#representation in media

[pastel-kaleesh]

Here with another post on DB vs Vivziepop. Today, I'm still on the topic of POC characters, but this time, Latino characters 🎉🎉🎉

3 examples will be shown.

Here is Broly. Broly is a near-human alien. Even though he isn't human, he is a POC character. In fact, he had his own movie!!! I love it when POC characters aren't kept behind!! Okay, so Broly isn't exactly Latino (like I said earlier, he's an alien), but as a Latina, I most definitely headcanon him as Latino and actually, most of the Hispanic DB community has. My people praise him alongside other DB characters!! His skin tone even matches mine!!! This is what I love about both DB and Splatoon, show, not tell!! Vivziepop is always telling about her characters' sexualities and race, but doesn't really show it when it's not a harmful stereotype.

Here is Vannie. (not calling her by her actual name and also not using her outfit from the show because it sucks) Vannie is a demon. Vivziepop stated that she's supposed to be Salvadoran, yet there's no coding, besides her VA being Hispanic. So you're telling but not showing? You could change her skin tone to an actual Salvadoran skin tone, you could give her an outfit reminiscent of traditional Salvadoran outfits, but apparently that didn't happen. She doesn't even look Latina! I don't even know what she could be. Heck, Broly could pass as being Salvadoran easily.

Here is Goku. Just like Broly, he is an alien. He has some of the most unintentional Latino coding!!! He is my people's icon!!! He is one of the most loveable characters of the franchise and is the most recognized among our community. Goku may not be officially Latino, but in my heart (and in the hearts of the Hispanic DB community) he is. And like I said, coding is everything!! Show, not tell!!! Go wild!!

Until next time, Vivziepop critics.

[eastasiansonwesternscreen]

Everything Everywhere All at Once Passes Return of the King as Most-Awarded Movie Ever

Everything Everywhere All at Once can add another historic win to its list.

According to IGN’s calculations, the multiversal hit is now the most-awarded film ever with 158 accolades to date from major critics organizations and awards bodies. This spot was previously held by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which earned 101 major awards by IGN’s math. (via IGN)

[incognitopolls]

This is asking about the characters themselves, not the way topics are handled by the writers/etc.

"Representation characters" is a clunky way to put it, but the options have a character limit. This question is referring to characters who belong to minority, oppressed, or underrepresented demographics.

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We ask your questions anonymously so you don’t have to! Submissions are open on the 1st and 15th of the month.

[fnafs-ex-boyfriend]

It’s a little hard to describe how important Alastor being aroace is to me. He’s just this cool, suave, mysterious, petty guy with a silly voice that has the same attitudes as sex and romance as I do and I think that’s really cool and awesome.

Edit: There’s a follow-up

[brsb4hls]

Ok I gotta jump in here cause I saw so many posts about Deadpool and queerness.

And what those movies do is a bit unfair, actually.

Yes, Deadpool is canonically pan, but to a regular straight audience he is not.

We live in a heteronormative world and actual queer rep has to be explicit to be recognized.

And no, I'm not discussing that particular point, you all know that's a fact and Deadpool 2 got his GLAAD nomination for Yukio and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and not for whatever Wade was doing.

But Wade never actually being with a dude (not even in comics sadly) is not even the main issue here.

The jokes in Deadpool are exactly the same lol gay jokes 90s and 2000s action movies use.

And people growing up with these kind of movies cannot differentiate.

How would they know if Wade has sex or hate boner for someone?

Sexual innuendo especially in fight scenarios is often used by straight men to ridicule their opponent.

So Deadpool truely manages to have the cake and eat it.

Queer audiences love it, because they know it's queer.

Straight folks think issa joke and homophobic people are elated the movie is allowed to make 'gay jokes' and is therefore not 'woke'. (No joke, I saw those reviews).

That's something pretty special.

And it would be kinda shitty but well, the homophobes basically watched two guys hatefucking in subtext for 2 hrs without noticing, so that's at least ironic.

I hope this explains the disconnect folks are feeling in regards to very different movie reactions.

[sjbattleangel]

Whenever discourse around cartoons like Steven Universe, She-Ra, The Owl House, The Legend Of Korra, video games like Spider-Man 2, Life Is Strange, Alan Wake 2, Forspoken, Usual June, Dustborn, comics like Ms. Marvel, Ironheart, Champions, Unstoppable Wasp and other diverse media pops up...

I'll leave this here:

Lisa Simpson presentation: 'Diverse Media made by and/or staring women and marginalized groups are always held to way higher, harsher, unrealistic standards compared to media made by and starring non-diverse groups of people (especially cishet white men).'

[iyakinchan]

Hey, people are allowed to enjoy something that's bad representation, by the way. Even if it's flawed or even fucked up. People are allowed to see themselves in that representation. You understand that, right? It's important to me that you understand that.

[thewistlingbadger]

I love Jayce Talis so, so much. Like you just wouldn't be able to understand. As a Latino, there's just no representation of us in the media. Not in American media, not in a positive way. Especially in children's media and especially in animation. Especially as a Latino from the Caribbean, not a latino from central or South America. When I think about latino representation in media, my brain can only draw a short list of characters, most of which have only existed for the last couple of years- very recent.

Representation matters so so much because when you go your whole life without seeing someone like you, it's a weight you carry around. A weight you've known all your life that you didn't even know you had until you see representation. I literally cried when I saw encanto in theaters because that was the first time I ever saw a character look like me. It was the first time I realized I didn't grow up knowing representation. And encanto only came out three years ago! And I'm not even Columbian!

Miles Morales is the only character I have ever known that is Puerto Rican, my exact same ethnicity. How sad is that? I literally can't think of a single other character that's Puerto Rican. And even though I don't look like Miles Morales, he makes me feel seen because his movies do such a good job showing the culture. Like it literally makes me tear up when I think about certain things said in across the spideverse and certain moments in that movie. Miles saying spiderman is more Dominican, miles telling his mom bendición, miles eating rice for breakfast, giving an empanada to Miguel. It means so so much.

And now this leads up to Jayce Talis. Although his background isn't explicit and treated as an important part of the story, he still means so much to me when it comes to representation. Jayce looks like me. He has the same skin as me, the same hair. And the fact that he gets to be a flawed hero, a gentle, kind, intelligent, strong man, who makes magic and falls in love with a beautiful and powerful woman, who gets to be intimate and fragile, who is put into a position of power himself and makes mistakes and acknowledges those mistakes and learns from them...the fact that he has such a strong conviction and such firm beliefs, the fact that he values his friend above all else and is just so, so much. Jayce Talis is so many things, he pushes the boundaries of what us latinos get to be. And I'm so grateful to have a character like him exist.

Jayce Talis I love you they could never make me hate you don't ever change.

[chronicbeans]

CURLY RANT TIME!

I really wanted to talk about Curly post-crash. This has kind of expanded into both an analysis of Curly, as well as how other characters treat him, what those character interactions might mean, and the fandom treats him. I think there's a lot of themes around him that many people in this fandom don't see, so I wanted to share my thoughts.

TW: Ableism (both intentional and unintentional), Abuse (Physical, Verbal, Mental), Poor Workplace Environment, Mentions of Fandom's Treatment of Characters, Unstructured and Not Proofread (This took long enough as it is, if I proofread it wouldn't have been published)

First off, can I just mention something that I haven't seen anybody mention so far on Tumblr about Mouthwashing?

Curly can communicate.

He can move his head. He can nod his head or shake his head. When you're in the cryo pod as Curly, you can look around in a much wider field of view than if he was just moving his eye, so he had to be moving his head. They could've asked him yes or no questions and had him nod or shake his head to reply.

However, as far as I'm aware, nobody actually asked him anything on screen. They might've done so off screen, but because it's off screen that's just speculation and I don't count that. They talked at him, talked about him, but never necessarily talked to him or asked him anything. It's like they assumed he cannot communicate, or if they knew he could, assumed he wasn't aware as much as he truly was during everything and that he wouldn't respond. Which happens so often with people in real life, it really hit me in the face once I realized he could communicate, but nobody actually did. Which is something I'm sure a lot of people without disabilities or experience with loved ones who are disabled didn't notice, and I don't blame them for.

Much like that line where the mention how they're running out of painkillers, and they didn't follow it up with "we'll have nothing to relieve his pain." The line was "Once these are out, we'll have nothing to keep him quiet." Which I've seen people playing through that part of the game, and just not react to it. But for me, I saw it and thought "WTF? Why are you focusing on that and not his pain?" And I realized that for a lot of people, they don't have to deal with that mindset. However, a lot of disabled people have to deal with others, even caregivers, seeing them as a complete burden or uncomfortable to be around because they are in pain or expressing discomfort. People who look at them and don't necessarily see them as somebody who is in pain, but somebody who is being too loud and making those around them feel uncomfortable because of their problems.

Which it's natural for people to feel uncomfortable hearing somebody else in pain and to feel bad that that person is suffering. However, for Jimmy at least, it's clear it's gone past the point of feeling bad for Curly and wanting to help, and just wanting Curly to be quiet so he doesn't have to hear it. This may or may not be true for the others onboard, as well. We just don't get to hear much about their inner thoughts.

Anya says she can't bear to give him the painkillers because of the sounds he makes, and I understand that it most likely stems from the traumas and memories of her abuse (I actually like to think it was a purposeful addition to the game to hint at it). That, and Jimmy is most likely trying to stop Anya from doing more for Curly. However, the idea of somebody wanting to help but being too uncomfortable or fearful to is an experience many disabled people have in real life, as well. Some people may see a disabled person in need of assistance, but feel either too uncomfortable to help, or like they'd be dehumanizing them by helping. A thought process that is most likely similar to "Disabled people can still do things on their own, so I think offering help would be taken as me infantalizing/dehumanizing them. So, I won't offer any help in order to not offend them." or "What if I do something wrong and it hurts them? I will not help, because somebody who might know more about what they're doing will step in and help." or maybe even "This treatment sounds uncomfortable for them, so we'll wait a little bit before doing it."

In this way, I think she's representative of a lot of people who are genuinely well-meaning individuals who do believe they are helping disabled people. Or, at the very least, are respecting disabled people. That's not to say she is inherently a bad person, or as terrible as Jimmy in any way. She is leagues better than him, and is well-intentioned in this moment (unlike Jimmy in any second of this game). However, there are a lot of people in real life who do act this way, even people in the healthcare field. As much as someone may train to be a nurse or doctor, they'll never know how somebody who is disabled feels in that very moment or, in Curly's case due to being mute, what they would want (especially because the crew didn't ask him) unless they become disabled later in life.

This brings me to one of my favorite parts about Curly: he was completely fine before the crash. A lot of non-disabled people seem to think that they will never become disabled. After all, they are currently not disabled, and if they aren't disabled yet, why would they become disabled later on? However, that's not the case. Disability is one of the few minorities that anybody, no matter their past or identity, can join at any time. As terrifying as it may sound, one day they might be fine, but the next second they're in an accident, diagnosed with something, or catch a terrible illness that leaves them disabled.

This is essentially what happened to Curly. One day, he was fine. He was the captain, he was free to move around as he pleased and communicate freely with his crewmates. Then, after trying to save the ship, he's been left disabled, locked in his own body, unable to properly communicate the pain he's in. He's been left in a room, getting painkillers shoved down his throat daily, and the only people who visit him don't talk to him or ask what he wants. They probably never even asked if he wanted their care or to be let go. He's the guy who probably went all his life thinking, consciously or subconsciously, that he will never be disabled. He'll never be relying on those around him for care. But now he is, and he didn't do anything to deserve it.

I see it said, not necessarily often, but a lot of the time in a of a roundabout manner, that Curly deserves what happens to him in the game and that he deserved becoming disabled. That's just not true, and if you genuinely think that, I'm sorry but you are intentionally or unintentionally throwing around ableist rhetoric. There's a lot of people who will point to a disabled person and tell them that it's their fault that they are disabled, and use it as an excuse to be ableist towards them. Curly didn't deserve what happened to him. He's not a "perfect victim", but that doesn't immediately mean he deserves the abuse he endures, he deserved becoming disabled, or any of it.

Curly is a victim, and although his abuse wasn't the same as Anya's, it doesn't change the fact they were both victimized by Jimmy. I find it off how, just because Jimmy didn't physically abuse Curly, people don't really recognize just how much Curly was messed up by him. So much so I feel "messed up" is an understatement. He was basically manipulated and verbally abused by Jimmy. Jimmy's a narcissist, and while many people think narcissists are easy to spot or easy to avoid, they can warp your entire view of them and make you blind to their flaws. While many narcissists aren't abusive, Jimmy definitely was and could hide it. And while it was definitely wrong of Curly to turn a blind eye to Anya's abuse and the safety protocols, when you keep in mind that the person who abused Anya was Jimmy, who very well could've built himself up as infallible to Curly, it brings into perspective why Curly didn't do the right thing in that moment. Jimmy had made himself seem incapable of doing something like that to anyone in Curly's eyes for who knows how long, and now that Curly has been faced with someone who has questioned that narrative, Curly didn't know what to do. So, Curly didn't take action quick enough.

It's a human thing. It happens in real life, all the time, that people who have been victimized by narcissistic people will not be able to see the flaws in their abusers. That doesn't make the victim an evil person, or deserving of harm. In Curly's case, it's not karma for him to become disabled and be a victim of Jimmy's now physical abuse. It's moreso a cosmic irony. Curly, after standing back and doing nothing about Jimmy abusing Anya, has now been placed in a horrific situation where he is forced to keep quiet and is now unable to do something even if he wanted to, without deserving it. His own inaction might've brought this situation since he didn't realize that Jimmy was horrible enough to abuse Anya, much less attempt to crash the ship, but that doesn't make him deserve it. It just adds to the cosmic irony and, in my opinion, adds to the horror of his situation.

The people around him don't talk to him, they don't ask him questions, and so the only place he'd have to go is his head. Which is probably filled with thoughts about how he could've prevented it. How he could've prevented his accident, how he could've listened to Anya and done something, anything to punish Jimmy, how he could've prevented Anya's abuse or at least made it harder for Jimmy to get to her. How he should've seen Jimmy for who he truly was, wondering why he trusted Jimmy when Jimmy was verbally abusing him, wondering how he didn't see Jimmy for who he was. However, it's too late, and he can't do any of that now, he didn't see Jimmy for who he was until now, and he can't even communicate these thoughts to people around him.

Curly is on the front of the game and is basically the "mascot" of it, in some ways. And a part of it is most likely trying to follow the mascot horror trend, but I do think it's more than that. In many pieces of horror media, it's common for the villain or monster to either look visibly disabled or just downright be a disabled person. I don't necessarily believe many of the creators of this media are trying to be ableist in any way, and are most likely trying to go for either a creepy appearance within the uncanny valley or an interesting story. However, it is a trend and one that many disabled people have noticed and are disheartened by it.

I think Curly being the face of the game is actually a great reversal of that trend. Many people who don't know anything about this game might see him and go "Oh! That's the monster that will be chasing me down, trying to hurt me in this game!" Then they'll play it and be hit with the fact that it is quite the opposite. You are hurting him. You are the monster in this game, and while everyone on the Tulpar is a victim of you, Curly is the one that is one of, if not the most focus on his abuse alongside Anya. It's to the point you dehumanize him, treat him like an object, want him to be quiet more than anything else, and are deciding for him what is right for his health. And if you didn't know anything about this game heading in besides what Curly looks like, having somehow avoided spoilers, you'd probably have been expecting the opposite.

I genuinely think that Curly's situation in this game is the most fascinating part of this game. Maybe not the worst, since I don't like to compare victims of abuse (that is a shitty thing to do), but I find it the most interesting to think about in terms of the themes of this game. A lot of it revolves around big corporations sliding things under the rug, not caring about workers, abusing their workers... but, the Pony Express has also built a system ripe for ableism. The long hours working, the posters around the Tulpar saying things like "Don't Be Daft!" or the rise and shine one specifically saying to "earn your rest, don't overdo it or fall behind". Which, these posters have more to them that provide extra context (like workplace safety for the don't be daft one or the fact they tell you not to get over 5 hours of rest), but when looked into under the lens of disability they can mean more.

As for how the fandom treats Curly, I don't know what to think. I'm sure many people don't necessarily mean harm or mean to throw around ableist rhetoric, but it does happen a bit. Many people just don't know about many of the discriminatory talking points about disability, which I tend to find isn't talked about as much as other kinds of discrimination. That's why I try to be as open as I can be to the possibility that many of the people saying "Curly deserves it" or unintentionally treating Curly after the crash as less of a full blown character and more of a set piece as simply being person being unaware of the fact that such things are common among ableist groups. That, and for treating him as less of a character post-crash, I do think the game does that, but I think that's the point. You often see him through the eyes of Jimmy, who is dehumanizing him. So, I can understand people just not knowing what to do with Curly when you don't get to see him as the human being he still is after the crash. I think that might be part of why a lot of artwork I see if Curly is him pre-crash, before he was disabled.

Especially since, as far as I am aware, this is one of the first disabled characters from a horror game that has a big fan base and isn't a villain. I feel like fandom, due to it naturally being filled with a wide array of people, is naturally filled with a lot of people who would or wouldn't know how to handle a disabled character. The same goes for any other minority group! Fandom is filled with those who do and do not know how to handle them. I just think that because disability representation and ableism doesn't seem to be talked about as much by the mainstream media, there's just a bit of a higher number of well-meaning people who don't know what does and doesn't come across as harmful.

It definitely doesn't help how the Mouthwashing Fandom is filled with a bunch of unserious content that's meant to be jokes, which isn't inherently a bad thing. Plenty of horror fandoms are like that. It just gets a bit harder to find what is meant to be a joke, what is meant to be serious, and so sometimes I feel the unserious content might be getting taken more seriously than it's meant to be. Again, there's nothing wrong with a silly fan base for a dark game. I love that type of fandom, since it helps make the fan base seem more welcoming and allow people who might've been intimidated by the themes or content of the game feel more safe trying it out. It might just be starting to get to the point where some portions of the fan base might be taking fanon jokes a little too seriously, possibly making it harder to fully and freely analyze this game from all angles, including Curly's.

[pastel-kaleesh]

Here's Piccolo being an iconic aroace agender icon that could knock the socks off that edgelord Alastor

Oh, and he's one of the best written Dragon Ball characters ever

How could you not love this guy?

Ironic how a Shonen anime that debuted in the 80s could have been much progressive than the so called "progressive indie queer show" from 2024. Vivziepoop, this is called writing, design, and dedication. Has Toriyama ever acted like a whiny baby because of criticism? No. He actually fixed things and kept people coming for more. He didn't shape one, but several generations. Yes, Dragon Ball has its problems, but Toriyama and the team acknowledged them and fixed them. These are characters, not edgy high school OCs but animated. In my opinion, Piccolo could wipe off Alastor's edgy smile. And heck, Piccolo has much better (unintentional) Black coding than Alastor. Many people in the Black community have identified with Piccolo, unlike Alastor. I've seen more complaints from the Black community on Alastor than praise.

[eastasiansonwesternscreen]

2024 - A YEAR IN REVIEW

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[nwarrior777]

all i see with that "the substance" film are just images with real people features presented as bodyhorror and it pisses me off

the implication of the tittle itself, the meaning of the word - that, if human have body with features of some kind deformity - tittle itself says this body is not a body but a "horrific" and "scary" """ pile of mess """" and "" poor human is trapped in "" and supposed to want conventional body. hell, even the word substance is saying like, if you look like that, your body its not even a body but "substance". unbelievable.

yes i get it that film * is * about beauty industry and struggles about it blah blah blah oh wow, yeah mhm, but breaking news - showing that "overdoing" race for beauty standarts making you "ugly", or using " boo! ugly!" for scary spooky effect is bad choices then you trying to fight idea of ugly and beauty standards in your film ok

all i see on these HoorrIfiC oouUuuuU lOok aT thIis MeeeSs promos is just pictures of real people with burns and face differences i see every day on instagram. who are gorgeous and deserve much more variety of stories about them than "haha ugly lol lmao!" or "((( they ugly its so sad lets be sad about it"

fuck this narratives and this film.

even if this movie somehow has some interesting things in (didn't and will not watch) - if all movie promos looks offensive why should anyone go and check if it really is. i wouldn't take a bite from cake, even tell me its super delicious inside, if it is decorated with shit

[gemsofgreece]

People are saying why are racists commenting on the live action of How to train your dragon because they race swapped a female lead.

It's always the same comments "it's a fantasy movie, chill" "stop hating on the characters". Well dear Karen i wouldn't mind if Disney wasn't so obviously greedy. They defend a corporation αν είναι δυνατόν-

The movies are supposed to be about Vikings myths so of course all the characters in the original animation looked like Vikings. They think people are hating on the actors? No the studios are the problem 😭

Same with the Witcher on Netflix. In which the series was based on a POLISH BOOK. And guess what? Zero Polands and the material was ruined to make it the next Game of thrones.

Some things like dragons and monsters existed and meant something to these cultures, but of course they always think progress is more skin colour than cultural heritage.

I don’t know what other ways I can come up to explain to them that I and all who agree would 100000 times over watch a show taking place in Africa with African characters about African heritage than one about a race bent Viking in which Nordic culture becomes like a pop culture pie anyone can take a piece from because ✨visibility✨🤡

Visibility is showing the heritage of those who are neglected and showing heritage accurately.

(Also you gotta love them calling everyone racist when they are almost certainly the ones who spend the most time thinking about skin colour globally. Fellows do I have news for you )

Another thing, many of these projects that based on the plot would need white / white-passing actors inexplicably race bend one character and the rest remain accurate. What does this tell you? That creators only do this to be “approved” and play the “look I got the diversity too!” card and not because this is the way they envision their work. Otherwise, they would have a cast where everyone is diverse, people from all the parts of the world, and not 20 north European looking actors and one inexplicable African-American, for example.

It’s really so hypocritical, I can’t believe people eat it up…

[summerongrand]

Just gonna take a moment to shoutout the WOC lead of The Rookie, Melissa O’Neil, for breaking barriers and being who she is. 👏🫶

This hasn't received much attention, but it’s worth noting that Melissa took the initiative to share about The Rookie’s NAMIC nomination and shed light on the significance of the NAMIC Vision Awards through a detailed IG story. This underscores her commitment to promoting ethnic diversity in media and ensuring that it receives the recognition it deserves! Way to go, Mel!

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

just thought you should know "the dragon prince" (netflix fantasy children's show) is having a character with vitiligo in their upcoming season! his name is Kosmo and he belongs to a group of sky elves devoted to star magic - we don't know too much about him but the season's coming out in two weeks; I think he'll end up being an ally to the heroes ultimately even if the rest of his group could be more antagonistic. multiple characters wear the blindfold / the white eyes is when happens when ppl actively use star magic in series, so neither are exclusive to him, which i thought was good

I LOVE THE DRAGON PRINCE OH MY GOD IM SO EXCITED!!!! RAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!