About

/r/Mendrawingwomen is a subreddit centered around sharing depictions of women considered "improperly drawn" by the users in the community. The page's "About Community" entry describes the subreddit as a place for, "People improperly drawing women, be it manga, anime, cartoons, comics, video games, or graphic novels. Whether that is anatomy or having them way too sexualized, that’s up to you." The community has been commonly criticized for its broad definition of "improper," and for what some see as encouraging discrimination towards men and women of certain body types.

History

On April 17th, 2019, /r/mendrawingwomen^[1] was created by Reddit user LuriemIronim.^[2] By January 18th, 2020, the subreddit garnered over 11 thousand users according to the Wayback Machine.^[3] As of September 23rd, 2020, the community now has over 34 thousand members. The content of the posts was much the same as it is today, featuring drawings of women with unrealistic proportions and incorrect anatomy. Users also post drawings of properly drawn women under the subcategory 'Positivity' to respect well drawn women (example shown below).

Occasionally, the subreddit comes underfire for posts that are perceived by some to be improperly drawn women, but by others as simply busty and curvy. Users on the subreddit frequently use the phrase Where Are Her Organs? to criticize unrealistically drawn women.

Highlights

On August 22nd, 2020, YouTuber MadLibbs^[4] posted a video titled, "WhERe ARe HeR OrGaNs?! (The Subreddit) (r/mendrawingwomen)" to her channel (shown below). The video is an exploration and critique of /r/mendrawingwomen, highlighting both the positives and negatives of the subreddit. Her main critique is that many users of the subreddit deem drawings of conventionally attractive women as improperly drawn, even if their proportions are realistic. The video garnered over 23 thousand views and 3.2 thousand likes in a month.

On September 7th, YouTuber Tobi^[5] uploaded a video titled "r/mendrawingwomen Is Complete Garbage and So Are The Posters" to their channel. This video is a much harsher criticism than MadLibbs'. The video garnered over 35 thousand views in 17 days. Both Tobi and MadLibbs' videos likely had an impact on the increased criticism for the subreddit over on Twitter.

On September 9th, a Reddit user published a post titled, "Females can only be strong if they are also sexy as hell." Attached is a screenshot of a tweet posted by Twitter user and Twitch streamer BlackDGamer1^[6] that applauds Japanese game designers for knowing how to design strong yet feminine women (shown below). The post gained 2.5 thousand upvotes and 192 comments in 14 days, many of them critiquing BlackDGamer1's opinion.

On September 10th, BlackDGamer1 responded to his post showing up on the subreddit via tweet, posturing them as mad because he told the truth (shown below). The tweet garnered seven retweets and 52 likes in 13 days, with many on Twitter defending him.

Search Interest

External References