Escher Girls

bob-artist submitted:

I decided to whip this up after browsing through your blog today…  I wanted to see what it would look like if the two characters with such ridiculous poses and outfits were male.  Just as I suspected, drawing this made me feel *dirty.*  I love tasteful male nudes, but drawing this felt very uncomfortable and sexist.  I wonder if/how these male artists can draw females like this and not feel anything out of the ordinary.

I decided not to take a humorous approach because it seems the man who drew the original cover took it very seriously.  But male or female, I think the end result is ridiculous enough to warrant a laugh.

If men had to look at lovingly rendered sexualized portrayals of their bodies at every turn, I figure they’d probably feel as uncomfortable as I do upon entering a comic shop.

This is brilliant.  Both the drawing and your commentary.  I don’t think there’s much more I can add, except maybe this: if men WERE drawn like that, I know I wouldn’t feel more inclined to buy those comics, especially if I wasn’t interested in the comic or heroes in the first place.  If women WEREN’T drawn like that, I doubt male readership would drop noticeably at all (if anything it might increase because any men who leave would be replaced by men who like non-porny, heroic art).