Where Are Her Organs?

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About

"Where Are Her Organs?" (also "Ouch, Her Back" and "Have You Seen a Woman Before?") is a popular argument used to criticize artworks that depict unrealistic or barely realistic proportions of a female body, often with the purpose of sexualization. The argument has also been a subject of online critique due to its frequent use against artworks that are not meant to be realistic and being used to pressure the freedom of artistic expression.

Origin

The formation period for the trend is estimated to be Summer of 2019 when comments such as "Where are her organs?," "Her poor back," "Have you seen a woman before" gained notable popularity among Twitter users, used to criticize artists who chose to draw female characters with unrealistic or barely realistic proportions (i.e. having extremely large breasts). During the same period, critique of these arguments also began gaining spread on Twitter.^[1]^[2]

The trend reached its viral point when on September 7th, 2019, Twitter^[3] user @SidneyTucker666 posted an artwork of Marvel superhero Medusa by Nacho Arranz and Fran Duque. The post received over 1,100 retweets and 4,800 likes (shown below, left).

In the replies to the post, multiple Twitter users highlighted that a real woman could not have Medusa's body proportions, using arguments such as "Where are her organs?" For example, a tweet^[4] by @EatTheRichlero received over 460 likes. On September 9th, 2019, Youtuber^[5]^[6]^[7] Shoe0nhead posted a collection of similar responses from the comment section of the post (shown below, center and right).

Spread

Starting in September 2019, the counterargument saw a significant spread online, with multiple tweets criticizing the "Where are her organs" argument being posted. For example, on September 9th, 2019, user @_Vs_The_World^[8] made a tweet that received over 1,400 retweets and 7,600 likes in eight months (shown below, left). On September 19th, 2019, comic book artist J. Scott Campbell made a response to a person who used the argument, gaining over 5,700 retweets and 34,300 likes (shown below, right).^[9]

The debate saw another viral surge when on November 7th, 2019, Twitter^[10] user @DANVERSCOVEN posted a fan art of Captain Marvel by @PabloRomero, writing "how fucking hard is it to like… NOT FUCKING SEXUALIZE WOMEN??? WHERE THE FUCK ARE HER ORGANS???" The tweet received over 9,400 retweets and 52,200 likes prior to being removed (shown below, left). In the following days, multiple users on Twitter criticized the tweet; for example, a November 9th, 2019, tweet^[11] by @nakanodrawing received over 1,300 retweets and 6,500 likes (shown below, right).

The viral discussion received further spread outside of Twitter; for example, on November 22nd, 2019 YouTuber^[12] Shoe0nhead posted a video "THE ANIME TlDDY POLICE" that received over 1.6 million views in six months.