From One Fat Chick
Let me tell you that in no, way, shape, or form does drawing a canonically fat character skinny “strip away” representation. Fanart is not canon. It exists in a realm of its own, and does not influence the canonical story or visuals.
Fanart, in many ways, goes beyond just self-expression and drawing characters for the fun of it. Similar to fanfiction, an artists represents a character in a new way to expand upon them. They explore different avenues and experiences for the character that, unsurprisingly, the actual creators don’t have the time, money, or resources to do. It’s imagining a character in new and fun ways. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Changing the body type of a character won’t magically make them canonically skinny. Changing the gender of a character won’t magically change their canonical gender. Changing the race of a character won’t magically make them canonically white.
There’s a lot of shows and movies that lack diversity. Then, does the fanart magically add diversity, therefore making the show better? Do Disney movies suddenly become less “problematic” (not my words) when a bunch of artists decide to change the races of different princesses?
Looking at how people react to Disney and the race of the princesses, I’ll say no. People on here still consider the animation studio racist. The fanart changed absolutely nothing. Everything’s the same.
I didn’t suddenly feel represented when an artist drew Cinderella as a latina. Likewise, I don’t feel as though my representation is being yanked from me when an artist, that I could easily choose to ignore, reinterprets a character.
The characters are still fat. Fanart doesn’t add or take away anything. It just is. It just exists.
(Source: princessbubblegumandjustice, via takashi0)
