Transgender Info, Experiences, Art, Emotions, Metaphors, Anecdotes, etc. NEEDED PLS

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Posted (edited)

I have to do an illustration for a school newspaper editorial concerning transgender acceptance. Can I ask you guys for information on this topic? It would really help.

 

For my previous illustrations, none of the editorials were very interesting and didn't allow for much creativity. I would kind of churn out cliches and simple images that were often really straightforward. So I don't want to post the things that I've already made because this illustration is supposed to be better and different. But for this one, the editor wants it to be more serious, sensitive and respectful. I really want to outdo myself on this illustration. They thought they were using a photo for the editorial, but at the last second decided that an illustration would be better. I hope I can deliver a good one. The illustration is due Monday at the absolute latest.

 

Do you guys have any ideas? It could be really literal and straightforward, artsy, whatever. Probably not any kind of comic strip or anything comic related. Also if you know of any cool art and stuff that reflects transgender acceptance, could you post it here please? Thanks.

Edited by ∟ ∟ (see edit history)
joelxz11, pheonix561 and Padraig! like this

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Posted

I dont know much about Transgender issues, but i think something that would be able to clarify the concept to a cisgender person would be nice.

Ive come across this a few times before

body-chart.jpg

maybe you could incorporate it somehow. Assuming it's accurate.

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Posted

I'm unsure as to what you want exactly...Could you be more specific?

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Posted

I am looking for some kind of inspiration, either that you found or that you have in your mind. I am kind of lost, too, so I am not sure exactly what I am trying to find.

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Posted

I dunno, that's a pretty hard one.

 

If it's concerning Transgender acceptance, maybe something like a group of people going out (to dinner, party, whatever you want really), all enjoying themselves, and have a transgender person there. Maybe you could design them so they look like they are attempting to look like their gender, but perhaps with an obvious "tell," for lack of a better word. The important thing would be to indicate a state of inclusion regardless of whether the the person really passes flawlessly, so you'd want to ensure that they all look content and happy.

 

That's just one idea, there are a lot of other ways you could do it as well.

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Posted

Do one where there's like a bunch of people sitting around a table having fun and stuff and then there's big dorky text like you would find in a kindergardner's activity book that's like "Can you spot the tranny?!" and that's the joke

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Posted

if youre going for "acceptance" then i wouldnt use "tranny", lol.

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Posted (edited)

This is a really frustrating illustration to do. IMO, newspaper illustrations and ads and stuff are supposed to use stereotypes to quickly and easily give a general backstory/information for what's being portrayed. For example, drawing a person with glasses and a briefcase makes you say "oh this person is some kinda businessperson". But I don't know a transgender stereotype. And I am not going to guess what it would be. So I feel like a major tool for quickly and respectfully doing illustrations is off-limits.

 

Like, this isn't "for" transgender people. Like it isn't like a tribute to a cause. The illustration has to be for everyone, so it has to be equally sensitive and informative.

 

A few people who I ask for advice tell me to person split down the middle and I am really trying to avoid that

Edited by ∟ ∟ (see edit history)

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Posted

when in doubt, go the One Piece way-

OnePiece419Sanji1.jpg

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Posted

if youre going for "acceptance" then i wouldnt use "tranny", lol.

(which was the joke yes)

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Posted

This is a really frustrating illustration to do. IMO, newspaper illustrations and ads and stuff are supposed to use stereotypes to quickly and easily give a general backstory/information for what's being portrayed. For example, drawing a person with glasses and a briefcase makes you say "oh this person is some kinda businessperson". But I don't know a transgender stereotype. And I am not going to guess what it would be. So I feel like a major tool for quickly and respectfully doing illustrations is off-limits.

 

Like, this isn't "for" transgender people. Like it isn't like a tribute to a cause. The illustration has to be for everyone, so it has to be equally sensitive and informative.

 

A few people who I ask for advice tell me to person split down the middle and I am really trying to avoid that

i dont really have much to contribute, but I'd just warn you on using stereotypes on gender+sexual minorities, this is a pretty sensitive issue.

 

i'm interested to see what comes out of this tho, i'll be watching this thread

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Posted

I may not even post it because I can't think of anything notable.

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Posted

Sorry I couldn't help man :(

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Posted

I often feel and think that gender distinction is really arbitrary, thinking about how gender identities are so distinct when we're adults, and I think about how everyone looks the same as babies, or how odd it is that babies are so similar, but there's absolutely no sign of how they're going to turn out looking or acting as adults. Yet one simple thing in the matter-- whether it's born with one set of genitals or another, determines so many pivotal things that will happen because of the society that person is born into. What parts it shaves, what clothes it wears, who it keeps company with, what academics it'll partake in, how it's treated, and so forth. There's a binary set of somewhat distinct rules there, and the weirdest thing is, it's all part of our collective heads. Like, these barriers only exist because we were born into them and perpetuate them, and if we cross them, we're in the wrong simply for doing differently what has been done one way for a long time. A really weird kind of circular reasoning that people take offense in going against for no reason.

 

The thing here is that we already masquerade around in these preset personalities and manners of dress  and speech that are totally invented by human beings, yet there are restrictions. Who you can outwardly be is bound by made up rules in a made up system, and if it's made up, why does it have to have so much power? Why can't we just be who we are? It might sound cliche, but it's like, there's no mechanism in the human body that jettisons a dress from a person with a penis or a set of overalls from a person with a vagina, yet we act like it does, and that's just wrong to me. It doesn't hurt anyone, so there's no reason for society to fear it.

 

To me it's a thing of feeling natural. Being in a society where those barriers are gone, where you can feel natural without having to force yourself to appear one way or the other, where no one really notices anything weird about you because everyone acknowledges that those restrictions are silly and arbitrary, or maybe you just fit in so well that it wouldn't be an issue anyway. Again, like standing at a party and everyone isn't staring because of how obvious it is that you're a man/woman, uncaring of who you are romantically attracted to, and whether you identify as a man or a woman yourself. To me it's like, I've been identified by people as a girl or a boy, and I constantly hear confusion over it, and I'm just thinking, who cares? For the polite people who are unsure, I just respond normally and don't bother to correct them because it doesn't matter to me how they identify me, because I don't place power in those words. If they're more comfortable with me as a girl, so be it. I feel natural as I behave and that's the end of it, kind of thing. But sometimes it's annoying to have to deal with the people who don't respect that, even if I'm not doing anything that directly affects them.

 

I think everyone wants to be loved. I often think to myself "everyone has a maiden heart". Kind of reassuring myself that everyone craves some kind of meaningful companionship no matter their opinions or attitude, whether man or woman, child or adult, we all have a sensitive part that yearns. When we're struck down to our most basic components, none of this complicated sociological stuff comes into play, so to me it only makes sense that it shouldn't matter at all as long as no one's getting hurt or used. We're all just larger versions of practically indistinguishable infants that decided to wear a kind of dead plant woven into a certain shape, with the capacity to grow hair of all kinds of different lengths in all kinds of different styles, and we have all different kinds of voices, and take up all kinds of different interests.

 

idk maybe I'm rambling. Point is, I think the best approach is one that kind of points out how arbitrary and hurtful these barriers are. we're all beautiful on the inside and all that jazz

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Posted

I agree. And I think I may use some kind of barrier in the illustrations. Thanks guys

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