#roma and jewish rep

[clericxhood777]

Like mother like son

[magexcharming]

Okay so a little rant;

If you get criticism, that's not just targeted at you but the company that hired you, your response shouldn't be "Oh you're just jealous I'm in the show and you're not". That's hella ignorant. Especially when the criticism is about Marvel no being able to cast Jews. This is a authentic issue, because Jewish fans have the right to want representation. You should take that into consideration and maybe not call it internalized homophobia.

I'm a half-Roma woman, and I've been begging Marvel to cast the right actors. Saying that I'm homophobic, while I'm a lesbian, because I want rep, is very fucking ignorant.

[flashfuture]

Like I absolutely 100% understand being upset Dr Doom isn't being portrayed by a Romani actor. Especially RDJ who has time and time again played racist caricatures. I understand Roma finding rep in any character and I can't argue even if I personally dislike the way it's done because we have so so few. I don't even mind and in fact often enjoy gadze liking these characters and exploring their heritage.

But I am so uncomfortable seeing everywhere gadze defending devil worshipping gypsies in a fake eastern european country as the pinnacle of our history and culture. especially when that demonic side of magic involving human sacrifice which no one in my family would have ever dared touch hence the negative reaction to Doom's mother but he goes on about being like her? Anyways devil worship is literally something they made up to exile us (my bubba was in her youth kicked out of church when it was exposed the family was servika) and Marvel said it's real and hot naked ladies do it.

Then they went on to say Doom is a charlatan and ripping people off with his fake magic and crafts. A job so many of my family was stuck with even upon coming to America which reinforces that we're all thieves and won't work a real job.

Not to say those particular aspects can't be done well for example Peaky Blinders while my family is not Romanichal so I can't claim accuracy on any of it we see a lot of similarities in our older family stories. From the lack of birth certificates to the isolation in the slums making crime the only option to the mystical to the people who chose to remain isolated from society.

But I digress. Doom's take over of Latveria was just like what if he was Moses who strangled people to death. They just took a Jewish story and plopped it into the lap of a Romani man and said good enough. And concluded throughout the history of comics that like his devil worshipping mother Doom was born to be evil.

But all that aside a story that's like if only the oppressed class would rise up and kill all of their oppressors is Never something Marvel would commit to. They only did it with Doom as he has villain deniability that they agree with his actions. And that's the last thing I want on the big screen in the era with their weird fucked up idea of a hero being Israeli murderer (oxymoron) turned American pig? played by Israeli scum

Idk just ramblings of course feel how ever you want to feel. It's literally a fictional character being put in a movie not that big a concern I just wanted to get these thoughts out. Many different diaspora many different people etc etc

[strangestcase]

Since you brought it up yesterday, Wanda and Pietro being Jewish depends on whether on not their dad is or isn't Magneto in any given run which is pretty messed up. If the writers wanted to be cowards and have their representation they could have made the dad canonically Jewish anyway but no.....

However they are always Roma/Romani no matter who their mother is (besides the MCU) but the early rep uses a literal slur and is filled lots of racism and colorism. Yeah.....

even when Chris Claremont wrote them and he's the one who wrote a bunch of roma characters like Megan Ponceau, or characters raised by Sinti roma like Nightcrawler and he wrote the 'Magneto is Wanda and Pietro's father' reveal/retcon while made the twins ethnically Jewish in the first place

it's never been done right until recently but at least the MCU is the only one guilty of gadjo washing and white washing Wanda

This has been another edition of Germaine rants to Doc about shitty and bigoted Marvel writing.

FR every time you enter my inbox I’m like Oh Boy what sort of ridiculous bigotry has Marvel Comics done now

[daisybellejpeg]

Yeah pretty much the only thing I can really say I fumbled the bag on was making an admittedly edgy joke because I was shocked at how myopic the op was being (I’m myopic, I can say myopic, right? Maybe?). Cant relate to having DID, but I can relate adjacently to having to face potential triggers on a day to day due to both my PTSD and my AuDHD. Like, the example I used when talking to a pal about this was crying babies.

Like, screaming beans is one of the few noises that will straight up send me into a meltdown, right? But it’s also pretty common. If I’m at a restaurant and the parents are being neglectful and letting the baby cry I’ll notify staff, but if it’s somewhere like a nursing room in the bathroom? I’ll use the men’s room, piss as fast as humanly possible, or wait for the parent to leave. If it’s at work? I’ll run to put on my ear plugs or take a bathroom break to calm down a bit. It’s common for therapists to recommend removing yourself from a situation that causes distress if no reasonable accommodations are possible. The world doesn’t revolve around me or anyone else with mental health conditions. Op came off as kind of entitled in my opinion so i made a joke at their expense in response, which wasn’t exactly the best course of action. I’ll admit that.

Rest of the callout is bad faith and generally dogshit as hell tho lmao. Will give them credit for correcting pronouns after I poked fun at them misgendering me on Twitter, but the rest? Yeesh. If I wanted to be just as bad faith I’d ask why bro hates the idea of a white man being replaced by someone who’s not only indigenous Mexican, but also half roma (I’m as of now hoping to make him half Meztizo Tarahumaran half Chicano). Bright only made their self insert Jewish as an afterthought because they thought the religion was cool and put little to no research otherwise. Not only that, but we’re talking about the same moron who would blow a gasket at any mention of headcanoning bright as autistic. There goes your supposed ND rep.

Not only that, Shaw is an only child. The rest of the brights are getting their own rewrites. I’m working with Nessa on 590 and 321, both whos races are undecided as of now. Adam’s sub in, Agent Khaleel Odeh-Mansour is a Palestinian immigrant and was raised Muslim as far as he remembers. He’s also a double amputee with cybernetics to replace his arms, lungs, and one of his eyes. Mikkel’s sub in, Agent Ansgar Leonhardt, is half Slavic and is canonically autistic, as is his twin sibling, Reuben. Claire’s rewrite, Usagi Kato, is Japanese and also canonically autistic.

Writing for people of all walks of life is a labor of love for me. Researching different ethnic groups and cultures is actually one of my hyperfixations. Dude really picked the wrong autistic person to cry erasure too. I’ve extended an olive branch to this person to talk about their gripes with me on Twitter, so we’ll see what results from that. I’ll also be more than happy to loredump about the like 7 ethnically Jewish ocs I have to them, I promise none of them mistake their Sheitels for Hijabs either.

Ok so this post was meant to be for a specific bright fan (so im not trying to call out all bright fans or all bright fictives/systems) , but since they have me blocked me since its upload and since they have made it clear that they don't actually care about the victims of bright, I'm making this post anyway.

So, one bright fan on here has decided to make a callout post not only villainizing DJKaktus, but also @daisybellejpeg, you know just the person that is helping make shaw who is a VICTIM OF ADMINBRIGHT S*XUAL AB*SE AND HAS BEEN TRUAMATIZED BY HIS CREATIONS. They claim that Daisybelle is anti-DID/systems and also trying commit Jewish eraser. So since I am very pissed off at the moment, I'm just wanted clear up stuff about that this and leave a little note to people like this fan (also sorry daisy if I put any words in your mouth or act "white knightly", I just feel some else saying something show that their isn't personal bias) :

So for starters, DAISYBELLE IS NOT ANTI-DID/SYSTEMS. They have mentioned multiple times that they acknowledge that they bright systems/fictives are a special situation.

Plus, Daisy in general is always going to be slightly antagonistic towards bright, them being a direct victim of Adminbright, but so far Daisy (imo) has done a good job being clam about handling people who still hold on to bright (at least better than I have). The only thing they have stated that will not tolerate is people giving shit to them about how they create shaw, as its become a healing tool for them.

Now the Bright fan that made that post had decided to include two screenshots "proving" that Daisy is anti-DID/system and a Jewish yet completely left out context points.

For the first one, they completely left out the beginning part of conversations and completely doesn't point how the person daisy is responding to has no idea what they are talking about and the fact that person ten starts to act in a sort a jerkish explaining after daisy saying the initial description.

This, to me, feels very patronizing thing to say especially, and so no surprise Daisy proceeds to go off on them about being patronized. For some reason, though, bright fan tried to twist this into daisy erasing the Jewish rep. This, however, is not only not what they said, as all Daisy said was "you deadass don’t know this since we haven’t even decided on a race", (although I should mention daisy is pushing for shaw to be Mexican American), but even if Shaw isn't Jewish, its probably because they don't want any more connections to bright outside of the number, not because they want erase Jewish people.

As for the second screenshots, while I will admit that daisy was a bit harsh to the user (as they were system stating people to stop using bright and they did make a joke about the way worded on twitter), Daisy, as mentioned before sees Shaw a healing device and people telling others to stop using it doesn't really do anything change. Plus Daisy ends up explaining their point of view in the comments.

Now their is technically one more set of screenshots that try to prove that Daisy does not understand how DID works, but as I mentioned in the beginning, they have said they aren't a expert on DID and that it is a complex situation. At most they have urged people they use the interfaces on sites block tags that causes problems.

That is about all for me laying out the facts, however one more note for the bright fan that made that callout post and for people like the bright fan: can you fucking not villainize the victims of the Duckman. Like, its one thing to go after Kaktus, but its whole another to go after a victim of Bright, one that has a entire fucking document showing the trauma they endured and still haven't fully healed from it, thus clearly having a continued negative stigmatism. Not only does this make you all look like complete dickheads completely inconsiderate about the victims of adminbright, but also paints of bright fans and system/fictives in a negative light along with you. You could of block the shaw tag. You could have used the interface to ignore all the people that cause your mental state problems. Hell, you could of found or make a character that served as a transition from bright, like Dr. Myriad. But instead you decided to attack a already hurt person and doubling down on usage of the character.

Also, P.S., if that origional poster isn't a fictive/system and was simply using other peoples mental disorders as a way to villainize Daisy, then they can go fuck themselves.

[spacejellyfish3]

fun fact: enjoying WandaVision and calling out its inherent racism are not mutually exclusive.

[spite-and-waffles]

alfred is british so my headcanon is that his food isnt actually all that great but all of wayne manor is white with 0 taste buds and damian’s introduction comes the introduction of spices and tim drake realises he has the shits after any dinner

SCREAM 🤣😭

Ngl I also kind of had the same thought sometimes? That whole house was white as hell until Damian arrived. I'm sure Alfred's great and all but white people can only learn to cook acceptably once exposed to cultures of colour IMO. My BFF in Boston sends me pics of her roommates spice cabinets with crying emojis and has taken to carrying an emergency spice kit for when she has to stay over somewhere.

Otoh Dick probably was exposed to a wider palate as a circus community*. Jason was definitely more accustomed to non-white foods as well bc working class neighborhoods in melting pot city. I'm guessing they would have taught Alfred to make stuff they wanted to eat. But Tim definitely would not have been able to handle even glancing at the Scoville scale lmaooo. That's why he won't stay for dinner at the Manor anymore – everyone thinks he's being petty and ungracious about Damian but he's actually terrified of him finding out he can't tolerate his food. XD

Bruce wouldn't have been much better, except he probably practiced eating chilli when he went on his grand Oriental Rambo tour before becoming Batman. As a pre-emptive measure against being tortured with jalapenos or something. Only reason I can think of why he's the only one immune to Oliver's chilli.

Well, not the only reason.

*Dick is Roma the same way Selina is Latina and Tim and Bruce are Jewish – DC fucked up and then forgot about it. That's not canon rep.

[softness-and-shattering]

Okay its taken me a day to realise.

The movie has way more PoC characters (characters of colour?) than the original movie. In fact I think of named characters, only Cady, Regina, Mrs Norberry, Regina's mom and Cady's mother are white. And Aaron Samuels. I dont know about Shane Omen because he has all of four seconds on screen.

Its also a much more queer movie, with Janis allowed to expressly be a lesbian and have a girlfriend, Damian has a crush, and there are background queer couples.

As I noted in my review above, no disabled rep and only one fat person. And. Gretchen is no longer Jewish. Her one line about getting white-gold hoops for Hanukkah that Regina disapproved is has been swapped for a music box from her abuelita. (Is that the same as abeula?).

And that just pisses me off. She was already very sub-par as Jewish representation, I dont know if one Hannukah mention is better or worse than one line about not celebrating Xmas or being a bad Jew for eating bacon, as this kind of one-line rep goes. But at least it was there, and then its been erased.

(The musical has a weird line in her introduction about, iirc, being seated at Reginas right hand "like a Jewish princess Jesus", whatever that means. Pretty bullshit but still something.)

And yknow what, she could be ?hispanic and also Jewish, thats even rarer as representation goes.

And it just brings to mind the MCU not only wiping Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch's Jewish and Roma identities, but putting Witch in a cross necklace.

And it reminds me of A League Of Their Own which despite other really excellent rep, and despite having Jews working on it at multiple levels, has a sole Jewish character who is not only stereotypically neurotic and annoying, but is also homophobic and a minor antagonist.

Its like we've gotten so used to being self-deprecating to seek acceptance that we've forgotten that we deserve more than that? And not to victim blame because others are absolutely making these decisions.

Whiteness and Judaism is a complex discussion, but like, ok write stories about and cast Jews of colour. It would be very US-binary thinking about race and ethnicity, and Id still be annoyed about that, but it would be a massive step up from where we are now. Hello can we get decent Jewish representation in mainstream movies?? And at least not lose what little rep currently exists?

About the Mean Girls musical movie

I know Ive had conversations before about the cultural context stuff, that it seems like the message was not as effective as the first movie when the stuff its talking about, how girls are wrong whatever they do and everything is up for criticism and filming, and you have to pretend to be sweet and kind fairy princesses instead of being allowed to be human. And Id have to go back and find those posts to see what I do and dont agree with now. Because I just saw the movie. And honestly, I liked it. A lot of the visuals were really fun and interesting, which I think is impressive in a movie that mostly takes place inside of a high school. Regina more than once looks like she's in a music video, and that works because shes so hyped, its like she lives in a reality where not only do people break into song, but she's always in a music video. She really sells the character, self-assured and in charge and perfectly manipulative, and even when she's being vulnerable you're like, but is this another deception? She's more villainous in this version, and by the end maybe more human as well. (also the costuming is phenomenal, that Halloween angel dress?? The entire Halloween Someone Get Hurts sequence might be my favourite. )

Also Renee Rapp, who plays Regina, is just incredibly hot. She also played Regina on Broadway so it makes sense she has the character down. Thats not film critique thats my personal admiration. Its almost a little silly with the "oh no Regina is gaining weight she cant fit her clothes" because she looks amazing. [Edit: She's also obviously - I was gonna say she seems older than the other "teens" but actually she's 24, so Im having a moment of feeling old. And she's actually the same age as Auli'i Cravalho who is a lot younger in my mind because holy shit Moana came out EIGHT years ago?? Angourie Rice/Cady is 23, Jaquel Spivy/Damian is 26, Avantika/Karen is 19, thats more the age I thought they were but not the cast seems to be mostly 23-26. Its so weird when times moves the same for people while your image of them in your head stays the same. So Rapp isn't older she's just a bit bigger (neutral/positive). And she's been playing the role for a long time. And Im allowed to find her hot because she's a goddamn adult and so am I. This paragraph is not critique it is me blogging on my blog. Now Im annoyed at myself for Caveats of Fear but Im gonna stop dwelling on that now.]

On that note, though I originally liked the musical quite a lot, the significant fatphobia in it soured it for me. And Im happy to say in the musical movie, they changed or omitted those lines. I was waiting to cringe and they just sang something else. So that was great. I think the only fat character was Damian (why does that suddenly look like a vampire name?) - Jaquel Spivy - and he seemed comfy and cool, no self deprecating fat jokes or anything. Generally the lines/jokes that were uncomfortable or a bit bigoted have been changed. Though there isnt any disability rep, and theres a random character the burn book claims puts alcohol in her inhaler, like a 3 second joke.

And the big thing is that a lot of the meanness is shown in montages of vertical video and comments - no-brand tiktok obviously - and I think thats pretty realistic, and also in the original theme of not being mean to peoples faces but talking all kinds of shit behind their backs. And I think the montage format is effective in mimicking that endless scroll eyes glazing over stuck in the doom scroll/stuck in the spectacle. The music was good. I really liked how they overlaid the Spring Fling/thematic music with the math competition. If anything, Cady is not as good of a character, her Plastic switch is basically overnight, the scene with Aaron at the party is still kinda of awkward, she doesnt get as much room to breathe, while almost everyone else comes off really well. Heck even the candy cane/glen coco guy did well, I was actually suprised at how differently and yet excellently the actors acted their lines, compared both to the previous movie and the musical. Auli'i is fantastic, scary Janis is *scary*. And I simultaneously want to be her best friend. (It certainly helps that her art is augmented with embroidery and she's carrying embroidery hoops in multiple scenes. Fiber arts my loves.)

When I first saw a trailer my thoughts were "ugh we dont need another movie of this," but I think Ive changed my mind. Its similar enough and different enough that for me its a good adaptation. Also - I almost forgot to say - Janis gets a girlfriend for Spring Fling. Its not a plot point, we're just montaging getting ready and Janis goes to pick her up (in the lavender suit), and Damian is taking photos with two other sapphic couples. And he gets a crush/admirer who again, is just there to be there and doesnt interfere with the main story. I might change my mind again once its had time to settle in my thoughts, but initial impression is that its a fun movie I would watch again. Maybe we want the social commentary to be more incisive than it is, and in the end it is entertainment that needs to not be too boring to hold peoples shortening attention spans. (also neutral). Maybe thats wishing for it to be a movie that its not trying to be, and thats always a recipe for disappointment and also not great or fair analysis. What a fantastic line to end on*.

[dragynkeep]

antisemitism faq in regards to rooster teeth / rwby / camp camp bc i’m tired of arguing with goy in all these fandoms who argue with jewish people to defend their fave white men.

“but dolph is a joke about hitler!”

no, dolph is a mini hitler. the joke is actually on the jewish character in the episode, the methods that the nazis used to oppress & murder jewish people & dolph is “rewarded” by the end of the episode. fans in the comments of both episodes also laugh about how “funny” the nazi regime was & how rt nailed all the “references” towards it.

idk what’s funny about jewish genocide but, go off.

“but the director for camp camp is jewish!”

just because he’s jewish doesn’t mean he’s not actively contributing to the “jokes” that further antisemitism in the company. also, the two men who actually wrote the episodes  —�� miles luna & kerry shawcross  —  are both white goy.

“but neil points out how inappropriate it is!”

doesn’t change the overall theme of both episodes is yet again mocking the methods that the nazis used while implementing their final solution; methods people who are alive today barely escaped from with their lives.

“coco is based on the designer aspect of coco chanel, not the nazi!”

you cannot separate coco chanel into a fashion designer & a nazi anymore than you can separate hitler into an animal rights activist & a nazi. furthermore, the fashion company she had that made her empire was built on the back off & stolen from a jewish man. coco chanel was a violent antisemite who’s actions contributed to the deaths of jewish people, roma, disabled people, queer people & so many more.

“but maybe miles & kerry / rt didn’t know!”

by the time coco adel was introduced into rwby in 2014; the news that coco chanel was a nazi informant, whore & spy for them had long been public knowledge & was in fact resurfacing in the news at the time due to the exposure of her deal with winston churchill.

also; mk have prided themselves on sneaking in all the “references” to the nazi regime in camp camp, alongside not being above referencing other awful monsters like mao zedong in their character may zedong. do not believe them that it is a “mistake” or “coincidence” when they clearly have no issue with this form of prejudice.

& if they hadn’t known, the fact that it’s been brought up in the fandom & that ignorance is not an excuse for bigotry; the fact that coco has not only remained in the show but was given a starring role in the book & her sexuality used as a marketing hook shows that potential profit & queer rep, in both the eyes of the creators & fndm, far outweighs any antisemitism. which is just incredibly horrific but not disappointing for the rwby fndm.

[the-real-peter-parker]

Thoughts on MCU Peter Criticisms (& Miles Morales Comparisons)

Edit: if you are white, TAKE CAUTION INTERACTING WITH THIS POST OR ASKING QUESTIONS. This is evidence compiled by and discussed with different groups of POC, including Afro-Latines, some of whom live or have lived in NYC for a short period of time. No one involved in writing this post was white.

Before we start, the MCU as a whole is almost nothing like the comics. It has essentially become its own multiverse, and not many character traits carry over to the characters themselves. Wanda is no longer Roma and Jewish, Clint is nothing like himself in the comics and isn’t HOH, they did fuck all to Steve’s character, etc. MCU Peter is NOT comics Peter, but he has been more accurate where other adaptations may have fallen short. That said, he has fallen short where other adaptations may have done better.

While you compare MCU Peter to Miles, don’t forget that they are still different people at their core. MCU Peter maintains the “with great power comes great responsibility” mindset, but as a teenager he is going to make mistakes. I heavily emphasise that he is a teenager because he is so frequently compared to his actions and thoughts as an adult in the comics and not as the teen he actually is in the MCU.

For Peter as a teenager, he acts like a teenager should (hence, how Miles, a teenager, should). It’s teenage Peter learning what it means to be a hero. He helps the little person but isn’t satisfied, but as he fights the bigger fights and the Sinister Six, he starts to get more tired with time. It pushes him to become who he is as an adult. He doesn’t yet understand why he does what he does except that he feels it’s his responsibility because no one else has his abilities. MCU Peter has this wide-eyed curiosity about the world around him, and science and science fiction fascinate him the same way teenage comics Peter saw the world. This isn’t adult or college Peter. It’s high school Peter struggling with a new identity and powers he still isn’t accustomed to.

I will be addressing hopefully everything that comes from this post. This essay was not written with this post in mind, so I might end up leaving some things out.

Miles Morales as a Character

This is short but it’s necessary. Miles Morales was hated when he was first introduced. People shit on his character, saying that Marvel was forcing diversity, and giving him extra shit because he was a POC. “He doesn’t fit the Spider-Man character.” “He’s not marketable enough.” “The story isn’t well written.” White people will literally never understand what it’s like for POC to find representation for themselves and loved ones in media. When all these Black and Latine people living in Spanish Harlem see someone as a superhero that looks just like them and their friends, they’re going to root for him no matter what his story is like. Other people couldn’t understand what it’d be like for an Afro-Latino with a cop for a father and how it’d affect his storyline.

People love to rep Miles now. Where were you when he first came out in the comics and was getting shit on? Where were you when the masterpiece ITSV came out and suddenly he was the coolest character around? Where were you when you found out that MCU Peter had elements of Miles’ story and decided then that it was whitewashing? And why weren’t you there when Miles was at first a symbol of pride and not a victim of racism?

If the current live action MCU Spider-Man was Miles, I guarantee that everyone would be shitting on him for fucking up his character. It would be worse for him simply on the basis that he is Afro-Latino. 

I say this in the most offensive way possible. Go fuck yourselves. Because if you were there at the start and you let this happen, you’re part of the problem. I don’t want to hear about your privileged guilt either.

What MCU Peter Did and Didn’t Steal from Miles

Everyone agrees that Ned is extremely similar to Miles’ best friend, Ganke. He’s tech-savvy and has a similar appearance and personality. (Yes, this was shit of them.) Miles goes to a charter school. This is not something that they stole from Miles because Peter does not go to a charter school. (I talk about this in a bit.) In case you don’t know what a charter school is or don’t want to look it up, it’s basically a public school but with their own rules that have to be approved first. Charter schools are not full of gifted students but their funding differs from a typical public school.

Unlike most universes where Peter is Spider-Man, he has someone who isn’t his Uncle Ben to follow and learn from. Though his mentor isn’t Uncle Ben in the MCU, Tony Stark is someone that many students seem to look up to. The Avengers, to most, are heroes and have saved the world countless times. It makes sense that anyone would think the Avengers are cool in their universe, even if they are war criminals. The people in NYC specifically have witnessed the Avengers save people with their own eyes. At that point, who wouldn’t think that they’re cool? 

Peter’s character here goes to a STEM high school where everyone is a nerd. His interest in science and technology is what makes him interested in the suit that Tony provides. As he learns to use the suit, he continues to be amazed by the things his webs can do.

In the words of @nedimwatchingpornleeds: They are taking part of the story but people seem to forget that Miles isn't just a teenager that got powers. Being an afro-latino with a cop as a father gave him a very distinct outlook on life and how law enforcement should behave. He has been personally affected by this and thus strives to change his neighbourhood through not only helping the little guy but by taking on things that may be out of the scope of his current training. He is eager to prove that he isn't weak because half the world sees him as an underprivileged kid from the hood, and he wants to prove he can be because half the world sees black people as a criminal.

Films in Comparison

This could be its own essay, but I promised myself I wouldn’t do another one of these until this school semester is over. Probably shouldn’t write it anyway lmao

This is not a section to compare the actors’ portrayals of the character, because they are all different characters and we don’t compare how actors do their jobs. We’re looking at what aspects were done better/closer to the comics than others in other film adaptations, but to keep this short we are focusing on MCU Peter.

None of the films have very good quips. Tobey’s rarely said anything, Andrew’s was cocky, and Tom’s pretty much just says random shit. However, in this case, Tom’s may just have the best quips. They could do better with this, but I do honestly believe he has the best in comparison to the others. He has complimented people in the comics while they attack him (Moon Knight’s crescent darts) and he does the same in Homecoming when he finds the bank robbers with alien technology. He says similar things on the Staten Island Ferry. His references are definitely not so comic accurate, but one of Spider-Man’s "abilities” is not shutting the fuck up. MCU Peter does exactly that and will not shut up during his fights, even if he’s talking to himself about Star Wars.

MCU Peter is also arguably the smartest Spider-Man thus far. Tobey’s Peter has some understanding of the STEM field from his in-depth conversation with Doc Ock, for example. Andrew’s is able to help Curt Connors figure out how to regrow limbs. Tom’s uses his intelligence in the most inventive ways, in addition to knowing his shit. He breaks out of a government storage facility using just his graphing calculator in Homecoming. The webs he makes are entirely his own work (with stuff he uses from chemistry class) and he makes his own web shooters (likely materials from the woodworking class). He uses the Stark Tech to make his own suit, which is probably a really difficult thing to do.

None of the films mention Peter being a Jewish American, though this is rarely ever mentioned in the comics too. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is likely the only film adaptation that showed Peter having a Jewish wedding.

Other Concerns About His Character

“Peter is infantilised.” We’re starting with this one because I hate this so much and I don’t want to end with this topic. Peter is treated like a literal baby because he’s young, but here’s the thing. He’s young and naïve, but that doesn’t make him stupid. ESPECIALLY when people headcanon Peter as trans. Some people infantilise him like they do other trans people, and treat him as someone who needs to be taken care of. There is a larger issue with people treating transmen as “uwu soft bois” because they still see transmen as the “softer” and “emotional” part of themselves: women through gender roles. Unfortunately this is another conversation. This is only one of the reasons people ship st*rker, the ship between Tony and Peter. They fetishise this ship and it’s the only reason they ship it, but, again, that’s a different conversation.

“Flash is not a bully.” He definitely is, and I have a very, very long explanation as to why, along with personal experience to back it up. Luckily for all of us, I don’t need to put the whole thing. (If you’d like me to expand on this separately, I will.) The main point is that he is a bully with words. And if you truly believe that a white jock is the only kind of bully there is, you’d be incredibly wrong. Flash in the comics and in many adaptations in film/TV has been a white jock who overpowers people physically. Peter has always stood in the way of him bullying someone else on purpose because he’s a self-sacrificing dumbass who’d rather he get bullied than anyone else who couldn’t take it. It works the same way with words because he knows he can handle it. If he says nothing, Flash won’t pick on anyone else. 

“He can’t go to a STEM school full of smart kids without paying money.”  This is a funny (but slightly infuriating) one because you could easily google “nyc gifted high schools” or “nyc specialised high schools” to find a list. NYC has eight public specialised high schools, some of which have reputations for their STEM programs. The only requirements to enter are a high enough score on the SHSAT and good enough grades. They are completely free and are public, but with good enough funding for the school (Flash’s rich parents donating to the PTA/school) Peter could realistically have the means to make his webs and web shooters. Something Tom Holland did as an actor was say that he wanted to go to a real American high school to get the feel of it. They sent him to Bronx Science, which was one of the eight. Again, a quick google search and this would not be a complaint. They steal nothing from Miles here. We could also argue that the specialised high schools aren’t, in fact, full of gifted students just like a charter school either because there are always going to be people who lag behind their peers, but this is still not something that is technically stolen from Miles.

“He needs to stay in NYC.”  This is true. His webs don’t work in an open area like the airport in Civil War. Why did they make him travel around Europe in FFH? For what reason? Absolutely none, put him back in his city

“There isn’t enough of a relationship with Aunt May.”  They put very few scenes with her. She definitely should have more of a relationship with him, but from what we do see, she clearly loves him and worries about him as much as any mother (figure) would. Aunt May has always been a support for Peter, whether she knows about him being Spider-Man or not. It’d still be real nice if they included more of her.

”Uncle Ben isn’t included and he’s an integral part of Peter’s character.” It’s most likely that Marvel didn’t want to do the origin story again and just implied that it already happened. They could definitely mention him at least once but they don’t. Uncle Ben’s death is the driving factor of Peter’s vigilante activities. Even if it isn’t the same in the MCU, he still keeps the same words in his heart. Rather than saying the motto as it’s always been, he puts it in different words in CA:CW. “ When you can do the things that I can, but you don't, and then the bad things happen? They happen because of you.” It’s a different way of saying “with great power comes great responsibility,” but it’s a more clear way of Peter saying that he literally blames everything on himself. If he doesn’t fight the aliens, it’s his fault when people die. If he doesn’t stop Toomes from stealing tech, it’s his fault when criminals are able to gain access to weapons of destruction that will hurt the people in his community (Delmar). If he doesn’t fight Mysterio, people in Europe die and he’s at fault because he was right there and did nothing.

“He’s not poor.”  MCU Peter isn’t close to rich. He’s not even anywhere in the middle class. He moves in Far From Home because other people moved into their original apartment. If you haven’t seen it, Aunt May and Spider-Man are seen in the beginning holding an event to raise money for those in need of homes because they lost them due to the Blip. (Horrible name, but I didn’t name it.) Owning a high tech suit doesn’t fix his problems, nor does it mean he isn’t struggling. Being poor in NYC does not have to mean that you live in the projects. Y’all act like poor people have never stepped foot in a rich area in their lives. People can be poor and own gaming consoles, really nice cars, and own more than sufficient technology. In fact, the area where they film some of Homecoming is in the projects in Brooklyn. Right outside his window you can see buildings that are from the exact same projects. Just because the apartment looks nice and paint isn’t peeling off the walls, it doesn’t mean he’s not poor. People in the projects are poor, not slobs. 

There’s also the argument that they aren’t struggling with money. if we’re watching the films from Peter’s perspective, we’ll see things how he sees them. He’s an optimist, so everything seems perfectly fine as someone who sees the world that way. He never loses hope that things might work out, so it’s possible that any financial aspect regarding his living space may not seem like a huge issue to him. For most poor people, they are able to pay for their living space. It’s the first priority and sometimes a worry, but once that’s out of the way, the real problems are everything else. 

Conclusion

MCU Peter doesn’t actually steal as much from Miles as people claim. Ganke is definitely a stolen part of Miles’ story. While he does take the mentor/father figure aspect that he normally doesn’t in the comics, it’s not like he’s never had a mentor/father figure in the comics. The fact that he’s young explains a good portion of why he acts the way he does and why he likes the things he likes. It could be said that this is something that he takes from Miles because comics Peter is usually older, but there have been younger versions of Peter over the years (Spectacular Spider-Man) and those work out just fine. His age is not a good criticism of his character, but you don’t have to like it.

That being said, you are allowed to enjoy the character while being aware that the MCU is stealing things from Miles and giving them to MCU Peter. You are also allowed to dislike MCU Peter for the same reasons while being aware that the general public would hate an MCU Miles on the basis of being an Afro-Latino. If the rumours about the MCU doing a Spider-verse are true, it would unfortunately be another thing that the MCU takes from Miles. No matter how well they manage to execute it and how much you enjoy it, do not forgive these assholes for it.

I think we can all agree that ITSV is a masterpiece as both a film and as a work of art. 

In all universes, Marvel and irl people please give Peter Parker a fucking break

Credit: @viokio @sanarastone For all the help on writing and dealing with reminders to look at it almost every day for the last week: @nedimwatchingpornleeds And thanks to everyone else who helped proofread

[genesisrhapsodyoffire]

My adopted family is jewish; my father is also of Roma descent. My husband is Jewish. This is an affront to all of us that she is doing this and that the XMCU and the MCU erases our stories for a more sanitized and less ethnic and accurate story of characters that were created by Jewish men to tell a story about children of a Jewish Holocaust survivor who had children with a Roma woman. The creators of these characters were adults, by the way, in an era when people of this ethnicity were being rounded up and killed in camps, and the XMen came about not long after that time, so the stories of Magneto and his lover and their children were ones they told that rang all too true to Jewish, Roma, and other minority readers who were coming out of that era and were either of that time or children of the people of that time. The MCU would like people to forget that they white wash and try to erase identities. Marvel is awful at how it treats non white, non straight, non cis, non christian, and non "fits in a neat little cute american politically moldable bubble" characters. We saw it with its cancellation with X Factor, its super popular queer focused comic by a queer writer which had multiple poc queer characters. And now we have seen it both now and earlier this year with it repeatedly showcasing Wanda and sensationalizing a culture that is not theirs to do so with.

Donate to Roma foundations and charities and gofundmes.

Donate to Jews in need.

Donate to the people who are suffering and are forgotten still whose stories are seemingly never told in a good way

I currently lack the spoons to look up charities rn, and there are so many to pick from, but I know a lot of them are easily accessible, and honestly even doing individual gofundmes of people can help but I just wanted this out there because I'm tired of seeing people praise this show and give it unearned accolades while it steps on those who wrote the original characters as champions of diversity and to be standards for race relations and such (you know, because x men were originally art as advocacy in the 1960s and now they're queer rep in a lot of ways altho there's still work to be done)

[softness-and-shattering]

"It makes me feel bad" and "it erases my identity" are two very different things.

Identity erasure looks like "we surveyed 198 men and 203 women about how gender affects their careers in this far-reaching and conclusive survey".

Identity erasure looks like "boys line up here and girls there. Yes you must pick one. No thats the wrong line, move. Hurry up."

Identity erasure looks like deadnaming and misgendering.

Identity erasure looks like "only women get periods and get pregnant, you don't get an opinion."

Erasure also might look like "this character who has always been Roma and Jewish in the comics will now be white and christian on the big screen."

Headcanons are not erasure because they don't change canon. They don't remove or change anything. They're additions and modifications to what already exists that you can take on or ignore, appreciate or despise, which do not effect the canonical work.

I understand that it might make you feel hurt that a character you strongly identify with is being headcanoned with a different identity.

But you have the ability to say to yourself "no I dont like that headcanon," and forget that it exists, and go on your way. You can even privately go to your friends and say "can you believe this headcanon? Its ridiculous and it makes me so angry!" and express your emotions about it privately. You can say "I hate when people headcanon nonbinary characters as binary!". You can say whatever you goddamn please in private to your friends.

Its NOT appropriate to publically complain or complain to the person who has the headcanon, or to accuse other fans of 'taking away rep' or 'erasing an identity' for a headcanon that definitionally has the power to do absolutely neither.

Its not appropriate to police other's fandom involvement. Its not appropriate to tell people their headcanons are wrong or bad or hurtful or not allowed.

If you don't like an aspect of fandom, any aspect of any fandom, you ignore it. You don't participate. You don't search it out. You cannot and should not try to stop it existing, the sooner you accept that the better. Its fruitless to argue about.

Go take a screen break, get something to eat, do something relaxing, go manage your emotions until you no longer feel hurt and you no longer want to yell at people. Thats what you do when something hurts you. You cant yell at the world until it stops.

Sometimes you can do something to change injustjce but this is not that situation, and either way it is healthy and encouraged to manage you emotions regardless of what action you do or don't take.

Yelling at strangers about their headcanons is just not it.

Hey yeah!!! Fuck u if u hc Crowley as a trans man!!! He is literally confirmed to not be!!! Stop taking away non-binary rep from us!!!

[brw]

because making her half black also takes away a fair amount of her being romani and others will just portray her as being black, and for the other blogs who’ve done that, are also in the wrong. roma barely get any rep, literally less than any other minority, so sometimes you just need to leave a character as they are and wanda is romani.

I really don't think making her mixed black would "take away" from her romani identity any more than her being Jewish "takes away" from her romani identity. She's a very multifaceted character, and I don't think me making her more dark skinned than perhaps other people do takes away or erases any other part of her identity. Additionally, and I don't mean to sound condescending or whatever, but it's not just black people who can be very dark skinned? And again, my intention was not to take away from her being Romani, hell I wasn't even trying portray her as black, just as a very dark skinned person. But even if I was, I mean, I can't imagine that there's an overabundance of black romani representation? Anyway, I'm sorry if you took it as me erasing her Romani identity, but I had that in mind while colouring her.

[raycani]

We have the same hc about the maximoffs! in my head Wanda presents more Roma where as pietro is more olive tonned and Semitic presenting (also cause I’m Jewish but almost all Jewish rep is packaged in whiteness and no jews in media look like me so now I project lol)

Oh wow that's awesome we share the same head-canons! I hope more diverse media represents and celebrates who you are! It really is a shame that in comics dark skinned characters get the white washed stick at times (Talia al Ghul for instance).

[dickgreyson]

the roma thing is so frustrating because i want roma characters, so ill take the ones retconned for awful reasons & go. "ok these are mine now, & theyre romani My way" like dick for ex, ill write his heritage & identity how i want, & im always glad to see fan content that portrays it respectfully & is clearly researched or the creator is also roma but like. i should be able to get good quality roma rep from the source material instead of it being absolute shit. comic writers suck

i so completely agree, and see a mirror with jewish villains!! it really upsets me that like clark, bruce and peter parker have jewish heritage and were created by jewish writers and fulfil jewish allegories, but are never quite confirmed as jewish. on the contrary they are often claimed by christians, like calling superman a jesus stand in, or saying bruce is the “caped crusader”

the only people who are ever allowed to BE jewish, to speak about their faith and how they still identify with it even though theyre on the margins, are villains!! like dont get me wrong, i think harley being jewish totally has value! i really love and identify with her! but why arent any GOOD people allowed to be jewish? outside of kate of course, but even she is kept separate and cut out of any main teams or family groups. it just makes me like. [screams] like judaism isnt allowed to be a force for good, and touch the lives of these originally jewish characters!

i just totally feel like these huge labels need to open up their writing staff, or at least do some research. give us jewish and roma characters who are good and bad, who are subversive, who engage with their heritage. who are more than just loose, bad stereotypes. we deserve good content, and we shouldnt always have to make our own!

[dalishious]

Coding Does Not Inherently Equate to Representation

So I’m mostly going to be talking about Dragon Age’s elves and Indigenous coding, because that’s my lane to drive in, but that is just a single example of what my point is: The unfortunate truth is that media--namely media almost solely built by white men--can be sleazy as hell in taking things from minorities without giving back in return.

The elves in Dragon Age are canonically inspired by Indigenous, Jewish and Roma peoples. This is something that has been stated by the developers, namely Gaider, on multiple occasions. But the elves of Dragon Age are not real representation. I, a native person, have taken them and made them into that myself, because there is so so so little Indigenous rep in the fantasy genre, but any remaining imaginative notions that BioWare intended that, or even gives a single shit about me, left after the events of Dragon Age: Inquisition and the Trespasser DLC.

For those of you who don’t know, “coding” ranges from subliminal to obvious ways readers are tipped off things about a character, commonly used in reference to background and ethnicity. This can be used for good, and this can be used for bad. And sometimes it can be used simply because creators think it will give their story a cool/uncanny/unique/etc vibe, without any thought or consideration for what they’re actually taking and who they are taking from for their coding.

If I were to sit down and actually make an expansive list of all the bits and pieces of Indigenous coding put into the Dragon Age elves, it would make for a long post. BioWare quite literally picks and chooses things I can only assume based on how cool they thing it would be, because if any actual consideration was put into it, you would have to assume someone would say for example, “does it really make sense to place this ripoff tiki torch and ripoff inukshuk next to each other, though?” Of course, I resolve things in my mind with the assertion that Dalish elves are not in fact a single culture but differ from clan to clan, and ignore things like the above--something that is not even a stretch, considering we are told about how they differ in other ways. But that doesn’t erase the fact that BioWare chose to pull things from this culture and that culture, as if we’re the monolith we’re so often ignorantly believed to be, without any thought or care in the world beyond wanting to give their fantasy race an “ethnic flavour.”

To call Dragon Age elves proper native representation would be like calling Jared Leto wearing a headdress because he thinks it looks cool representation, because what BioWare is doing is walking a very, very fine line between coding and straight-up appropriation. Could they turn this around? Could they make it better? Yes, I think they still could. They could start by having some explicitly native-equivalent protagonists. They could stop using the elven religion to prop up the Chantry, going as far as tearing it apart while promising to never do the same to Andrastianism. They could stop beating us to death with victim-blaming and the most whitest takes on colonialism. They could retcon the bullshit about multiracial elves not existing. But I don’t think they will. 

The bottom line is this: Dragon Age elves may be coded Indigenous, but it’s not intended for Indigenous audiences. (Nor are the elves even the only example of BioWare doing this.) It’s for white audiences to play pretend in before going back to calling us greedy for wanting things like clean water and to stop being murdered without repercussions.

...But that’s just all the more reason my bitter and starved for any potential rep ass is taking them.

So, an ending tip for all the aspiring content creators out there: If you want to use coding, a) do your proper research to be respectful, and b) do it with consciously good intentions.