[RANT] An Unpopular Opinion in APH OC fandom

So lately I've been noticing something about the APH OC fandom in terms of how outsiders perceive it.

I've seen complaints that there's too much OC/Canon and that it's usually involving a tanned, long curly haired girl, often with lighter eyes. No really, that's not my words, I've been seeing it around the place. On dA, on tumblr, etc.

I personally could care less if people wanna ship OC/Canon or not. I may not agree with all the ships or the OCs themselves or w/e cuz I have a crazy need for accuracy, but I'm not gonna bitch out anybody for shipping a ship I don't like, be it Canon/Canon, OC/Canon or OC/OC.

The actual point I want to talk about is regarding the whole OCs having long curly hair. I'm going to be real honest here, but this has become the big trend with most APH female OCs. It's kinda become a little ridiculous in my personal opinion, but I think I know why this is the trend.

So many people's perception of a beautiful woman is for her to have long, wavy/curly hair. Whenever I see a friend of mine draw their OC with that hair, I see all these comments about how beautiful/pretty/gorgeous she looks. Whenever I draw my long haired OCs, that's the sort of response I get too. My Venezuela was kind of deliberately tailored to this sort of beauty stereotype because her country is big on the whole beauty pageant thing and my Elisa is kind of superficial and enjoys having people think she's beautiful... so I deliberately wanted her to fulfill that perception.

But when I draw my shorter haired OCs, or the straight haired OCs (tho mostly of my shorter haired OCs also have straight hair), I don't get comments like that. I see other people draw their characters with shorter hair or straight hair, and they don't seem to generate the whole 'omg so beautiful/pretty/gorgeous' comments the way the long, curly haired OCs do.

Now I don't have a problem with people wanting their OCs to have long, curly hair. I don't think they're any better or worse than the OCs who don't have those. So don't think I'm complaining about that.

What I think needs to be looked at more is the perception of beauty itself. Why is short hair not considered as beautiful? Why is straight hair not considered as beautiful? Over the years, even in history itself, there's a real emphasis that the long curly haired women are the beautiful ones and the others are not. Nowadays you get idiots stereotyping that short haired girls are all 'tomboys' or 'dykes' or whatever...

Are you kidding me?! I think all hair types should be considered beautiful. But the reality is that most people are still drawn to this perception. I know a bunch of my friends are guilty of this, swooning over particular looks and kind of being more w/e at other appearances.

And the thing is, with the female OC creators, I know that they want people to think of their OCs as being beautiful/etc. They see the popular female OCs and most of them fit the beauty perception. They want their OCs to get noticed too, so they feel that they have to make their OC go down that path as well. And I think that it's exactly what is making people decide to have their OC looking a particular way. And yeah, what gets considered beautiful is mostly the long, curly hair. It's the stereotype of femininity.

This isn't just in OC fandoms though. I mean, come the fuck on. The Bachelor always has women with longer hair - when was the last time you saw one of the girls on that sort of show have short hair? I can't remember if there ever has been. The women selected all fit the stereotypes of beauty though. And these stereotypes are really hurting people's perceptions of beauty.

I am certain that people will agree with me on particular points of this journal -  such as the fact that all women should be considered beautiful, regardless of their heights, their skin/hair/eye colour, their hairstyles (be it short/medium/long, be it straight/wavy/curly), their body types, etc. But I still count this as being an unpopular opinion, because the stereotype of beauty has been ingrained into people for years and years. It slips into how people look at different characters and OCs.

I mean, I see a lot of long-haired Ukraine drawings where she gets way more praised for her hair than she does when there's drawings of her with her main, shorter hair. Heck, I have seen people draw my Kosovo's hair longer than it actually is, even though I've obviously drawn it as more at the shoulders, no longer than that. And Herzegovina's hair is shorter than Kosovo's, fyi.

And I see curly haired ocs get waaaay more praise than the straight haired OCs. I see way more "OMG I LOVE HER HAIR<3333" if the character's hair is wavy/curly. I don't see that same hair love when the OC has straight hair. Why can't people dig all the different hairstyles out there? And for the record, short hair can still be very feminine and not 'butch' as many people in the world seem to think.









And those are examples of beautiful short haired ladies! Seriously, both short hair AND long hair is beautiful! Curly/Wavy/Straight hair is all beautiful! So why can't we praise all sorts of hairstyles?

I know so many people who go on and on about wishing they had wavier/curlier hair. Guys, it's cool if you want your hair to look that way. But I really hope you learn to love how you look right now. I think all my friends are beautiful, regardless of their hairstyle, their body type, their heights, etc.

I'm not speaking against making your OC looking a particular way. I'm not saying people should make their OCs have straight hair or short hair or whatever. What I am speaking out against is the popular perception of beauty and the way it has pressured people to want a certain way or to make an OC of theirs look a certain way.

And this perception of beauty I believe, is what has generated so many long, curly haired OCs in this fandom to the point that the non-OC fans are feeling irked by it. Now, non-OC fans will probably hate OCs no matter what you do, so you don't have any reason to cater to them. Even those in APH OC fandom are finding the beauty stereotype to be unoriginal now...

I guess what I want to say is:

Make your OC look however you want. You don't have to make your OC's appearance look a certain way just to make them be liked by other people. Let's encourage all kinds of beauty, okay? Let's all encourage one another with our OCs and their designs! Let's recognise beauty in all forms, seriously!