Tfa - Blog Posts
Transformers and Female Body Types (Rant/Essay)
(I wanted more images in this, but tumblr has a limit and it was a lot of pictures anyway)
Anyone who complains about female transformers having “robot boobs” needs to shut up. Unless it’s a case of critiquing a design that’s genuinely caricatured, this complaint only serves to protest against robots looking too feminine, as if all robots by default should have broad, masculine shoulders and flat chests instead. The problem is that people look at a masculine transformer and say, “Ah yes, an anthropomorphised robot.” But the moment it’s one of the female transformers, it’s “why do robots need boobs?” as if a male-looking body type is anthropomorphizing, but a female-looking body time is suddenly “too human” or “too much.” As if all humanoid robot aliens should look male by default.
That being said, for a long time transformers did have a glaring issue of their female transformers having a generic, Barbie-doll like body type. This especially became problematic as male characters appeared with several different and varying heights and builds, while female characters all looked the same.
This eventually improved with newer media. I’m going to go through different transformers series, giving my opinions on various female Cybertronians designs.
Transformers Animated and Transformers Prime are the cases where we see the very few female characters that there are being designed with this more Barbie doll look, especially in comparison to the male cast, who each have strikingly different silhouettes. I maintain that there’s nothing wrong with having this stereotypically feminine figure as long as it’s not caricatured or designed to sxualize the character (in TFA’s case, Black Airachnid was extremely sexualized, but Arcee wasn’t at least) it’s just the lack of variety that makes it painful. If all female characters were designed with a stocky, square body type, it would be just as bad; the problem is the lack of diversity in representing how each woman is different.
I think Arcee from Transformers Prime gets some of the most comments about how she has breasts and hips and is most often faced with the question “why should robots have boobs?” In response to this question, I propose: why shouldn’t they? The shape of their chassis really doesn’t matter in the end. I like Arcee’s design and acting like she’s inherently caricatured for looking like a woman is just a way of alienating femininity.
TFP Arcee is also unfortunately sexualized a lot by the fandom. Primus forbid a woman exist in peace.
The problem with these ‘Barbie doll’ designs isn’t that they are oversexualized— while this may have been a problem with Black Airachnia, the true problem, as seen especially with the treatment of TFP Arcee, is the concept that any female body traits are inherently sexual, which both creators and fandom spaces feed into.
It’s not as prominent, but I’ve also seen a trend of attempting to give female transformers more diverse body types by giving them… male body types.
In Transformers Cyberverse, the Seekers all have the same body type, whether they are male, female, or genderfluid, the only differences being that the female models have lips and the male ones have facial-hair like chin stubs (and Acid Storm switches back and forth). However I would hardly call this progress, because the body type is more male-leaning, not truly gender neutral.
Often to make something appear gender neutral, people will just remove anything too obviously feminine. This treats masculine traits as the “default” and female traits as a deviance from this. A truly gender-neutral design would incorporate both masculine and feminine traits at the same time.
(What if we just made all the Seekers look like women and gave the dudes chins. What if we did that. Huh.)
Shadowstriker from Cyberverse is a better example of this, having a female body type but a chin stub and generally gender neutral face.
I like the look of Alpha Strike as well, she feels actually gender neutral and isn’t too exaggerated like most muscular (and especially muscular female) characters are.
For example, Clobber’s design is good, but I do think her lips were strangely exaggerated.
Once the IDW run of the Transformers comics actually introduced female characters, they eventually gained a large cast with a variety of different body types. Take Windblade, Nautica, Pyra Magna, the Mistress of Flame, and Aileron.
These aren’t all examples, but IDW certainly had a unique design for each of their female characters, with different heights, width, mixing and matching the proportions of their bodies and displaying diverse body types. Aileron is also a stand-out character design for me, as one of the few heavy-set transformers to be designed in a way that looks more rounded than bulky, implying weight over muscle. We need more weighted transformers in general.
I have many positive feelings about Transformers Earthspark’s choice of character design for their female characters.
Earthspark has the most consistently diverse character design for its female characters.
And it shows that the key to designing actually good female Cybertronians isn’t necessarily to make them not feminine, but to show diverse depictions of femininity. All of the female characters in this show are pretty feminine, but they all look different. Twitch is small and slight, Hashtag is tall and boxy. Each one has different proportions and are easy to tell apart by body type alone. Even better, they each have drastically different facial structures. Twitch has large eyes, Hashtag has a strong chin, Elita-1 has a straight nose and pronounced lips, Arcee has small eyes and a very slight nose, et cetera. Earthspark is definitely a win in this department.
My point with all of this is to say that femininity isn’t a one-size fits all. Every woman is different and everyone should get to express their gender in whatever way they see fit. Transformers gradually diversifying the look of their female characters represents this, and I hope they continue improving as the franchise continues.
I had drawn this TFA bumblebee a while back (before the human episode happened) and thought I'd share before I do a possible redesign! :D
This design is meant to be cohesive with the g1 design I made for Bee so I'm not sure what I'll change but eh
(Love the gremlin that tfa bumblebee is! He's so me fr)
i wasn't expecting anyone to like this omg, im happy!
i guess i could share this part of the work, i had the idea that Starscream looked very different as Ulchtar, the design was inspired by the Jet Twins bc they were buildt (kind of) using Starcream's CNA in Animated
Arcee
我狠狠速摸，是08bumble prime主角漫画我们有救了
今年又是推出wasp官方玩具又是我昨天刚画私设领袖if线beewasp就出bumble prime漫画预告，今年就是为了我快乐的一年，我已经爽死了蛤蛤蛤蛤蛤🥰🥰🥰🥰
bee what the fuck, hes gonna die whyd u do that
What happens when I draw with my fingers
(I forgot my digital pen at the time))
Brace my finger drawn cringe in its full glory
Bonus normal art
I find humor in the weirdest things
Shoving my favorite character into memes: this post
Or characters in this case? There's so many optimus primes..
Just a bunch of stuff I drew in the holidays
TFA Wasp for my Transformers sideblog. Thought I’d share them here too! 💚💜
A reluctant onlooker
Optimus watching a Decepticon city go up in flames in chapter 10 of my fic “Glass Blowing for Dummies”
He’s not having a fun time :D you can read where this takes place here!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/62893825/chapters/164493334
I can’t deal right now I’m laughing way too hard at this.
He craves VIOLENCE.
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0IcbkTrQY4 👀
PD
News!!!
Hello loves! I just wanted to tell you guys that I’m planing on my other blog called: @memeformers so if you want to please check it out!!! and I’ll be making another one of TFA drawings soon!!!
I GOT Bulkhead and RUNG! ~OwO~
Hello love! I was wondering if I have a matchup with Mtmte & Tfa autobots. I'm goofy, childish, motherly with a old soul. I love telling corny jokes & puns but, only because I believe life shouldn't be wasted spreading hatred or sadness. I love listening to music, painting, writing poetry & my dreams down. Though there's times when I speak my heart out about my beliefs and get serious, people think I'm older than my age. And I have a group of friends that call me mom & I call them my children...
I match you with…
Mtmte Rung. He’s drawn to you by your caring heart and absolutely adores your view of things. He loves your puns and jokes and will sometimes will tell you a few of his own. You both watch each other and ensure that you both are doing well both mentally and physically. Overall your relationship with Rung is a textbook example of the old couple that seemingly has always been together (even if you yourself aren’t that old).
Tfa Bulkhead. Your motherly nature is what caught his attention. As he got to know you he grew to love your jokes even though he isn’t good at making up his own. You two often spend time together painting and making various art. Bulkhead has no idea how he got someone so wonderful but he considers himself one of the luckiest mechs because if it.
Bulkhead at the Energon Farms, or at least my personal mental depiction at the moment...
Also, I’m likely considering whether or not to just delete my account due to Tumblr’s upcoming stunt with Post+, so... Whoever is around to like my Fan-Art, feel prepared to come right over to my AO3 Account to get a good look at my stuff.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/32048245/chapters/81305611
My first ever drawing of the Decepticon Tyrant himself! All made using 3D Paint.
Oh, there’s nothing wrong, nothing wrong at all! Just an impending battle between two Primes, nothing to worry about, that’s all.
Here’s my improved version of the pic. Hope everyone who notices likes it!
And here’s an updated version of TFA Rodimus cuz stupid me forgot to add lines on his Golden Spoiler Wing! And just for the hell of it, I’ve added the OG pic just so you can tell the difference in appearances.
Alright, here’s another brainwashed Optimus Prime pic with some background. Feel free to take a good look at this cold looking motherf##ker.
This is based off of an Updated Logo that I’ve personally made for promotion of my TFA story, which is heavily involved with the Fall of Cybertron.
What’s wrong with this picture?
This picture was based off of a story that I’m writing for my Transformers Animated Fanfic! All made using 3D Paint.
Now, what exactly is he asking forgiveness for, hmm?
There’s alot of ideas nagging in my head all day about the few characters in Transformers Animated that I just want to talk about.
Compare to the characters in this show and the other animated series, it’s a lot different than I expected.
Such as Optimus Prime, who is supposed to be a wise and respected leader that we know and love, turns out to be just a young bright bot in a academy ends up being demoted to be a leader to a space bridge crew. Bumblebee being a chatterbox who likes to annoy everyone, etc..
And with that, there’s this one headcanon I desperately want to set out
Headcanon: Orion Pax and Optimus Prime are two separate characters.
(Sorry about the image being a bit blurry)
Orion Pax works in the Elite Gurard (I forgot to add the Elite Guard symbol on him) with Sentinel Prime, Jazz, and the Jettwins.
Since many are completely different in the animated show, I like to see Orion Pax as this hotheaded character who gets angered quite often by others (mostly Sentinal). He’s not this naive person you can take advantage of quite easily. I added spikes on his helm to kinda represent his character.
He isn’t a fighter, he mostly do all of the paperwork for Sentinal since Orion’s past job was being a archivist.
Most of his frustrations is the cause of Sentinal but likes to annoy the shit out of the prime on several occasions when he has the chance.
However, besides his hot temper, he is still a kind bot who truly cares about others, even if other cybertronians don’t think so.
(It was Orion)