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cosmindart · 1 year ago

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One of the current AskIsaak AU I've been thingking about.

Lore infodump bellow

The Flying Lockheart

Trigger warning for topics mentioned: Racism/xenophobia, abuse, death, Genocide and historical badness in general tbh :/

Poem of the Raven God

As I die in your arm I have one last gift for you and for the rest of humanity: To you the men of Wakut, the one who has been by my side through it all, I give you my heart so you will grow stong and compassionate as I am. To your brethren of Gopei who have shown immense respect to me and interest in my craft, I will give my brain so no spell will be to hard for them to learn To the people of Belldam who have shown me the wonders of their food and hospitality, I give my stomach so no ingredient or potion will ever make them sick And to the distant nation of Sladvia who seemed to keep falling to their climate I give my blood so they will never freeze over and forever keep their heart pumping.

Written by Axillary, the first feather of the Wakut. [one of the only salvaged Wakutan literature from the start of the After-Crow Era]

In the world of Eredry there are (or were) four main nations: Wakut, Gopei, Belldam and Sladvia. Each nation has it’s own 'subrace' that descends from humans. They each evolved thanks to the gift of their now-dead god. On the surface they all look human except for the people of Wakut.

Gopei

Visual and cultural inspiration: Japan mainly but also other asian themes

Gift: Gopeijin have access to 3 types of magic: - Telekinesis over inanimate matter (general or specialized to elemental types) - Lumomancy (transforming light particles into solid objects) - Hemomancy (inspired by the Sladvian gift, quite hard to learn)

Curse: On first glance it might look like they do not have any drawback for their powers but on average without magic involved their natural lifespan is significantly shorter (most races can live up to 90 years while Gopeijin people tend to gravitate toward 60 years on average). For a long time there was also propaganda saying women would lose their ability to do magic after losing their virginity so it was “useless to tech them” in an effort to control them and prevent them from learning the arts.

Belldam

Visual and cultural inspiration: Europe, mostly Britain, France and Germany

Gift: Their strong stomach makes them hardly ever get sick. This advantage lead them to to be able to advance potioncraft/alchemy a lot faster and further than the other races. Anyone can learn how to cook/brew potions with the receipes but Belldozans do have access to medical cures other species cannot ingest/digest or they might be able to but would suffer great side effects.

Curse: Because of their strong stomach and the belief that they almost never get sick, the rare time they do ingest something harmful to their bodies they very often realize it only when it’s already too late. It’s common for them to seemingly “drop dead out of nowhere” because they didn’t realize they eat a lethal dose of poison a week ago.

Sladvia

Visual and cultural inspiration: Russia

Gift: Hemokinesis. Sladvians have full control over their blood and can create solid object with it. Controlling their blood also allows them to control their healing speed making them able to close their wound almost instantly at times depending on how big it is.

Curse: Out of the 4 nation their are the one with the most drawbacks: - Most likely to contract blood diseases since they take their blood out of their bodies exposing them to other people’s blood in combat. - More likely to develop cancer when abusing their accelerated healing. - Hemophilia is a HUGE problem. - Using their magic too much they may suffer from partial or total petrification where all the blood in their body turns solid leaving them completely to die very slowly (cant blinks, cant breath, your suffocate while your brain is getting deprived of oxygen)

Wakut

Visual and cultural inspiration: Unkown/lost to time… but mostly POC in general tbh

Gift: Can shapeshift between a human form and a half-bird form. Despite having lighter bones for flying their physical strength is higher in average that the other races. They are also capable of doing the same magic as the Gopeijins but it’s much harder for them to learn and much more taxing on them in term of energy spent. (the Belldozans and Sladvian can probably also do this magic but chose not to as a matter of pride toward their respective gifts)

Curse: They do not have any physical drawbacks but they did received cultural ones not planned by the god. In the distant past a group of Sladvians spread fake information claiming the Wakut killed their crow god and thus were cursed to "look like a beast"with the face of the one they killed as a perpetual reminder". Because of that the 3 other races started viewing Wakut people as ‘no longer human’ and decided to capture them, torture/test on them and eventually nearly wipe them out world-wide. The Wakut nation and land has long been destroyed and re-built over and there are almost no living Wakutans alive. (The only currently know living Wakutans are Lionel who had been in a testing cell all his childhood, and Isaak who grew up in an orphanage forced to pretend to be human). Despite morals having changed and Wakut people no longer being seen as “god killers” the disrespect toward their almost extinct race can still be felt/heard. Most people still refer to the Belldozan+Sladvian+Gopeijins as human while Wakut are called Ravenfolks/Ravenfells. The words Wakut and Wakutan are rarely used

These 4 races can technically reproduce between each other but the resulting offsprings are never “half” anything. They can only manifest one gift and the unmanifested gifts are not recessive in any way. (ie a Belldozan and Sladvian can give birth so either a Belldozan or Sladvian. If the kid was a Sladvian and had a child with a Gopeijin they wouldn’t be able to give birth to a Belldozan, the genes wouldn't be passed down from the grandparent like you could with eye or hair color)

It’s also important to note that while originally these ‘gifts’ from the Crow god that defined the 4 races were heavily tied to what ethnicity the races represented, it’s now not as linked. You can now see Asian Sladvians or Black Gopeijin. It’s again thanks to interbreeding where a White Belldozan or Sladvian had a child with a Dark skinned Wakut which resulted in a whiteass Wakut like Isaak.

Character line-up!

Lionel (no lastname): Wakutan who prefer to spend most of his time in his raven form when out of the house or in the roof garden. He likes to go on flights every morning. Married to Isaak

Isaak (no lastname): Wakutan very skilled in Lumomancy but knows a lot of magic in general (aquakinesis, magnetokinesis, minor hemomancy and potion crafting). As a child the people running the orphanage bounded his wings (similar to how in some asian country the bounded women’s feet) in an effort to prevent them from properly developing making Isaak unable to fly. He later had them completely removed as the way they became deformed made it painful for him to stay in his raven form/forcing him to constantly mask as human. (Poor boy had issue calling himself a Wakut for the longest time and at one point Lionel didnt help by doubting him TToTT. They are both better about it now tho)

Micheal Alexeev: Gopeijin, student of Isaak. He actually inst really interested in doing magic but became Isaak’s student because it was the only way for him to get away from his father at the time. Married Andrei and took his last name)

Kennedy March-Donn: Belldozan who is both the house chef and nurse. He also has an indoor farm on the ship where he grows both food and medicine.

Artom & Vadim Alexeev: Formerly siamese Sladvians twins. They used to be connect on their side were they now have prosthetic arms. They use their Hemokinesis to make their prosthetics move (there also let some of their blood pool at their fingertips so they have has a little bit of a sense of touch there). Artyom is the on-board mechanic and Vadim is the resident seaster.

Andrei Alexeev: Sladvian swordman. He used to make the swords he used in combat with his own blood but after a duel against Micheal’s father that resulted in him almost dying from petrification he now uses normal swords instead and only uses Hemokinesis when really necessary.

The Lockheart: Isaak and Lionel’s flying house/ship. This is the only functional Wakut ship known to exist. It was rebuilt using the part of destroyed ship that sat in the other nation’s museum. It was made and gifted to Isaak and Lionel by the three other nation’s leaders as a “we’re sorry for what we’ve done you your people”.

#isaak lockheart #lionel Lockheart #michael ikkioi honda #kennedy marsh #artyom alexeev #vadim alexeev #andrei alexeev honda #yes Isaak's design in this AU initially was a Witch Hat Atelier AU #AskIsaak #Isaak & Friends

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saiwestfield · 1 month ago

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Some future stuff lolol

I just wanted to draw Jordan Kaithlyn and Nessa and them as teens because they are canonically the age I was when I first made them, so I want to draw them as the age I am now

Lot of them didn’t really change at all and that’s probably my error in making their original designs so much more mature in appearance than probably what an actual preteen looks like, but when I look back on how I used to draw them all those years ago, I still feel like they don’t look more mature now than then??? I don’t know if im making sense haha. Basically, my characters grow up with me

Anyways some notes on specific character’s designs -

Grabber (ginger with the frightening blue eyes) is wearing this (stupid looking >:T) cravat, which, —based on my limited knowledge on historical clothing— is actually a mid-late 1800s (1870’s maybe?) thing (Maybe even enlightenment era??) basically, it differs from (current) Grabber’s usual look which is more inspired by the 1880s*, and I just think it’s a fun detail to add, signifying that as Grabber gets older they kinda lean towards older (??) style clothing

*(as I bring up all these dates, know that I am referring to clothing mostly worn by mid-high (?) (somewhere between middle and high) class people in Britain)

With Kaithlyn (ginger in red hoodie), her hair has always been a struggle for me.

I wanted her to have a different hairstyle, like how she starts out with two buns which is a slightly more “childish” style, then evolves into just having a simple ponytail; but I wanted a more mature look for her here, because like, ponytails just aren’t really a thing? Anymore? Amongst teens I guess?

I don’t know if this is based on trends or a maturity thing.

So I wanted to design a different hairstyle, but I just couldn’t imagine her with her hair down or in a singular bun or anything of the sort, despite those two being most common hairstyles for teens nowadays.

But then as I was designing her for this doodle, I happened remembered the half-up half-down hairstyle! It’s perfect! I’m honestly not sure how I hadn’t thought of it before haha

I spent some time going back and forth on Nessa (flower overalls)’s haircut.

I wasn’t sure whether having her have short hair would make sense with the character development she has (which has only been illustrated in my head sorry guys).

The reason she keeps it short usually is because she wants to avoid looking like any of her family members, her sister Lily had a mid-length haircut, mostly never braided, never tied, while her sister Amy always has box braids.

I figured with her development in learning not to actively allow her family’s way of viewing her affect her would cause her to allow herself to finally have long hair.

But I realized that the way she cuts her hair isn’t only dictated by her family, and in the end she would still have short hair, but this time the only reason would be is just because she wanted to. Guess I don’t even know everything about my characters haha

Okay fourth and final one: Indigo! (She’s the one in all purple!) Her design is actually very important to me. I don’t even know where to begin lol.

Well okay, let’s start with talking a bit about representation. (Scroll down!!)

So, the story of my silly guys and their weird little island is definitely of an alternate universe where, you know, magic, demons, etc… are.. around; essentially, it’s a fantasy world. And similarly to many fantasy stories (well, mostly in modern media, especially tv shows, movies, comics, animation overall) there are… gay people! And trans people! And non-cis and non-trans people! And poc! And disabled people! And people of different cultures and ethnicities! And people with different religions! You know, people that are often considered minority groups (especially in western, mostly English speaking countries)

So, the main things I’ve seen people talk about when it comes to representation of minority groups in modern (fictional, set in an alternate world) media, is separating representation into two types:

Type 1: The it’s all just normal here. Nobody cares or mentions it at all

Type 2: There are people of these groups, and there is discrimination against it

By the way, both of these types are totally cool! It’s fine if you prefer one over the other, or if you like both. There’s nothing wrong with either

So, often with the first type, the representation isn’t often even mentioned, like characters coming out, characters stating their disabilities out loud, stuff like that. A lot of people tend to gravitate towards this version because we like escapism! Or we just want wholesomeness or conflict that doesn’t have to do with one’s identity

While in the second type, people often like it because it has relevance to the real world. Whether it is subtextual, metaphorical or literally shown or both! We like comfort but we also like to suffer!

I personally like the latter more. Mainly because I am a part of groups that have been underrepresented throughout history of media and just, overall in life! And also, I like to suffer! (Jk, sort of). I want some of my characters’ identities to be a part of their stories, designs, arcs and personalities! I like it when issues are specific and brought up in media!

So, what does this whole entire essay have to do with my fave girl Indigo?

Well, her story is important the experience of poc. (Many other of my characters are as well, but I’m just taking about Indigo in this post) So, let me preface by saying that I am mixed race, as in half poc. (half white and half East Asian) and I wanted to write some stories about wanting to fit in. Because let me tell you, despite what I may appear to be here, and despite what some parts of me want to tell myself, I have actually been very obsessed with conformity my whole life :’D yay! Okay because I’m getting lazy let me wrap this up super quickly. Throughout history, AND NOW, people, especially poc, have often tried to hide certain racial features in order to fit in with their white peers. I myself, my whole life denied having black hair because if I had black hair, unlike every other white kid in my school, that would mean I’m Asian. Which makes me different! (Obviously white people can have black hair but, I was in like 1st grade ok) I would refuse to speak Japanese throughout my young adolescence because I believed that if I would “throw away” my Japanese culture, it would mean that I’m just fully of my European culture. And this is an experience I find really common with a lot of mixed race kids, and kids of immigrant parents.

Indigo lives in a society where white people have always been in power. And, considering the fact that she is of high status, she is often pressured into trying to fit in. This causes her to be pressured by her family to “dial down” her ethnic features. Like keeping her hair straight, trying to keep her more light skinned. And Indigo is overall a very rebellious character and often does not follow these societal pressures to a T, but is still often controlled by her family and people around her. So, basically, I think as she grows up, she becomes more independent from her family and is able to make choices about her appearance. I think she chooses to wear her hair fully braided, because it is distinctly ethnic. (Changing from her half cornrows style). There are other reasons why I designed her like this, but I assume no one wants to read another 1000 word essay of mine lol

(By the way I just realized that she might come off as a masculine character, (which based on tv history of representation in especially American media does not come off great. If anyone wants to critique me in this please please please let me know!!) it is not my intention :’) I want to explore her style more outside her fancy school uniform but I haven’t had the chance to… hope I’ll have time soon!

Thanks for reading, if you did. I appreciate it a lot actually. Thank you.

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miss-bibbles · 3 years ago

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guide to writing a desi james potter (and even for harry)!

(desi is used for south asians. meaning india + pakistan, afghanistan, bangladesh, bhutan, maldives, nepal, sri lanka. now i’m indian so i can only speak about that but a lot of the tips are the same. please research! and be respectful while writing them! i’ll try to include as much as i can here)

i've lived here my entire life so trust me.

and this is gonna be long. under the cut!

1. james potter can remain james potter

we don’t usually anglicize our names. don’t go finding obscure names starting with j that you can anglicize to james.

it kind of perpetuates the stereotype of indian names being very hard to pronounce. and britain fucked us over so no way in hell we'll be changing our own name to something easier for white people to pronounce.

instead you can make potters indian christians. i have a lecturer named veronica so i can assure you people in india have all kinds of names.

its a suggestion of course. but i have read fics where james has very traditional and religious names. no problem with that but its a little out of the loop and old fashioned. but if you want some help with finding names then don’t hesitate to ask.

2. where is he from

okay so now this gets interesting. there are a 28 states and 8 union territories. james potter can be from anywhere and not just gujrat and punjab and tamil nadu.

where’s my james potter from the gorgeous seaside state of goa? from the busy heart of metropolitan mumbai? from the amazing states of northeast? from bengal? from madhya pradesh? from kerela? from-

okay this is not a geography lesson but you get my point! there are so. many. places. he can be from any of them.

3. religion

india has a big population of hindus, muslims, christians, sikhs, zoraostrians, buddhists, jains etc. agnostic and atheist people exist too (hi).

your indian character can be any of those, not just hindu. it affects the indian sounding name you choose for him.

example: goan christian james can be james maharashtrian hindu james can be jai

but being religious or not, it doesn’t stop us from enjoying all the amazing festivals. you don’t know what i’d do to read a jegulus diwali fic ashdjfksdj

4. looks

now i know everyone’s like obsessed with atj (i can’t see him as james at ALL) or for desi james, dev patel (god, he’s the only desi character in all hollywood movies im so sick of his face. i have much better fancasts).

but just like names, our looks are also different. pale, wheatish, dusky complexion. again depending on which state. we usually have dark eyes and hair. and light eyes like blue, green or hazel are pretty rare.

5. food

curry doesn’t exist. repeat after me. curry doesn’t exist.

naan bread isn’t real, naan is A BREAD. and even though butter chicken is tasty asf, we don't eat this on a daily basis, my dudes. (#justiceforpavbhaji). but we do eat a LOT of biryani (its apparently the most ordered meal in india lol)

and i know you want to make the "im very white for spices" jokes but where are my desserts????? rasmalai? gulab jamun? rabdi? so cloyingly sweet ashdj

and we call tea, chai and it can be sweet and spicy.

it would make me so happy seeing names of my favorite food sprinkled through out your fic even if you don't elaborate on his indian heritage much <;3

i can’t list off every single one of them here but my dms are always open if you need any help with them

6. not all of us

it makes me sad reading about fics where james doesn’t like his indian heritage. not all poc characters need an "accepting my culture" arc.

give me a james who loves how his skin looks, loves going back to india every summer, loves mythological stories and narrates them to harry every night before bed, is so excited when he takes regulus and his friends to india for the first time.

just so much potential. i have way way more headcanons for a desi james if anyone’s interested

7. languages

most of us grow up bilingual or trilingual. the first thing a lot of us learn is english alphabets and grow up with our family speaking hindi, english and the regional languages. and our accents are way more subtle that you think they are.

you know the drill - 22 recognized languages plus a lot of regional languages and thousands to millions of speakers for every single one of them.

8. for the love of everything gay, please do NOT use google translate

don’t trust google or online translators or dictionaries. they translate your sentences right but no one speaks like that irl so it sounds very fake.

interesting thing, we speak a mashed up new language called hinglish (code-switching and code-mixing of english and hindi) and it has way more speakers than just

i speak english, hindi, marathi and some konkani and my besties speak gujrati and punjabi so if you want any help translating, please please ask!!

9. headcanons

this is a personal addition but pleaseeee i want a fic where the black brothers meet james’s extended family. i want a fic where harry celebrates his first holi. i want james humming bollywood songs and calling regulus "jaan."

you don't need your characters to have a big heavy discussion on colonialism or racism. but including these small things matters very very much.

10. racism

it is extremely likely that james might have faced racism in hogwarts and even in muggle aus.

we experience casual racism and stupid stereotypes which is very annoying. don't base your characters off the ones you see in movies and such. they usually get everything wrong.

resources

to get a hang of the geography some stereotypes baby name website pretty accurate video on the whole of india indian food

thank you for reading this and bearing with my keysmashes and rants. if you have any questions, feel free to shoot a dm or an ask <;33

#ashdj i tried to include everything #i didnt even check for typos and stuff #writing #james potter #harry potter #desi james potter #desi harry potter #marauders #starchaser #jegulus #desi #indian #writing desi character #tw food mention #tw racsim

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useless-englandfacts · 3 years ago

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I don’t know if you’ll be able to help out, but I support BLM and want to learn more about black people in the UK but most of the stuff out there is about America. Do you have any recommendations about British black people? Books or documentaries or resources?

I'd be happy to help out! I agree the US tends to dominate conversations about race, but happily there are quite a few British books out there too! Disclaimer that these are just off the top of my head so if anyone wants to add more then please go ahead!

Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga! He's a prominent Black historian and has also done multiple documentaries which aim to expand traditional narratives of British history to include people of colour who are so often written out. You can find a full list on his Wikipedia page of course, though I'm unsure as to how many are on iPlayer and such! There's a child-friendly version of Black and British here too for any parents/teachers who are interested!

Brit(ish) by Afua Hirsch is a more autobiographical book about Hirsch's experiences growing up as a mixed race woman in Britain. Hirsch attended Oxford University and works at the BBC, so it’s offers a good insight into what it's like for POC to exist in spaces that have traditionally been saved for rich white people. She's a journalist too so there are various articles of hers floating about covering a range of issues, some of which relate to race. She's also done a few documentaries that are worth checking out, including The Battle for Britain's Heroes which questions whether some of our 'heroes' (e.g. Churchill, Nelson) should really be honoured, and (not British but) African Renaissance which looks at Black culture in Ethiopia, Senegal and Kenya - maybe the first time I've seen African culture shown on its own terms.

Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala is another half autobiographical work, covering stuff like the far right in Britain, policing and education. It does a great job of cutting through the squeamishness I think Brits often have when talking about race.

Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge has become a sort of classic of its genre but I think it's totally worthy of all the praise it's received! It looks at how lots of white people in Britain (and more generally) equate racism with full-on hate crimes, meaning they don't consider themselves racist despite regularly committing micro-aggressions/other unintentional acts. Also an absolutely stellar insight into intersectionality throughout the book! Cannot recommend enough!

Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power by Lola Olufemi is a must-read for feminists! It discusses modern-day feminism and how it needs to remove itself from that girlboss capitalist yuckiness, and should instead focus on marginalised issues within feminism such as transmisogyny, sex work, and - of course - racism. Has been praised by Angela Davis so that's a huge plus!

The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla is a collection of essays by POC from across Britain sharing experiences of racism and immigration, and what it feels like to be constantly regarded as an 'other' or as an ambassador for your race.

Literally anything by Paul Gilroy! His work is slightly older and some of it is very ~academic~ but I don't want to suggest that it's therefore totally inaccessible. He talks a lot more about British national identity and our role in the world and how that has affected views on race and immigration. He's written lots (I recommend Googling him and having a better look yourself!) but There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack and After Empire: Melancholia or Convivial Culture are both fab.

If you're feeling brave then you could look at anything by Marxist darling Stuart Hall? Some of his writing is very difficult to penetrate imo, but it's worth it if you can. He's written a lot so I would recommend browsing his Wikipedia page first and seeing if there's anything that grabs you. Even if you don't feel up to reading his stuff cover to cover, he's still someone who every antiracist in Britain should know!

Honourary mention to Thinking Black: Britain, 1964-1985 by Rob Waters just because he taught me at university hehe! Obviously more of an academic history book, but again pretty accessible and a good insight into more radical Black politics in Britain in the era.

I haven't read it myself as I believe it's only just come out but David Harewood has a book called Maybe I Don't Belong Here: A Memoir of Race, Identity, Breakdown and Recovery which looks worth checking out! Foreword by our beloved David Olusoga too!

If you're still looking for more then a good tip with any of the academic books listed here is that you can browse the footnotes and/or bibliography to find further reading there!

If you're looking for documentaries then on the BBC you can browse for Black History Month stuff, (fictional) shows that centre Black British characters and narratives, and documentaries that do the same. There has been quite a lot done in the past year about all sorts of stuff - from Black people in the NHS, what it's like being Black in the church, more specific stuff on Stephen Lawrence, Windrush, the Newcross Fire, and even specials on Black celebrities such as Lenny Henry. There's also a Black and Proud section on Channel 4's website that does something similar (side note: cannot believe they've put Hollyoaks on there that's so funny).

I don't read much fiction myself, but it is important not just to see Black Britons as victims of racism, but also as… you know… complicated and fully rounded human beings who are able to experience the full spectrum of human emotion like everyone else. Like black people just… existing. Looking to others who do read fiction to help flesh out this section in particular but a couple again off the top of my head:

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

Love in Colour by Bolu Babalola (I know this isn’t about Britain per se, but she's a Black British writer so I think it counts).

This is probably more than you asked for and you can likely tell that my academic background is in history so it is skewed towards that but I hope this helps! And again, if anyone wants to add anything then feel free!

- Dominique

#asks #anonymous #BLM #black lives matter #long post #recommendations #books #resources

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lostdrarryfics · 2 years ago

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Hi!

I'm looking for a longer post-canon Drarry fic I've read on AO3 and then lost. Magic is dissappearing in Britain - in the end the solution is house elves reserving magic, rituals in StoneHenge, Harry and Draco giving up their ancestral home's magic and an enermous river. There is a lot of pureblood traditions and POC Harry.

About ancestral homes - Draco asks about the Potter house, because every pureblood knows they had an ancestral home. They find it and Harry starts interacting with his Indian inheritance more. There is talk about what it means to be a bloodtraitor (isn't not about blood but magic) and ward rooms in the houses.

Thank you!! And thank you for doing this blog!

We believe you are looking for Never Grow A Wishbone (123k, T) by @shanastoryteller!

Don’t forget to bookmark, leave kudos and comments!

#request 929 #found fic #sithiere #shanastoryteller

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thyrell · 3 years ago

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when you talk about idiotic americans that act as if europe's is entirely evil (as if it isn't just france and britain that are historically so), don't say "white americans". it's just "americans". regardless of your race, you can't treat a cluster of countries and cultures, many non-white, most non-British and thus not involved in racial prosecution, as a solid whole that's okay to attack as long as youre poc.

grow up a bit, get some idea what you're talking about; then talk.

im a white american and i dont say that. are you sure you have the right number

#youre 0 for 2

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lailoken · 4 years ago

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“The idea that associating faeries and Witches with the dead related to an initiatory phase of the faerie encounter makes sense of why faeries are often confused with the dead, and why Witches are relentlessly associated with death. The Witch as poisoner of the well and bringer of disease is much like the apples of the Underworld upon which the Queen of Elphame claims "all the plagues of hell are upon," which could even be taken literally as diseases.

There is a risk in passing through the realm of the dead to get to the Crooked Path, there is a risk of an incomplete initiation that brings back demons of madness and disease instead of healing powers. For this reason many of the motifs of Witchcraft have to do with initiatory death and the Underworld, even though it is as much about the realm of Faerie as it is about the world of the dead. What we see in Witchcraft are images of blackness, skulls, bones, poisons and narcotic ointments, curses, animalistic transformations, cannibalism, perverse sex, and sorcerous tortures. This is all the uninitiated or partly initiated ever get to see. Our faerie light, the cunning fire, is hidden from view, but hidden in plain sight.

Initiation in other shamanic cultures involves things like dismemberment, eating of the flesh and blood by demonic entities and heating and forging symbolism. Eva Pocs talks about the way something was often removed or put in during a Witch's initiation in the Balkans. She says the removal of a bone or even the little finger was required in some parts of Europe. Just as Witches sucked illnesses or fairy darts out in the British Isles so did other Witches remove a bone from the body of an initiate, scratch them and take their blood for a pact or take something else from them that would serve as a relic of their personal power. The procedures of healing and the processes of induction into the cult resonate profoundly, and initiation can be seen as a form of drastic healing.

Things may also be inserted into people's bodies, both by faeries and Witches. You can see in the following charm that way back since the dark ages both faeries and Witches have been linked together in the practice of throwing elf shot or "witch shot" as it was also called.

The tenth century metrical charm “Against A Sudden Stitch" (WiÐ fœrstice) offers remedy against sudden pain (such as rheumatism) caused by projectiles of either ése [gods], ylfe [elves] or Witches (gif hit weere esa gescot OÐÐE hit wœre ylfa gescot 0ÐĐº hit wære hægtessan gescot) “be it Ése-shot or elf-shot or witch-shot." This brings to mind the physical ways in which Witches are renowned for putting things in people, such as pins of blackthorn into the heart of a poppet doll. The bewitched were sometimes seen to vomit up pins, and the tangled hair of the one who had hexed them. In this way both for good or ill, Witches and faeries were united in being held responsible for either removing strange body parts like an extra unnoticed bone, or instead inserting magical objects into the body of either a victim or potential initiate. As we have seen, when it comes to the realm of Faerie and humans the only difference between victim and initiate is a strong familiar spirit who acts as a kind of bridge and guide between the worlds.

Eva Pocs gives an account of how death and resurrection experiences were part of becoming known as a woman or man of Faerie. Lady Wilde also spoke how Irish Faerie Doctors often acquired their trade through having spent time in Faerie following abduction. Pocs tells us in her Fairies and Witches at the Boundary of South-Eastern and Central Europe that the living ones, as in people who had not passed through the initiation trauma, were not permitted to gaze upon the Otherworld in Balkan traditions. But the light-shadowed people who were either faerie already, or who had been taken away and "changed" were allowed to know it. The light- shadow was perceived as an aura around the person's head like a halo.

"As far as 'transitory death' and temporary soul journeys are concerned, they, according to several beliefs, mean initiation; if someone has ever looked into that other world,—eg. Has seen the fairies who must not be seen by a living person,—from that time on he/she is considered initiated." Or as another account from the area puts it: “The faeries killed him but revived him, giving him power."

During these abductions the iele takes out a piece of bone and replaces it with a stake or wheel spoke. One year later in the same location they put back the removed bone. This trope of something being removed or inserted into the body of the initiate is found in many shamanic cultures throughout the world. In some cases the shaman is believe to be in possession of an extra bone that must be counted by the spirits.

These faerie motifs of abduction, initiatory death and repatriation into the community with altered status, and the insertion or removal of body parts and blood are all clues to better understanding how Witchcraft flows forth from the Faerie Faith. Eva Pocs points out the following similarities. Just like faeries:

"The witch, for instance, flies in the form of a crow or a whirl-wind, sits in a swallows nest, where she seems to sometimes be little, sometimes big, and sometimes disappears, she walks on the top of trees as quickly as the wind; or the whole witch company 'transforms into crows and alights on wil- lows'. They travel in green coaches on the top of the trees..."

Of course this close connection between the Faerie Faith and Witches was muddied by persecution of the Craft. The faerie practices were increasingly assimilated into the household and moved away from the wilderness, with Sicilian Fairie Witches going from house to house, rather than out into the forest. Meanwhile Witchcraft was given all of the dangerous Otherwise characteristics, the ones so crucial to initiation that were slowly being stripped from the faerie narrative. In the process the realm of Faerie was losing its teeth and claws, and Witchcraft was being vilified almost out of existence.

All of the negative or dark attributes of the faeries, which were originally part of their primordial ambivalence, were gradually settled on Witches. Cunning practices became strongly associated with Faerie, and Witchcraft with demons, even though originally it is almost impossible to make this distinction in a meaningful way. In this way most forgot that Witches serve with the right hand as surely as they blight with the left, a characteristic shared with the fées of Brittany. Faeries throw darts and blast crops as surely as they bestow blessings and cure the diseases they cause.

LOnce faeries, and the human practitioners of magic who had faeries for familiars, both shared in those characteristics, including the ones that do mankind good, and those that do mankind ill. Faeries, and the Witchcraft that grows forth from it into the human side of the hedge, carry with them all the plagues and poisons of the Earth, and also the potential inoculation and medicine that affects every cure.

Only those who have passed through the world of the dead are offered access to the Third Path. Only he who has walked that path and come back wearing the virid doublet of Faerie and learned to keep silent, can now come back and eat of the fruit upon which all of the plagues of Hell alight to find the secret of their cure. In the Underworld, the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life and Death are the same tree.

Even in Britain where we don't find the bone tak- ing motif and only occasionally see an explicit spiritual death followed by resurrection, we do find the passing of the breath, where a Witch's shadow is able to enter someone else, giving them soul, through the breath and mouth, or illnesses is sucked away with the mouth. Witch teats also allow something to be sucked away as a form of nourishment to the familiar, who also sometimes drank the Witch's blood drops. Familiars were sometimes put in another person by blowing them into someone's mouth and we may conjecture during sexual encounters with faerie beings where vital force was being taken out and inspiration put in.

The relationship between faeries and Witches is as much peppered in the language of consumption and assimilation through eating as it is in sexual ex- pression. Witches and their familiars live off each other, eat of one another. Here do we perhaps find the origins of the "eat of me" theme behind the Housel or Red Meal. Where some Witches consume the body and blood of their Devil and his Dame, just as the Christians consume Jesus Christ.

In this natural religiosity of consumption and mutual nourishment we see the foreshadowing of all such edible sacraments. The spirit world is understood to enjoy blood. As early as the 13th century in Ireland Alice Kyteler sacrificed a black cock at the crossroads to the spirit Robin Artisson, her spirit lover and familiar—himself a man of Faerie, a dweller at crossroads.

Jeffrey Burton Russell says of Robin Artisson: “As much like a faerie as a witch's familiar, Robin appeared in a number of shapes, a cat, a shaggy dog or an Ethiopian."

Alice was also said to gamble about on a salve-covered broom (no talk of flying on it only of putting ointment on it mounting it and moving around) so perhaps something was introduced into her body via the salve. Even if the straddling of the broom does not suggest intimate applications of the unguent, flying ointments, regardless of how they are administered are always an herbal formula given to them from outside the hedge, which is put into the body via the pores of the skin.

Another Witchcraft tradition, prominent mainly in Britain that involves taking something out, is the practice of taking blood above the breath. This procedure, where one suspected of bewitching someone was attacked and scratched badly enough to make blood flow, usually above the nose and mouth, was believed to neutralize their power for a time. We can conjecture that the reason has to do with the way power or Virtue is considered to be stored in blood and breath and is connected via an invisible thread to the power of the familiar spirit nourished by these two things. The Witch's power and virtue is expected to leak out in great glut in blood above the breath because so much power lives in the skull. Drawing the blood above the breath can be seen as an attack on the Witchs familiar as well as herself. It is quite illuminating to look closely at the scratching attack on Joan Guppy, whom we have mentioned earlier in relation to Faerie Doctoring.

"They scratched her face with overgrown brambles, saying that Guppy 'was a witch and they came for the blood and they would have it and her life also before ... they left her." Not just blood but "the blood" — witch-blood. This statement is reminiscent of the sweet blood faerie Witches were believed to have in Sicily. We can conjecture that when they say they came for the blood and would have "her life" before they left, what they actually meant was her soul force or magical virtue, as they didn't actually kill her. Witchblood, sweet blood, the power that holds a tenuous thread, like a bridge made of one hair, between this world and the paradise of Elphame—a thread that must cross the abyss of Hell and is like-wise just as capable of unleashing it.”

—

Sounds of Infinity

Chapter 9: ‘Faerie Doctors and Magicians’

by Lee Morgan

#sounds of infinity #Lee Morgan #Gloaming folk #faerie #fair folk #the fae #faerie faith #faeries #faerie doctor #faerie witch

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foxssleeplessness · 4 years ago

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Hi! It's

Pride Month

So here are some known queer books recommendations:

- Red, White & Royal Blue

This one is about the son of the first female US president and the prince of Britain. It's an enemies to lovers with perfect female and POC representation. The book is 14+ and please read the trigger warnings. MLM

- Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe

Again, amazing POC representation. Strangers to friends to lovers This one is a story about understanding the world and ourselves and learning how to thrust. It's sweet and beautiful in every way imaginable. 1st person POV tho. MLM

- Bloom into you

This one is a serie of mangas, but it's still amazing. It's the story of these two girls who meet at a school club and who will learn from each other. This book is about confidence, courage and self-growth. When reading the first one, you might think "Whoa, this moved fast", well, no. It's not the end after the first kiss. It's not even the beginning! You can also watch it streaming. WLW

- Good omens

Good omens is a book open to interpretation. There is no romance depicted, but it's a love story between a demon and an angel. It follows them from the beginning of humanity until Armageddon. The story also follows side characters, like the Them, the 4 horseman and a witch. This one is about trust, family and the fact that not everything is black or white. Hell, angels are the bad guys too in this! Great female and asexual/aromantic representation. You can also watch the mini-serie on Prime Video. It's worth it.

- Bloom

A graphic summer novel. The illustrations and the story are masterpieces, the characters are well-developed and it's overall heartwarming. The story follows Ari, a teen who wants to leave for the city, Hector, another teen who loves to bake, and their friends and family. Ari wants to leave the family bakery, so he needs replacement. Instead, he gets a co-worker, Hector. They learn from each other the entire book, live the summer of a lifetime and talk about their dreams. This book also has good POC and female representation. You should read it, it's not long. MLM

- They both die at the end

Yes, they do. It's not a spoiler, don't worry. This one will leave you crying on your bedroom floor at 3 am for hours. It's destroying in its beauty. The story follows two deckers, people who will die today, as they try to live an entire life in 24 hours. They, too, learn from each other and grow into happiness rapidly. Like I said, heartbreaking, so please look up the TW. You should definitely read that one. Bisexuality rep and POC. MLM

- Felix ever after

You might think "Can we have trans rep book?". Well, here it is! Felix ever after is the story of a trans male who still isn't sure of his identity. He was a boy, he knew that, but sometimes, it doesn't feel right. He also seeks first love and ends up in a love triangle involving someone he never thought he would fall for. Sadly, the story happens because of a transphobic character. So this books talks about that. It includes subjects like racism, transphobia and homophobia, but it's also a story of self-discovery and first love. Totally worth it! Amazing trans and POC representation. Read the TW. MLM

- are you listening?

Not a love story, but the characters are queer. It's a graphic fantasy novel, pretty long, but the illustrations are worth it. It follows two lesbians who are running away and a magical cat. They encounter magical beings, some friendly, others dangerous. As they try to escape them and their past, the two girls get to know each other more profoundly and they unpack their trauma to one another. This story is about recovery and self-love. Totally worth it. Please read the TW.

- The House In The Cerulean Sea

This, this one^ It's THE one! Totally heartwarming book about difference, family and love. The story follows Linus Baker, a case worker, when he comes to Marysas Island to investigate an orphanage for magical youths. During his one month stay there, he learns what it's like to have a home and a family to go to. He also falls in love with the master of the orphanage, Arthur Parnassus. But Arthur has secrets too. The story of The House In The Cerulean Sea is an enchanting love story masterfully told. Really worth its critics. POC representation. MLM and side WLW

And finally

- The song of Achilles

Oh was that one an emotional rollercoaster. The book is historical fiction, it's the story of Achilles and Patroclus told in the Illiad. It will also leave you crying your eyes out at 3 am, on your bedroom floor. It's an amazingly told story of a romance while in time of war. The story is one of self-discovery, growth, love and trust. It is simply beautiful. We follow the characters from age ~10 to their death, which are young, but there are time skips to get to interesting parts. The heroes get seperated, reunited, seperated again, but their love for each other never ceases. Read the TW. MLM

And that's it for today! I thought I would put the JohnLock fanfiction novel in there, but I chose more straight up queer ones. Anyway, hope this list helps you find your next read!

Love y'all, guys ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

#red white and royal blue #reading rwrb #lgbtq #queer books #bookblr #book rec list #aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe #bloom into you #good omens #bloom #they both die at the end #felix ever after #are you listening?#the house in the cerulean sea #the song of achilles

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margoshansons · 3 years ago

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i wish from the start bridgerton was like "this is a place vaguely based on regency england" and cast poc as aristocrats and left it at that without trying to explain why racism (and colonialism i guess?) is over. ofc there would still be real world implications but they could have the costumes and aesthetics and setting with having to address an important issue thats way too big for a show like this to handle sensitively

See that doesn’t really work because Quinn’s books take place in Regency era England, although I understand where you’re coming from.

Really what they should’ve done is just committed to the color-blind part of color-blind casting. My favorite example of this is the 1997 version of Cinderella. The King is White, the Queen is Black and the Prince is fucking Filipino. How did it happen? No one knows but no one’s gonna question it because they fit the roles they were cast in and it’s Cinderella.

It’s the same with adaptations like The Lizzie Bennet Diaries or Emma Approved. There’s no mention of why Charlotte Lucas is now Asian or Jane Fairfax is black (granted those are more modern adaptations but the point still stands).

Color-Blind casting is a creative choice and one that can either help or hinder your project depending on how you use it. The issue is that Bridgerton decided to give themselves an origin story as to why BIPOC people suddenly have rights like Britain and America aren’t still enslaving people at this point instead of embracing that creative choice.

And there are ways to incorporate some of those heavier issues too! I saw a version of Much Ado About Nothing that took place during the British Colonization of India and it added such a layer of nuance to the characters of Hero and Claudio as well as Benedick’s decision to believe Hero because she was a woman of color whose character had been called into question by her oppressors and the upholders of a very specific ideology regarding societal conduct.

Bride and Prejudice managed to do this beautifully as well! It makes Lalita’s (Lizzie’s) dislike of Darcy more nuanced because he’s kinda racist the first time they meet and it adds more to the characterization of Darcy because his social awkwardness is a result of culture shock and his arc is about not becoming racist (we can talk about the effectiveness of that arc later). And they do it again with Kholi, having him come back to India because he wants a “traditional” wife, which gives Lalita another legitimate reason to hate him and refuse him aside from “eh he’s embarrassing and misogynistic” (I’m oversimplifying but you get it).

The point is, there are ways to incorporate these big issues without making the entire show about them. Simon could’ve confided in Daphne the pressures his father placed on him as a black man in English society to prove his worth as the Duke of Hastings. Anthony could’ve said something insensitive about the British army taking over India which causes Kate to blow up at him further and explain the real consequences she had to face growing up (thereby also giving her more character development and taking down Anthony a peg or two). Even something as simple as Queen Charlotte trying to push her husband to abandon the idea of slavery before he has a breakdown and we see her feeling guilty for bringing it up.

But then again that wouldn’t be Color-Blind casting because you’re directly incorporating that actor’s ethnicity into your story instead of letting the material speak for itself. And Historical Romance has never been about that anyway, but at this point Bridgerton is no longer classified as a Historical Romance imo, it’s more Historical Fantasy.

The point being, Bridgerton is trying to have its cake and eat it too by saying “yes this is color blind casting” while also trying to create their own lore around their version of Regency Era England, which makes for some very very weird implications when you think about it.

#bridgerton

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faraway-wanderer · 4 years ago

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BOOKS BY ASIAN AUTHORS MASTERLIST #stopasianhate

In light of recent events and the growing anti- Asian hate in the US and UK over the course of the pandemic I wanted to put together a masterlist of books by Asian authors. Obviously, it’s not extensive and there are HUNDREDS out there, but supporting art by Asian creators is a way of showing support; read their stories, educate ourselves. It goes without saying that we should all be putting effort into reading stories of POC and by POC because even through fiction we’re learning about different cultures, countries and heritages. So here’s some books to start with by Asian authors!

Here is a link also for resources to educate and petitions to sign (especially if you don’t read haha). It’s important that we educate ourselves and uplift Asian voices right now. Your anti-racism has to include every minority that faces it.

https://anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co/

for UK peeps, this is a good read: We may not hear about the anti Asian racism happening here, but it is definitely happening. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/culture/culture-news/a35692226/its-time-we-stopped-downplaying-the-uks-anti-asian-racism/

THE BOOKS:

· War Cross- Marie Lu ( the worldbuilding in this is IMMENSE.)

For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit.

· Star Daughter- Shveta Thakrar

A beautiful story about a girl who is half human and half star, and she must go to the celestial court to try to save her father after he has fallen ill. And before she knows it, she is taking part in a magical competition that she must win!

· These Violent Delights- Chloe Gong (I told my little sister to read this book yesterday bc she has a thing for a Leo as Romeo- so if you want deadly good looking Romeos, badass Juliet’s and to learn about 1920s Shanghai- this is for you.)

The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery. A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. A Romeo and Juliet retelling.

· The Poppy War- R.F Kuang (My fave fantasy series just fyi- it’s soul crushing in the best way. Rebecca Kuang is a god of an author).

A brilliantly imaginative talent makes her exciting debut with this epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic, in the tradition of Ken Liu’s Grace of Kings and N.K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy.

· Loveboat Taipei- Abigail Hing Wen (Really heartwarming and insightful!)

When eighteen-year-old Ever Wong’s parents send her from Ohio to Taiwan to study Mandarin for the summer, she finds herself thrust among the very over-achieving kids her parents have always wanted her to be, including Rick Woo, the Yale-bound prodigy profiled in the Chinese newspapers since they were nine—and her parents’ yardstick for her never-measuring-up life.

· Sorcerer to the Crown- Zen Cho (if anyone is looking for another Howl’s Moving Castle, look no further than this book)

At his wit’s end, Zacharias Wythe, freed slave, eminently proficient magician, and Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers—one of the most respected organizations throughout all of Britain—ventures to the border of Fairyland to discover why England’s magical stocks are drying up.

· Emergency Contact- Mary H.K. Choi (very wholesome and fun rom-com!)

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. When she heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.

· Jade City- Fonda Lee (I am reading this currently and can I just say- I think everyone who loves fantasy and blood feuds in a story should read this.)

JADE CITY is a gripping Godfather-esque saga of intergenerational blood feuds, vicious politics, magic, and kungfu. The Kaul family is one of two crime syndicates that control the island of Kekon. It's the only place in the world that produces rare magical jade, which grants those with the right training and heritage superhuman abilities.

· A Pho Love Story- Loan Le

When Dimple Met Rishi meets Ugly Delicious in this funny, smart romantic comedy, in which two Vietnamese-American teens fall in love and must navigate their newfound relationship amid their families’ age-old feud about their competing, neighbouring restaurants.

· Rebelwing- Andrea Tang

Business is booming for Prudence Wu. A black-market-media smuggler and scholarship student at the prestigious New Columbia Preparatory Academy, Pru is lucky to live in the Barricade Coalition where she is free to study, read, watch, and listen to whatever she wants.

· Wings of the Locust- Joel Donato Ching Jacob

Tuan escapes his mundane and mediocre existence when he is apprenticed to Muhen, a charming barangay wiseman. But, as he delves deeper into the craft of a mambabarang and its applications in espionage, sabotage and assassination, the young apprentice is overcome by conflicting emotions that cause him to question his new life.

· The Travelling Cat Chronicles- Hiro Arikawa

Sometimes you have to leave behind everything you know to find the place you truly belong...

Nana the cat is on a road trip. He is not sure where he's going or why, but it means that he gets to sit in the front seat of a silver van with his beloved owner, Satoru.

· Super Fake Love Song- David Yoon

From the bestselling author of Frankly in Love comes a contemporary YA rom-com where a case of mistaken identity kicks off a string of (fake) events that just may lead to (real) love.

· Parachutes- Kelly Yang

Speak enters the world of Gossip Girl in this modern immigrant story from New York Times bestselling author Kelly Yang about two girls navigating wealth, power, friendship, and trauma.

· The Grace of Kings- Ken Liu ( One of the Time 100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time!)

Two men rebel together against tyranny—and then become rivals—in this first sweeping book of an epic fantasy series from Ken Liu, recipient of Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards.

· Wicked Fox- Kat Cho

A fresh and addictive fantasy-romance set in modern-day Seoul.

· Descendant of the Crane- Joan He

In this shimmering Chinese-inspired fantasy, debut author Joan He introduces a determined and vulnerable young heroine struggling to do right in a world brimming with deception.

· Pachinko- Min Jin Lee

Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan's finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee's complex and passionate characters--strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis--survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history.

· America is in the Heart- Carlos Bulosan

First published in 1946, this autobiography of the well known Filipino poet describes his boyhood in the Philippines, his voyage to America, and his years of hardship and despair as an itinerant laborer following the harvest trail in the rural West.

· Days of Distraction- Alexandra Chang

A wry, tender portrait of a young woman — finally free to decide her own path, but unsure if she knows herself well enough to choose wisely—from a captivating new literary voice.

· The Astonishing Colour of After Emily X.R Pan

Alternating between real and magic, past and present, friendship and romance, hope and despair, The Astonishing Color of After is a novel about finding oneself through family history, art, grief, and love.

· The Gilded Wolves- Roshani Chokshi

It's 1889. The city is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. Here, no one keeps tabs on dark truths better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. When the elite, ever-powerful Order of Babel coerces him to help them on a mission, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.

· When Dimple met Rishi- Sandhya Menon

Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.

· On Earth we’re briefly Gorgeous- Ocean Vuong

Poet Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the redemptive power of storytelling.

· Fierce Fairytales- Nikita Gill

Complete with beautifully hand-drawn illustrations by Gill herself, Fierce Fairytales is an empowering collection of poems and stories for a new generation.

BOOKS BEING RELEASED LATER THIS YEAR TO PREORDER:

· Counting down with you- Tashie Bhuiyan- 4th May

A reserved Bangladeshi teenager has twenty-eight days to make the biggest decision of her life after agreeing to fake date her school’s resident bad boy.

How do you make one month last a lifetime?

· Gearbreakers- Zoe Hana Mikuta- June 29th

Two girls on opposite sides of a war discover they're fighting for a common purpose--and falling for each other--in Zoe Hana Mikuta's high-octane debut Gearbreakers, perfect for fans of Pacific Rim, Pierce Brown's Red Rising Saga, and Marie Lu's Legend series

· XOXO- Axie Oh- 13th July

When a relationship means throwing Jenny’s life off the path she’s spent years mapping out, she’ll have to decide once and for all just how much she’s willing to risk for love.

· She who became the sun- Shelley Parker-Chan- 20th July

Mulan meets The Song of Achilles in Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun, a bold, queer, and lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an amazing new voice in literary fantasy.

· Jade Fire Gold- June C.L Tan- October 12th

Keep sharing, signing petitions and donating where you can. The more people who are actively anti-racist, the better. And if your anti-racism doesn’t include the Asian community then go and educate yourself! BLM wasn’t a trend and neither is this. We have to stand up against white supremacy, and racism and stereotypes and we have to support the communities that need our support. Part of that can include cultivating your reading so you’re reading more diversely and challenging any stereotypes western society may have given you.

Feel free to reblog and add any more recommendations and resources of course!

#stopasianhate #books by asian authors #anti racism #i'm so sickened by everything that's happening and i hope that this list does encourage people to read books by asian authors!!!#ya #poc authors #fiction #i haven't all of these yet #asian writers #asian authors #masterlist #antiasianracism

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soulfullives · 4 years ago

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kingsley shacklebolt headcanons because he is so very underrated

clumsy baby, he trips over everything and he always has little scars on his body from god knows where

i have seen a lot of people who headcanon him as slytherin

he's a ravenclaw

he's american and he moved to britain when he was 13 because his parents found better jobs there

so kingsley boarded on the train not knowing anything about what to expect from hogwarts because he heard it's different from ilvermorny (where he went for 3 years, he started when he was 10)

and when he stepped to the stool people were like "???" because he looks way older than the firsties

(also he was the same year as the marauders just to clarify it)

the hat didn't hesitate a second, instantly shouted ravenclaw

he befriended the marauders quickly after he tripped avery in the hallways after the latter made a racist comment

also bffs with frank longbottom the hufflepuff (added from the almighty tags of @enbysiriusblack)

also canon that kingsley is poc

he's bi and he realized that when he was 15. after remus told him he has a crush on him, kingsley sat down and thought: "dude maybe i like boys"

anyways his gay awakening was sirius. shocker right (notice the sarcasm)

very smart dude, was one of the first ones to notice the special looks sirius and remus were giving each other

he literally ACES all the tests he has with little to no studying, wish i was like that

all the students have this mute respect to him because he's like,,, smart and although he's super quiet, when you go up to him and ask him sth he's just so kind and helpful

kingsley shacklebolt, for the love of merlin, cannot ever grow a beard

always cuts his hair himself. always, never went to hairdresser's in his entire life

study dates with literally everyone

rocks them bell bottoms

his favorite color is blue and there is always something blue in his outfits

always wears those beaded bracelets

pierced his year in sixth year (well actually sirius gay awakening black did)

youngest minister of magic

and a great father figure to hari

dedication to @noahdrinkstea because we're both in love with this man

#kingsley shacklebolt #kingsley shacklebolt headcanons #james potter #peter pettigrew #sirius black #remus lupin #lily evans #jamie writes #lol i love him he's underrated

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growingstronglikeahighgardenrose · 4 years ago

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Anti-blackness in 19th century England, why Queen Charlotte wasn’t black, and why it doesn’t matter in Bridgerton

I’d like to start by saying Bridgerton is a very amusing piece of absolute fiction. From the dresses to the music to the fanfic tropes it uses and the books it’s based on. It doesn’t even start to pretend it’s realistic. And being a piece of modern historical fantasy made by a woman born in this age, it is alright for the showrunners to give it a modern vibe. If you want, you can trace the lineage of every duke of Hastings there has ever been and know exactly who they were and what they looked like. Everyone knows there was never a black duke of Hastings, meaning there is no harm nor a deliberate attempt at “changing history” by the showrunners. They’re not pretending they’re portraying real events and real people of 1813. Therefore I accept that in this “alternative reality regency” it is fine for people of all ranks, including Queen Charlotte, to be black. I loved Golda Rosheuvel’s portrayal, I loved her looks, her acting and I tolerate her half-ishly accurate outdated wardrobe (for those interested in fashion history: look up “regency era court gowns”, old styles were worn but Charlotte would wear normal dresses day-to-day). I’m thrilled to watch her in the second season as well.

However, I will screech if I see people claiming Charlotte was black in real life. There were black people in Europe during all periods of history. They could be very influential and wealthy, and yes, they could even be nobility in some rare cases. There is a growing field of research tracing the steps of black people in Europe throughout time, revealing the often overlooked presence of black people. However, Queen Charlotte isn’t one of them. And I say this because claiming her to be black, would mean the British Monarchy, way ahead of its time, was accepting of black people. it would also mean the British people, who were more than a bit racist, generally accepted a (partially) black woman. Rather than Charlotte being black leading to her being described as black, I believe the confusion about her being black stems from people back in the day using racially ambiguous terms to make clear Charlotte looked ugly (because in a racist colonial world the best way to insult someone is by saying they look like a slave).

Being a historian, I do believe I have to give evidence for my claim. I’ll be using her ancestry, written descriptions and paintings. However, buckle up because you’ll be getting a lot of side information on other POC in art and literature. So if you’re interested in learning a bit about the relationship between the concepts of race and beauty in the 18th and 19th century, here we go. (note: if I use any offensive terms without direct citing someone, do let me know I will change them as soon as possible)

1. When did these rumours start

During the Regency Era, when the world was still a very colonial one, Queen Charlotte was described by some as having a big nose, full lips and an ambiguous complexion. However, her race was never debated, until academic discussions picked up around the 1940s.

2. Queen Charlotte’s family tree.

The Portuguese royal family definitely has Moorish blood in it. No one can contest that. Muslims and Europeans lived together on the Iberian Peninsula for 800 years. The question is whether that means that royals with a Portuguese ancestor can be called “people of colour”, and how far down the line people can still claim to be people of colour. Almost all royal households of Europe married into the Portuguese royal family at some point, yet of few royals it is said that because of that heritage, they are people of colour. That argument is only made for Queen Charlotte (imo that probably has a lot to do with the fact that the world is dominated by the Anglosaxon countries and that because of their worldwide tentacles and their language being the most universally spoken, the British Royal Family receives the most interest from everyone all over the world. Other royal families don’t get as much attention).

Note that I used the word people of colour, that is because the root of Charlotte’s supposed African heritage is not necessarily black. Let’s take a look at her family tree.

According to historian Mario de Valdes y Cocom — who dug into the queen’s lineage for a 1996 Frontline documentary on PBS — Queen Charlotte could trace her lineage back to black members of the Portuguese royal family. Charlotte was related to Margarita de Castro y Sousa, a 15th-century Portuguese noblewoman nine (!) generations removed.

Margarita de Castro e Souza herself descended from King Alfonso III of Portugal and his concubine, Madragana, a Moor that Alfonso III took as his lover after conquering the town of Faro in southern Portugal.

This would make Queen Charlotte a whopping 15 generations removed from her closest black ancestor — if Madragana was even black, which historians don’t know. That’s a lot of generations back. de Valdes y Cocom argues that, due to centuries-long inbreeding, he could trace six lines between Queen Charlotte and Sousa, which would mean Madragana’s genes were a bit more influential, but still 15 generations ago. That’s her grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grandmother.

So, let’s pretend it is true and her ancestor was black, let me be very rude. An ancestor that appears once in a person's genealogy, fifteen generations removed, represents a 215-th fraction of its descendant's ancestry. Queen Charlotte’s black ancestry would be less than 1%. In fact it'd be 0.007% (rounded up) of Charlotte's ancestry, and that's IF Madragana could be proved to be Moorish. And if Moorish was only used to describe a black person. However, the use of “blackamoor” “moorish” and “mozaraab” are not an alternative word for black. Indeed, there is no definitive skin colour attached to these descriptors.

It is generally accepted that Spanish Moors were the Muslim Amazigh (formerly known as Berber) inhabitants of the Maghreb, a stretch of land in north-Africa including parts of the Sahara, but not Egypt. During the Middle Ages, they occupied the Iberian Peninsula and other parts of southern Europe, before being finally driven out in the 15th century. The greatest period of unity was probably during the period of the kingdom of Numidia. Over the centuries, the word came to acquire a plethora of other meanings, some of them derogatory. Importantly, it cannot be ascribed a single ethnicity. Moors are not always black, this is false. They remaining people in Africa can be anywhere from Arab, to black people. But I’m not delving into north-african migration patterns and population changes. In Europe, the moors could thus be Arab, black and often mixed ethnicity, the natural result of coexisting and intermarrying with white Europeans for centuries.

http://acaciatreebooks.com/blog/royalty-race-and-the-curious-case-of-queen-charlotte/

3. Gender, Race and beauty standards

The world of the 19th century was riddled with Anti-blackness. Part of this continued from the medieval belief that white was good, and dark was bad (see white knight, fair lady, black knight, dark magic notions that still persist today). It also does not help that during the Regency Era, Greek and Roman antiquity were very trendy. Although the old roman empire was a culturally and ethnically diverse society, regency people focussed on fashion, hairstyles and looks from the classical art period of Greece. People aspired to look like the statues: elegant, slim and dainty and wanted “noble” features (straight slim nose, even face, cheekbones, etc). That’s why in the regency era people were complimented for having “alabaster skin” or a “Grecian profile” and so on. These medieval notions of fairness and the grecian beauty ideal, were juxtaposed against the medieval notions of darkness combined with deeply colonial conceptions of womanhood and race. In a world in which white people controlled other ethnicities, race soon became a weapon, a tool to be used against someone. Just like… gender. And yes, you’ll soon see how these two go hand in hand.

Throughout the nineteenth century the domestic world and the public sphere became more and more separate, with women being given less space to move and work. All women had to be dainty housewives: refined, sensitive and docile, clever but not too well read. Of course, this was an unattainable standard for most women. Only women in the top layer of society were able to lounge around and do nothing all day. Many had to work. Many things of what women were supposed to be: pale, soft hands, were direct signs that they didn’t have to do manual labour (out in the sun, using their hands). Women who could not fit in that small domestic sphere were increasingly (especially later on in the Victorian era) seen as unfeminine and unworthy of husbands. Coarse, manly, unfeminine, unrefined they were often called. Welcome to 19th century “masculinity so fragile”. Just imagining a woman working or reading made men felt threatened. They hated the idea women weren’t just lounging around waiting to please them and provide for them. https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/gender-roles-in-the-19th-century# https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pit-brow-lasses-women-miners-victorian-britain-pants

Now look at this sketch of a female mine worker, one of many. Although the argument can be made she’s dark from the dirt, I want to point out that she’s also portrayed as scantily clad, wearing more manly clothes, being broader, wide of face and her hair appearing… quite curly.She’s the opposite of the beauty ideals, the opposite of what society wants a woman to be... and she’s suspiciously black-coded.

Pervasive and passive stereotypes of black people have come into existence since colonialism. Cruel caricatures of black people were omnipresent. Going as far as to ascribe them animal-like features with big mouths, big ears, sloping foreheads and so on. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2712263?seq=4#metadata_info_tab_contents

I could write a million essays on how race and sex have been weaponized in the past. When the “exploration travels” first started, and even much later in art, faraway lands were portrayed as sultry lazy or untamed women, waiting to be conquered and domesticated. Transforming countries into women was done to make them “controllable”. Portraying them as lazy and wild was a way Europeans to give themselves license to colonize them. Just like women at home, these foreign lands needed the guiding hand of cultured civilized men showing them how to do things and ruling them. So either men could control women which was perceived as good, or they couldn’t in which case the woman was looked down upon and hated. I don’t have an exact reference for this one, but it was a very interesting topic in my class on “Global History” at University. But for now this one carries a good part of the load.

https://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/jezebel/

It is then no surprise the female black body became a site of seduction there for the white male’s taking. They literally became their property as slaves, just like a man’s wife was considered his property. White men sexualized black people, particularly black women, a stereotype that perpetuates to this day and age. See the link above for that as well. Black women became temptresses.

White women, of course, didn’t like that. They wanted their men to be theirs. So these 19th century Karens started hating them as well. These wild temptresses were out to catch their men with their “foreign looks”. Meanwhile white men hated the idea of white women being seduced by black men. And this, combined with the resentment for working class women, gave way to a kind of language people used to describe each other. All stereotypes (medieval+ working class women looks+ black looks) were stacked atop each other: dark, tempting, coarse, black, plump, uncivilized, wild, broad-faced, thick of lip… Hair didn’t much come into play in the 18th century since most people of high society wore wigs (which in paintings can look like type 4 hair but cannot be used as an indicator of race) but afterwards “tight coils” was also added to the list of features that weren’t deemed desirable. This physical robustness not only lies in the idea that people who work are “hardened” but by describing them with strong robust adjectives, upper class white people once again fuel the idea that these people were physiologically designed for hard work, like slave labour or mine work instead of life as a wife. See also present day notions common even in doctors how black people and black women don’t feel pain as much. A devastating prejudice that leads to black death, black mothers dying, black people’s health complaints not being taken seriously and so on.

4. Black, racially ambiguous and “foreign” coding in physical descriptions

So we all know the memes of “Historians say they were friends” and so on. It’s a fun meme, but this carefulness in naming things stems from the fact that A) sources are made by people and people are subjective as fuck B) it is deemed a big faux pas for a historian to look at history through a 21st century lens. The rabbit hole that is historical epistemology boils down to the claim that a thing cannot exist before there is a word for it. You need to be careful that you don’t apply a term to an event, person or society wherein that term didn’t exist, or the meaning of the term was different. We shouldn’t draw conclusions about the past with present day notions. When a person anno 2020 is described as dark, we know they’re probably south-east Asian or black. However, we may not believe that a person being described as dark in the 17th century means this person is black. I shall explain.

Back in a time when black equalled inferior, people found no better way than to ascribe black attributes to people they disliked. It is hard to find out whether these people were actually darkskinned, since portraits were commissioned and painted to the desires of the clients (they could ask to be painted with white skin). We have no photographs of the time period to verify whether people did really look the way people described. With few people able to move around the country by carriage, as this was expensive, most people relied on letters, books and papers to give them accounts of events and people, so if one person claimed a person looked like X, others oftentimes had no choice but to believe the account, as they lived too far away to verify. Thus I shall focus on the world of literature, where there were no real people we can compare descriptions to, to prove that the good guys were portrayed as fair, and bad guys were portrayed as… racially ambiguous without them having to be black, or any other ethnicity.

Fairytales: Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. There’s literally no argument to be made at all. But just take a look at fairytales from the Brothers Grimm. Nine times out of ten, the evil stepsisters and stepmothers are described as dark and ungainly while the heroine is fair. If there are transformations, the evil people get transformed into gross animals like toads, while the heroine is transformed into a fawn, a bird or a swan. I’m being unnuanced here, there are definitely heroines with dark hair (see snow white, but she’s still snow white of skin) and the reasons for ugly-animal-transformations has to do with the character traits that have been ascribed to those animals. These stories circuled orally since the middle ages, and most trace their roots back to even before that time. Though the world was not yet a colonnial one, it is a sign that darker looks were already linked to bad people. These notions of darkness have been absorbed into the notions about black people during colonialism. People already lived with concepts of fairness for good people and darkness for bad people in their heads, it became easy to continue these concepts when faced with black people.

Jane Eyre: Jane is described as green eyed (a very rare colour, most prevalent in white people), fairy-like, skinny and pale. Although Brönte tells us she is ugly (she indeed doesn’t confirm to beauty ideals at the time) she appeals to Mr. Rochester and fits more into the stereotype of beauty than her romantic rival: Berta Mason Rochester. Bertha’s laugh is “hysterical” and “demonic”, she is dangerous and injures her own brother. “What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight, tell: it grovelled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing, and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face.”

Dear reader, Mr. Rochester is described as being tempted into a marriage, to a wild foreign animal-like madwoman with dark grizzled hair and red eyes. Although there is no description of her skin colour (Bertha could very well be any ethnicity) there are clear parallels in the way she is described and the way POC were described. In the context of the 1840s readers would instantly attach this picture to their preconceptions about others with a similar look. Jane doesn’t even need to describe Bertha’s personality, the readers have already decided what she’s like because they understand that the author means dark looks= bad personality. Dark looks= foreign looks. Additionally: Blanche Ingram, Jane’s other rival was described as a fine beauty with a stereotypically beautiful body but had an olive complexion, dark hair and dark eyes. These were desirable traits in England at the time, but the darker beauty of Blanche comes with a bad personality and in the end, she too is rejected in favour of our pale heroine Jane.

Wuthering Heights: Heathcliff has long confused readers. It is most probable, in my opinion, given the context of the time, that Heathcliff was of roma origin as roma were strongly disliked in England at the time, and he fits best in the stereotypes associated with them. It’s also much more probable that an English gentleman would take in an orphaned European child than a black child, especially given he raised him as a son (british people weren’t that kind, they wouldn’t raise a black child as their son). However, the author, still clearly relies on a certain set of dark characteristics to describe him. “I had a peep at a dirty, ragged, black-haired child; big enough both to walk and talk: indeed, its face looked older than Catherine's; yet when it was set on its feet, it only stared round, and repeated over and over again some gibberish that nobody could understand.” “He seemed a sullen, patient child; hardened, perhaps, to ill-treatment: he would stand Hindley's blows without winking or shedding a tear, and my pinches moved him only to draw in a breath and open his eyes.” “You are younger [than Edgar], and yet, I'll be bound, you are taller and twice as broad across the shoulders; you could knock him down in a twinkling; don't you feel that you could?” “Do you mark those two lines between your eyes; and those thick brows, that, instead of rising arched, sink in the middle; and that couple of black fiends, so deeply buried, who never open their windows boldly, but lurk glinting under them, like devil's spies?” “he had by that time lost the benefit of his early education: continual hard work, begun soon and concluded late, had extinguished any curiosity he once possessed in pursuit of knowledge, and any love for books or learning. His childhood's sense of superiority, instilled into him by the favours of old Mr. Earnshaw, was faded away … Then personal appearance sympathised with mental deterioration: he acquired a slouching gait and ignoble look; his naturally reserved disposition was exaggerated into an almost idiotic excess of unsociable moroseness;” “His countenance was much older in expression and decision of feature than Mr. Linton's; it looked intelligent, and retained no marks of former degradation. A half-civilised ferocity lurked yet in the depressed brows and eyes full of black fire, but it was subdued; and his manner was even dignified: quite divested of roughness, though stern for grace.” “He is a dark-skinned gypsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman”

Once again: black eyes, heavy brows, black hair. He is rough, can stand a lot of heavy burdens, seemingly indifferent to pain. He has something devilish and uncivilized about him, and is oftentimes believed dumb. Admittedly, this portrayal is more nuanced, he has a knack for studying and he does look like a gentleman. But the author is clear that it is only superficial and he is still mad within. It thus becomes very clear, already only from literature, that if you want someone to look bad, you make them look manly, workmanlike and ascribe to them black features.

For more examples of racial ambiguity, casual racism and explicit racism in English 19th century books: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/victorian-literature-and-culture/article/casual-racism-in-victorian-literature/1B4B3B0538F8B7C6B58E6D839DCFEC92.

This technique was adapted by EVERYONE. Wanted to make your enemy look bad? Then write a very uncharming picture of them attributing them with stereotypical black features. The most common remarks were: broad noses, big lips, frizzy hair, swarthy and/or dark complexians, coarse looking and unrefined. If you wanted to be really rude you could start comparing people to animals and call them wild and unhinged because “madness” was and is a very common insult. Had an issue with your wife in the 19th century? Lock her up for “hysteria” and “madness”. Got a political opponent in the 2016 presidential elections? Call her mad and hysterical. Got an opponent in the 2020 presidential elections? Challenge his mental capacities. Psychological issues and disorders have often been used to make people look bad and invalidate them. Basically everyone who isn’t reacting in a neurotypical and stereotypical male way (i.e. show no emotions and so on) was classified as “unreasonable”, thus taking away their voice. So many interesting articles and books on this.So we have an intersection between race, womanhood and mental health that are used to control and reject women.

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/chm/outreach/trade_in_lunacy/research/womenandmadness/

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4286909?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

https://www.routledgehistoricalresources.com/feminism/sets/women-madness-and-spiritualism

https://www.amazon.com/Madness-Women-Myth-Experience-Psychology/dp/0415339286

TLDR: In literature bad characters were often described with physical attributes that were seen as ungainly. They were codified with animal-like, manly and mad. They also had black and dark attributes to signal to the reader that they were not the heroes of the story. Bonus: they often met a deathly or bad end. Writers did it, but so did real people when they wanted to accuse a rival (Karl Marx being one such asshole for example, http://hiaw.org/defcon6/works/1862/letters/62_07_30a.html ). This is why we can not always trust written accounts of contemporaries before the age of photography when a person is described with racially ambiguous looks.

5. Descriptions of Queen Charlotte:

Just like Beethoven, Queen Charlotte’s main claim to blackness boils down to one ancestor at least two centuries before her birth, combined with contemporary descriptions of a certain hair type, wide nose and bad complexion. Descriptions of Charlotte during her lifetime describe a plain and small woman, with a wide and long nose, and lips that were not the rosebud ideal. As the court became accustomed to her, however, more people started complimenting her brown hair, pretty eyes and good teeth. Much of the imagery that has fuelled claims of Charlotte’s possible African ancestry is from the first few years of her time in England. Royal brides have been ripped to pieces by tabloids, and the public also performs a horrible hazing-like ritual(see: Kate Middleton was mocked for being a party girl, lazy and from working class background. Meghan Markle was described as an opportunist husband-snatcher. Diana was a “chubby child”. The ladies also got plenty of critiques on their looks). Once the bride gets through years of being bullied, critiqued for every little part of her being, she then suddenly comes out on the other end after a few years, becoming a darling and an attribute to the royal family. Could it be that royal brides are always, especially in a gossip heavy environment like a court, under deep scrutiny? This foreign princess hobbled off a boat, seasick, unknown by the English… And she didn’t speak a word of the language! Why would the English love her? I am not saying the accounts lie but I am saying beware of the person making the comments. Are they close to the monarch and his wife? Do they like Queen Charlotte? When where these comments made and why? And why did they choose precisely these words that had by now become commonplace to use as descriptors for unpleasant people? If we know people used racially ambiguous terms to describe people they disliked, it isn’t such a stretch to imagine they might insult a new queen with such terms.

Let’s look at what was actually said about her.

Horace Walpole: “The date of my promise is now arrived, and I fulfill it — fulfill it with great satisfaction, for the Queen is come. In half an hour, one heard of nothing but proclamations of her beauty: everybody was content, everybody pleased.”

Baron Christian Friedrich Stockmar, the royal physician to her grandaughter: “small and crooked, with a true Mulatto face.”

Sir Walter Scott: “ill-colored.”

Colonel Disbrowe (her chamberlain): “I do think that the bloom of her ugliness is going off.”

Queen Charlotte herself in a diary: “The English people did not like me much, because I was not pretty; but the King was fond of driving a phaeton in those days, and once he overturned me in a turnip-field, and that fall broke my nose. I think I was not quite so ugly after dat [sic].”

What we can conclude from these remarks that Charlotte was not very pretty, she even admits to that herself. But what are her actual physical attributes? She has light brown hair (I didn’t include a description of this, but it was generally reported), she had pale eyes (as can be seen in all paintings), was small, and had good teeth.

Above I gave two accounts that reported on her skin tone. Ill-colored could be anything like bad skin, rosacea or perhaps tanned (which also wasn’t deemed becoming for ladies). There was only one person, Baron Christian himself, calling her face what he did. As mentioned above, there can be multiple reasons why anyone would ascribe her those features, she did not have to be a “mulatto” to be described as one.

Most importantly, in a society with slavery, in which black people were looked down upon, I’d say the absence of more people calling her things like: dark, swarthy, black, mixed, brown and any and all things associated with black looks, is more telling than a few accounts mildly referring to her colour.

If Charlotte were truly the first black queen, the first black person in such a powerful position, and one of the few black people in England (less than 30 000 at the time), would there not be more talk? More descriptions of her look? She was seen every day by many people. People would be shocked, enraged, surprised, fascinated and so on. In an era when many people kept diaries in which they wrote down all they witnessed, many people would have given descriptions of her black/brown skin colour. In an era with cartoons and press… Her being noticeably black would have been a very big thing and we would have seen journalists and cartoonists draw her as dark. Cartoonists and diary writers mostly write or draw their honest thoughts. They weren’t censured.

6. Paintings of Queen Charlotte:

Queen Charlotte’s most striking likenesses, or so it is believed, were painted by Allan Ramsay, a prominent artist and staunch abolitionist. In 1761, Allan Ramsay (1713-1784) was appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary to the King (1761-84). As well as being Principal Painter, his portraits have been singled out by many as depicting Queen Charlotte with distinctly African features. It’s believed this was his way of displaying his abolitionist tendencies. He was an abolitionist, that much is true, and he was also friends with the legal guardian of the very famous black Dido. However why would the royal couple approve blatant African features, knowing those would not be well liked in an English queen? They would not have allowed these images. Clearly, they saw in these images only a likeness to Charlotte, and yes, that could mean she had fuller lips and a wider nose. Anyone can have those features. Personally, I find that a slightly larger nose and larger lips in some paintings are not sufficient proof to call her black. But let’s run over some of the paintings.

Most paintings portray her as a typical light-skinned royal with nothing bad about her complexion.

In these pictures she does not look black in the slightest, indeed I’d say her eyes and eyebrows look very light even, nor do her nose and lips, so often critiqued, look big, as was claimed.

Here we can see her nose looks a bit wider, and her lips a bit bigger. But is that really a convincing argument? Although certain features are more common to a certain race, they are not monopolized by one. Black people can have light hair and light eyes. It is unlikely, but it is possible. It’s just as possible for white women to have bigger lips, a wider nose, a rounder face and even… though rarely, there are white people who have no black relative they know of, white 4a hair. I’ve met a few of them. What I also want to note is that Queen Charlotte’s natural hair could have been crimped and combed until it stood upright and was stiff with powder, as was the fashion back then. It would give her hair a more frizzy look. In the picture underneath it, you can see her hair in fashionable artificially made curls that wouldn’t work on natural type 3 or 4 hair.

However as I said before, I’m not fond of using paintings as proof since they were made-by-demand. Painters would starve if they painted their patrons unflatteringly. There are black people, indeed, even black nobles, ex-slaves, diplomatic ambassadors who had themselves painted with a dark skin colour since the Middle Ages. You can even see the distinction between people of darker-skinned sub-Saharans and North African descent in these pictures. And painters certainly knew how to paint black people for centuries (see: "The Image of the Black in Western Art" by Harvard University Press and “Revealing the African presence in Renaissance Europe”). One such example a noble who did have black heritage was Alessandro de Medici who was nicknamed “the Moor”. Moors referred to black Islamic people. His mother was Simonetta da Collevecchio, a servant of African descent. In this case the argument that many Italians are dark of complexion and have dark hair cannot be used to explain his appearance. If other Italians thought he looked like them, they wouldn’t have paid such attention to his looks because they would have deemed it normal. I’m using 3 paintings of him by 3 different artists. The first picture really is ambiguous, it is only by combining all three that we can say that yes, his looks do fit the bill. If we only had the first picture, would we really be confident to claim him? This goes to show that you can’t say someone has a certain ethnicity based on one painting.

This person was comfortable in his own skin but there were probably just as much, if not many more nobles and wealthy families with mixed blood that had themselves painted white when they were not. Who would disagree? Who would even know? Nine chances out of ten barely anyone who wasn’t from the direct neighbourhood didn’t know what they looked like, and never would. Once the POC died, all that would remain would be a very white looking painting, and no one would know the bloodline had become mixed.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/29/tudor-english-black-not-slave-in-sight-miranda-kaufmann-history

What is, then, a reliable source? An answer, for famous people, is cartoons. Just like we now attach more credibility to a paparazzi picture of Khloe Kardashian than to one of her heavily photoshopped pictures on Instagram, you can trust cartoonists to not try and make people look good. Note: cartoons are always over-exaggerations. Any physical attribute will be enlarged beyond belief for comedic purposes. King George and his wife were often pictured in cartoons. If there was anything very noticeably foreign about Charlotte’s looks, they would portray it. However, what we find is that these cartoons never portray Charlotte as darker than the other people. She wasn’t shown as being black.

Conclusion:

Queen Charlotte cannot be called black on the basis of her portraits, cartoons or bloodline. If ever there was a trace of black blood in her veins, it was so light it had become undetectable and could not have influenced her appearance. Just ask yourself this question: would you call yourself a certain ethnicity, or claim certain roots, based on one ancestor 200 years in your past? If no, then you also shouldn’t say that Charlotte had black roots or was mixed.

The case of Queen Charlotte does, however, reveal the deeply racist British society of the Georgian Era, which deemed all black physical features ugly, and deliberately used all physical traits associated to the black race as an insult. Keep this in mind, as well as rampant anti-Semitism and hatred for Roma people, every time you read a novel from the time period, or read a tasteless description of a real person from the era. People were cruelly treated based on their heritage, and even if their heritage was purely white, they could be ascribed certain racial features, just because people were racist pricks.

While that’s the unfortunate reality of the time period, I do believe we are allowed to enjoy an alternate reality as an escape, where just for once, race isn’t an issue. So continue on, Bridgerton!

Meanwhile, I’ll be here keeping my fingers crossed for the stories of real black people living in Europe, or black kings and queens in Africa, to be told in a movie or series. The entire world has always existed, it makes no sense for all period movies to keep being focussed on white people in England, Rome and the US.

#bridgerton #Queen Charlotte #Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz #british monarchy #racism in history

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