#make them ugly

[monstersxoxo]

i’m a firm believer in making characters break out of eurocentric beauty standards

[lunar-muse]

Just wanted to get this out of my system, even if this may be somewhat controversial.

One thing I absolutely hate about modern romances (especially with hetero couples) is the absolute erasure of character of the love interest, particularly the male or male presenting one.

More than half of his personality is smirking or leaning against random doorways, or wait, most of his personality is just his looks! The absolute chiseled features paint him out to be some sentient Michelangelo’s David, so impossibly perfect that it’s not even human- even uncanny.

I won’t name it, but a book I was attempting to read describes the protagonist (a woman) meeting her love interest and almost immediately calling him a ‘sex god’.

That threw me off. Horrendously. Not because there is something inherently wrong with expressing your sexuality (as long as you do so responsibly) but because that woman immediately dehumanised him to his sex value.

Sound familiar? It might, because you’ve probably noticed in old media (and even recent ones) a woman often falls prey to this trope. It’s the sexy lampshade all over again but I don’t really see people consciously avoiding it when it comes to writing or drawing a man.

Everything from the smirks, the nonchalance, the height difference, the casual strength and violence, the low husky voice that whispers the cheesiest nicknames known to humankind is just the same fantasy rebranded over and over.

Now before you come at me with your pitchforks, no I am not kink-shaming anybody. It is perfectly normal to desire a ‘protector’ or a ‘dominating’ partner (again, as long as you don’t hurt them or yourself), but often times it is so focused on in media that they stop being a character altogether. You could place a cardboard cut-out of a model and strap a record player onto it and you get the same thing.

It’s the overtly sexualised secretary or the “never let a boy to a lady’s job” super-heroine (who is really just a dominatrix) or the hard, unemotional woman who completely changes personality after a moment of vulnerability all over again. Just gender-bent.

MAKE YOUR LOVE INTERESTS HUMAN. GIVE THEM CHARACTER FAULTS ASIDE FROM BEING POSSESSIVE, VIOLENT AND RIDICULOUSLY HORNY.

And for the gods’ sake, please don’t say “she looked like Jessica Rabbit” or “he was a model” when describing their physical appearances (unless they really are a model or can afford to expend that much time and energy on their looks).

Give them diverse features! Your love interest does not need to be physically attractive (according to the social standards) to be hot!

Give them crooked and big noses! Give them crooked or buck teeth! Make them wiry and lanky or pudgy and soft! They don’t need to have hazel, sapphire, emerald, ruby, diamond, granite or sandstone eyes to be interesting!!

Give them opinions! Make them a person OUTSIDE of the romance! Make them lazy or procrastinating or even an arrogant know-it-all!

MAKE. THEM. HUMAN.

[magdoi]

my criticism on fanart of acotar is that everybody is too beautifull idk i feel like they should be a bit ugly

the only exception is probably lucien

[snufkinya]

That being said.......if there’s a hyper-realistic Gardevoir with fucking hyper-realistic eyes and a skin texture that lets you see every individual spore and awful eldritch limbs then Detective Pikachu will be the Best Fucking Movie ever and I will eat a raw tomatoe