The Giantess

Whatever your philosophical or ethical reasons are to love or hate the Venus De Cupertino i-dock, you've got to admit that it's quite charming aesthetically. Designer Scott Eaton really captured the soft, curvaceous lines of the figure and the warmth of the material of his design: 

I imagined the Mac design department fretting, "Uh, why don't you slim her down a bit-- you know, maybe more like Kate Moss proportions." I then got a visual of a her with all elbows and knees... it just didn't inspire a cuddle up. The thing that is quite grand about this Venus *is* her proportions. If we imagine that her head is normal adult human-sized, and if she were to stand up, she would be a giantess. Eaton has given her heroic proportions. 

I think there ought to be another prototype-- a figure of a similarly-massed man would be nice-- and maybe in brown. 

As a F+SF artist, I'm constantly reminded of the dearth of unusually- or massively proportioned females in the fantasy genre. Certainly there are no ugly ones.Sure, there are the male orcs and trolls, and such "uglies", since it's considered charming or appropriate (?) for some males to be ugly, especially if they're the baddies. But you don't often, if ever, see the females-- it's as if they don't exist. (They must be at another photo shoot.) However, if we're talking about the subjectively beautiful races-- Elves, Sealies, Humans, Wizards, etc., there are often females portrayed (scantily clad, at best) and they are beautiful by Media standards: slim, well-proportioned, delicately muscular, yet elegant. 

For the other species? Not so much.  Where are their females?  Where are the massive wrists and ankles that portray incredible strength and endurance? Where are the females with massive shoulders and hips that bear the warrior's children? Where are the wrinkles, bumps, and cuts from a lifetime of wear? And is it such a stretch to imagine that there might be fat female elves? If these impossible species exist for the realm of Fantasy, then can't we get our imaginations to work just a little harder?

Merchandising culture is a devastating experience for people with bodies that aren't a perfect Size *2*. It actively excludes those bodies from the media and effectively makes them disappear. Because, if all you ever see are the Size 2s, then you can conclude that the Size 22s don't exist except in the imagination-- or by accident.  The f+sf and gaming companies could do much to help correct this very myopic view of what real women look like by challenging their consumer demographic of young men and women with images that celebrate body differences and surprise us with real gender permutations. If traditional male and female stereotypes of behavior, beauty, and gender are insidiously reinforced at every turn, how are we to encourage positive body images and fresh perspectives in our young people?

The f+sf and gaming and or publishing company that realizes that they need to have characters that are more representative of their demographic's sizes, shapes, and genders will begin to garner that "other" demographic and will see their profits rise.

("The Giantess"-- Kristin Kest. 12" x 12", graphite on vellum. 2010.)

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