>>120714855The eyes in and of themselves aren’t sexual characteristics but humans are wired to find patterns that are beneficial to us and recognizing faces is important enough our brain ‘overcorrects’. It can interpret faces out of scant detail and see faces in inanimate objects (pareidoila), theorized to be refined by evolution to help humans discern friend from foe and communicate before language was fully formed (ever notice how humans have more scleral show than most animals?). In person makeup plays into that biological tendency, it is super stimulus.
Drawn figures are even more exaggerated and provide even more oodles of super stimulus though. Bigger eyes, lashes and more exaggerated expressiveness please the monkey brain. A flirty expression in person can be subtle but it’s amped up in a drawing and it makes our monkey brain go awooga.
