Potentially unpopular opinion but I feel the 'women are made of soft shapes and men are made of hard edges' stuff that many beginner art guides throw at you, has not only pushed a 'women are only soft and delicate' narrative, but convinced many artists they can't draw men

I see a lot of artists who only draw women and say they don't know how to draw men because their bodies are difficult to get the hang of or it doesn't work with their 'soft' style, and I frequently wonder if it comes back to this.

If you only WANT to draw women, fine, that's valid, I know some people choose not to draw men, but the 'MEN ARE MADE OF DORITO SHAPES AND HARD ANGLES' advice could easily be off-putting to people whose lines aren't a spiky mess like mine

I used to get people complaining that my women were too masculine and my men were too feminine but buff women exist. Soft and slender men exist. Your characters all across the gender spectrum can look however you want. New artists, don't feel trapped by these apparent 'rules'.

coming back to this an hour later to see I wrote 'Dorito shapes' instead of 'triangles' because I didn't have my coffee today and it shows

Update 1: muted this thread because WHOA

Update 2: I have coffee