50 Innocuous Things About Being A Woman That Had To Be Pointed Out To Men

We reached out to Akshara Ashok, the illustrator from India. The artist is the author of the unique series “Happy Fluffy Comics”. In her work, Ashok highlights the common struggles and challenges faced by women in their daily lives. Through her funny comics, the artist aims to break taboos and challenge stereotypes surrounding women and their experiences. To find out more about Akshara, you can click here, here, or here and see Bored Panda posts featuring her work.

We wanted to find out about Akshara’s journey as an illustrator. In order to do that, we asked the artist how she discovered her passion for creating art that focuses on women's experiences. Ashok shared with us: “I have always loved art since childhood. However, I started illustrating on social media in my second year of college. I used my comics as an outlet for my thoughts and I saw that many other women resonated with the messaging. I had so many questions about the way we are treated in society. We, as women, are expected to grow up much faster than men. Even our prepubescent bodies are sexualized in schools as they ask us to cover up because it would ‘affect’ the boys. I found this really unfair and disgusting. Since childhood, we are made to feel a lot of shame and guilt for looking or living a certain way. I wanted to break these taboos and tell women that they can be who they want to be and there’s no shame in that.”

Asked which aspects of women's lives and stories the artist finds most inspiring to illustrate, Akshara answered: “Everything. Starting from something as small as how our clothes fit to the misogyny we face every day. If you look closely, even things that are considered small aren’t really that insignificant, we’re just told to brush them aside. Now I’m focusing more on body positivity and sexuality. We are expected to fit into an unattainable beauty standard which is almost ridiculous and once women try and to do that, they’re still ridiculed for not being natural enough. So there’s really no way to win this. I’d like to remind women to love their bodies a little more every day for the way it looks.”

Women's experiences can be multifaceted and complex. We were curious how Ashok ensures that her artwork captures the depth and nuances of these experiences. We found out that: “I try to make it really simple. I use simple language and illustrations to capture the eye. On top of that, I use humor that makes you think. Most of my funny comics show that our ‘quirky struggles’ are actually the result of patriarchy and that we don’t need to be perfect all the time. I also try my best to use inclusive language and illustrations to make sure people don’t feel left out or get offended. Most of my comics are lived experiences from my life or what I see around me which makes it much more personal. I’m someone who struggles with mental health issues and self-love. This helps me empathize with others and makes my art easily relatable. This also allows women to come forward to share their experiences without the fear of being judged.”

As an illustrator, Akshara’s work may also be influential in shaping perceptions and attitudes. We wanted to find out what positive changes the artist hopes to inspire through your illustrations of women's stories. The comic artist said: “I don’t want to attack anyone for their perception, it’s just something we’re taught since childhood, that women are inferior and the weaker sex. Instead, I want to help everyone understand how untrue that is and that we can change the way we think. That’s why I use humor and cute little illustrations. It makes the subject simple and friendly instead of being too preachy. It’s hard to break out of these norms created by society overnight because we’re so used to them. All we can do is change one step at a time.”

Lastly, Ashok shared more about the motivation for creating her art: “I want to initiate healthy conversations about our bodies and sexuality which is still looked down upon in 2023. Women are still being called names just for existing. A lot of people push this toxic positivity onto people where one’s expected to be happy and love themselves all the time. But we don’t live in a perfect world and the amount of pressure we face to be perfect is just too much. I understand how hard it can be to love ourselves for the way we look when the media is constantly pushing these beauty standards onto us. Self-love is a very slow process and it’s very hard to attain. I think influencers need to be mindful of that as well as mental health issues. Most of us cannot wake up and choose to be happy. It’s almost a privilege. I want to tell people that we deserve to be happy regardless of the way we look, we are much more than that. We don’t have to be at our best all the time. It’s okay to have bad days. We’re human after all. I know that I can’t change the way the world sees us but I would like to try to change the way we see ourselves.”