chapotraphouse

and an average woman peered over your shoulder, I think they would think 'oh, it's a gross little horny weaboo'. Perhaps take it a step further, what if it was your screensaver, or a poster in your room? People would assume the worst, because images like this are generally created and consumed in such a way.

Speaking from a handful of personal experiences — not that I am an average woman — I reckon that my first thought would probably be, "...Sorry— Sorry, BRICS...? As in the intergovernmental organization...? That BRICS, personified in yonder picture perhaps a bit problematically, as women in an anime-esque style that evokes a non-binary lesbian who knows what they like yet also aims to cater to the virality-inducing gaze of terminally online cishet male weebs? My eyes do not deceive me, do they? What a peculiar thing! kininarimasu.mp4"

And thus — should the angels bestow upon me the strength to do so — I would ask that person, "Hey, your phone's lock screen— that's, that's BRICS as in the intergovernmental organization, right?"

Should they respond, "Huh? Oh, uh, maybe." or alternatively, "I don't... I don't know what that is, sorry?" or even, "No."

—Then the conversation is terminated.

Should they respond, "Yup: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa."

—Then follow up with, "Do you have any particular thoughts on those countries, their governments, about BRICS or anything like that?"

Should they respond, "No, not really." or alternatively, "Dae CCP 1984 and also Putler bad?" or even, "Brazilian chicks are soooo hot."

—Then the conversation is terminated.

Should they respond instead, "I don't like to talk about politics with strangers."

—Then make a mental note that this might be an interesting person, or might be a nincompoop. Further investigation required.

And lastly, should they respond instead, "Hey BRICS is helping dedollarize the world isn't it, and NATO provoked that war, too. Indeed, as the situation in Ukraine brings us closer to a Third World War, I am reminded of the wise words of Chairman Mao in his 1957 essay On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the Peo—"

—"Marry me." would be my interruption.

You were never wrong that it's horny tbh. It is. And the strong defence of it that some have is because they enjoy that it is a safe level of horny while not being willing to admit that.

the only one of these characters seeming anything-slighly-less than totally rail-thin body type by proportion to height being South Africa definitely has some things going on tbh (and weirdly only in the torso down, the character's neck is still rail thin). and even aside from that they're still all pretty uniformly hyper-conventionally-beautified in the ways that has been being criticized in online art as uninspired if not problematic, for over a decade. There was a whole thing of that same goddamn face style and structure in every "young pretty female" portrait that was all anyone was drawing online for the longest time. I forget if it had a name.

and having pretty young women personified as nations in of itself has a whole lot of really messy history with nationalism and patriarchy's relationship that it as a whole makes me uneasy. That said this is a profoundly unimportant thing, some random twitter sometimes-porn-sometimes-not-porn artist; I'm almost mad I spent the time and effort to type this.