out of the strange, still dusk-

therotund:

sfreefree:

rosalarian:

therotund:

drst:

alithea:

julounge:

Abandoned Velma by ~nebriniel

i saw this earlier and LOVED IT but then the person posted the artist’s motivation/inspiration and it filled me with such intense rage.

from their diviantart, emphasis mine:

I’ve seen numerous fanarts of Velma, depicting her as some über curvy and sexy and geeky fantasy material… and for some reason, I wanted to draw the opposite - a tubby Velma, an out of shape Velma, a having-finished-with-the-mystery-squad-letting-herself-go Velma… I mean, that happens, right? People get done with what they think are their glory days and kind of just… exist instead of living.

So here we have Velma that’s been stood up on a date. I picture this being her first date with that particular guy, but not the first time she’s been abandoned like that.

Instead of distress, I wanted to show her as being used to this sort of thing by now - she’s gotten into a habit of bringing a book along with her, even. I would say she never held out much hope for succeeding with the date tonight, but, nevertheless, tried to make herself look nice. She’s not grieving much, as her outlook on the whole situation is rather removed and philosophical after so many failures.

I wonder why she keeps trying?

when i saw this, i was like “oh man! this is awesome! look at velma looking a-may-zing in that great dress, drinking a glass of wine, reading a book. looks like paradise!”

but the artist made this thinking “velma lets her self go, gets fat, and then gets stood up on dates. and she is so used to being treated like garbage, that she just assumes it will happen, and brings a book” because that’s totally what happens, right? you get fat and nobody wants to hang out with you or date you or be seen with you??

this artist is a fucking dumb-ass.

“I’ve seen numerous fanarts of Velma, depicting her as some über curvy and sexy and geeky fantasy material… and for some reason, I wanted to draw the opposite.” well BUMMER DUDE because that is actually exactly what you did.

I wonder if the artist has any idea what they’ve created here - which is actually a pretty apt commentary in that, hey, here’s this woman who a lot of people think is totally awesome, who is completely attractive, who seems pretty self-sufficient and has had a lot of interesting things going on in her life - but, oh, man, she’s “used to” being stood up so she just takes it like it’s her due and doesn’t ever question why it’s supposed to be her fault. This artist has created a portrait of so many fat people that I know who are AWESOME and who genuinely believe that there is something wrong with them morally and socially because they’ve been told time and again that being fat is some kind of mortal sin.

And, yeah, we get all up in arms about “confidence is sexy” because, hey, it’s a fucking cliche. But there really are self-fulfilling prophecies; we learn not to see people flirt with us because we don’t believe anyone could possibly flirt with us. We hate our own bodies because, hey, we’re supposed to, right?

And meanwhile, to some objective observer, this fat woman in this picture is just hanging out, looking fly, reading a book and drinking some wine. 

One of the most effective tools of oppression is to make the oppressed believe it is their fault, that they deserve it. And fat people are really fucking good at hating ourselves. 

tl;dr: love the picture, think the artist is probs a fat-hating douche who has helped perpetuate the loathing so many fat people feel for themselves. Good times.

This is probably the prettiest Velma I’ve ever seen. Why’d the artist have to add that shitty narrative?

I was pretty angry with the artist at first, but then I read through some of the comments and she had quite a redeeming response:

“I think there’s a clear difference between letting oneself go in terms of trading self-respect for hatred/depression and what I had tried to portray - understanding that people will be people (more to the point, dicks will be dicks), and if some of them happen to dislike you based on looks, not to waste emotional energy on begin angry at them, or letting their actions sadden you. The latter isn’t about ‘giving up’, but more choosing where to spare fucks.

So I think you’re actually on the same page with Velma - if a guy chooses to walk out on her without having a proper date, she won’t let it get to her, because clearly he lacked substance in the first place. After all, her decision not to get angry or obsessed over it gives her way more merit as a human being than a set of killer curves ever would… at least I’d like to hope, because then what chance do I have?”

My problem, even rereading this response from the artist, is that it doesn’t actually change what the artist statement SAYS. And, you know, maybe it’s just a really really really badly written artist statement? But you don’t get to describe someone as “letting themselves go” which is a really not even coded way of passing judgment on a woman for not dieting her unruly body into submission and then backtrack on that and say, oh, no, it really refers to knowing that other people are dicks. 

the difference between how people see us (fatties) and how we see ourselves is very different once we’ve started taking our bodies back. and even before i started reclaiming myself, i would have seen this artwork the same way: chunky Velma being beautiful and awesome. not chunky Velma being sad and alone. i would be surprised if someone else didn’t wander over to her table when her dick date didn’t show up.

(via nerdpoet)