Genderbent Fanart
By Miss_T
Hashtags around genderbent/genderbend Lore Olympus have become more popular lately in the fandom. While AO3 has one fanfiction tagged for this, Enflamed by scholarlydragon, and there are a good number of cosplays of genderbent characters (particularly fem Hades), it is the fan art scene that has really exploded with content.
Here at Lore Olympians, we’ve done a little digging to find some of the trend setters in the fan art community around the style and a bit of historical context for the universal fan trend (it goes back farther than you think).
ART WITHIN THE LORE OLYMPUS FANDOM
BRIEF TIMELINE:
AmbitiousIcarus created the first genderbent Lore Olympus fan art.
January 2019 - March 2020
CapriceRose and PeachyDezy created genderbent art.
April 2020
Bee.Brilliant began creating genderbent art, and Kore.Cob recommended the book “The Dark Wife” to followers.
July 2020
EditOlympus made an edit of Hecate as a man that started a new Hecate-specific trend.
August 2020
Dozens of artists and cosplayers continue to create innovative genderbent art.
Present Day
AmbitiousIcarus (aka M) is a popular fan artist and almost certainly the first person to draw a series of genderbent art, starting as early as January 2019.
“The motif of "blue" = male and "pink" = female is underscored by Hades being male and Persephone being female. I see gender as less about "human geometry"/"hardware" and more as "masculine" and "feminine" energy. So my brain was like "What if Hades was a woman? what kind of woman would Hades be? What would still be true to Hades' 'energy' or true to the character?"
My brain instantly thought Alpha Lesbian. So I tried to imagine what this would look like while still being true to who Hades is. Then, I found the design and put her in a pose and situation that I think was still true to the sexual attraction & sexual tension between Persephone and Hades. I have to admit, I was worried the community would NOT approve of this. So I was super surprised when the piece got so many likes, comments of approval, DMs, and requests for more of this content.”
Over a year later, in March 2020, Lore Olympus expanded to include the war god Ares, and M was back at it, creating two pieces inspired by this complicated character. There’s even a slight nod to the Amazons (Ares in myth is the father of some of these fabled women) in the Hera piece because one breast is exposed.
“It's odd... I got a lot of people unsure about Genderbend Ares' gender in the shower piece with the Dread Queen Persephone. I had to have so many hard conversations with people about gender. So many people were like "Oh, it's just male Ares with boobs". Which is upsetting because muscular women do exist.”
Autumn Ivy is one of the models M referenced for the Ares pieces.
While AmbitiousIcarus/M was the first artist known for genderbent art, there are others that helped bring the trend to a fever pitch recently.
Dez of peachydezy and CapriceRose both posted genderbent art in April 2020. Dez explained:
“I always loved genderbend versions of characters, but this was around the time when I didn’t see as much of it, so I decided to create my own!”
Then, in July two people seemed to restart the trend, Nadia of @bee.brilliant and Sunny of @kore.cob. Nadia created several stunning genderbent art that gained a lot of interest in the Lore Olympus Discord. Nadia said,
“I kinda thought...what if the powerful one was a female and the male was the cheerful one? So I kinda went with that.”
Kore.cob on the other hand recommended a book, “The Dark Wife” by Sarah Diemer to her followers on Instagram. Hades is a goddess and queen in this rendition and the concept inspired at least @2deadly and @editolympus in their first depictions of a fem Hades.
Most recently, in August, a mini trend of drawing Hecate as a man piqued many fan artists interest. This started from an edit done by editolympus.
“I was actually inspired by a lot of the genderbent art going around in general! I was really inspired to edit male Hecate, as she’s one of my favorite characters in LO.”
Below are a few of the MANY amazing fan art and cosplay of genderbent Lore Olympus characters. Continue reading for more history and context behind genderbent fan creations.
view more lore olympus genderbend fanart and cosplay on instagram
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
With fandom in general, it’s generally believed that Star Trek had some of the first and most famous examples of characters changing gender, including within the canon storyline.
Terminology itself has also evolved. The older term 'genderswap' has been criticised for “falsely assuming that both sex and gender are binaries, and for implying that sex and gender necessarily coincide. Various alternatives have been proposed, such as spectrum slide[1]. Genderbending caught on in the 2010s.” We certainly see the tag #genderbend and #genderbent much more common in the community today.
Grinnel College has a page dedicated to the artistic work of fandoms and what it means for society and the people who create it. This quote seems particularly relevant to the genderbent fan creations we are seeing lately.
“Transformative works are often used to resist traditional narratives in ways other than gender dynamics. Fandom has traditionally been a place for the exploration of social issues, particularly explorations of gender and sexuality which defy the dominant culture and traditional binaries.”
Sources:https://fanlore.org/wiki/Genderswaphttps://haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/subcultures-and-scenes/transformative-media-fandom/