feminist illustrations and why i am creating them - how it all started

the story behind my motivation to create feminist illustrations

alright. so i started these illustrations for a university project. we had to create a book and could choose a theme for the book. this was around february 2020. during this time i started seeing more and more feminist people and feminist art on instagram. for the first time i heard about vulva diversity and the body positivity movement started to grow bigger and bigger.

on the one hand at this moment i was blown away. blown away by the fact that i, as a woman, did not know about this huge diversity of vulvas. i was blown away by the fact that most of the people with a vulva did not even know how their own vulva looks. on the other hand there was this fight, my inner fight of loving myself and loving my body.
we grow up getting tought to look a certain way, a way that we will never achieve to look like. so we feel bad, we hate ourselves, we compare our selves constantly to others. i really didn't feel beautiful in my own body for years, but i am a white cis female with thin privilege, so i can't even imagine how people feel with less privilege. so in my mind this was so absurd.

absurd that we hate ourselves our entire life, so i decided, after thinking about it a lot, to choose the theme of body diversity for the book.

i started creating many different boobs, asses and vulvas.
so from that moment on i started to illustrate different body parts. the reaction of my teacher and my university colleagues was so interesting. they where always very curious and always told me how brave i am for making these illustrations. i also felt brave, but this was so absurd. why do i have to be brave to show a vulva? well- because it's tabu. it's shameful.

because of all the reactions i got, and i got a lot, i decided to show my illustrations on instagram. it was a huge step for me that also felt kind of uncomfortable. i started to post these illustrations on my private account, where mostly only my friends and family followed me. so it was super scary to post this kind of content. because it was something new not only for me, but also for everyone around me.

but it felt right. i had to do it and i kept going on making illustrations during every free minute i had (which i hadn't had to many cause university was very intense)

and the response was incredible. i got so much support from the people around me. i was able to learn about vulva diversity, thin privilege, the menstruation and other topics at the same time with my community and share the experience.
slowly people that i didn't know started following me because of these illustrations and that gave me the feeling even more, that it was important that i keep on going making these illustrations.

which i have still today.
i love making these illustrations. i love the community behind it. i love being a part of it.
but it is also a lot of unpaid work unfortunately. but i will keep on going as long as i can and as long as it feels right to me.