Ask ArcRoyale #7
Someone else had a burning question for me, so he decided to Ask ArcRoyale! I love answering a lot of these questions; getting close to 10!
Today's question comes from a friend of mine who writes "Dear ArcRoyale: When did you get started on your crusade?" That's an excellent question, so I'll try to explain as I can.
I was a wee little baby when I was born in 1993. By that time, the country was saying goodbye to George Bush the 1st, and hello to Bill Clinton. Clinton, to me, seemed to be a guy you'd want to hang out with, and had a good relation with the media, so a lot of movies and TV, even kids stuff, was getting daring!
When 1997 rolled around, I was five years old, and Y2K didn't strike for me when I was seven. I'd say I felt my first understanding of the world around me at seven, maybe eight. I grew up on the media of the time, including lots of 90's era animated movies, an anime boom, and Cartoon Network.
What does that mean? A lot of things. See, my brain develops a little differently from other people, and is somewhat of an analytical beast. But at the same time, as a child I had difficulty distinguishing certain elements. I didn't have sexual education until I was I think 10 or 11, so I just assumed body development was similar with slight differences. 'Cuz of that, I had trouble understanding why, say, Satsuki and Mei or the PPGs could be shown in the bath just fine, but Dee Dee's shower was more censored than Dex's.
Not too long after sexual education comes the curiousity phase, and shortly after that, I got my first-hand exposure towards "Nano of the North", followed up by Seiryuga's popular Nano Dance gifs. At the same time, I was just the right age to have "Natural Born Kissers" as part of my regular rotation. I didn't even see sexuality in that one scene from the Season 15 "Treehouse of Horror" that I'm sure those who've seen it know what I'm talking 'bout.
Sadly, I was the only one who didn't. DeviantArt conducted a massive ban of young girls right when I was 14 or 15 or so, not good for one who's mentally stunted and curious about the world. Of course, I'd say most of what I learned about the world and what made me what I was came from trial by fire, and exposure to more media helped me recognize patterns.
And the pattern I saw was clear: If a female is used for nude scenes, it's usually sexual. If the nudity can't be sexual, it usually doesn't exist.
I didn't start true development until I got acquainted with a secret society just three years ago, which would be at 21 years old, right after I had noticed good material was hard to find and had talked to several psychologists about it. To my surprise, I wasn't crazy, and the website had a full gallery of citations: the website covered nudity in animation, and didn't discriminate in purpose and who had it. As a result, I got to see quite a bit of material from various locations, and met people who thought much the same way as me.
On a whim, I decided to thank them by commissioning a piece of art for them, the Bart and Lisa in "Natural Born Kissers" pic. Since I enjoyed it, and it got good response as this group loves role-reversals, I kept doing it for their sake. Later on, a contact of mine suggested I open up a Tumblr page. While I initially intended it to simply show off artwork I liked and pics I did, it eventually expanded to a big weekly thing in roughly the second day I posted to it. As a result, I realized I could do something for justice's sake, and use the pictures to help illustrate key concepts. It even led to the creation of a comic series involving an original character of my friend Darkton93 to help illustrate the point.
So that's how it happened! Have a good Black Friday! I'll be sitting at my computer regretting the fact that my artists don't do sales then or Cyber Monday...
Today's question comes from a friend of mine who writes "Dear ArcRoyale: When did you get started on your crusade?" That's an excellent question, so I'll try to explain as I can.
I was a wee little baby when I was born in 1993. By that time, the country was saying goodbye to George Bush the 1st, and hello to Bill Clinton. Clinton, to me, seemed to be a guy you'd want to hang out with, and had a good relation with the media, so a lot of movies and TV, even kids stuff, was getting daring!
When 1997 rolled around, I was five years old, and Y2K didn't strike for me when I was seven. I'd say I felt my first understanding of the world around me at seven, maybe eight. I grew up on the media of the time, including lots of 90's era animated movies, an anime boom, and Cartoon Network.
What does that mean? A lot of things. See, my brain develops a little differently from other people, and is somewhat of an analytical beast. But at the same time, as a child I had difficulty distinguishing certain elements. I didn't have sexual education until I was I think 10 or 11, so I just assumed body development was similar with slight differences. 'Cuz of that, I had trouble understanding why, say, Satsuki and Mei or the PPGs could be shown in the bath just fine, but Dee Dee's shower was more censored than Dex's.
Not too long after sexual education comes the curiousity phase, and shortly after that, I got my first-hand exposure towards "Nano of the North", followed up by Seiryuga's popular Nano Dance gifs. At the same time, I was just the right age to have "Natural Born Kissers" as part of my regular rotation. I didn't even see sexuality in that one scene from the Season 15 "Treehouse of Horror" that I'm sure those who've seen it know what I'm talking 'bout.
Sadly, I was the only one who didn't. DeviantArt conducted a massive ban of young girls right when I was 14 or 15 or so, not good for one who's mentally stunted and curious about the world. Of course, I'd say most of what I learned about the world and what made me what I was came from trial by fire, and exposure to more media helped me recognize patterns.
And the pattern I saw was clear: If a female is used for nude scenes, it's usually sexual. If the nudity can't be sexual, it usually doesn't exist.
I didn't start true development until I got acquainted with a secret society just three years ago, which would be at 21 years old, right after I had noticed good material was hard to find and had talked to several psychologists about it. To my surprise, I wasn't crazy, and the website had a full gallery of citations: the website covered nudity in animation, and didn't discriminate in purpose and who had it. As a result, I got to see quite a bit of material from various locations, and met people who thought much the same way as me.
On a whim, I decided to thank them by commissioning a piece of art for them, the Bart and Lisa in "Natural Born Kissers" pic. Since I enjoyed it, and it got good response as this group loves role-reversals, I kept doing it for their sake. Later on, a contact of mine suggested I open up a Tumblr page. While I initially intended it to simply show off artwork I liked and pics I did, it eventually expanded to a big weekly thing in roughly the second day I posted to it. As a result, I realized I could do something for justice's sake, and use the pictures to help illustrate key concepts. It even led to the creation of a comic series involving an original character of my friend Darkton93 to help illustrate the point.
So that's how it happened! Have a good Black Friday! I'll be sitting at my computer regretting the fact that my artists don't do sales then or Cyber Monday...