To sexualize or not to sexualize

[Calandria]

hello everyone,

I was very hesitant to write this question, but your opinions on it are important to me. Sexualize or not an MC? Is it relevant? Why do it? Most of you could answer NO with very valid arguments that I could agree with, but it would be hypocritical of me to say that I am against sexualization when I actually do drawings of that style, but not as much as before. I even consider that I only draw them unless the scene warrants it.

I would like to know what you think, thank you.

Edit:

Thanks for your answers, the truth is that you are clarifying many doubts and obviously never ... never! ... NEVER!!!!!! sexualizing minors is disgusting, nothing justifies it, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!. My content is focused solely and exclusively on an adult audience and I always repeat it when I post something.

[Shomin]

I am guilty of sexualising all my MCs in my main work.
Since the core of the story has something to do with gender and reproductive topic.
But my sexualization of the MCs are not in an entertaining sexy way,
more on controversial kind of sexualization.
Covers most of the taboo topics in sex and gender...
Even the moderator send me a warning message for mentioning that one word.
Luckily my work is just a novel. it won't be as intimidating when reading it.
But I tried to draw them out one day, only then I realised... it is a bit gore...

[Aeneas1]

I sexualise many of my characters, but, as it's my first time publishing on Tapas, I have to censor most of the nudity because of the possibility of the censors breathing down my neck.

[darthmongoose]

Ultimately it's your choice, and the core question really should always be:

"Do I think sexualising my main character will distract from the story I'm trying to tell?"
Which may boil down to:
"Do I want the reader to see THROUGH my character or look AT my character?"

In the case of my comic, I feel that yes, if Rekki was drawn more like a sexual object rather than a pretty average looking young woman, it would make her less relatable as a person who made some bad mistakes in her teens and is now burned out, kind of a loser and struggling towards redemption. (I'm just going to assume we're all on the same page that sexualising the fourteen year old Rekki from the prologue would be bad under basically any circumstances, so I'm talking about the twenty four year old version of the character from chapters 1 onwards). It's important to me that the reader sees her as a person, not an object.

This is kind of why the main character in a story is usually drawn just quite pretty, cute or nice looking but not objectified, while the love interest is the one more often drawn as something to drool over. The reader is meant to be able to see the protagonist as their avatar in the story, and in some cases this is hard if the protagonist is being objectified, because it tends to have an "othering" effect if you draw and write them to be gazed upon rather than lived inside of. The only time there's an exception is if the fantasy you're selling about your character is the power fantasy of "being really sexy and in control of your sexuality", like say Bayonetta or Harley Quinn (where for some people it's like the equivalent of the masculine power fantasy of being a big, muscular superhero), OR if the protagonist is meant to be drooled over while the audience is in a sort of voyeuristic role watching things happen to them like an outside observer. The first of these can easily accidentally slide into feeling like the second, and while it's totally valid to make a story this way, it will inevitably make it harder for the audience to put themselves in the character's shoes or relate to them emotionally if they're framed just as something to look at.

[arxianfall]

If I could sexualize a background I would.

No matter their reaction, people still like to see attractive people.
"oh no! He/she's hot!" Is one of the greatest meme compliments you could get.

R34 isn't only for artists to flex their posing skills.

---

Oversexualizing takes away from it though. When every moment is sexy, no moment is.

As an IRL example, Spend some time at a party beach, it takes a whole grand 3 days to get used to seeing hot horny naked people all the time.

[NickRowler]

I feel like I only sexualize my characters in a way that I address they have sexualities. But I don’t really draw my characters in sexual situations or even in a sexually appealing way. I think partly because I like keeping my comics in the PG-13 range . Also partly because if I attempted to write anything sexy, it would be awful and cringy.

I feel like if you are confident in your skills in writing sexual stuff, then do it. Just be aware of how graphic it is if you are going to post on Tapas.

[DualDragons]

Hmmm good question. I feel like it comes down to the character itself really. Sexualizing minors is a big no no obviously.

I feel it comes down to a character's personality if they can be sexy without it being out of character. Like if I get introduced to a character who acts shy and uncomfortable around others I will raise eyebrows when they suddenly do pole dancing or seducing people.

But for certain characters and archetypes it can feel pretty fitting. If it isn't oversexualization it might bolster something like a flirty personality.

[stiatent]

An Mc it should be someone who appeals to you but can also appeal to readers.
Sounds shallow but people look to entertainment to escape their mundane reality so attractive/sexy characters will always have a higher chance than an average looking one.
It also comes down to the narrative and character perosnality youre trying to protray and the demographic youre trying to attract.
A crime drama does not rely on a sexualized mc eg Agatha Christie novels and films. And even if it casts an attractive mc they may dress appropriately to fit their career. But then it boils down to the mc's personality is he/she a playfully flirtatious mc or a reserved one?
But if youre target audience is young adults then yep better chance with a sexualized characters.
Even a generally reserved mc can have their sexy moments, the sexy scene would stand out when it does happen eg. We usually try to look our best on a special occasion, some people sleep wothout clothes, we may try to be sexier when we meet a crush and exhume confidence/sexuality when overcoming an internal conflict. Theres still a thin line of not going too extreme to break the reserved character, and if they do get extreme the reactions from other characters can keep things grounded. Eg. I had a friend of a friend who was reserved, but when she broke with her bf, her social media pics became extremely sexualized and she changed as a person, leaving all her friends shocked. It was clearly her way of dealing with internal conflict, her new attitude made her lose her original friends too.

I'm guilty of writing sexy chararacters for sure XD my target audience are young adults and older teens. I usually try to find reason within the story for why the character may be dressed a certain way or extremely muscular eg. One guy is a stripper and another is a wrestler. The villian in my current story targeted persons based on his own sexual tastes so lots of handsome dudes are present lol.
To me, characters usually spawn from your own self reflections and/or fantacising on crushes. Least thing you want to do is create a character solely to please others with no personal titalation or attachment, youll grow bored quickly.

But Sexualizing minors is definitely creepy on the other hand.

This became longer than expected XD hope there's some useful points in here lol

[Pony_wearing_a_hat]

The questions I usually ask myself about this kind of things are:

Would the character be comfortable with this? Would they want to be seen this way?

If the answer is yes, then I take no issue with sexiness, it's just characters acting the way that they would and being presented in a way that works for who they are.

[rajillustration]

TBH I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "sexualize." Cuz if you mean making it Mature, that's strictly not allowed on both Tapas and Webtoons as far as webcomics go because of the apple store requirements, so adding it would take away a huge chunk of your audience because you would be left on the browser vs the app.

But there's a lot of things people would call "Sexualizing" that I might just look and think is just fashion. So like kinda hard to answer this question, I have no idea what you mean.

[feuersichel]

This.
Just like some people in RL like to dress more sexualised and some not.

One of my MC also likes to show herself as sexy while the other one is a total prude xD but as said in a post above, if everyone is overly sexy, it isn't special anymore.

[CommanderMarty]

you can do low detail gore or just black some of it out

[joannekwan]

For me it totally depends on the character. Minors are obviously off-limits, but I have some adult characters that I just can't think to put them in any sexy situations or draw them sexy because it doesn't fit their character.

Other characters I'm more than happy to sexualize, especially if their story includes sex.

[Fuzzyman818]

It really depends on what kind of art style and storyline you want to present. If they are meant to be normal looking characters, that's fine. If they are meant to be overblown muscular or sexy, that's fine too. Personally, when it comes to fiction, sexualization is fine, as long as it stays in fiction. But we as humans are not all created equal and some of us, unfortunately can't seem to separate fiction and reality and that sometimes leads them down a dark path to where they could potentially end up hurting themselves or somebody else. But that was just an extra tangent on what I believe.

[UrMom]

I'm pretty indifferent to sexualization of characters, the author can do whatever they want even if it may affect a story negatively, or is kinda transgressive. When it comes to my characters it depends on the character and context, like there's a character in my comic that I wouldn't feel comfortable sexualizing in their current state because they're vulnerable, it would land in some fetish territory which I don't want to associate my story with. On the other hand though, I have drawn straight up crack porn illustrations of that character from way after the story ends because they're stable, and capable of making the decision to be sexual at that point.

[kitschensyngk]

On top of being junior high schoolers, some of my characters in Nachos Con Carne have issues with awkwardness and body image, so...

Anyway, I have no problem with sexiness in small, moderate doses. I find excessive fan service to be incredibly off-putting, particularly to certain improbable extents (like female characters who seemingly wear clothes one or two sizes too small, or have cups sown into every shirt they wear). There are ways to do sexiness without going into fetish art territory.

[crimson_mystery_cake]

I say do it sexualizing characters isnt for everyone and for people that are uncomfortable writing or drawing that kind of stuff thats perfectly ok, but for a lot of people sex is a very important part of life and i feel like shying away from that reality is just disingenuous. I personally dont really care that much about sex and sexualization and i dont think id ever sexualize my characters “for fun” but at the same time sometimes i want to write about sex and i need to show the characters doing the sex in order to write about it and if people think thats sexy as a consequence of that then thats whatever.

[system]

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