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razeI like to look for reference pictures to get ideas on what characters look like, dress like, etc., especially if they yield from a culture or country outside of my own for the sake of accuracy. Unfortunately, I've found that before I find even one image of an everyday woman, I need to slog through pages and pages of eroticized, lewd, or outright pornographic images of women every time I Google, "[x culture/country/etc.] + woman." Even if I use Safe Search, which is overwhelmingly not my preference, I still get stuck with pin-up-model versions of women instead of, "here's what an average woman looks like." I do not want to know what the hottest model in the country looks like, I want to know what my neighbor would look like if I lived there.
In fact, I've gotten to where I add other qualifiers that are explicitly non-erotic - for example, "praying" or "pedestrian" or "mother"- on the hope that maybe by page two I'll be past, "ass and titties, ass and titties!" And while I get SOME of the same when I Google men, it is not nearly as severe - I might get a few shots of posed models, maybe one dick pic, then all average Joes.
This became super grating today when I wanted a photo of Israeli women and was treated not just to a barrage of T&A, but a ton of erotic photos of Israeli military women with guns. Because apparently the only women in Israel are supermodels or in the army, with a fair deal of overlap between the two. Even adding qualifiers, like "average" or "class room" or "college," I still mostly had shots of attractive smiling women holding guns. Just, you know, in a dorm room instead.
Just, argh. At this point I think I'ma just wing what these characters look like, because otherwise I will rage-punch my computer and get no writing done at all.
In fact, I've gotten to where I add other qualifiers that are explicitly non-erotic - for example, "praying" or "pedestrian" or "mother"- on the hope that maybe by page two I'll be past, "ass and titties, ass and titties!" And while I get SOME of the same when I Google men, it is not nearly as severe - I might get a few shots of posed models, maybe one dick pic, then all average Joes.
This became super grating today when I wanted a photo of Israeli women and was treated not just to a barrage of T&A, but a ton of erotic photos of Israeli military women with guns. Because apparently the only women in Israel are supermodels or in the army, with a fair deal of overlap between the two. Even adding qualifiers, like "average" or "class room" or "college," I still mostly had shots of attractive smiling women holding guns. Just, you know, in a dorm room instead.
Just, argh. At this point I think I'ma just wing what these characters look like, because otherwise I will rage-punch my computer and get no writing done at all.
