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Something I've wondered about with anthro characters


DevilishlyHandsome49
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We watched The Secret of Nimh last night on my stream and there was something I've always pondered about that came up.

Lets start with Mrs. Brisby

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Her clothing is a cape. No pants, no real shirt. This is what she has on and it counts as her being clothed

But when she takes it off

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Now she seems completely naked, but she was basically naked before, just with a cape.

This also applies to characters like Donald and Daisy Duck and other characters that wear a shirt but have their lower parts hanging out and are considered clothed. I mean technically in that world they're in, they are walking around half naked while others decide to wear full clothes. What are the rules in that world with that (im going down a hole with this questioning)

It seems like when you establish a character with some sort of clothing, no matter how minimal, they're not naked. The moment thats off, nude. Its not like the artists can draw their genital parts anyway, yet we still see them as naked if they didnt have the clothing they previously wore.

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Clothing is a feature establishing a character as truly anthropomorphic even if not given an otherwise anthropomorphic form.  When characters are clothed, they inherit human traits and beliefs, including (in the Western world) modesty and shame.

An episode of Animaniacs opened with a lampshade of this trope when Wakko made the important announcement, "I'm not wearing any pants!"

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It actually is an interesting question.  I'd probably agree with Ariel that most anthro characters where clothes entirely for the benefit of humans to make them seem more civilized.  In a true anthro civilization there wouldn't be much need for anyone to wear clothes, but they would probably still exist.  Fur is good, but not ideal for some environments.  I could imagine anthros wearing rain jackets and windbreakers in cold temperatures.   Shoes could be useful to keep paws out of the mud and purses (it's a satchel!) and backpacks to carry stuff around.  Pants?  Maybe for modesty, but that would be more of a cultural issue.  

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18 minutes ago, ArielMT said:

Clothing is a feature establishing a character as truly anthropomorphic even if not given an otherwise anthropomorphic form.  When characters are clothed, they inherit human traits and beliefs, including (in the Western world) modesty and shame.

An episode of Animaniacs opened with a lampshade of this trope when Wakko made the important announcement, "I'm not wearing any pants!"

Yeah that makes sense but that Wakko scene really does bring up the question of how he gets away with not wearing pants and he is an anthro character. Even if the character is made anthro, the moment they have that "wearing shirt but no pants" deal, I'm like "You're still indecent"

23 minutes ago, DrDingo said:

This is enormously relevant

It's an Adult Swim take on cartoon animals wearing minimal clothes and acting all civilised

 

That was an alright cartoon. Love that it was animated by the Ren and Stimpy guys :)

That is very relevant though, the bears automatically going feral the moment their clothing is off and it being okay cause they werent anthro anymore

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11 minutes ago, Strongbob said:

It actually is an interesting question.  I'd probably agree with Ariel that most anthro characters where clothes entirely for the benefit of humans to make them seem more civilized.  In a true anthro civilization there wouldn't be much need for anyone to wear clothes, but they would probably still exist.  Fur is good, but not ideal for some environments.  I could imagine anthros wearing rain jackets and windbreakers in cold temperatures.   Shoes could be useful to keep paws out of the mud and purses (it's a satchel!) and backpacks to carry stuff around.  Pants?  Maybe for modesty, but that would be more of a cultural issue.  

Could the pants thing also be for certain species? Like certain ones have enough fur to hide their genitals that pants wouldnt be necessary?

Eh but then you got the issue of surprise boners

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1 minute ago, DevilishlyHandsome49 said:

Could the pants thing also be for certain species? Like certain ones have enough fur to hide their genitals that pants wouldnt be necessary?

Eh but then you got the issue of surprise boners

Well first of all you have to establish if surprise boners need to be hidden in your anthro culture.  The concept of hiding genitals for the sake of modesty is largely a western construct.  

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I always just assume anthro characters with partial clothing or no clothing just have internal anatomy, and that clothing for them is more decorative than anything else.

Similarly, this is an explanation I gave on my ask blog at one point, when someone asked why Lud wears clothes only some of the time.
For him, it's just because he likes clothes. There's no modesty rules involved.

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12 minutes ago, Vae said:

I always just assume anthro characters with partial clothing or no clothing just have internal anatomy, and that clothing for them is more decorative than anything else.

Similarly, this is an explanation I gave on my ask blog at one point, when someone asked why Lud wears clothes only some of the time.
For him, it's just because he likes clothes. There's no modesty rules involved.

I have the same sort of idea. In my universe, their anatomy is hidden and only comes out when needed. Clothing is pretty much just for looks and not required, although most work environments have people wear a shirt so they can be identified. So it wouldn't be unusual to be walking down the street and see a cat wearing a coat and a dog stark naked.

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27 minutes ago, Saxon said:

I doubt the artists drawing cartoon squirrels devote any time to thinking about their genitals. They would likely be horrified that any of us might.

I know they don't. (Or maybe they do? Who knows. Either way, that's not really something that's going to come out in a children's cartoon.)

It's just how my brain's always justified it.
Since even as a dumb-o little babychild, I still knew what genitals were.

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  • 1 month later...

I'm not quite sure about that either... Personally, most of my anthro characters don't wear much, if any, clothes at all. I guess it would be because we get used to seeing those characters in that get-up all the time, so it feels strange when they are seen without it. I don't think it is a concern based around genitals. I mean, we really don't take second looks at an animal's genitals because it's completely normal for them.

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I used to wonder that myself playing Sonic as a kid. I always thought it was strange that Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and the other anthro guys only ever wore Shoes and gloves, but Amy and the rest of the girls were fully dressed save for Sally in the comics and cartoon. 

I guess the closer to people they actually look, the more you have to make sure the females are appropriately dressed. And in the case of full anthros like StarFox, that just goes for everyone.

Very interesting topic really.

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19 minutes ago, PastryOfApathy said:

lol who cares

The people making this shit didn't figure people would be jacking it to it like 30 years later lmao.

I've also never watched Nimh but I kinda want to now for reasons.

Make sure the reasons are pure tho

 

32 minutes ago, XoPachi said:

I used to wonder that myself playing Sonic as a kid. I always thought it was strange that Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and the other anthro guys only ever wore Shoes and gloves, but Amy and the rest of the girls were fully dressed save for Sally in the comics and cartoon. 

I guess the closer to people they actually look, the more you have to make sure the females are appropriately dressed. And in the case of full anthros like StarFox, that just goes for everyone.

Very interesting topic really.

So the more animal looking the character, female and male nudity is allowed. I know that movie the Secret Life of Pets broke new ground and showed the anuses on the pets

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On 6/20/2016 at 8:40 PM, Chrysocyon said:

Some relevant TV Tropes, which will either help or make things even more confusing.

I like the explanation in the section on petting zoo people:

"They display all the mannerisms of a human individual, such as speaking human language (unless they're The Speechless) and wearing a full set of clothes that a human would be expected to, according to the type of the setting: modern-day attire, tribal loincloths and jewelry, or spacesuits. This is in direct opposition to Funny Animal tropes such as Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal, Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal or Barefoot Cartoon Animal (Though shoes may be omitted if they have hooves or otherwise unsuitable anatomy)."

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PettingZooPeople

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