Gender Dysphoria

Disclaimer: this is not a drawing tutorial! This will not teach you how to draw! If you are looking for ways to improve on your drawing style , body types or anatomy please consult a professional I strongly discourage attempting to draw like me as I am still a student. But what I CAN offer that I hope you will find helpful is some idea sparkers.

Sometimes all an artist needs is a little spark to ignite a roaring flame! Tiny little tweaks that make a big difference! And if you’re like me you won’t even be aware that you need to be ignited!

For me? If I had a dime for every “Oh she’s so pretty!” “…he’s a boy…T_T” comment exchange that took place in my deviations I could buy a car!

it was a lot of gender confusion between my boys and girls. Lots of people mistook my males for females or my females for males! and over the years this began to annoy me. What was I doing wrong!?.. not ALL men have facial hair and it’s not like I gave them boobs or makeup! Where is this confusion coming from!?

Upon reading a library of how to draw books and plethora of online tutorials at my disposal I learned that there is more to drawing females that just drawing a male body and adding on boobs. especially since not all woman have visible breasts if they have breasts at all!

So I am sharing those differences with you all! The defining characteristics that make the sexes unique!

Disclaimer #2: Please note that these differences are subject to change based on weight, muscle mass and gender identity and that these standards are being used to describe post sexually mature individuals i.e: teenagers and up.

Masculine
One of the wonderful things our bodies does during puberty is begin to define our sex, with men this happens in many fun ways, like backne and body hair but one of the most distinctive things is their shoulders begin to broaden. And their body becomes shaped like a V or T or an upside down triangle with their hips staying on the narrow end. It’s important to note that Males shoulders should always be the width of their hips or wider for a more masculine appearance.

This is the most basic and distinctive way to convey that the character you are drawing is male.

Other ways to make your man look more like a man as defined by Y! Gallery standards (Gallery dedicated to showcasing the male form) + Body and / or facial hair , Large muscle mass and / or defined muscle, A ‘package’ or ‘bulge’ in the pants (regardless or how small or large it may be it’s still there), Angular jaw line/facial shape rather than soft/round, A prominent Adam’s apple.

Not to say that all men have these features. but the goal here to make the character clearly visible as male.

Feminine
Like Males, Females also go though a lot of oh so joyous things post puberty that define their sex such as the miracle of menstruation and growing of breasts. But one of the most distinctive things is their hips start to widen to prepare her body for the joy of child birth (Remember: an infant’s whole body fits thought there!) and her body becomes shaped like a 8 or an hour glass or a pear with their shoulders on the narrow end. It’s important to note that Females Hips should always be the width of their shoulders or wider for a more feminine appearance.

Other ways to make your woman look more like a woman as defined by what NOT to do via Y! Gallery standards (they prohibit this content as these are female characteristics) Full lips, big eyes, hourglass figure, soft jaw, prominent eyelashes, visible breasts.

This is the most basic and distinctive way to convey that the character you are drawing is female.

Not to say that all Females have these features but the goal here is to make the character visible as female.

Androgyne
Now is where it gets fun! While, technically speaking there is no third sex lots of people fall into the category of Androgynous where they are neither male nor female or they are both! We all start off life as little Androgynous beings.

If you took a bunch of children, shaved their head and put them in jump suits you’d have a fun time trying to tell the boys from the girls. We PLACE gender identify on children right from birth, if someone has a baby boy we describe them as strong and playful but if they have a baby girl they are described as precious and dainty. But the reality is they are all shapeless individuals and to the untrained eye all look like default humans that have the potential to become either.

That being said I can’t exactly list defining characteristics since there is none. As character who fall under the androgyny umbrella can have both male and female characteristics or they can have neither! However it is very important to make the characters look as genderless as possible, to NOT strongly define the hips or shoulders the body should be as shapeless as possible, this is often accompanied by baggy clothes to keep the characters true gender (or lack of gender) hidden and keep the audience guessing!

It boils down your audience looking at the character and thinking “is that a man with womanly features or a woman with manly features?” if they can’t tell, you’re doing it right 8)

I’m sharing this with you all because once upon a time I too was stuck in gender limbo drawing manly women and curvy men and it just looks wrong no matter how you try to slice it.

I hope you find this informative if you too want to make your genders more defined ( or lack of definition! )

To see more things I’ve done on this train of thought see:




They’re old and flawed but you get the idea.

If you read all that you get a cookie! Thanks for reading and I hope I have given you some food for thought!

Art ©