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I like Steven Universe!

I like Steven Universe! published on No Comments on I like Steven Universe!

Now that I’ve watched every single episode except for that April Fool’s one, I have to state that I love Steven Universe!

 

I love the fact that it’s about a boy with three [living] moms, including two women of color, whose closeness, queerness, and strength is celebrated.

I love the fact that Steven’s awesome superpower is basically love and open-minded acceptance, modeled not only by Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, but by his dad. I love the fact that his dad could so easily be a dull schlub, but instead he’s a wonderful, practical, down-to-earth guy who nurtures Steven’s big heart.

I love the fact that his best friend, Connie, is a super-serious, nerdy, analytical girl, respected as a character in her own right, never relegated to the role of love interest or stick-in-the-mud.

It thrills me beyond belief that the two of them fuse into a genderqueer “experience” named Stevonnie whose immediate reaction to creation is not to have some heteronormatively determined panic with sexual subtexts, but to revel in the sheer joy of dancing.

Of all the characters I watch this show for, my favorite is Pearl. As an intellectual who believes in the power of rational thought, she constantly struggles with the supposed purity of knightly virtues and the supposed messiness of emotional attachments. I identify all too much with her tendency to lead from her head [or to at least convince herself that her head is right] rather than to appropriately respect her intuition. I find her equation of devotion and abasement poignant and psychologically profound. I like how, even though she feels worthless, even though she can be rigid and snappy, she’s also capable of great love and tenderness. I think that Steven’s open-minded acceptance benefits all the Crystal Gems, as they all have reasons for hating themselves, and I hope that, in future, his love can help her see that love, equality, and self-respect can coexist.

Steven Universe has so many wonderful aspects that I can scarcely believe that it will continue such a magnificent run. I dread its inevitable devolution into heteronormative crappiness, overrun with male-coded Gems and supposedly romantic plots for Steven and Connie. It’s the only piece of mainstream media that I’ve encountered recently where I feel like myself and my imagination are represented — i.e., it’s a world where queerness is a fact of life, where women are fuckin’ awesome in multifarious ways, where kindness, honesty, emotional expressiveness, and open-mindedness are strengths, and where the white, straight, cis, male, bourgeois narrative is shown for the unimaginative, boring, toxic, dull, and ultimately irrelevant delusion that it is. It’s not perfect, but it’s surprisingly awesome…although I wonder how long it can stay that way.

Cool robots don’t compensate for incoherent misogyny.

Cool robots don’t compensate for incoherent misogyny. published on No Comments on Cool robots don’t compensate for incoherent misogyny.

Tears of Steel, the Blender Foundation’s 2012 crowdfunded movie short done all in Blender, stinks. According to the premise, a dude who “just wants to be awesome in space” [Horrible Line #1] breaks up with a woman because he “won’t admit that he’s freaked out by her robot hand” [Horrible Line #2].

Forty years later, this rejection leads to an infestation of misanthropic killer robots. Humans are trying to brainwash the robots with a re-enactment of a more compassionate departure of Horrible Line #1 from Horrible Line #2.

The only reason I know this is because I read a plot summary online. I sure didn’t get any of that from the flat, atonal acting or the incoherent script. All I got was that women are irrational hysterics who are going to destroy the human race, but somehow an appropriate performance of heteronormativity is going to save it.

If you’re trying to establish a reliable system of parental relations…

If you’re trying to establish a reliable system of parental relations… published on No Comments on If you’re trying to establish a reliable system of parental relations…

…Patriliny is really not the way to go. I mean, seriously. For most of human history, we could not make absolutely certain who the biological father of a particular child was. However, the fact that biological mothers very frequently bear biologically related children made it pretty apparent that a certain mother was the biological parent of a certain child. Yes, I understand that now this connection is complicated by sperm donation, egg donation, surrogate parenting, etc., etc., but, for much of human history, you could pretty much depend on a biological relationship between a kid and the person out of whose body the kid was born.

 

If we used matriliny instead of patriliny, our current standards of reproductive control would make no sense. We wouldn’t necessarily want to police the behavior of childbearing people, girls, and women in general. We’d probably think that their reproductive experiences were open and honest, in comparison to the hidden — and quite possibly sneaky — actions of people with sperm, boys, and men in general. In fact, I can easily envision a deep distrust and disdain for people with sperm, based mostly on the fact that the results of their reproductive experiences are not necessarily obvious. To go even further, I could conjecture that this contempt for people with sperm would probably develop from a time during which the matrilineal people believed that childbearing people just had babies spontaneously and people with sperm didn’t have anything to do with it.

 

That would be a reversal from our current, actual attitudes toward childbearing people and people with sperm, and don’t for a minute think it would be any sort of improvement!

 

 

Having fun with Ayana Doll

Having fun with Ayana Doll published on No Comments on Having fun with Ayana Doll

I discovered a new free standalone Poser figure recently, Ayana Doll, by Glidman. I think she’s very cute, despite her alarmingly bazooka-like default breasts, so I’ve been making some freebie stuff for her.

 

The vast array of breast morphs, tongue morphs, and extremely skimpy outfits provided with Ayana Doll clearly demonstrate that she is intended for stereotypical sexy pinup shit. In response to the presumed innocent and yet flirtatious personality implied by all the pinup accoutrements, I have deliberately made my Ayana Doll stand around coolly, making unimpressed sneers. She looks better that way.

 

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Recent projects #4: doctor’s exam room set

Recent projects #4: doctor’s exam room set published on No Comments on Recent projects #4: doctor’s exam room set

Since Chapter 7 [and some of Chapter 8] of Zombieville centers on Isabel’s visit to Doctor Z, I decided a long time ago that I needed to make an exam room set. I started sometime last year with research. I had the opportunity to sit around in an actual exam room for about 45 minutes, waiting for a doctor, so I took the time to observe the layout and contents of the room. I sketched a diagram, which I then transferred into Photoshop. Continue reading Recent projects #4: doctor’s exam room set

Recent projects #3: another LOUD shirt for Isabel

Recent projects #3: another LOUD shirt for Isabel published on No Comments on Recent projects #3: another LOUD shirt for Isabel

I finished my second handmade shirt for Isabel last weekend. It’s still an obvious mess, but, compared to my first finished shirt, it went much easier. Everything went more quickly because I understood how the pieces fit together; therefore the steps of construction flowed logically into one another. I was also more comfortable with hand sewing in general, so I made smaller and more even stitches and fewer mistakes. I guess my skills really were developing during those six months that I was avoiding my sewing kit! Continue reading Recent projects #3: another LOUD shirt for Isabel

Recent projects #2: Thalia’s faceup

Recent projects #2: Thalia’s faceup published on No Comments on Recent projects #2: Thalia’s faceup

I’m working very slowly on Thalia. Very, very, very slowly. I sketched my faceup design on her a while back, and then she sat around like that until maybe two weeks ago, when I finally primed her and laid down the white base for her skullface makeup. This is what she looked like back in the mockup stages.Continue reading Recent projects #2: Thalia’s faceup

Recent projects #1: removing Sylvia’s bad fats

Recent projects #1: removing Sylvia’s bad fats published on No Comments on Recent projects #1: removing Sylvia’s bad fats

I post here much less frequently than I used to, so there are fewer in-progress pictures unless a project has stalled before completion. Such is the case with Sylvia. In my quest to refine the shapes of my various fat dolls, I decided to fix her up and increase her posability. I’m not finished yet, but she’s already improved.

 

Continue reading Recent projects #1: removing Sylvia’s bad fats

Final digital David Bowie

Final digital David Bowie published on No Comments on Final digital David Bowie

Finished up the morph and packaged it today. It’s not a perfect likeness, but it’s eminently recognizable, which is what I was going for. Shown below on Genesis base figure with Basic Male Head at 0.3 and Emaciated [from Genesis Evolution Body Morphs] at 0.5. Texture is Victoria 5 Elite texture Valerie modified by me to look like Ziggy Stardust’s makeup. Hair is from MEC4D’s 80s Gym Suit for G2F with custom texture, tinting, and trans map by me. Shaders on lips and forehead circle are from GeorgeHaze’s Metals. Backdrop by me.

 

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Girls just wanna have fun!

Girls just wanna have fun! published on No Comments on Girls just wanna have fun!

In honor of her 45th birthday, a digital vendor, MEC4D, has been releasing limited freebie clothing + hair sets with 1980s style. Here’s Michaela in the latest, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun for Genesis 2 Female.

 

Continue reading Girls just wanna have fun!

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