This....this is an edit, right?
Because if not, I think Labelle just showed the audience their full hand, that you should support art based on the artist rather than the art.
Gonna break this down into a few points:
1) Separating the artist from the art has nothing to do with "doing something" for any kind of artist, trans or otherwise. In fact it's taking a stance that the at alone has value while the artist's perspective and experience has none. It's actually the complete opposite of supporting a trans artist simply because they're trans, so the dialouge may as well be going:
"I think I'll make chicken tonight."
"Oh? So you're going to rollarblade all the way to the store are you?"
The response is nonsensical and unrelated.
2) Supporting art you find personally enjoyable or appealing is literally the only reason to support any art. The only people who dish over money for art they don't like are people donating to a charity or buying their friend's first comic book to support them, and that's not supporting the art, that's supporting the person. It's the difference between buying something because it has value, and donating to charity because you're a nice guy.
3) Where are these artists getting harassed for "just making their art"? name one. Name one artist in the industry right now who is being stalked and threatened JUST for making ART. Guess what? Labelle, Jessica and Bria aren't on that list because they're not harassed for making their art, they're threatened/stalked/harassed/criticized whatever for making huge, purely opinion based billboards and slapping some lazy stick figures all over it.
I'm sure someone, somewhere at some point was once threatened for drawing badly, but it's crazy unusual. Those that are "attacking" your "art" are usually just telling you to learn to draw in a way you find offensive. Like "Man this would be half decent if you could actually figure out how to draw hands. Have you considered taking classes?" BAM Cue screeching about cis-violence and "style"
The stuff that
does attract "nazis" and "stalkers" are saying things like "KIDS SHOULD BE ON HOROMONE BLOCKERS THERE ARE NO SIDE EFFECTS EBBER I KNOW BECAUSE I SAID SO." at the top of your voice while squealing and flailing like a drowning pot bellied pig.
That's not art, that's just an obnoxious and false opinion, and welcome to the internet this must be your first time, if you thought for a second you could do that and keep it in your echo chamber.
4) There are arguments to be made that an artist will always have a bit of themselves in their art and therefore maybe it IS valid to discredit a piece if your values don't align (the Orson Scott Card debate brought up some pretty thought provoking arguments along this vein although I personally still agree that the artist and their intent is irrelevant when faced with the final work, and that it's the viewer/reader/consumer themselves and THEIR perspective that give any work it's value. I'm willing to listen to both sides though) but Labelle seems to be arguing that the ART is the thing with no value and instead it's the artist and their identity themselves that important over all else.
I may be looking too far into this four panel floating void nothing "comic" but I have NEVER heard someone outright state something so...so telling before.
Labelle may as well have just told the entire Assigned Male audience that their work is not important, that the art that was SO important last year that it require 3K worth of tablet to create, has NO valuebut instead it is Labelle and Labelle alone that they should be supporting the existence of, simply because of being trans.
5) The whole Hitler-was-a-painter-are-the-paintings-good argument is centered entirely around the value of skill, no wonder Labelle is trying to vilify it (even though this is achieved by apparently ignoring the argument all together to discuss something unrelated). How terrifying must it be to know your whole audience will abandon you the second they even start to consider that what you're making is not worth paying for because it lacks any skill or care.
I imagine this is just a cult-like tactic to nip subversive ideas in the bud before they can even flower.
6) Even bringing up the idea that art has value when taken on its face without the aid of author commentary or perspective is hilarious coming from four backgroundless panels with more busted body proportions than 30 full seconds of David Cronenberg's demo reel.
Remember kids, you should treat that random guys' piss portraits like a renaissance statue because when he made it he was saaaaaad
