The truth of this issue imo has less to do with how to make female mocs, and more to do with how the community itself reacts to them. It’s honestly the same crap as body types and clothing irl (warning! Bout to dish out some truths here. I’m no hard core sjw, this is just a fact of reality, please don’t try to debate this with me, I do not have the slightest interest in debating what I see and hear out on the town). If you’re “too fat” it’s ok to be fat shamed, if you’re too fit, it’s ok to be cat called. If you cover up, you’re not feminine enough, if you show too much skin, you’re too sexual. If a MOC isn’t feminine enough, it’s not a female MOC, if it’s too feminine, it’s hyper-sexualized. Because Bionicle MOCs are works of art, we naturally want to evaluate their quality. However, while it’s great to rate the artistic quality of a MOC 1-10, or what have you, all too often does this community include the “attractiveness” of a female MOC in determining the artistic value of the MOC. Suddenly having just the “right” sized breasts, buttocks and wasteline is what determines the artistic quality of a MOC. This is what I think is at the center of the discussion of female MOCs (of course this same problem can be seen in the choices made while building female MOCs as well, but I’ll touch on that later). I think it’s because of this issue that people draw such a fine line between not feminine and overly sexualized. If a MOC is not exactly on that line, suddenly there is a problem.
The most helpful piece of information to keep in mind when building a female MOC is the reason female MOCs are such a sensitive topic in the first place. As said earlier, it started with people judging the artistic quality and value of female MOCs based off of how sexually attractive or sexualized the MOC is. The response to this was construction of more sexualized MOCs. However, there soon became a backlash against this as well. Hyper-sexualized MOCs became heavily criticized for being offensive or indecent. Furthermore, this criticism went way to far. The point at which a MOC can be considered overly sexualized is right next to the point at which it can be ridiculed for not being feminine or sexualized enough. This is where the fine line female MOCs have to balance on to not be ruthlessly criticized for one thing or another comes from. In addition to remaining stagnant, discussion over female MOCs has become increasingly toxic, almost to the point that any mention of female MOCs has to involve some sort of comment relating to what is ‘proper,’ acceptable or desirable for a female MOC to look like.
Taking a que from the progress, or lack there of, on similar issues irl, I seriously doubt this problem will be solved any time soon (the Bionicle community will likely die out before it does). With that in mind, the best way I’ve found to play around this is to not make female MOCs until one becomes an accomplished MOCist. It’s basically the building equivalent of “sit still look pretty” and it kinda sucks. Depressing comparisons aside, possessing greater MOC building skill is the best way to be able to balance on the fine line between your MOCs being seen as not female, and being seen as offensive, to put it mildly. Of course, by no means am I saying don’t build female MOCs if you want to make them when you’re new to MOC building, just that you shouldn’t expect much/any helpful criticism of your MOC if you choose to share it.
I share this rather depressing advice because I’ve learned a harder way what is acceptable in the MOC building community. My first MOC posted on this website, which was female, had some rather harsh feedback (I’m not gonna link it because it’s ancient, of mediocre quality artistically, and only important if someone really wants to see an example of how female MOCs can be treated even on this site, so if you’re really that curious, go ahead and look it up). Granted, there were a number of polite comments, saying, not bad for a first post, and the like, but these comments were little consolation next to the more negative comments. Contrasting the reaction to my first MOC posted on this site to the reaction of my most recent self MOC, Etherine, the difference is clear. My recent self MOC has received a considerably warmer welcome, in part likely because it is of greater artistic quality, but, in all likelihood, just as greatly due to having the proportions that conform to the MOC building community’s standards.
I hope this was informative, and not too discouraging, but I felt it ought to be said.
For anyone that read through this entire post, congrats! The original version of it was deleted likely for being too explicit by the standards of this website (don’t actually know cause I never heard directly from the mod that took it down). This is an edited down, and censored version of the original post.