Let’s wake it up. If I told y’all that it’s mostly women and femmes that buy my work at conventions, then what? Yes, as a gay man who makes art with the intent to appeal to the girls, gays and theys. It’s mostly the girls and theys buying. - ThreadSky

ohheydj.bsky.social • 20 hours ago

Let’s wake it up. If I told y’all that it’s mostly women and femmes that buy my work at conventions, then what?

Yes, as a gay man who makes art with the intent to appeal to the girls, gays and theys. It’s mostly the girls and theys buying.

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yoshi12370.bsky.social•20 hours ago

The way gay bears has embraced AI slop instead of actually supporting gay artists says a lot

gaybreakfast.bsky.social•19 hours ago

The only place we vend where gay men buy more? Furry cons. The furry community loves artists and seems to mostly revile AI.

yoshi12370.bsky.social•19 hours ago

FlameCon too! It's my favorite con and I go every year!

ohheydj.bsky.social•19 hours ago

I wanna go to more furry conventions but as someone that doesn't draw furries I feel like I would be out of place!

tenrou.bsky.social•19 hours ago

I'll message you next time we are planning to go to one (we have hung out a couple times IRL but it's been a few years)

yoshi12370.bsky.social•19 hours ago

The furry con I went to had non-furry vendors! I even bought Overwatch pins from them 🙈

gaybreakfast.bsky.social•19 hours ago

I get that. We have done anime cons for over 10 years but did our first furry con Dec ‘22 cuz we didn’t have enough relevant stuff.

Even when we got in tho, we had no anthro art the first 2 years. Just our animal pride pins. It was furry-adjacent enough, I guess!

friendlyhostile.bsky.social•42 minutes ago

Some of us are trying to fight against the tide on this. We've been trying to point people towards DJ's stuff at one of the chubs events I help run, as well as paying for photography and graphic work for our promo material, all by body positive creators.

barabait.bsky.social•20 hours ago

The yaoi magazines founded by women were the first publications where gay male mangaka were able to print their work.

It doesn't erase any instances of homophobia or commodification of gay culture by women when those cases happen. But for the most part women are peers in this genre.

ohheydj.bsky.social•20 hours ago

Exactlyyyyyyy. 🔥🔥🔥

barabait.bsky.social•20 hours ago

When I was in Japan I bought some doujin at comiket from a nice gay couple. And they were genuinely surprised and excited that I was a girl who appreciated their work.

I cant speak for everyone but I think some artists just want their work seen and appreciated by anyone who genuienly cares to.

hqueuli.bsky.social•20 hours ago

I have nothing to say except you’re absolutely right

tricksterz.bsky.social•19 hours ago

I mean, women, femmes, and enbies all, by our nature, experience a kind of body stigma not dissimilar to what is directed at the big boys, especially queer ones. Makes sense that we would vibe.

tricksterz.bsky.social•19 hours ago

And while queer men experience that body stigma more harshly, straight guys have less space to unpack it, especially from a place of self love. So it makes sense that the straight women who often have to act as their therapists would be happy to see the bodies they love represented so lovingly.

ohheydj.bsky.social•20 hours ago

And if I told you that it’s mostly women in hetero-appearing relationships that bought the big boy coloring book and my big boy prints the most? Trust me, it surprised me too! I love it.

ohheydj.bsky.social•20 hours ago

Ever since I started bringing my original big boy art to conventions, I have noticed that the women who love men with these body types or have partners/boyfriends/husbands with those body types always tend to come hang out at the table more, talk to me, AND MAKE A PURCHASE.

ohheydj.bsky.social•20 hours ago

It's so cute to watch their (I'm assuming here) straight male partners see themselves be depicted as desirable in illustrations. Getting to kiki with women and talk about how much we love fat boys have and will always be my favorite interactions at conventions.

ohheydj.bsky.social•20 hours ago

Now to the gay boys, y'all do come to my table and spend too. We cut up, kiki and flirt a little but in terms of buying power at cons, the women and femmes are eating y'all up.

ohheydj.bsky.social•20 hours ago

The point in making here is less about the money and moreso about the point that women, femmes, trans folk and honestly anyone that doesn't necessarily identify as male are welcome to participate and create in "bara" or bara adjacent spaces too. We all like big men, that's the point.

ohheydj.bsky.social•19 hours ago

There IS a conversation to be had about the internalized and externalized misogyny and homophobia that both men and non-male identifying folks can bring into these spaces. However, the question I always bring up is, who set up the systems to be like this in the first place?

Say it with me. Men.

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