Does anyone get a feeling DM reads this thread? Just in the off-chance, let me try to get a message across to 'em, in the most
diplomatic way I can.
Hi, there! I know there's a lot of hostility between us, but I have an important message that I think will help you understand why people don't like your work:
Beauty, and being called beautiful, are not rights. They're not human rights. They're not even trans rights.
What do I mean with this? That if you present someone with an image that they find unpleasant, they will react negatively to it. No matter how "realistic" or "body-positive" that image is. Also, disregarding paraphilias, most people have fairly similar standards of what constitutes beauty. I don't mean the usual "skinny blonde white woman with big tits" stereotype you people love raging against. I mean that most people like harmonious and smooth curves, symmetrical shapes, and smooth skin. Yes, most women have stretchmarks. And the ones that don't have them are usually considered prettier for it. Same for body hair. Same with a lot of other things you love drawing.
So, if you make a point out of drawing, with your highly simplified and stylized art, characters that have the most complexity in their design focused on their flaws and imperfections... to the point their stretch marks and body hair are more detailed than their faces and expressions... don't expect most people to react positively to them. Yes, I'm sure your fans and your friends tell you those are all beautiful and wonderful and unique and realistic.
Most of them are lying. Either so you can feel better about yourself, or so they can feel better about themselves, by pretending that what they're seeing is pleasing to the eye. Often both.
Good luck with your art, and please stop pretending that covering your characters in squiggly lines makes them look good. At best it makes them look ugly, at worst it makes it look like your characters are covered in stink lines.
(Huh. So much for being diplomatic.)
