Deviances of Deviant Art

Dating an artist has opened my eyes to the internet in a way that I can't say that I am entirely pleased with. For starters, when I used to sing The Internet is for Porn jokingly, I didn't realize how real the song was. I had been married for a long time, stuck in my ways and mainly used the internet for informative purposes. It never occurred to me that sites, other than porn sites, were actually filled with porn. I think, like many of my generation, I was jaded at the real state of the world, as that world was all online and I was living a life in the mundane world. I have come to understand that there is a whole subculture out there, led by many websites. These websites allow people to post their own material and for the most part, to monitor themselves.

I can't imagine why there would be a problem with this scenario, can you?

One of the worst offenders at this that I found was Deviant Art. Now, this article is going to bash on DA a bit. They are a decently sized site with the word DEVIANT in their name, so I think they can take a few swipes at their morality. In fact, I would say that they even deserved it.

NSFW WARNING

I should state before going forward that some of the images contained in this article are arguably NSFW

The images contained in this article are not for fapping or pornographic purposes, but due to the content of the article some may find the images distatesful and not to be viewed by the general public.

The Background

When I first met my boyfriend, he told me that he was an artist. He didn't say it in that arrogant, bragging sort of way. Rather, he told me about the art that he had created and showed me drawings that he had done. As we hung out more, I got a feel for the kinds of work that he would do and I got an idea of how he saw the world. Through dating him, I was exposed to new avenues to view and later, to promote my own artistic talents. We would walk around Boise and he would note architecture, murals and other fine details of the world. He would point them out to me and I was truly amazed. You see, I don't have an artists mind. I can draw a bit, but I am not an artist by any means. I don't look at the world the way he does. He sees colors where I see dust bunnies. He sees curves and arches where I see functional building design. He notices the little details that I usually miss when going about my day.

It is definitely one of the reasons that I enjoyed dating him at first. After a while though, I realized that with the artist mindset, there is a way of looking at the world that didn't sit well with me. For starters, the appreciation of form and color would also flow over into the appreciation of people. Where I would look at a person and see their social status, be able to make pretty accurate assessments about a person, he would see more curves and lines.

The art he looked at for his own pleasure would often cascade into the erotic. It didn't take long before we would argue, as him looking at things like **Metal Hurlant** or dystopian / cyberpunk themes would soon enough scratch at my insecurities.

Certain artforms such as the Druuna comics and clips from video games were especially problematic for me. I was uncomfortable with not only the representation of the women, often seemingly strong women characters drawing their strength not from the merit of their actions but from what they could hold in their bras. For these women to be a focal point, they had to be nude or mostly nude, with rock hard asses and breasts that would normally cause one's back to break. These curvy and full figured women would be presented as the norm. You would be hard pressed to find a woman without astounding assets doing anything interesting. And there were so many of them.

Of course, for the cyberpunkian future, all women would be scantily clad, with neon hair and the right angles to make a man stop and stare. And this is the future that the men around me were planning. It didn't take long for me to realize that there was a current of tawdry assumptions that were out in the world, past the blatant advertising or the action movies with weak willed yet big breasted women that filled the screens of the mundane world. Out in the real world, there was a rating system that could allow a person to know that the film they were about to watch was NSFW, on the internet it was all there and it was normal.

Comic by yanothepirate

These are but a small sample of the kinds of things that he was attracted to and would look at. But, believe it or not, this is not an article simply designed to poke at my boyfriend. I'll say, the art (and I do think that it is an artform, not wholly lacking merit) was not to my taste and it has taken a long time for me to work through the entirety of the content that he preferred to look at.

Differing Opinions

He didn't view any of this as pornography. I would argue that much of what he looked at was considered erotica, which in my mind is a form of porn in the first place. I could at least, in time, see the merit of the work. However, as I delved into the art webite known as DA or Deviant Art, I found a whole new world of porn that I didn't even know existed.

There was, for example, the more mundane fan fic art that depicted more sexual natures such as this lovely hug it out image of two super heroines.

By the number of favorites to the image, you can tell that the problem is apparently me and not the content itself.

And there were plenty of sexualized images such as the one above. I got to the point that when I would put on their mature filter that at times I could barely see anything because my screen would look like this:

Notice how the bottom left still is a bit racy. If I had my way, I would have blocked that on certain days. However, it was deemed as okay and not mature content. Needless to say, the filter worked, but not as much as I would have liked.

Maneuvering through the Immoral

I found the content to be immoral at best. But, I also realize that this is a subjective term. Believe it or not, I do actually feel that just because I don't like content that it doesn't constitute that the content shouldn't exist. I was actually happy with the fact that I could block out what I wanted, mostly. I figured then I could safely (for my own issues) be able to look at the site and allow myself to get more familiar and comfortable with the content.

I did find it odd that this was an all ages website. Much like Facebook, that says you need to be 13 or over, the DA staff supposedly would review flags and there as a policy in place for the site that allowed items to be tagged that were inappropriate. Overall, I could see how the site was good for artists trying to get feedback on their work and I could see at least how the concept of the site would bolster better art. Because, let's not be confused, there are some amazing artists on DA and there is content that is definitely content that is share-worthy.

That being said, as I went through the pages and as I developed my own page as well for RumDancer I found some worthy artists. I also found images that seemed weirdly out of place for a site that had so much nudity and object sexualization.

Can Anyone Spot the Problem I Am Seeing Here?

This was a screen shot of my feed taken back in December of last year. It really bothered me. Can you guess why?

Deviant art does host photographers work, ranging from nature pictures to BDSM and kink. You can spcifically look up black and white or nature or whatever. I have some posted of my own photography and digital manipulations and have gotten some good feedback. But family photography? It seems an odd place to have a girl in a leotard. I mean, this is the same place that you can see full on pornographic pictures. In fact, the latex lady next to the young girl here is enough of a disparaging difference that I didn't need to even go and find an example. The girl in the white next to her made a stark comparison and so I had to click to see what the fuck was going on. The image itself isn't inappropriate, but it did seem odd.

So, I clicked...

There was plenty of feedback and it was just as I thought... there were mixed reviews.

While I wish I could get the images to post the right way, I can't seem to figure out why they are posting sideways, you can see the reviews torn between people thinking that it is sexy and those like myself that are saying WTF.

I think this was the nicest post, but it encompasses what I had been saying all along.

At the core of it, it isn't just that it is a child posted it is that there is this kind of outcry and you can tell by the dates on the comments how long this went on. Deviant Art did nothing to prevent it from being posted and as far as I can tell there isn't an admin that came on and commented on it.

And this is just one example.

DA is a site that is all ages, for the most part. There is a range of artists on the platform and it offers a little something for everyone. However, without the site regulating itself, having a team in place to mind what is posted on the site, it can easily become a cesspool in no time. Thankfully, there are people that try to self-regulate, that speak out when there is something amiss but there isn't much that is done. I could understand that there are adult sexual content pictures on here, even if I don't like it. However, there are children as well. When you consider the mixed cultural norms from America to other countries, there is bound to be some overlapping disapproval. But, it seems that we should all be able to see that the site that allows for images such as ones depicting sexualization, sexuality as an art form and where a high number of members seem to think that porn is art, that it isn't a place for children.

Careful Out There

I don't want to say that the site is without merit. For what it was 10 years ago, I imagine that it was quite helpful for artists trying to get their work out there. I found plenty of good artists there and for that reason I would like to take a moment to mention them. Some of them have sexualized art on their pages, but I don't even have an issue with that as long as we are warned and there is the option to look or not to look.

Artists like Aerozopher who not only takes the art seriously, they have something to say about the state of DA and they actually are active on the site. It artists like this that actually seem to have a feel for what the site was originally for but even they, on their page have the following that echoes my own thoughts on the subject:

"Deviantart is pretty much dying tbh, the website as a whole has acquired a pretty cringey reputation over the years. Not to mention that as a social platform, dA's pretty much lost its place by now: as far as being used as a portfolio, artstation has it beaten by a mile and in term of a way of getting yourself known it's lacking the sharing features that twitter and tumblr provides so it's not even able to fulfill that aspect either. Only reason I still post here is because it serves as an archive to all the progress I've made since I've joined online.
It's not what it used to be, it's fucking rare that people leaves any constructive comments anymore or hell, even any comments at all." ~ Luckeux

Luckeux another artists on the website, that has been with DA for 10 years according to their profile, has sexualized art on their page. That being said, there is a difference in the art from that of porn.

For example, there is this post entitled Radiant that shows a sexy dressed woman, while partially clothed, it is obvious the drawing is of her form and shape. Her lady bits are highlighted and the drawing is obviously designed to be appreciative of the female form.

There are also tutorials and sketches such as this, that shows the work that went into learning this form. Women are attractive and most of us want others to find us attractive. There is nothing wrong wih conceptualizing this very human innate desire. But the sketch work provides context and in some ways creates a more well-rounded portfolio, making it easier to take the person as an actual artist versus being a perv.

Context is often the defining factor that I have found that makes or breaks a person's portfolio.

When you can tell that the person is drawing objectifying images, the question is what is the purpose of objectification. Do they simply appreciate the form and like to draw it or are they creating a collection of their own fap material?

Ultimately, there are plenty of pages on DA that are designed for fapping alone. There are hidden pages or links that subversively will take you to see just about anythin that you want to see on the internet. You might also note that penty of the profiles on DA are out of date with no updates from the page authors for years. In fact, some of the samples that I took for writing this article are of pages that are no longer active.

Artists looking to actually get noticed and that want to be taken seriously have gone to other sites that do more to help an artist network. Those that are simply looking to increase their own fapfolio, as it were, have gone off to Tumblr or even Pinterest. The internet is filled with filth and beautiful artwork alike. There is no longer a need to have it all in one place, especially as all forms of sexuality are becoming common place. Perhaps a review on DA is no longer worthwhile. That being said, I am also sure that there are plenty of people just like yself that are slow on the uptake. Finding pages such as this, as I did 3, nearly 4 years ago, was a shocking realization. DA has done a lot to trigger my interest in human trafficking and pornography. It has also allowed me to test the waters, get a feel for the real pulse of perversion and to disect art in the rawest of forms. I will also say that may members of the DA forum have been hepful in speaking out, willing to answer random questions from me as I have posted to individuals directly and gave me a stomping ground to test out my own opinions.

I would encourage anyone that has an interest in the world, as well as the seedier sides and not just the picture perfect ad spaces presented under the control of the FCC. DA in that, still holds a place on the internet to see people as they are without regulation and to get a better idea of what exactly we are dealing with when it comes to concerns about perversion in the world. Maybe that is reaching, but it works for me.

Thanks for Reading!

I know that I don't post a whole lot on here. Part of that is because it is a daunting task, researching nudity, pornography and sexual issues. I certainly didn't start this research as a hobby or mere interest. I did so as a reactionary action, striking back and forcing myself to understand people and situaitons in my own life. That being said, it is a slow road to understanding and to be able to wrap myown brain around it. Thank you for joining along in my journey of discovery.