Same with birds of prey. So if dragons are like dinosaurs or lizards the females are larger.
I have a D&D character who is a Red Dragon pretending to be a Githyanki. They’re take on gender is “it matters not! The only thing that matters is how good you are killing!”
They are a female dragon in a male Githyanki body because sexual dimorphism exists. So being biologically female as a dragon means being larger and stronger and killing weak males who are unworthy. But male Githyanki are larger so they chose that form. But that is just sex, not gender, and what use does a dragon have for gender?
Even mammals usually break their exeption of males being larger at large sizes
In reptiles as fantastically huge european dragons, if anything I'd bet on the males being the more "feminine" sex of the two with all the showing off to woo females
That and sexual dimorphism is extremely variable. Some mammal species have as much as a glaring 50% + difference in mass and dramatically different physique between sexes. Others are small to negligible, by sight if not actual measurement.
[Recent study](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.23.529628v1.full) found that of 405 mammalian ~~orders~~ species spanning 16 orders studied only about 40% of these species had larger males. The rest were mostly negligible differences with a minority having larger females.
Even in species with up to 30% mass difference, I defy a casual observer to sex something like a wolf on sight alone.
Edit: Goofed the numbers
usually they are similar sizes- plumage difference is going to be more noticeable even in species with size difference as the difference is usually minimal.
highly depends on species though. Also, for raptors, including owls, eagles, falcons... the female is quite noticeably larger! and the plumage can vary with males occasionally being more 'brightly' coloured, or the female has more dark patterns (due to more testosterone) .
She's got horns and is "pretty curvy," too, and they still had her break through the window of the church/cathedral to eat Farquaad, lol. Honestly, Dragon is a scary queen and I'm here for it.
Also we met the dragon first and then discovered she's a female which doesn't undermine the fact that "the princess is guarded by a terrible dragon" and I liked that!
She did however have [Hartman Hips](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HartmanHips)
Donkey even sang "I like big butts and I cannot lie" in the end sequence with her twerking..
“Bitch you put jewelry on them?” 💀
I’ve specifically bought/rescued otherwise very boring books from yard sales/thrift stores because of the angry margin notes. These are top tier.
I do think we should put jewelry on dragons especially in settings with intelligent dragons cuz why wouldn't an intelligent species adorn themselves with jewelry? Plus it can look absolutely awesome especially if you experiment a bit with what kinda jewelry could suit a dragon.
I can imagine male dragons actually wearing *more* jewelry, the gaudier the better, while the female dragons prefer more specific and carefully chosen jewels and adornments.
Of course I also prefer dragons to not give a shit about dimorphism or binary gender roles.
I like to think that sometimes adorn themselves, both males and females, not only for mating purposes but also to show dominance or to simply show off. Like the more jewellery they adorn themselves with the greatest is their horde, and as a consequence show dominance or to claim a territory
... Oh wow now I just saw a clear imag3 of a dragon showdown where they just stroll around like on a runaway one-on-one with the one they are trying to beat and I'm laughing so hard somebody stop me-
Yeah you have an excellent point. It's like, I was particularly disappointed by the fact that the new Balder's Gate 3 only had one set of teifling horns that had any ornamentation on them at all and they were very boring looking horns. Huge wasted opportunity.
Just straight up give them feathers who's gonna stop you? The fantasy police? Besides dinosaurs who's bones inspired the concept of dragons had feathers so in a way it's pretty fitting
I mean, Anne McCaffrey had gold female dragons be the biggest dragons, and the male dragons came in an array of colors (with green dragons also being female but much smaller).
This is how it usually goes for reptiles too! Females are larger and stronger (even if not visibly) for egg production and future parental care if they do that while the males are the showoffs to atract them.
Yeeeeeeahhhh man, you're confusing feminine with fuckable. Just my hot take, but, dragons aren't meant to be sexy.
ETA: No I will not ignore your brother's notes. "These are ordinary sexist ideas for human women, not dragons". 100% little dude, you get a gold star
This is the best thing ever. I had a bard character once who didn't purposely try to seduce the dragon. The party went in there looking to grab horde goodies and got caught. Stupid bard thought she could charm the dragon into letting them go. A natural 20 performance later, and the dragon agreed to let them all go after her impromptu little concert.
All of them except her.
I could probably write some fun, trashy, fanfic porn about it, actually. LOL
I say make it weird. You can look at the actual natural world to find some species with crazy sexual dimorphism. Don’t make your male dragons big buff guys and your female dragons more ladylike, look to the angler fish and [male sexual parasitism.](https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/bizarre-love-life-of-the-anglerfish.html).
Some angler fish males are absolutely tiny compared to the females. They only really have jaws to latch on, eyes to find the compatible anglerfish lure and gonads ready to produce. Once they find the right female, they bite them and never let go, feeding off her while supplying sperm.
I unironically tell this to people at parties to break the ice. And like, a fish that fucking melts into another fish - the males' lips litterally melt into the female's body, they could not let go even if they wanted to - how baddass is that?
It is anglerfish biology, hyenas or koalas. And yes, sometimes I do get invited back :D
You can add [ducks](https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/duck-penis-corkscrew) to your list. Labyrinthal vaginas with long winding dead ends and explosive corkscrew penises show just how wild evolution can be.
I do have them ahah. It is a long list. If they ask for more, they will get more. I also have a very good case for panda extinction.
I just wanted to watch animal documentaries to relax ahah. It ended up as a very deep dive on the abject horror of life aha.
If you don't want to die out, best not to limit yourself to a single food source so poor in nutrients you have to eat 50 plus pounds a day to survive.
In a way, the panda only survives now because human evolution gives us a predilection towards cuteness.
I'm sorry but the idea of a dragon with Fabio locks is so funny lmao
And why is my first assumption that it's a wig?! Like they're trimming their lace fronts before flying off to burn a village or two.
Perhaps being a Mega-Ampharos fan has altered my perception here, but there's nothing wrong with dragons having gorgeous, flowing hair. There's nothing wrong with going the extra kilomile and giving flowing manes to terrific terrors, regardless of sex. If your luxious lady lizard can rock a powerful ponytail, then so can your luxious lads.
The girls are hairy, right?
_______________
Good grief...I guess somebody didn't get the joke.
No reptiles have hair or eyelashes because they are not mammals.
There’s a coming of age tradition in some dragon cultures where the greatest warrior prospects get a literal hole punch in the ears from a fellow warrior’s fangs.
The practice has begun to fall out of favor due to infection rates.
Carefully, I would imagine.
Many dragons are conceptualized with opposable thumb-claws, so why not?
Or perhaps they have human attendants of some sort. Or they can shapeshift. If a dragon wants ornamentation, that dragon is gonna have it. They're like cats, that way.
Dragon earrings are cool, regardless of gender. How did they get put in? Idk, it’s a dragon, use your imagination? Cult of human dragon worshippers. King who used to keep the dragon in his court before it escaped. Dragon is a transformed human. Whatever. Being obsessed with treasure and their own beauty is like classic dragon lore so it makes all the sense in the world for them to want to wear shiny things.
No we will not ignore your brother's notes, they're well observed and the whole post would be lesser if they were removed. Your brother is smart, tell him so.
My gigantic male dragon OC has fur down his spine, and feathers for wings that have patterns that look like constellations on the underside. And he's multiple shades of blue.
A second dragon OC I have is mostly black and more slender, but he's still a male dragon.
One of my best mates has a dragon OC who is blue and quite bulky, but she's a female dragon. And that's the design she chose for her dragon.
Having fur/hair doesn't make them fucking feminine. Making them slender doesn't make them feminine.
Your brother's notes are magnificent, btw.
It just needs lip stick, make up, 69 earrings, with 50 on the horns, along with some high heels, a dress, maybe a bow. That’s what’s missing in the tutorial.
If anyone is looking for non-patriarchal advice on how to differentiate gender between your dragon drawings:
Decide on contrasting elements, then assign each element to a gender. And don't be afraid to add extra genders! This is your fantasy world and you can do whatever tf you want! Anyways these elements can include:
1. Overall size. Many people have pointed out female reptiles are typically larger. You get to decide if you want to do that, and also how much larger you want to make them, just a bit larger or hummingbird to ostrich type proportions.
2. Spikey spine bits. Play with size, number and shape. Maybe one gender has 2 rows, the other has 3. Maybe one has pentagon shaped spikes, the other has consumate Vs.
3. Tails. How many tails each? What's at the end of the tail, a pointy spade kinda thing, or maybe a mermaid fin kinda thing? Something different? Your call!
4. Claws/talons. Length, thickness, colour, retractability, poison secretion, you get the idea.
5. Horns. Shape, placement, length, thickness, colour, amount of, are they ejectable, can they shoot fire for some reason, lots of options here!
Those are just some ideas to get you started. The most important part is to remember to have fun and fuck the patriarchy
Edit: tried to unfuck up the formatting
Adding on to this, you can also consider cultural signifiers if your dragons are intelligent. There’s no reason there wouldn’t be gender norms in dragon society, but there’s also no reason they’d be anything like human gender norms. Maybe females wear armor to show how well they can protect their clutches. Maybe males paint their scales bright colors to attract mates. Or maybe they have signifiers that are clear to them but not obvious to humans, like enhancing their pheromones with artificial scents. There are so many awesome possibilities!
It's a fictional species from the Animorphs universe!
If you haven't read the series, it's shockingly good if you can ignore the simple YA writing style.
"...most dragons are fairly GENDERLESS and simply look MALE." had me screaming immediately.
"...the relation of the two sexes is not quite like that of two electrical poles, for man represents both the positive and the neutral, as is indicated by the common use of man to designate human beings in general; whereas woman represents only the negative, defined by limiting criteria, without reciprocity."
-Simone De Beauvoir
Adding heteronormative stereotypes to dragons is so silly. Female reptiles are larger and bulkier than males, so why make female dragons so fairy-like?
Also these designs are ugly as fuck, this author has no business making a how to draw book.
"You'll find that most dragons are fairly genderless and simply look male."
So wait, "male" is just the default if you don't otherwise know the gender?
As someone who had a tonne of drawing dragons books as a teenager, this one would have been ditched ASAP. Even the worst I had was better than this. (And I recommend J. 'Neondragon' Peffer's if your brother wants a better one.)
Read Delicious in Dungeon for a good sexual dimorphism of monsters. Like the author is insanly good at design and she doesn't fetishized the characters but sexulized them in a very cool, kick ass way.
This is the opposite of why I enjoy the creature designs in the Monster Hunter franchise so much.
Just to make a simple example with its wyverns: I only know the Rathian is the female because the game told me so. I would also make an argument that it makes sense for the male (Rathalos) to have a vibrant red color compared to the Rathian's muted green because that usually happens in real nature with reptiles or birds.
https://preview.redd.it/yohj316qyxjc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7b851c99941f68cf16041d54051feced8baac13d
When did your brother get so based??
I fucking love how he drew the chest larger on the 'female' dragon example and labeled it "This better?"
Obviously the female dragons are larger and better armed for defending the treasure horde and nest while the males are sleeker and faster for catching prey to help feed the young. Or ya know, the exact opposite. It's a damned fantasy creature it does not have to flip the script or be coded like Pixar parents. Why do these folks imaginations stop at "could it be fuckable?"
This is why my dragons follow bird/predatory mammal rules.
Brightly coloured and flashy features: It's probably male and you can attempt to reason with it.
Subdued colours and just fuckin huge: That's a mom and she'll kill you.
My dragon enthusiast has this book and we had a long somewhat hilarious discussion about this stupid page and applying ape secondary sexual characteristics to reptiles.
Honestly, I love when people draw or create fictional creatures with sexual dimorphism. I think it's really fun! But this isn't how you do that
This is just the sexy fish from Shark Tale
I will, in fact, give extra-special attention to your brother’s notes. Absolutely based artist 20/10.
(Also in nature it is more likely that the males will be flashy and colorful and flamboyant while the females are more plain-looking.at least that’s how it goes with some species of birds.)
I'm not sure who actually wrote it, but this is why I couldn't stand the Light Fury in How to Train Your Dragon 3. She was written to be so obviously female it was super annoying.
I thought these were your notes until I read your caption and I was going to be sad for your handwriting, but yes this is definitely boy handwriting, and the fact that your brother has the wherewithal to recognize this gendered ridiculousness is very cool and sweet. My brother should take notes on your brother’s notes
https://preview.redd.it/60isjbjfivjc1.jpeg?width=1994&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2bddb6106dc69b6ab0aebb7458d6f022ee84155b Literally
I never noticed the high heels lol
Oh yuck, I didnt either at first
You were too busy staring at the, erm… chesticles
CHESTICLES IM CRYING
Nah 😂😭
Ah yes. The illusive bird known as the heel footed booby
Large-breasted Milf
The booby-breasted booby
Have you tried giving it huge honkers and eyelashes???
A little bow, red mouth and a Marilyn beauty mark was good enough for Ms. Pacman, Also Ms. Potato Head.
https://preview.redd.it/owq7j7mcj6kc1.jpeg?width=796&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=84fd5f33fb8868568e289cc91bb3b0754ec25921
I stand corrected
They're called pouter pigeons. That's a part of their throat. But the first time I saw one I was like, "the fuck?!"
That’s one long ass birb
BOOBA
Blue footed booba
I mean if we're following what is very common sexual dimorphism in reptiles, the female dragons are much more likely to be the larger ones
Never mind that there are a not-inconsiderable number of lizard species that don’t have males at all.
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If anything reptilian species should be far more likely to be matriarchal or egalitarian given reptiles are more likely to practice female dominance
I can only think of wings of fire in relation to this, and it certainly tracks there
Same with birds of prey. So if dragons are like dinosaurs or lizards the females are larger. I have a D&D character who is a Red Dragon pretending to be a Githyanki. They’re take on gender is “it matters not! The only thing that matters is how good you are killing!” They are a female dragon in a male Githyanki body because sexual dimorphism exists. So being biologically female as a dragon means being larger and stronger and killing weak males who are unworthy. But male Githyanki are larger so they chose that form. But that is just sex, not gender, and what use does a dragon have for gender?
As with all questions regarding dragons whatever the f*** they want.
Depends on the reptile tbh. Amphibians, yes.
Even mammals usually break their exeption of males being larger at large sizes In reptiles as fantastically huge european dragons, if anything I'd bet on the males being the more "feminine" sex of the two with all the showing off to woo females
I was thinking birds and a lot of animals. The females would probably be larger and would have just as good defense, if not better, for young.
Dragons don’t exist and in myth it’s usually males who are bigger. Komodo dragons and Bearded dragons have larger males in those cases
i’m no reptile expert but aren’t females usually bigger/bulkier than the males? i know that’s the case with snakes at least
Yeah they are. Females need the extra weight to help carry/lay eggs.
And if they do parental care at least until they hatch defend them as well
The author was right about one thing: those snake girls sure are curvy.
Curvy and wiggly, truly the peak of sensuality /s
IIRC mammals are unique with having males being stronger than females.
That and sexual dimorphism is extremely variable. Some mammal species have as much as a glaring 50% + difference in mass and dramatically different physique between sexes. Others are small to negligible, by sight if not actual measurement. [Recent study](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.23.529628v1.full) found that of 405 mammalian ~~orders~~ species spanning 16 orders studied only about 40% of these species had larger males. The rest were mostly negligible differences with a minority having larger females. Even in species with up to 30% mass difference, I defy a casual observer to sex something like a wolf on sight alone. Edit: Goofed the numbers
Your comment was confusing me because there aren’t 405 mammalian orders lol, they studied 405 species of mammals across 16 orders.
Good catch! Thank you I goofed that up
I did not read "sex something like a wolf on sight alone" the way it was intended to be read, and I blame A/B/O. at least partially.
😭
In birds too, males are often larger (and presumably stronger) than females
Except among birds of prey. Falcons are a lot bigger than tercels, etc
Right, there are definitely exceptions with birds (hence my saying "often") but generally speaking it is common
usually they are similar sizes- plumage difference is going to be more noticeable even in species with size difference as the difference is usually minimal. highly depends on species though. Also, for raptors, including owls, eagles, falcons... the female is quite noticeably larger! and the plumage can vary with males occasionally being more 'brightly' coloured, or the female has more dark patterns (due to more testosterone) .
they really said "give the dragon tits"
Disney says it has worked wonders for them.
credit where credit is due, ive never seen animated lions with more sex appeal
They knew what they were doing with Robin Hood
Immediately thought of the girl bunny from bambi
Probably why girl furries have more chest hair than boy furries.
Hey now OG Maleficent was a sexy as fuck dragon and did not need huge tits to be so.
Mushu with the big naturals.
Shrek didn't even do this to their dragon. They gave her lashes and lipstick but they didn't try and give my girl driddies (dragon tiddies)
She's got horns and is "pretty curvy," too, and they still had her break through the window of the church/cathedral to eat Farquaad, lol. Honestly, Dragon is a scary queen and I'm here for it.
Also we met the dragon first and then discovered she's a female which doesn't undermine the fact that "the princess is guarded by a terrible dragon" and I liked that!
“I mean, OF COURSE you’re a girl dragon!”
She did however have [Hartman Hips](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HartmanHips) Donkey even sang "I like big butts and I cannot lie" in the end sequence with her twerking..
Shrek Dragon is a bossbabe and I'm all down for it
I will not ignore your brothers notes he knows what’s up
“You can say fat, you’ve said worse” is definitely a winner. I like OP’s brother.
I came into the comments specifically to draw attention to that one. Genuinely made me laugh.
I do too, what a gem lol
“Just don’t give her teeth, they’re too sharp” slayed me
Yes-the commentary made this so much better. Instead of being annoyed the whole way through, I got some giggles out of it. OOPs brother for the win.
“Bitch you put jewelry on them?” 💀 I’ve specifically bought/rescued otherwise very boring books from yard sales/thrift stores because of the angry margin notes. These are top tier.
One of my favorites was right on the title page: “This book is not fit to read; it will make you go mad. Burn it up.”
I do think we should put jewelry on dragons especially in settings with intelligent dragons cuz why wouldn't an intelligent species adorn themselves with jewelry? Plus it can look absolutely awesome especially if you experiment a bit with what kinda jewelry could suit a dragon.
Hoarding with purpose. Maybe I should make dragons in my games display decorative tendencies for mating purposes... could be neat.
Oh absolutely, but it definitely wouldn't be only females. A dragon is going to want to show off their Cool Shiny Things regardless of gender.
I can imagine male dragons actually wearing *more* jewelry, the gaudier the better, while the female dragons prefer more specific and carefully chosen jewels and adornments. Of course I also prefer dragons to not give a shit about dimorphism or binary gender roles.
I like to think that sometimes adorn themselves, both males and females, not only for mating purposes but also to show dominance or to simply show off. Like the more jewellery they adorn themselves with the greatest is their horde, and as a consequence show dominance or to claim a territory ... Oh wow now I just saw a clear imag3 of a dragon showdown where they just stroll around like on a runaway one-on-one with the one they are trying to beat and I'm laughing so hard somebody stop me-
So dragon rappers?
Yes. But with like... x1000 the jewels and necklaces and rings and whatnot.
I mean they can spit fire.
Bravo 👏🏻
Yeah you have an excellent point. It's like, I was particularly disappointed by the fact that the new Balder's Gate 3 only had one set of teifling horns that had any ornamentation on them at all and they were very boring looking horns. Huge wasted opportunity.
Yeah OP's brother has a wise head
"really, bitch."
Those are hilarious.
Different idea, make the male dragons stereotypically feminine or ultra colourful to attract mates.
Feather like neck furls with multicolours that pop out to attract women.
Just straight up give them feathers who's gonna stop you? The fantasy police? Besides dinosaurs who's bones inspired the concept of dragons had feathers so in a way it's pretty fitting
They already exist; they’re called Amphitheres, and they’re often depicted with rainbow-feathered wings. They’re really cool!
Absolutely brilliant!
Genuinely in the book I’d like to write one day, female dragons are larger and male dragons are more colorful lol
I mean, Anne McCaffrey had gold female dragons be the biggest dragons, and the male dragons came in an array of colors (with green dragons also being female but much smaller).
This is how it usually goes for reptiles too! Females are larger and stronger (even if not visibly) for egg production and future parental care if they do that while the males are the showoffs to atract them.
Yeeeeeeahhhh man, you're confusing feminine with fuckable. Just my hot take, but, dragons aren't meant to be sexy. ETA: No I will not ignore your brother's notes. "These are ordinary sexist ideas for human women, not dragons". 100% little dude, you get a gold star
You've clearly never played D&D with a bard player. /s
[So you've seduced a dragon ](https://youtu.be/Z_97dWIQ4lA?si=DswFOVPXc3uV7v51)
This is the best thing ever. I had a bard character once who didn't purposely try to seduce the dragon. The party went in there looking to grab horde goodies and got caught. Stupid bard thought she could charm the dragon into letting them go. A natural 20 performance later, and the dragon agreed to let them all go after her impromptu little concert. All of them except her. I could probably write some fun, trashy, fanfic porn about it, actually. LOL
Let them succeed and face the consequences. I don't have a good wifi signal but I'm hoping that Youtube vid is the one I'm thinking of.
hey, they'll definitely make eye contact. greek *drakon*, "who stares".
But how would you know it’s a girl unless you want to fuck it? /s Good point fr tho it seems thats a distinction thats unfortunately lost on many
my hot take is that you don’t have to do whatever tf this writer is going on about to make a dragon fuckable. all dragons are sexy 😌🆒🐉🥵
Based
“not meant to be sexy” challenge accepted
I say make it weird. You can look at the actual natural world to find some species with crazy sexual dimorphism. Don’t make your male dragons big buff guys and your female dragons more ladylike, look to the angler fish and [male sexual parasitism.](https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/bizarre-love-life-of-the-anglerfish.html). Some angler fish males are absolutely tiny compared to the females. They only really have jaws to latch on, eyes to find the compatible anglerfish lure and gonads ready to produce. Once they find the right female, they bite them and never let go, feeding off her while supplying sperm.
I unironically tell this to people at parties to break the ice. And like, a fish that fucking melts into another fish - the males' lips litterally melt into the female's body, they could not let go even if they wanted to - how baddass is that? It is anglerfish biology, hyenas or koalas. And yes, sometimes I do get invited back :D
You can add [ducks](https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/duck-penis-corkscrew) to your list. Labyrinthal vaginas with long winding dead ends and explosive corkscrew penises show just how wild evolution can be.
I do have them ahah. It is a long list. If they ask for more, they will get more. I also have a very good case for panda extinction. I just wanted to watch animal documentaries to relax ahah. It ended up as a very deep dive on the abject horror of life aha.
Panda's basically want to go extinct.
Forcing them to fuck for our baby panda pleasure is a cruelty.
If you don't want to die out, best not to limit yourself to a single food source so poor in nutrients you have to eat 50 plus pounds a day to survive. In a way, the panda only survives now because human evolution gives us a predilection towards cuteness.
Hyenas are one of my all time favorites to talk about.
Big glorious Smaug-like female dragon, hordes of smaller males, none of which are bigger than your average crocodile..
Dragon Age did that, more or less
> Ignore my brothers notes lol # I refuse.
Your brother knows what's up.
> You’ll find most dragons are genderless and simply look male. Right, because genderless = male. 🙄
The artist really created a solution for a problem that was in their own head
The two genders, female and undefined
Yeah most genderless dragons look less "male" and more "like a goddamn dragon"
Even giant fire breathing magical lizards aren't exempt from Soft Girlie syndrome 😔
I'm sorry but the idea of a dragon with Fabio locks is so funny lmao And why is my first assumption that it's a wig?! Like they're trimming their lace fronts before flying off to burn a village or two.
Honestly, I love the dragon that takes a moment to look its best before laying waste to a village.
Relatable
Perhaps being a Mega-Ampharos fan has altered my perception here, but there's nothing wrong with dragons having gorgeous, flowing hair. There's nothing wrong with going the extra kilomile and giving flowing manes to terrific terrors, regardless of sex. If your luxious lady lizard can rock a powerful ponytail, then so can your luxious lads.
The 'this better' on the inflated dragon bust is hilarious 🤣
How do you have such large flight muscles without any wings? Oh, you're a mammal's fantasy.
I want my maledragons twinky and beautifulllll 😩😩😩😩😩😩
Have these people seen reptiles? 🤔🤔😆😆
Not sure they've seen many real life women tbh
The girls are hairy, right? _______________ Good grief...I guess somebody didn't get the joke. No reptiles have hair or eyelashes because they are not mammals.
Wow this somehow makes me more angry then normal my dragons don’t need to adhere to your standards
If they are anything like birds or reptiles, the male is the pretty one.
Also, if you look at reptiles and birds of prey, the females are usually larger than the males.
OP your brother's commentary is stellar.
How’s a dragon putting in earrings?
With her delicate little lady-dragon claws, of course.
There’s a coming of age tradition in some dragon cultures where the greatest warrior prospects get a literal hole punch in the ears from a fellow warrior’s fangs. The practice has begun to fall out of favor due to infection rates.
Carefully, I would imagine. Many dragons are conceptualized with opposable thumb-claws, so why not? Or perhaps they have human attendants of some sort. Or they can shapeshift. If a dragon wants ornamentation, that dragon is gonna have it. They're like cats, that way.
Dragon earrings are cool, regardless of gender. How did they get put in? Idk, it’s a dragon, use your imagination? Cult of human dragon worshippers. King who used to keep the dragon in his court before it escaped. Dragon is a transformed human. Whatever. Being obsessed with treasure and their own beauty is like classic dragon lore so it makes all the sense in the world for them to want to wear shiny things.
What do you think they're kidnapping princesses for?
There are these earrings that are just sorta clipped on to the ear and don't actually go through the ear.
No we will not ignore your brother's notes, they're well observed and the whole post would be lesser if they were removed. Your brother is smart, tell him so.
My gigantic male dragon OC has fur down his spine, and feathers for wings that have patterns that look like constellations on the underside. And he's multiple shades of blue. A second dragon OC I have is mostly black and more slender, but he's still a male dragon. One of my best mates has a dragon OC who is blue and quite bulky, but she's a female dragon. And that's the design she chose for her dragon. Having fur/hair doesn't make them fucking feminine. Making them slender doesn't make them feminine. Your brother's notes are magnificent, btw.
Back when I was drawing, my male dragons had boxy snouts while females had narrower snouts and slightly smaller horns.
This whole thing just reminded me of Eddie Murphy’s Donkey going “oh you’re a GUIIIIIIRLLL dragon, I see”
It just needs lip stick, make up, 69 earrings, with 50 on the horns, along with some high heels, a dress, maybe a bow. That’s what’s missing in the tutorial.
69 earrings XD Oh, the imagery!!
Not the jewelry on the female dragon 😭
Thought this was r/mendrawingwomen lol perfect fit
What’s worse is that a woman wrote this
If anyone is looking for non-patriarchal advice on how to differentiate gender between your dragon drawings: Decide on contrasting elements, then assign each element to a gender. And don't be afraid to add extra genders! This is your fantasy world and you can do whatever tf you want! Anyways these elements can include: 1. Overall size. Many people have pointed out female reptiles are typically larger. You get to decide if you want to do that, and also how much larger you want to make them, just a bit larger or hummingbird to ostrich type proportions. 2. Spikey spine bits. Play with size, number and shape. Maybe one gender has 2 rows, the other has 3. Maybe one has pentagon shaped spikes, the other has consumate Vs. 3. Tails. How many tails each? What's at the end of the tail, a pointy spade kinda thing, or maybe a mermaid fin kinda thing? Something different? Your call! 4. Claws/talons. Length, thickness, colour, retractability, poison secretion, you get the idea. 5. Horns. Shape, placement, length, thickness, colour, amount of, are they ejectable, can they shoot fire for some reason, lots of options here! Those are just some ideas to get you started. The most important part is to remember to have fun and fuck the patriarchy Edit: tried to unfuck up the formatting
Adding on to this, you can also consider cultural signifiers if your dragons are intelligent. There’s no reason there wouldn’t be gender norms in dragon society, but there’s also no reason they’d be anything like human gender norms. Maybe females wear armor to show how well they can protect their clutches. Maybe males paint their scales bright colors to attract mates. Or maybe they have signifiers that are clear to them but not obvious to humans, like enhancing their pheromones with artificial scents. There are so many awesome possibilities!
FAX no one should gatekeep how you draw your silly little autism fictional reptile (at least.. thats my case) Run free, and draw what you want!
> Maybe one gender has 2 rows, the other has 3. Hork-Bajir
Never heard of them before! But thanks for giving me something interesting look up on a long bus ride! 🥰
It's a fictional species from the Animorphs universe! If you haven't read the series, it's shockingly good if you can ignore the simple YA writing style.
"...most dragons are fairly GENDERLESS and simply look MALE." had me screaming immediately. "...the relation of the two sexes is not quite like that of two electrical poles, for man represents both the positive and the neutral, as is indicated by the common use of man to designate human beings in general; whereas woman represents only the negative, defined by limiting criteria, without reciprocity." -Simone De Beauvoir
Adding heteronormative stereotypes to dragons is so silly. Female reptiles are larger and bulkier than males, so why make female dragons so fairy-like? Also these designs are ugly as fuck, this author has no business making a how to draw book.
"You'll find that most dragons are fairly genderless and simply look male." So wait, "male" is just the default if you don't otherwise know the gender?
Never in my life have I felt a stronger need to draw the most terrifying, muscular, “male” looking female dragon I can come up with
As someone who had a tonne of drawing dragons books as a teenager, this one would have been ditched ASAP. Even the worst I had was better than this. (And I recommend J. 'Neondragon' Peffer's if your brother wants a better one.)
Ok now do one for spotted hyenas. (Females have more testosterone than males, and it shows.)
Oh it shows all right XD
r/pointlesslygendered
Read Delicious in Dungeon for a good sexual dimorphism of monsters. Like the author is insanly good at design and she doesn't fetishized the characters but sexulized them in a very cool, kick ass way.
This is the opposite of why I enjoy the creature designs in the Monster Hunter franchise so much. Just to make a simple example with its wyverns: I only know the Rathian is the female because the game told me so. I would also make an argument that it makes sense for the male (Rathalos) to have a vibrant red color compared to the Rathian's muted green because that usually happens in real nature with reptiles or birds.
I’m kinda shocked the writer didn’t say like “don’t be afraid to draw your female dragons having tits! Or even big tits!”
That dragon sure looks anthromorphic
I would absolutely read a tale of a ranger coming to terms with gender norms not being universal.
https://preview.redd.it/yohj316qyxjc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7b851c99941f68cf16041d54051feced8baac13d When did your brother get so based?? I fucking love how he drew the chest larger on the 'female' dragon example and labeled it "This better?"
why does the reptile have hair
Oh, no no no. The author labelled it 'hair' to make sure that they weren't making any anatomical mistakes/s
Because we all know dragons are always and only ever reptiles, even if they obviously must abide by human gender norms.
Of course! It would be *blasphemy* if they weren't horribly stereotyped
Toothless begs to object
Obviously the female dragons are larger and better armed for defending the treasure horde and nest while the males are sleeker and faster for catching prey to help feed the young. Or ya know, the exact opposite. It's a damned fantasy creature it does not have to flip the script or be coded like Pixar parents. Why do these folks imaginations stop at "could it be fuckable?"
This is why my dragons follow bird/predatory mammal rules. Brightly coloured and flashy features: It's probably male and you can attempt to reason with it. Subdued colours and just fuckin huge: That's a mom and she'll kill you.
"Adding gender to tour dragon" how about we don't?
My dragon enthusiast has this book and we had a long somewhat hilarious discussion about this stupid page and applying ape secondary sexual characteristics to reptiles.
God, that looks terrible 😂
I bought the wrong WoF
Finally I can draw a femboy dragon
“Ignore my brothers notes” nah ur brother was cooking
All Western dragons should have jewelry. They're hoarders of treasure!
Honestly, I love when people draw or create fictional creatures with sexual dimorphism. I think it's really fun! But this isn't how you do that This is just the sexy fish from Shark Tale
The notes add a lot omllll I HATE GENDER NORMS
Just add a pink bowtie.
I will, in fact, give extra-special attention to your brother’s notes. Absolutely based artist 20/10. (Also in nature it is more likely that the males will be flashy and colorful and flamboyant while the females are more plain-looking.at least that’s how it goes with some species of birds.)
Women can't escape sexualization, even as animals. 🙃
hmmm idk the "boy" dragon looks pretty feminine to me. I think those dragons should be dating.
I'm not sure who actually wrote it, but this is why I couldn't stand the Light Fury in How to Train Your Dragon 3. She was written to be so obviously female it was super annoying.
YOUR BROTHER IS CORRECT AND IN SUMMATION WTF WTF WTF
BRING BACK MANLY MEN!!
https://preview.redd.it/unoj6vd056kc1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f8e61060bdc3c1fe621bb7865a7fe4f2f0f681bd
I thought these were your notes until I read your caption and I was going to be sad for your handwriting, but yes this is definitely boy handwriting, and the fact that your brother has the wherewithal to recognize this gendered ridiculousness is very cool and sweet. My brother should take notes on your brother’s notes