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25 Illustrations About Femininity, Body Image, And Other Issues Women Face Every Day
Interview With Artist
We're back with another important post featuring relatable illustrations by Lainey Molnar. Many of you may already be familiar with this artist. However, for those of you who need to catch up with her previous work, we recommend checking out our earlier Bored Panda posts where we shared Lainey's best illustrations.
It seems that people are becoming increasingly aware of the beauty standards that were once imposed on every woman. Nonetheless, some women still face unrealistic expectations from toxic partners, friends, or even family members. This is one of the themes Molnar challenges in her work. The illustrator highlights the absurdity of the criteria women are expected to fulfill in order to be considered worthy. She also addresses various misconceptions about femininity, revealing how misunderstood women still are.
Scroll down to see the most recent selection of illustrations shared by the artist and to learn more about her recent work.
More info: Instagram | bylainey.com | tiktok.com | Facebook
This post may include affiliate links.
In order to get more valuable insights about this unique series, we reached out to Lainey Molnar and asked her some more questions regarding her recent work. We wanted to know what the artist considers the most rewarding aspects of being an illustrator. Lainey shared with us: “I'm very grateful for being able to be creative as a profession, as someone who doodled her way through school, this is such a dream. I never believed anyone who said ‘You need a diploma and a secure job, you can be creative in your free time’ and I think my delusion that I can be and do whatever I want and be successful at it definitely contributed to me doing this right now. But the best part is always reading and hearing the reactions to my illustrations, all the personal stories, and the conversations they start. As soon as the comics leave my hands, their purpose is to ignite these conversations and provoke thoughts.”
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#2
Elizabeth Brown 2 years ago
... I understand and agree with this, but this does not apply to all single mothers. It is possible for them to have split but both still take care of the child, or for the woman to be a widow. You can also not be single while your child has an absentee father. Basically yes, there is nothing wrong with being a single mother, but no, these two terms are not interchangeable
Graham_Illegal 2 years ago
Well the alternative would be providing actual help for parents, so let's just keep on focusing on words.
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Monstarr the Divisive 2 years ago
Wait... Does "single mother" realy imply this? English is not my first language...
Katoma (Jingles) 1 year ago
I know plenty of dad's who would happily take there child more but the mom won't give them up for selfishness of wanting to keep them. Sharing a child would be tough.
Deborah Ebejer 1 year ago
first of all, not all single parents are single mothers. There are a lot of single fathers who are working equally hard to provide a loving home for their children. Secondly how is using the term single parent assigning any blame? How is it blaming the mother/ father who stayed raising the child and why assume that a father is necessarily absent...
VioletHunter 2 years ago
It's the conservative male thinking that the evil single woman did it on purpose.
Black Cat 2 years ago
Or is it resentment from conservative men that single mothers are proof men aren't really needed. Women can and do do it all on their own and very often quite successfully.
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Graham_Illegal 2 years ago
How about, instead of keep "normalizing" new phrases, we focus on something that works, like free daycare and paid parental leave?
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xWILTED_ROSEx 2 years ago
Then the father is still absent, or call her an 'adoptive mother'
Load More Replies... Breadcrumb. 2 years ago (edited)
Who are you describing the children or the mother? Linguistically it makes no sense...
Asked how her art style evolved over time, Molnar said: “I had phases during my life, sometimes I exclusively used markers or pencils, but for the most part digital art with the signature black outlines was my personal style. What I see is that my skills improve significantly the more hours I put in, if I look back at my work 2-3 years ago, I see something super unrefined, the change is so big. I really recommend the practice to everyone regardless of talent, because improvement in drawing can be pretty visible and it's so satisfying to see!”
We were also wondering if Lainey could describe the most challenging part of creating an illustration. She told us: “I think the most challenging part is the overthinking. I have a huge list of illustration ideas and from picking one to finishing the illustration it's a pretty straight line, but before that, my brain just goes all over the place trying to think about how people would react, whether it is controversial, is there any relevance, did I post too much of a topic recently, etc. I'm doing my best to use my intuition more, but of course, this is my job, I have to be conscious about it!”
#7
Do-nut touch da donut 2 years ago
I absolutly HATE! When people say 'thats not my job' to things that clearly are! You chose to be a parent so it IS your job to work with your spouse to take care of your kids, its not the sole job of one or the other its a team effort... chores too
Lastly, we asked the artist to share an anecdote about a particularly memorable interaction she’s had with a reader who deeply related to one of her illustrations. We found out: “I just received a message from someone who started following me as a teenager from my home country and said she didn't really understand what I meant with all this feminism. Since then she moved abroad and away from the toxic thought patterns and said that suddenly everything started to make sense and that she is so thankful that I opened her eyes to so much in the world and prepared her for a different way of thinking. It really means a lot, because every little way one little life is changed by my work is a huge accomplishment to me!”
#10
Tracy Wallick 2 years ago
Was everyone an adult? Was it consensual? Then it's none of my business.
#12
Tracy Wallick 2 years ago
This is also what the fat acceptance movement is about. We just wanted to be treated like human beings, the same as non-fat people are.
#13
Goose of the Ahonkalypse 2 years ago
This is so true. It's important to talk about unrealistic romance expectations because they're so present in so much media, especially in stuff that's typically geared toward teens or women. Which is not to say there's anything wrong with the genre so much as it needs to be talked about just like unrealistic body expectations.
#14
Sky Render 2 years ago
As long as you can manage your life, who freaking cares what you do in your spare time?
#17
Tracy Wallick 2 years ago (edited)
Men get scarily angry and abusive if you're a woman he doesn't want to f*ck.
#18
Sky Render 2 years ago
Personally I don't want to look like a Barbie doll and don't see the appeal. But then I make a poor target for this sort of thing anyway.
#20
Tracy Wallick 2 years ago
I hated my body for many years and agonized that I could never get below 150lbs (and I only got to 150-something by starving myself and running 4-5 miles multiple times a week). As it turns out, I would have to be emaciated for that ever to happen; even when I was doing my best to starve myself, I just don't have the build to meet modern beauty standards. The military has NOT helped things, since if you fail weigh-ins, the tape measure system is completely broken; I'd have to surgically remove part of my pelvis to pass the rope-n-choke as we call it.
#22
Tracy Wallick 2 years ago
Normalize answering this question honestly. If you're not okay but don't wanna talk about it, ask for support!
#24
Violet Jensen 2 years ago
we love BOUNDARIES they rule and tbh every time I have a boundary convo with my gf we get closer
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What do you think ?
Tracy Wallick 2 years ago
I love her comics, she's good at articulating a lot of the things I'm thinking (especially about feminism and misogyny) but don't know how to express
Vivian 2 years ago
i love her comics and i love your opinions reading them made me wish i had someone like you in my life
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Danish Susanne 2 years ago
These comics were more serious than I had expected, but thought-provoking and very well drawn.
H.J. carlson 2 years ago
Starts out ok but degenerates further on. I'd rather see more positive comics than ugly jabs at either sex.
Tracy Wallick 2 years ago
I love her comics, she's good at articulating a lot of the things I'm thinking (especially about feminism and misogyny) but don't know how to express
Vivian 2 years ago
i love her comics and i love your opinions reading them made me wish i had someone like you in my life
Load More Replies... Danish Susanne 2 years ago
These comics were more serious than I had expected, but thought-provoking and very well drawn.
H.J. carlson 2 years ago
Starts out ok but degenerates further on. I'd rather see more positive comics than ugly jabs at either sex.
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