INTRODUCING HORRIBLE HILLARY: HIPPO ON A MISSION (first published in 'Medium')

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Hillary the Horrible (not-so-happy) Hippo on the rampage (beware all AI community ‘art’ platforms promoting oversexualised images of women!)

I still have credits to spend on the AI

generating community platform to which I belong (albeit reluctantly). Not many, admittedly. But enough to keep me going until my subscription expires in February. One can ‘earn’ more each day simply by generating an image, entering the official daily competition, voting on entries to the previous one, and maintaining what’s called a ‘streak’. Which is community art platform parlance for creating an image five days in a row. Being determined not to let the system beat me, I’ve managed to maintain my streak for 355 days. So, a year’s streaking AI ‘art’ style is on the horizon – with more credits.

I’ve been making a fuss about the objectification of women on that platform ever since I joined the ‘community’. And I make no apologies for placing ‘art’ and ‘community’ in inverted commas. Because the images generated by AI on behalf of most of the platform’s users probably wouldn’t qualify as art. Even worse, the sense of ‘community’ evaporates as soon as one has the temerity to question the way human moderators and platform staff apply ‘community’ standards.

At first, I used surreal images to voice my concerns about the oversexualised portrayal of women. The captions explained what I was trying to convey, but since most people there don’t use captions it’s probably safe to assume they don’t read other peoples’.

Then, when two platform subscribers were suspended (one permanently, and a community challenge host to boot) for reasons apparently related to child safety, I decided to question why the community standards on oversexualisation aren’t applied as strictly. At which point I was rebuffed for the first time by staff and moderators. Clearly, a far less subtle approach was needed to remind the powers that be of their responsibilities (and point out their hypocrisy).

Which is how Hillary the Happy Hippo was born.

Hippos are among the most dangerous animals on the African continent, which is where I live. As the guardians of precious water resources, they’re revered as symbols of power, life and fertility by many indigenous cultures (Tinga Tinga Art). So, creating an anthropomorphic hippo using AI seemed the best way to go. And naturally, she was female. The problem was that the default shape for anything remotely feminine includes not-so-tastefully displayed décolletage. As a result, the first image of Hillary the Happy Hippo made her look like a hooker.

The only way around this was to try to persuade the AI caricature model I use (because it’s great with speech balloons and banners) to portray Hillary in a loose-fitting kaftan. But even then, more-often-than-not she was generated by default wearing a kaftan that outlined her breasts and displayed her imaginery cleavage bulging from a low-cut V-neck. That’s why, eventually, Hillary had to become Harry the Happy Hippo. Who (for reasons explained in earlier articles) has since morphed into Hillary the Horrible Hippo, social warrior in a birthday suit, cleavage free and raring to go.

What fun is watching her get away with murder … Virtually, of course!