#have poc characters just exist otherwise

[saturnniidae]

in this essay on why the dragon prince is a great example of having a diverse fantasy world without needing the plot to have some aspect of racism for the poc characters to be relevant-

The dragon prince is soo real for having their human royal family be entirely made up of people of color

[kianamaiart]

Hey hey! You’ve probably been asked this a lot but what made you want to start creating I Don’t Want To Be A Magical Girl?

Also I drew Akia in my style!

Hope you’re having a great day btw ! :0)

First of all this is so rad!!! I loooove how you drew her

And what made me want to make I Don't Want to be a Magical Girl... It was a lot of things! (im assuming you mean the pilot in general)

The idea started off as a stupid doodle/character design practice. It wasn't gonna be anything more than that. I just felt like drawing a cute character with a gun really hahaha.

It's not a particularly original premise and I didn't plan to do anything more with her (as I do with most of my ocs/designs). But I actually did really like this one and couldn't help but think of little ideas and scenarios with her. Things started ramping up in my brain more when I realized I could attach a personal story and personal experiences to it to make it feel less cliche. That's when I started designing the other characters and coming up with bios and stuff

And then that was gonna be it again. I'd maybe do a comic here and there but there was a combination of things that happened that led to me jumping in and making a pilot.

First of all, I had a two month hiatus coming up so I had so much time. I also decided to step down from my directors position to be a board artist again in the coming season. So I really wanted to get some storyboarding practice in and what better way to do that than with this character I ended up really liking? I also don't have a portfolio and I'd been wanting to make something that's very me rather than my work from an existing show.

I'd offhandedly mentioned to my editor at disney that I wanted to do a board for these characters and she told me she'd help me make an animatic if it ever came to that. I couldn't pass up that opportunity! Now, since it was gonna be an animatic and I didn't want it to just be my scratch, I reached out to a bunch of VA friends to see if they'd be interested and they were!

Then other than having that support, just seeing my friends work on their own personal projects has been really inspiring and made me want to also do my own thing! Me and my friend group had just made a whole video game for our friend as a bday present which was so creatively fulfilling and made me realize like "oh my god we're artists we can literally just make stuff".

In the past I'd been so afraid to share my original work and for similar fears I've never wanted to showrun despite having the opportunity to pitch. While it's flattering to be wanted there was this pressure that felt like "oh you HAVE to make something, you're wasting your talent otherwise." (lol this is ironically the thesis of idwtbamg). And as a qpoc, i'd felt this extra layer of pressure to have to make something perfect on all fronts because if i fail in any capacity, i'm failing my community. it'd just be another another reason for people to say "ah queer media and work centering poc just can't succeed." then on the other end, i can only do and write what i know and feared that other people in my community wouldn't resonate with it or would feel like it's inaccurate to their own experiences.

but that's an exhausting way to feel and i've finally decided for myself that i'm just gonna tell stories that are authentic to me and it will reach whoever it needs to reach~ this realization was kind of the final step i needed to push myself to go all in. and now we're here!

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

Been thinking about why the argument that OFMD is inherently a bad show because it's based on historical slaveowners so often feels disingenuous to me as a person of color.

HUGE disclaimer up front: if you don't wanna fuck with the show because of that premise right out the gate, that's 100% valid and I completely get that. I'm not talking about that. What I'm specifically talking about is White fandom people in particular who argue that OFMD must be "problematic" because of this, especially when they say this as some kind of virtue-signalling trying to win points in fandom wars, stuff like that.

My big thing is that the resemblance the characters in OFMD have to their real-world namesakes begins and ends with having the same name. The show feels more to me like it's playing with the vague myths around these names, not the people themselves. Can you make an argument that they should have come up with original characters instead? Sure, but let's be honest, even people who study the irl counterparts have very little knowledge of their actual lives, and the average person has all but none. To add to that, this show has absolutely zero interest in historical accuracy; the moment they cast a Jewish-Polynesian man as Blackbeard that became obvious. No one is saying the real-life Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet were good people, least of all the show itself; the point is that OFMD's versions are basically original characters already.

It always feels like an incredibly disingenuous claim to parallel the show to Hamilton, because Hamilton both did care about historical accuracy and also brought up the slave trade. Hamilton is uncomfortable for so many poc because it writes poc into the story of otherwise very faithfully portrayed racists, colonizers, and slaveowners and just handwaves the racism. In OFMD, racism exists, but the stance is always explicitly anti-racist and anti-colonialist in a way that is just so fun to see (whom among us has not wished to skin a racist with a snail fork?).

The other thing that sticks for me is...there's an appropriate amount of slavery I want to see in my romcoms, and that amount is none. I am so sick of historical fiction where Black characters are only there for trauma porn about the horrors of the slave trade. You can make a legitimate argument that OFMD is handwavey about the slave trade, but I'd argue that including discussion of the slave trade is something that should be done with such incredible care that it would leave us with a show that can't really be a comedy at all anymore. OFMD's characters of color are allowed to be nuanced, complex characters with their own emotions, and it's incredibly refreshing to see, and I'd much rather have that than yet another historical fiction show where the only characters of color are only there to make White audiences feel virtuous about how sad they feel for them.

In conclusion, I guess: every yt person who makes this argument to win points in a fandom war owes me and every other fan of color a million dollars

[creatingblackcharacters]

Since it seems like it’s a trending topic every other week, I’m curious to know what you personally think about raceswapping poc characters specifically (ex: making Asian characters Black and vice versa)

1) characters of color

2) Blasians are real. "He's Japanese!" and now he's Black and Japanese ☺️ if you want that Black character to be Japanese now, guess what? You can STILL have it! They're not mutually exclusive! Unless the Blackness is what we don't want 👀

3) we all know these bigots don't actually care about anyone being "authentically Asian", otherwise there's an entire conversation that could be had about the piss poor way white fans treat Asian peoples and fans (fetishization, infantilization, Orientalism, the complete fan neglect of anyone not pale & east Asian, to start) and they're never having that because that would require looking within. The existence of Blackness ruins the fantasy (bc ofc Japan is a magical, fantasy land). And as for Asian fans, antiblackness is universal. No amount of being a Pee Oh Cee has ever stopped it on its own.

4) no amount of calling us niggers on Twitter and other social media and in our comments bc you're mad is going to make you any more correct, just your guaranteed ass beating if I ever see you in real life. Or, I'll just send it to your boss if I find out where you work.

5. They gone be Black today. 🤷🏾‍♀️

[writingwithcolor]

How do I respectfully discuss the topic of diversity with a co-author, as well as assigning a race to an “ambiguous” character?

Anonymous asked:

My co-author and I, for context, are both white and in highschool. For the main cast of our story, each of us ended up creating three characters. All three of her characters were white. Two of mine were white as well, alongside one character who is ambiguously brown-skinned. Do you have any advice on respectfully bringing up the subject of diversity to a co-author, even if it means potentially changing our established characters? Additionally, do you have any advice on retroactively assigning a race/culture to a character? I now understand after reading this blog that “ambiguously brown” characters should be avoided, but I did not when initially creating him. I worry that I could fall into stereotypes— while portrayed positively, he’s somewhat of a “nerd” archetype. But I don’t want to whitewash him either.

“Hey, why’d you think we made a mostly all-white cast?”

In other words: Just be normal about it. As you yourself note, you also didn’t exactly put a great deal of thought into the racial/ ethnic identity for your single brown character either, so it’s not just about your writing partner. This is about how you guys like to create as a team, and what sources of inspiration you both tend to gravitate towards. If a pair of high school students who write together can’t have a chill conversation about the races of the characters they are creating, then I’d worry more for their dynamic as a creative team. Discussions of race are only as weird and awkward as people decide to make them, and that’s often framed by the baggage each person is bringing into the conversation.

Whether or not you change the characters is up to you.

“Diversity is a marathon, not a sprint!”

Write diverse characters when and because you want to. I think the push for diversity is best when it’s self-motivated. Strangers on the internet telling you to do something is definitely not the reason to do it. I’ll note the same applies IRL. Otherwise, you’re changing your behavior for the sake of peer pressure. Writing groups on the internet like our blog do not exist to sit in judgment of your work. These are venues to discuss, critique and receive feedback, but the final choice always rests with you.

There’s not enough info for me to tell if the experience of whiteness is so intrinsic to your characters that changing their race will alter them greatly. I would argue the same for gender and sexual identity. Sometimes, changing dimensions of a character’s identity alters a lot about who they are. Other times, particularly if the character is not thoroughly fleshed out, changing their race only adds to their characterization. Only you can say which scenario applies here.

Other mods have written on how to handle your dilemma of “white as default” in an earlier post available here. Please explore our #POC Profiles for more inspiration. 

Your third paragraph can be answered by re-reading all 3 sections of the FAQ and exploring our archives using the tags. 

Marika.

[aspirin82]

Yesterday, I watched the Spiderverse (2023) for the third time just for Hobie Brown. And I noticed something.

Nearly all of the Spider people has red in their design, (Gwen being an exception) but since they never exist in a fully red enviroment and the way other colors are used in their design, it never looks "way too red". But hey, guess which show has characters with dominant red colors? Hazbin Hotel. So I decided to compare the way colors are used in them.

See where Im getting? In these shots, the characters always pop out from the background because of the way lighting and backgrounds are used. Yet it never looks eye straining despite the colors are very vibrant.

And another problem I wanted to talk about, in Spiderverse, the colors are used to represent emotions and they do this pretty well. The first scene where Gwen hugs her dad has a really soothing and nice vibe, which its probably how Gwen feels too at the very moment. The second scene, well I actually didnt get to watch that scene so I dont remember the context crystal clear but its when Miles gets sent to the other universe, where he gets tied to the punching bag by the other Miles. The scene is primarily red to show the danger and threat. This is how well the color red is used in Spiderverse. Its special and they saved it for these kind of scenes.

Now, for Hazbin Hotel.. Hmm, I guess the color red is special in this show too. The characters all have red, white and black in their designs with some of them having a little bit of yellow. Maybe use some cool colors to balance that like they did in Spiderverse? Or dont put your characters in red enviroments unless its necessary to show a certain emotion or mood? Its always the same tone of red used in every scene and every character, its looking bad and unorganized.

You dont need to make the Hell all red to show its Hell? If you wanna keep that, then design your characters with different colors so they can stand out from the background. Otherwise, youre gonna end up having these clustred images.

And another thing Hazbin Hotel needs to learn from Spiderverse is designing POC. Spiderverse has a really diverse cast of characters with all kinds of different personalities. It doesnt have any stereotypes unlike Hazbin and has great written poc characters like Miles, Hobie, Miguel, Jessica and so much more. ALSO surprisingly, despite Spiderverse not having any canonic queer character, with the "Protect trans kids" poster in Gwen's house, I think it also has better queer represantation than Hazbin too lol. It was pretty casual, not forced or anything stereotypical, it was just there. I just love the theory that the Peter Parker in Gwen's universe may be trans, which it makes sense for me.

So yeah folks, thats pretty much it. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

XOXO 💋💋 HUGS!! ^_^ :3

[pinep-ne]

Mmm. I usually don't get into fandom drama because sometimes it's really just a waste of energy. But TikTok's got some... interesting people. I've noticed a pattern and I hope I have a place to speak on it.

I'm kind of sick of non-Americans/Southerners being blatantly and willingly uneducated towards, or even just entirely ignoring the political+societal themes of rdr2. It's literally the game man. I just think sometimes they really don't feel the weight of the topics they're throwing around.

Why are you calling Charles a "redneck" in a failed attempt to call him another slur, neither of which were you aware were derogatory, nor did you think to educate yourself on the significance of?? And then when people called you out and educated you, you throw out a meager apology with the words "I'm sorry if I offended anyone."

And then proceed to half-ass a google search, post it, and further prove your stupidity by saying "redneck isn't a slur, it's a derogatory term for Americans" which yes, it is— towards white, southern, lower-class Americans, with actual history tied to it. It's still derogatory, and Charles isn't white. And THEN when confronted about it even more, you throw your hands up and say "I just can't make jokes I guess." Like it was never a joke in the first place dude. You're just being racist (and accidentally classist?) on account of your illiteracy.

And this one was just a wild argument I had the other day— why are you calling Micah's racist remarks "not as black and white as that"??? He quite literally says a derogatory term within the first ten minutes of the game. There's a whole four minute youtube video of his racist actions. Joking or not, or whether you think his intentions were to 'rile people up', it's still discriminatory. Racism is often, if not always, as black and white as that. (no pun intended /srs)

Thinking otherwise, I'm tempted to believe, is your own projection. It shows a lot that you'd stretch so far to continuously deny and defend a continuously emphasized theme, that directly affects the characters as it has directly affected real people. Hell, even if it was vaguer than that. How much tolerance are you privileged with to brush off and prance around something that irrevocably damaged entire communities for centuries. Just because it's fiction? 'Cause it's not real? Because "it doesn't affect anyone"?

They also said "He can't be racist! He works with POC!"

???

I'm all for liking and appreciating whatever character you want— I'm not gonna spend my time leading all those horses to water— but snatching and running with the veil of fiction to dissolve the connotations and gravity of a very real thing, simply depicted within a story, just so you can slobber all over your favorite character, it's just undoubtedly shallow and disrespectful to the history and media that you claim to comprehend. You can't just create lines to read between and pull the "have some media literacy" card when someone calls out that you really never had such power in the first place. Like I said, do whatever you want with a character, but at the very least acknowledge every single part of them instead of brushing it off.

Ah anywho. I'm not a POC myself but I am Southern. Racism is still very present here and I felt it'd be important to me to speak up about it. If anyone's got perspective to offer, or they'd like to correct me on anything, I'm open. I think my prose may be a little too flowery to have gotten every point and logistic across, so there's always a chance of misinterpretation. Just let me know!

*** Hh and disclaimers because I'm afraid of misunderstandings. I know racism exists in places outside of the U.S., but the game is placed in America. It's in the context of discrimination against American POC, that some non-Americans tend to poorly gauge the difference and weight of. In neither of these instances were the people from the U.S. And as another thing, this isn't to ignore the treatment other characters receive regarding their culture or country (Sean, Javier, Charles, etc.) by folk who are not a part of it. It's just ignorance. The cycle sickens me. I just think in general if you're going to consume historical fiction and you're going to discuss it, at least understand the historical part. Don't be blissful x

[witchywithwhiskey]

witchywithwhiskey's slasher summer writing challenge

i know what you did... THIS summer! you joined me in celebrating summerween with a slasher summer themed writing challenge!! i was inspired by some classic summer horror movies to create this challenge and have some fun, and i'm so excited to share it with you all!! let's have a summer we'll never forget!!

how it works:

select at least 1 prompt from the lists below and incorporate it into your fic

the challenge will start june 20 and end august 31 (at 11:59pm ET)

all works will be put into a masterlist to be published no later than september 1

you don't need to follow me to participate

tag me and #slashersummerwc in your entry so i can read/reblog your work!

the rules:

you must be 18+ to participate in this challenge!

chris evans, sebastian stan, henry cavill characters and marvel characters are welcome - but NO RPF (if you wanna write another fandom, just check with me first!)

works can be dark, fluff, smut and/or angst but make sure to use appropriate warnings. works don't need to be horror

no grooming, underage, watersports/scat, incest, necrophilia or bestiality

dubcon, noncon and monsterfucking are ok!

reader-inserts only, and all works should be inclusive. works with poc, gender neutral, plus size/curvy readers are encouraged!

there are no word limits but please use a read more after 300 words

works can be part of an existing series but must be able to stand on their own

have fun!!

if you have any questions, please send me an ask or DM. otherwise, prompts are below the cut!

locations

carnival/county fair

roller rink

shopping mall

drive-in movie theater

motel

summer camp

trailer park

cabin in the woods

lake house

small town

road trip

campsite

local video store

kinks & tropes

knife kink/gun kink

dacryphilia

enemies to lovers

forced proximity

chase kink

sex in the woods

fuck or die

mask kink

blindfolds/gags

sex pollen

gangbang

stalker

kidnapping

quotes

You're not gonna leave me here, are you?

It's not bad enough to have Friday the 13th, we've gotta have a full moon too.

Meet me at the waterfront after the social.

It's summer! We're supposed to be having fun!

You know how girls love to scream.

You think that's blood?

Things get messy when you make a deal with the devil.

I never liked camp.

Honestly, if you ever become an actor, don't ever do a slasher flick.

You did a lot of things last summer.

It's just not what I was expecting. Where are the cabins and canoes?

I know how much you guys like games.

I used to hate the water…

[smbliaaa]

Hi, I'm not here for this misinformation.

I got this comment in my post 2 days ago. Pissed me off. You know who you are.

While I'm not gonna fight, I am gonna debate.

I'm gonna break down the points one by one and respond to each individually. This is because while I don't know if this person being purposefully racist, there are several statements I read as very harmful. (And just? Wrong??)

1. "Don't draw Ludwig with a dark skin tone."

I'm the artist. I can draw him however I want, so long as it is not harmful to other communities. I do not see how drawing him black is harmful to POC. Telling someone how to draw a character (if they're not being harmful) is disrespectful.

Not to mention: after a near full year of drawing him black (the post this comment was on was from APRIL) to suddenly draw my design white WILL get me in some deep shit. For whitewashing. No thanks.

2. "Germans aren't Black."

My version of Ludwig is NOT GERMAN???

And yes they are? Literally anybody from ANYWHERE can be??? Mixed people exist????

2 1/2. "Germans who are born of African descent are not fully German."

??????

Being German is not just a matter of who's in your bloodline. German is both an ethnicity and a nationality, similar to others (American, Hispanic, Asian, the like.)

If you're born in Germany... You're still German, no matter how much blood you have. To say otherwise reeks of outdated racist ideology. (E.g: "You're not a real [insert ethnicity here] bc you're black")

Gross.

Hell, you don't have to be German at all to be considered German.

(You can still have citizenship by:

Being born there - making you a German citizen

Either of your parents being born there - making you a German citizen

Or, through the process of naturalization, immigration.

In the eyes of the law, you'd still be a German citizen.

3. "Ludwig, from the accent alone very much is (German), therefore cannot be dark."

Ludwig is as German as Wario.

Ludwig used to have that accent before the 2000s, back when he was still canonically Bowser's eldest son.

Around the same time, Wario, too was canonically German, due to the portrayal of his voice actor prior to Charles Martinet.

Both things have since been retconned, and are no longer canon.

Ludwig being German is a popular headcanon now (meaning anyone can consider him whatever ethnicity or nationality they'd like. British, German, Polish, even.)

But the point still stands:

To my knowledge,

Ludwig hasn't had that German accent canonically in over thirty years.

DiC Cartoons (1990-1991) Around the same period he was canonically Bowser's son. No accent.

Mario is Missing (1992-1993) - German Accent, voice actor Rob Wallace. (It ages... badly today, I fear.)

Superstar Saga (2003) - No accent.

Paper Jam (2015) - No accent.

Paper Mario: Color Splash (2016) - No accent.

Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser's Minions (2017) - No accent.

Bowser Jr's Journey (2018) - No accent.

Mario and Sonic at the Tokyo Olympics (2020) - No accent.

"But Lian!" I hear you say, "Most of his more recent appearances are text alone! You can't tell if he has an accent or not.*

FALSE.

Alphadream (before their bankruptcy, in charge of ALL the RPGs before ending at Paper Jam) had at least two characters with a noticeable accent, and they adjusted the text accordingly.

One is Monsieur Broque, the other is Antasma.

Broque has a heavy French accent,. occasionally slipping back into his native tongue while communicating with the player.

Antasma has a heavy accent as well. Of what?

GERMAN.

If Ludwig had an accent at all, Alphadream (RIP) or Nintendo would have found a way to make it noticable in text.

It's not. There is no accent to speak of.

Stop using the idea Ludwig is German to tell people how to draw him. At the end of the day, nothing is confirmed until the day Nintendo gives them human forms, or makes it REALLY damn clear where they're from. (Which, at this rate... Not likely.)

[sepublic]

Belos gives himself more chances, the same one with his human brother’s clones, only to make the same excuse and mistake again and again because he refuses to realize what he did wrong despite going out of his way to repeat it, and focuses on ‘improving’ the wrong thing; Until finally it’s the human he didn’t bring about, who already had a separate life when she brought herself to the isles for herself and he dragged her into this cycle, that takes initiative to change things and decide no this time YOU die, when it could’ve been this time nobody dies.

It begins and ends with a proper human, but Luz had no relation to Philip unlike Caleb and she’s not going to make the same mistakes for it, in addition to seeing how far he’d go rather than learning the hard way. The shared cinematography between Caleb, and the Collector and Luz in similar situations to him resulting in a narrative lesson (and meeting with the Titan), is the payoff; Or lack thereof on Belos’ stubborn end. It’s like a Groundhog Day loop of his own making, but the people have had enough of waiting for the guy to do it right. And in the end, his death comes from the real answer of what he did wrong finally revealing and explaining itself again to kill him.

All the while, Luz’s silence speaks in its own way: I’m not here for to support your character development. I’m not here validate you. I don’t exist as a side character in your story. And that last bit is relevant in terms of how PoC and/or women are relegated in fandom, media, and society, and how Luz gets to savor otherwise after earning it.

There’s just an element of racism and misogyny behind a grown ass colonial white man expecting this brown girl to be his Mammy stereotype, targeting this kid to validate him and threatening to murder her if she doesn’t. Ugh. The curse is the least gross thing about Belos.

I’m glad Luz made that stand, but she shouldn’t have had to in the first place, esp as a child to this adult who was going to kill her if she didn’t play nice. But I’m glad Luz’s friends took over for that reason, and I’m glad Luz knows her lesson at all.

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #7404:

A bit of a tangent and rant, forgive me.

What bothers me the most about recent racebending fans is that changing a character's skin tone isn't enough. They HAVE to be African American(tm). And they must be stereotypical African American(tm), otherwise you just like that dark skinned character because they have "European features" or whatever the hell that means. It's no longer about seeing more dark-skinned characters. It's no longer about viewing dark-skinned characters as the norm. It's no longer about showing how diverse African Americans really are. They've moved the goalpost even further. No, it HAS to be the stereotypical African American(tm).

Light-skinned characters or those from mixed race families don't matter. They are too "white." It's extremely patronizing to dark-skinned African Americans, too. It sucks being fetishized and boiled down to their outward features and appearances. If they don't act like a stereotype, then they are acting "white."

Changing an Asian character into a stereotypical African American(tm) IS changing them entirely. Yes, there are dark skinned Asians, but racebending fans aren't actually interested in them. They don't care about how Natives are viewed or prosecuted. They don't want POC representation. They want to take away rep from other POCs as the only race that matters is dark-skinned African Americans(tm).

African Americans want and deserve REAL representation. Not some repaint of an already existing character.

Posting as a response to a previous problem.

[tocomplainfriend]

It does affect reality

TW: Rape, SA, coercion (a bit of graphic talk sorry!)

This is why you need to be careful around topics of SA/r-pe cause you enable people like this or spread these ideas:

Coercion is r-pe. Holding someone's livelihood, money, house, job or life to have sex is absolutely disgusting. Someone using their position of power to get sexual interactions out of someone that wouldn't do that otherwise is terrible. Prostitution is not coercion unless someone forced you into it, by holding things over your head. "If you don't have sex with me, I'm going to make fire you" people belittle that because they think everyone can just magically get a work and getting coerced into that is normal.

Imagine a mom getting their monetary existence and stability destroyed cause a random man wanted to have sex with her, but she didn't want to, so he will fire her. "Do you let law force your opinions, or are you capable of thinking your self?" I think: If people can't have sex without holding something important over someone's head, they can fuck off. The laws around coercion and r-pe are really difficult. No, I do not shape opinions around the law cause there are laws that accept the killing of queer, POC people for example. But go fucking figure, holding things over people to make them fuck you is disgusting and pathetic, fuck you.

Instead of hearing a story of a victim of SA/r-pe/abuse and understanding the pain, and tactic of manipulation- people try REAL hard to debate in favor of r-pist's rights (mainly cause their cartoon character they find hot is an r-pist, and others don't like the r-pist character).

The level of dehumanization of r-pe VICTIMS is massive, people trying so hard to argue in r-pists favor is crazy to me. "You are dehumanizing r-pist" r-pist dehumanize the victims they r-pe. You can't brush that experience off, it's world breaking, it's painful. I see no point why YOUR main topic of conversation is people who are as awful and selfish as to feel entitle to force someone to give them sexual pleasure +feeling pleasure of someone who's black out- or someone screaming no. How are you so critical about "R-pist should be respected!" over talking the issues victims face? In media or real life.

Shut the fuck up- that astronomical stupid connection are you doing in your small brain- to associate r-pist to POC people? Racism maybe? R-pist violated a human being, a POC person is a person that's different color and characteristics. If you think like this- remake your entire existence in society.

[olderthannetfic]

Let me write a few more ableist bullshits https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/748245873503420416/i-really-hate-how-easily-it-is-to-notice-that?source=share

People are so insanely uncomfortable with something being deemed disabled, or under some type of disabling condition, that they'd rather try and remove the status of disability and make it something different. Who cares if the classification of "disability" is the only reason you can get help for it through insurances, healthcare or whatever other options exist across the world? Disability, the concept, the word, the idea, the entire thing, is somehow viewed as icky.

People are so disgusted by the idea of disability, that the moment it isn't visually obvious, you're not deemed disabled and will have to deal with harassment and other vitriol against you. It's more comfortable to accuse everyone of lying, than accept that some disabilities aren't obvious.

In discourse about privileges and rights, both queer and poc people, and their allies, feel too fucking comfortable trying to call out and belittle disabled people and even downplay the suffering of disabled people. Your suffering is only allowed to exist in tandem with another "oppression", and even then it's only ever second to those other ones.

People writing shit like "I don't see this person's disability I see their beautiful smile/personality/whatever the fuck." As if being visibly disabled is an otherwise ugly blemish you need to look past to see that disabled people are fucking human beings who deserve basic respect and being viewed as normal humans.

In fiction:

Certain disabilities are only allowed to exist as an aesthetic, but the moment it actually has to impact a character, it suddenly doesn't. There are too many people who want the idea of disability for some reason, but don't do anything with it. Here's a character who has problems walking... whoops now they suddenly don't have that problem when it would be too bothersome. It's also often that just specific neurodivergencies are permitted as well.

People, especially those not affected by certain disabilities also don't like it when disabilities have "adapted" in different settings. I still remember the discourse about Toph from ATLA not being a good blind character because she could "see", which obviously negates everything about her being blind... No it fucking doesn't. Disabled characters are allowed to adapt, and have their own way of moving around, disabled, especially blind, doesn't mean "useless worm".

--

[sokumotanaka]

@alwaysbringaphoenixdown

I can tell you exactly why it's gotten worse. (I'm putting it in a separate post as not to clog up your great post)

Well that's a great one, Static and Teen titans had POC help writing their stories, with Static shock being the brainchild of a black man and a LEGEND in writing and storytelling Dwayne Mccduffie, who deeply understood the struggles with racism, gun control, drugs and so on. Same for teen titans.

That being said you should consume more media with Black/brown and LGBT people at the helm in the writing rooms. Kipo age of the wonderbeast, Moon-girl and devil dinosaur, The owl house, Steven universe, Craig of the creek, Invincible and even in video game form Metaphor Refantazio. Could we use more? Of course! However this is what happens when POC get to be in the writing rooms

Well I don't know about Star forces- the only thing I know about that is the magical creatures die I think? Like the all horribly melt.

RWBY on the other hand and Miraculous are mostly white led stories with only white writers. And both RWBY's and Miraculous writers are horribly racist. Miles and kerry wrote a dogshit subplot blaming the minorities and then when people questioned them, they shrugged it off as "tee hee we're white we don't know." not to mention RT running out their one black employee with constant racism and miles trying to appease people by putting BLM on his twitter till the heat died down. And Miraculous made a comic where the protagonist was fearful of black people for...no reason.

It's what happens when you have zero black/brown people in your workforce that don't have input on anything.

Ah yes the scene where the martian girl tells the half human half atlantian that he wouldn't get it, in terms of racism.

You're completely right here, I will argue that at least they attempted to talk about it instead of pretending it doesn't exist because it makes them uncomfy.

Yeah, sometimes that's all you need to further your point, especially in one of the most racist time periods, I can't explore a character without hearing someone say they're boring or ''woke'' or we see the "white Preston garvy / white Wyll Ravengard" mods.

As I mentioned earlier this is what happens when you have media where the characters are 99% white and male and you don't see many poc especially dark skinned ones. Or when you take learning about Martin Luther king Jr out of schools cause it's "Forcing it on children"

I'm frankly all for racist getting owned for being prejudice, it's the least they deserve.

It is cause that's too woke nowadays! But yeah this is why we need to get more black and brown people hired- sadly the best they get to do is write a book that goes straight to barns and noble. This is why we need to fund more POC writers to make original media, Games, TV shows, Animated or otherwise just diverse media in general- we went backwards because more racist worms got too bold, the pandemic fucked over alot of people's pea brains and made them too loud and too stupid.

I don't have the prefect fix, but support POC products, get people to watch Moongirl as much as they watch something like My adventures with superman and so on.

[danggirlronpa]

Considering the stereotypes packed into the dark-skinned girls, are there any things you'd do - and advise other fans do - to portray them better WITHOUT changing anything about their canon appearances, personalities and backstories? Or are they just not salvageable? Genuine question

The big, generalized advice is just to treat these characters with care and love, just like you would otherwise, and do not give in to the white guilt. Exceedingly often, white fandom will try to address racist stereotypes by separating the character from racial connotations entirely - e.g. getting rid of the terrible implications of Angie's god by ignoring her God/"Atua" entirely when writing her.

THAT IS NOT HELPFUL. You cannot write these stereotypes out of existence. Refusing to address an issue is, by nature, not addressing an issue. You must reckon with and work around these issues. You don't have to write stories about them, and probably shouldn't. But you can't write an Akane story wherein she never mentions her family. You can listen to people who have lived in ghettos, look at their real-world conditions, and look into the slums of Japan. Take the stereotypes and give a real, serious look at why they exist, and how to portray the information that they are sensationalizing with care and respect.

The white instinct is to avoid difficult topics, like racism, because of the fear that they will fuck up. Rest assured: you will. A person who fucks up and does something unintentionally offensive trying to address a racist is trope is always better than a person who politely distances themself from the stereotypes to avoid potential confrontation. One of them is showing a sincere interest in learning about the lives of the people affected and what impacts them.

Research stereotypes. Research writing POC. Find black activists and keep up with them regularly; you'll start internalizing things. Go the extra mile. I am not black. I cannot give you meaningful feedback. You should look to black voices.

(And for the love of god don't make weed jokes about Hagakure. There are black people who look like Hagakure and smoke weed. Those people aren't characters in a piece of media already subject to many other racial stereotypes. And frankly it's funnier if Hagakure is straightedge and just Like That, anyway.)

[sayyourprayers]

It is kinda cute how the Duffers' writing is rated on here. Cuz like that isn't how shit works at all. But ya guys, make it work. And also be patronising as hell while you're at it. The treatment of POC characters or homo-sexuality/phobia (yes that too, sowie) and war and cop worship and sexism and classism and mental health (people not named Max exist) are not exceptions to what is otherwise stellar writing. What the hell are y'all on about? Especially treatment of POC characters.

Ya cuz I'm only keeping my eyes peeled open to see where they falter and ooh POC. Bad Duffers! Everything else is dope I say. Like that's a compartmentalisation that even works. It's not a gangrenous arm that you get to cut off n then be like.....woah now you're gangrene free. Nope it's part of the whole show. You can't discount it to rate the writing. Hello. How's that the only thing you discount (cuz other stuff is considered good writing in most circles)? And then say: the Duffers are great writers but....... No the duffers are mid writers because.......

That's how the sentence is supposed to start bitch. That's how stuff's rated. Go take a course on haterism. It's more holistic. Holistic shitting >>>>>>>>>>> compartmentalised dick riding.

Roger Ebert would have 4 starred everything if he had the foresight y'all have. Just forget the bad parts exist. Four stars that it ended right? Be for fucking real.

P.S. I see who RBs what from where and how the tags differ depending on who is RBed and lemme just say the call is coming from inside the circlejerk cuz you bitches dunno how to dial a number that's not listed in your faves. Tell me you care about Tumblr celebrity without telling me you care about Tumblr celebrity.

P.P.S. I'm POC in that I'm brown. But also not in that my wholeass country is brown. But yet there's shit desis from the des are understanding better than people living in multi-cultural (in terms of countries) / multi-racial race obsessed countries. Which is 🤯

P.P.P.S. Not thinking that one sensitive plotline will be handled well because another sensitive plotline barely exists or is fumbled over massively is perfectly sensible. (Re: homophobia)