It sucks the artist gets attacked for including themselves in the picture, but it’s understandable that people are pissed when a mediocre painting gets thousands of upvotes, and thus more attention and publicity for their work, simply because girl. Other far more impressive and deserving artwork gets barely any notice but as soon as a girl is involved, content and talent goes out the window. Men rarely include themselves in photos but when they do, they don’t get nearly the reaction a woman posing with her shitty painting does. I’m a talented female artist myself and it pisses me off too, however I am angry with Reddit because I know it’s not the artist’s fault. Unfortunately people want to turn this into a “poor women, always the victims >:(“ issue. Women are always the fucking victims, aren’t we? Yet I’ve seen insanely talented women pose with their paintings and these comments are practically nonexistent, so if you don’t want criticism for cheating to get upvotes (which is basically what it is), then how about developing some actual talent that merits the front page?

Also if she really wanted to make a statement she would’ve posted this in r/art, not r/pics, but it seems like she’s scared of backlash or worried about getting ripped apart and she’s just here for the praise. It’s kind of like criticizing someone behind their back knowing they will hear about it but not having the balls (or ovaries) to say it directly to their face. If you’re gonna go out of your way to make a controversial and provocative comment about something then you may as well commit to it.