On self-acceptance.

So, there's this hard thing to talk about, which is when stereotypes and societal expectations might be correct about you. I'll only speak for myself here, and so I'll give the example of what I'm living through. I'm a trans guy, and usually what I did to defend myself from transphobia and social dysphoria was bluster some macho shit about how the joke is on them because I'm a masc dom top so fuck off loser. But what if I'm not actually that? Then how do I defend myself from people's expectations of me? How do I let go of caring about that?

So, like, this is actually extremely abstract The Hunger Games fan art. The pose is based on a screengrab from the Mockingjay Part 2 film. I wanted to do abstract semi-fan art of furry versions of them for awhile now. Ever since I saw (human nudity warning) this fan art by whenthewallfell on Tumblr, I aspired to draw something with them even half as meaningful as that.

I like the Katniss/Peeta relationship a lot because of how I relate to the very unique dynamic they have. Katniss' emotional repression and questioning what is and isn't real when it comes to the pretending she does with Peeta. She's forced to act like she's in love with him for an audience, and that force is what prevents her from being able to healthily unpack her actual feelings towards him in private. Then this force causes her to push away from Peeta, leading to her compelling herself to reciprocate Gale's feelings as she assigns each boy to different political actions. Being with Peeta is what the capitol wants, but being with Gale is how she could lead a revolution. But... What does KATNISS want, outside of obeying or disobeying the capitol? She rarely considers this, politicizing her emotions for just a fuckload of pages. And this is hardly any fault of her own, you can't say she really has the time or space to ponder her boy crushes when she's forced into battle royales and her life is being threatened by the president and the entire country is on the verge of falling apart.

I just made the PeeNiss-INSPIRED critters some North American species to pay homage to them being Appalachian. Katniss hunts stuff and climbs trees so, uh, bobcat! For Peeta, I picture him as a golden retriever, but I thought it'd be stupid to draw a domestic dog when I'm trying to channel more wild animal vibes, so coyote this time. Those animals sure are way more orange than I thought they were.