Introducing Terrible Hillary: A Hippo on a Mission
I still have credit to spend on the AI ’art’ generating community platform I belong to (albeit reluctantly). Not many, admittedly, but enough to keep me going until my subscription expires in February. One can maintain what is known as a ‘streak’ by creating just one image per day, entering the official daily contest, voting on previous image entries, and so on. Which is a collaboration of community art platform to create a picture for five days in a row. Being determined to let the system beat me, I’ve managed to keep my streak going for 355 days. So, a year of streaking AI ‘art’ style is on the horizon – with more credits.
Ever since I joined the ‘community’ I have been ranting about the objectification of women on this platform. And I don’t apologize for putting ‘art’ and ‘community’ in inverted commas. Because AI-generated images from most of the platform’s users probably wouldn’t qualify as art. Worse, as soon as the sense of ‘community’ evaporates one has to question the way human moderators and platform staff apply ‘community’ standards.
First, I used realist images to address my concerns about the stereotypical portrayal of women. The caption explained what I was trying to convey, but since most people out there don’t use captions it’s probably safe to assume they don’t read other people’s.
Then, when users of two platforms were suspended for ostensibly child safety reasons, I decided to question why community standards on overclocking aren’t enforced as strictly. The staff and moderators rejected me for the first time. Clearly, a less subtle approach was needed to remind the powers that be of their responsibilities (and point out their hypocrisy).
Just like Hilary the Happy Hippo was born.
Hippos are among the most dangerous animals on the African continent, where I live. As guardians of precious water resources, they are revered as symbols of strength, life and fertility by many indigenous cultures (Tinga Tinga Art) So, creating an anthropomorphic hippo using AI seemed like the best way to go. And naturally, she was a woman. The problem was that the default look for anything remotely feminine doesn’t include all-inclusive cleavage. As a result, Hillary’s first photo of Happy Hippo made her look like a hooker.
The only way around this was to try to convince the AI caricature model I use (because it’s great with speech balloons and banners) to render Hillary in a loose fitting kaftan. But even then, more often than not, she was prepped wearing a caftan that outlined her breasts and showed off her voluptuousness with a low cut-away neckline. This is why, after all, Hillary had to be Harry the Happy Hippo. Joe has since joined Hillary the Terrible Hippo, The Social Warrior in the Birthday Suit, Fridge Free and raring to go.
It’s so much fun that he’s getting away with murder… practically, of course!