I was talking with some friends about how my art style is clearly and deliberately derived from pinup and magazine aesthetics and how everything I draw is some sort of at least mild commentary on gender presentation, especially putting men into tropes that women are usually pushed into.

Like... The ridiculous posing, the airbrushing, the vapid nature of it. It's very much meant to evoke societal presentations of femininity, or at least how it's exploited... It's meant to make people think about what femininity and masculinity are.

There's also a bit of religious commentary in it, as a significant amount of my gender understanding and frustrations are with religion. It's impossible to divorce my feelings about religion from my work honestly. It's important to me to play with these tropes. not even in a "see how it feels" way, just in a "and why is this not the same to you?" way

I want people to confront their ideas about gender, a little bit, and question what they think is attractive! I don't know if I'm succeeding, but thinking about my goals this directly and pointedly helps me continue to push further into them more deliberately with every new piece I do.

Do you see what I mean... I have no idea if I'm succeeding. but I'm trying

This is also why I like to draw women in a way that makes people go "those are women...?" Cause I think it's important to make people confront the idea of masculinity and femininity regularly... Yes, women can look like that. And yes, these men are still completely men!

Sorry I keep adding to the post. I never articulate these goals with my words... The whole point of my art is to explain it for me because the ideas are too difficult to explain with my words...