Testament & Belly Dancing

[elyusion]

[TikTok link]

I don't use TikTok. My friend sent me this. You'll never guess who I thought of.

If it was up to me and I had to give Testament a dance-related hobby, it would've been pole dancing. But sometimes when I see belly dancing I see why the staff (character designer? who decides hobbies?) would've thought of this too. Assuming they were being pure of heart. I don't know about other people, but when I first saw that a hobby of theirs was belly dancing I thought of how every gacha game has to have the obligatory orientalist (MENA and south asia) banner, and how they seem to think every woman dresses (or dressed, pre-Islam) like a stereotypical belly dancer, so I wasn't very impressed. But when I use the mental image "suburban mom introducing new things to her workout routine" I'm less :/ about it. it gets a little silly then actually :3

That said, the guy in the TikTok is in an Anubis-themed outfit, so there's definitely some orientalism going on there. But nice moves! Makes me wish I could animate... not many people draw Tes belly dancing... Do they not know they like it? Since obviously (enough) Japanese people LOVE their little Disney's Aladdin-esque banners you would think there'd be a lot of art on Pixiv or something, but there isn't. Elsewhere in the world I think it's because it's lowkey giving cultural appropriation, but I think belly dancing isn't a closed practice, and I feel like the consensus on it is "be respectful." It didn't give me the ICK when iIsaw they like doing it, but I was like.... y'know..... I guess I was mistrustful of the devs' intentions. Still am. But. I can still draw Tes being respectful about it if i'm being respectful about it, even if someone else was thinking "sexy desert jewel cosplay🤤" (Chris decides not to speak on how many goths love things that are ~exotic~ and ~different~ and how it can't be said they're known for being respectful about it)

I've wanted to draw them on the pole for a long time, but I used to fear that no matter how I go about it, everyone who saw would assume that I drew it solely to get off, since people can be weird about pole dancing. I don't really fear that anymore since I can just leave it on my personal website :33 But I actually have a drawing queue and I won't be able to draw tes for another 5 drawings 👍🏾 Wish me luck.

 

[02/10/2025, 12:42 P.M.: repost from microblog]