Just as a footnote: a person in a picture with their back facing the viewer also reduces stage presence/importance. It was a big hubub in 19th century art to feature frontally nude women not only facing the viewer, but making eye contact as well. It was a very (at the time) powerful message that denoted equality with the viewer. So having their back (and asses) facing the viewer basically has at least a two-fold dynamic at play: sexualizing them, and reducing their importance.

Also as a footnote, in art school (animation specifically) my teachers strongly endorsed showing characters from the front unless it served a particular purpose. So while this is explain-awayable (“it’s just cool”, “we’re just showing off their bodies”, etc.) it also has a lot of artistic interpretation to rend this offensive—especially in comparison to the male costars of some posters.

I never thought about this until this post pointed that out. I even unconsciously depicted my own character in a similar fashion. Goes to show just because something is normal, It doesn’t make it cool. I’m changing my webcomic site homepage to make it more respectful in light of this information.

Or at the very least draw some of your male characters doing it too…though I think they have to be shirtless for it to be “the same thing” in this case.