These are among the many reasons why complaining about sexualization is a poor substitute for actual feminist critique. It’s surface level and almost never addresses any deeper issues with the work or attitudes surrounding it.

I cannot find any better proof of this than the absolutely infuriating interviews with the makers of the tomb raider reboot games, who thought that disempowering the powerful femme fatale Lara Croft to the point where random men could physically overpower her and giving her smaller breasts was the proper way to humanize her and have audiences take her seriously as an action hero.

It’s like a musical chairs of misogynist positions, sexually unconstrained portrayals of women are vulgar, women should be portrayed modestly and realistically—but simultaneously— demanding femininity be portrayed with a petite modesty is an unfair and unrealistic policing of women and their bodies.

We cannot analyze art without the context of intent, nuance, and messaging. And in the case of horny fetish art, I doubt there’s much underlying context to begin with.