommend those artists you suggested and I checked them out. Nice to know there are some GC artists out there.

[–]cinnaflo 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Oh yeah definitely, I didn’t hang out with the gender crowd in art communities back then and was kind of more of a lurker. I joined a wlw fandom discord recently and it’s so wild with how almost everyone is using terms like “non binary”, “ace”, “trans femme”... and even worse “trans butch”. I’ve always thought I was a weirdo growing up being into things that weren’t the mainstream, but never in my life did I feel like such a ‘normie’ there lol. And yeah GC artists exist but most keep it to themselves.

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Oh my gosh that all sounds just terrible lol. Yeah I don't think I could stay in a group like that for too long without finally snapping and telling them that they're being ridiculous so you have more resilience than I ever could lol.

Yeah you're probably right that most artists who have GC views will keep it to themselves. I just wish there was a way for us to find each other among the sea of gender specials.

[–]throwawayanylogic 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Artist here! I've loved drawing and painting since I was a preteen. One of the artists who first really inspired me was Georgia O'Keefe, I did a lot of watercolor abstracts and floral works inspired by hers (before even realizing how much of it was, well...not just about flowers :) I kind of fell away from that kind of art for a while - got more into portraiture and oil painting but have been back at the floral stuff for a while and really want to do a series of yes-it-looks-like-a-vulva-on-purpose paintings, just because.

I'm also in fandom, not as actively as I used to be as it's become such a trans/woke space. I recently got into a new fandom that has a lot of great artists, but also a ton of trans!character art that is a pain to filter through. I've just had to block/blacklist a lot of people to make browsing in that fandom tolerable.

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Nice to meet you :D That's an interesting background for your interest in art, thanks for sharing!

I'm also in fandom, not as actively as I used to be as it's become such a trans/woke space. I recently got into a new fandom that has a lot of great artists, but also a ton of trans!character art that is a pain to filter through. I've just had to block/blacklist a lot of people to make browsing in that fandom tolerable.

Euhg this is so true it hurts. Like it's even worse when it's an artist who's style you really like but they are neck deep in trans bullshit Like there's this one artist I follow on Twitter who's been a big inspiration to me when it comes to character design but she identifies as "trans" and throws trans stuff into her feed every now and then and it's even worse because after browsing through her feed, I can totally see why a girl like her would think she was a man.

  • Obsessed with Yaoi/Gay pairing
  • Obsessed with 80s Glam Metal
  • All the Gay Meme postings

I mean I think she's what they call a "Fujoshi" I think they're called? Either way I really try my best to ignore it and try to appreciate the art lol. But yeah it can be nightmare browsing for new art to look at only to see the "pronouns" and whatnot littered over their page.

[–]divingrightintowork 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Huzzah for GC Visibility! I'm not much of an artist but I'm glad this thread exists.

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Haha awesome

[–]divingrightintowork 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

oh shit saw your post about being banned - I'm so sorry - people are super stalkery holy fuck. It took me a moment then I realized we chatted before. How goes everything in the life of being a femmy gay guy? Also the friend I connected you with detransitioned / deidentified and is back to being a male/man :0

[–]Kai_Decadence[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Thanks, it sucks and I still feel a little weird about it since I've been going to that sub for like 2 years now and it felt nice socializing with people with a similar interest so I'm bummed about that but I guess I'll manage.

Also the friend I connected you with detransitioned / deidentified and is back to being a male/man :0

That's great to hear! Glad he finally was able to accept who he truly is. :)

How goes everything in the life of being a femmy gay guy?

Same old, same old really. Tough dating life but aside from that, things have been more or less the same. Just been working on personal projects haha. How have you been?

[–]divingrightintowork 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Haha I'm pretty ok, nothing super eventful! And yeah I hope they have found the right path for them. Hope to see ya in the FB group!