Genies or Harem Girls?

Okay, after my last blog entry, I'll be more direct: why are harem girls and Arabian belly dancers featured so much in this genie group? Not that I'd ever want to restrict this group's activity, but with all the hoopla going on about reorganizing and streamlining, this is something I'm becoming more and more curious about.

Is it because harem girls, to us, look and seem so much like genies as to make no difference? Even if they're never pointed out to be a genie (or, in fact, are straight-up told they're not, such as with the rather large amount of Princess Jasmine submissions), is it natural to assume they probably could be? This also calls to attention my recent bugbear that this group features basically no male genies, despite the genie never being exclusively a female character. Now if the qualifications of genie is "hot girl in see-through parachute pants", that's going to make the gender-bias in this group even more one-sided.

They're kept in a separate folder now, after the group reorganization, but the Deviation feed doesn't care about what folders new submissions do or don't go in, so if the group gets an overwhelming number of submissions of simply girls in curly shoes, it won't matter that they're organized differently. Far be it from me to want to bar these kind of submissions from being made, but we here at GeniesBottle love our genies, and I, for one, don't want to see them stereotyped.

But maybe all you want are magic harem girls, maybe that's the sort of genie you really care about. There are all kinds of different genies, like ones that live in the sea, or ones that are undead, or ones of unspeakable evil power. This calls into question what we like about genies: is it magic girls that will do our bidding, or do we see something more in them? Maybe you don't want your DeviantArt feed full of ghouls and Balrogs, but nonetheless, these other versions of the genie do exist, and not just in ancient folklore, either.

So, in a way, this is an appeal: I put it to you, creative lovers of the genie, to let your imagination run more rampant with this subject matter. The genie is an ancient figure of tremendous power and magic, and as far as I'm concerned, deserves a bit more creative effort than simply pointing at a drawing of a belly dancer and saying "Yeah, she's a genie." I grant you, I'm not exactly blameless in this regard, but for my part, I'll be trying harder with the genie. You should, too.