>>724841629
In short: a character must be INSTANTLY recognizable from nothing but their silhouette by even more casual observers (so not just autistic superfans), and not just a silhouette by itself but mushed together with those of others.

This is also the real much more subconscious reason we hate the "desexualization" of characters. It has nothing to do with sex, but exaggerated proportions like pear shapes, or a dorito torso in men, etc. helps making the silhouette more distinctive. If everyone has the same stick figure shape, everyone will be unrecognizable blobs and utterly unappealing in return. And that's also why TF2 characters remaining appealing, even with them not being sexualized at all simply because their outlines are distinctive.