#source: I’m a gypsy and I speak romani

[nightwingsgypsyrep]

I literally made a new sideblog to make this post

As a Romani speaker, it will never not be funny to me that Dick and Kori were together, given that Kori is the Romani word for Dick.

[dragynkeep]

*BBC narrator impression begins*

Oh dear. It appears that Rooster Teeth Productions have cocked up Miss Blake Belladonna's fairy tale allusion upon wrapping up the story arc with her Beast.

We now turn to the well-informed pair of siblings, Owl and Luke, for their conclusions on how the allusion to Belle even fits any longer.

*BBC narrator impression ends*

The hell happened to Blake and her supposed to being Belle? Sure, in the original Beauty and The Beast novel, Beast's real name was Adam. Duh.

But let's take off our "Fuck RT" caps for one second for a more in-depth analysis. Does her Belle allusion really even fit anymore?

nerd fixation on beauty and the beast goes into overdrive.

did it ever really fit? belle in most iterations wasn’t a freedom fighter, she wasn’t part of an oppressed class, hell in most reading & a love for books & adventure wasn’t a defining trait of belle’s. it was her kindness, contrasted to the spite & greediness of her sisters, who wanted only monetary things from their merchant father. hell, even with the development of blake in volume 4 where we find out she’s basically the princess of menagerie; that contrasts the original belle as she was a merchants daughter turned peasant after he lost his wares at sea, who’s sisters abused her & made her clean & do work in order to try and buy their home back. the only time she’s ever really applied to a “belle” allusion is reading with disney’s iteration of belle, & every other rwby allusion in that team takes from the original tale, not any other more modern iteration. also i don’t know where you heard the beast’s name being adam in the original tale from but from what i’ve researched, he was only ever referred to as la beté & adam was a name given purely for the disney version.

now, the most defining traits of blake in the show are her drive for justice, her determination, her courage, being defined as a faunus, but isn’t above despising or hating those who are prejudicial & pick on those who are smaller than them. taking all of those into account, she honestly fits esmeralda better than any other fairytale protagonist, or quasi protag in this case. so many of esmeralda’s lines in the movie feel like they could’ve come straight from early volume blake, so much of their defining characteristics match up far better than blake & belle. like some of these lines?

you mistreat this poor boy the same way you mistreat my people.

[ silence ! ] justice !

what do they have against people who are different?

you saw what he did out there. letting the crowd torture that poor boy? i thought if just one person could stand up to him then...

you speak of justice, yet you are cruel to those most in need of your help !

i don’t see any. [ see what? ] monster lines. not a single one. now, you look at me. do you think i'm evil?

LITERALLY THE ENTIRETY OF GOD HELP THE OUTCASTS !!

blake being esmeralda is the one time i would endorse rooster teeth taking inspiration from the disney iteration instead of the actual source material as there is a lot of anti romani sentiment in the novel that disney managed to make less egregious [ by having esmeralda actually be romani instead of a french girl who was stolen by them & was a sex worker. ] it also keeps in with her french theme & doesn’t allow for any vagueness around what her potential coding could be; blake can be poc & french, many roma are.

blake being esmeralda also lends to some actual poc representation on screen without falling into the oofness of making blake black / poc with her current mother’s name meaning a slur. the belladonnas could still exist in the storyline if wished, just don’t have them be blake’s parents. blake could finally count for some very rare romani / gypsy rep that we don’t see in media often, let alone animated media; & with her being nonsexualized most of the time & her defining traits being her righteousness & her compassion & drive for justice, she wouldn’t fall into the stereotypical traps of a sexualized gypsy.

also fun fact, red is an unlucky colour in romani / most gypsy cultures; which could be a cute nod to adam being unlucky for her & their cause.

so yes, this is my blake should’ve been based on esmeralda propaganda post ♥

[collectivefandomstuff]

mum... im being bullied on this site for writing and posting a story that apparently makes me into a racist even though i tried really hard to write it so its clear that the POV character is a shitty person and not me??? halp, i need advice pleaze

Hi there :) this is a sensitive subject, but I’ll give it a try.

When writing, what we’re essentially trying to do is communicate what’s in our heads to someone else’s using words. And, contrary to what some believe, using art/writing/whatever as a medium to convey those thoughts are hard and we all end up miscommunicating eventually. Now, in my experiece there are several types of literary miscommunication so I’ll try to cover them all:

1. Miscommunication due to differing perspectives. This happens when you and your audience comes at a text from different viewpoints. Sometimes it’s that you write from the metaphorical north and you can’t see that from the south this story looks way different. For example, look at 13 reasons why. They had a very graphic suicide scene that was meant to “start a discussion” but had other, much less positive consequences. In these situations, I usually ask myself: 1) am I willing to let the southern perspective stand? (as in, am I okay with what it implies?) and 2) is anyone getting hurt? If so, it’s not generally worth it.

The second incarnation of this miscommunication has to do with ethics. For example, if I were to write a story where the main character has an abortion, I would count on this making the character more sympathetic, not less, since I grew up in a culture without any real “pro-life” movement. I would be wary of the portayal because the protagonist would go through intense emotional turmoil, but I would never give the politics a second thought. Thus, if my audience tells me that the main character is a bad person (or that I am) I can stand firm on my ethics (or change them) and act accordingly.

2. Miscommunication through language. This is a big one. Sometimes when we speak to someone we just express ourselves poorly, and the same thing happens when we write. This one is hard to take as a writer, because there’s a prevailing idea that if you can’t convey your point you’re a bad writer, but that’s not the case. When writing, you usually start off writing cliches that have been written a hundred times before, and as you work at it you eventually start incorporating more of your own creativity into the work. When you do that, you can’t rely on people knowing the formula anymore and that’s when we start making mistakes. Let’s say I base a character on one of my friends, and someone criticizes that character for being a sexist trope since she dresses slutty and is pretty sexual. I’m over here like “no?? that’s Claire!” But in reality I failed to make the text reflect what I know: that Claire is multifaceted and interesting. These miscommunications help us become better writers and they never go away either. You know that one tumblr post about the Literature PhDs who has a whole seminar about whether Edgar Allan Poe was racist? Yeah.

From what you told me, you decided to take on writing an unsympathetic protagonist. That’s real tricky, and also a great way to practice characterisation and writing in general. It’s great that you’re doing it, but it also means that making these sorts of mistakes is more likely.

*this one is extra difficult if you’re writing in a second/third etc. language.

3. Miscommunication due to subconcious bias. We’re all products of our enviroments, upbringings, and experiences. Like with varying ethics due to cultural differences, we can’t ignore that sometimes we have preconceptions we’re not necessarily aware of and those can sneak into our writing. For example: I grew up in Europe, where there’s a strong anti-romani sentiment. The first time I learned about romani it was through the sentence “you can’t trust gypsies, they’re all thieves” (this is a slur and should not be used by non-romani. I’m using it here because this is a direct quote that underlines the severity of the jargon). I’m aware of this, and I conciously try to fight the cultural upbringing I had, but these things run deep. If I wrote a text and someone told me that it was offensive towards romani I would take that seriously, because sometimes bias shows up even when we don’t mean for it to. It doesn’t make us bad people, but it is something we have to be aware of as a possibility when we write.

Finally, there’s one more explanation that has nothing to do with miscommunication. Sometimes, tumblr does that because while tumblr is a safe space it’s also a bubble. A bubble with many, many people that tend to see the world through the good ol’ fashioned black/white goggles. Sometimes the audience is just wrong.

To you, anon, I would like to say this: from what you wrote it seems you’re going through a tough time. It’s hard being the target of an anonymous mass that are accusing you of being a bad person, especially in regards to a work you put a lot of effort into and conciously tried to make non-offensive. It’s okay to feel like you can’t handle it and simply change your account/take down the story/whatever makes you feel safe. Writing a story online shouldn’t become a source of bad feelings and thoughts.

If you want tips on the story itself, I would say try to re-read it and attempt to see it through the eyes of those who critizise you. Do they have a point? You can also ask someone else to read it, to get feedback. It can be really hard to see your own work from another perspective. If the discourse isn’t too toxic, you could also engage with your audience and ask them what parts of your story are making them feel that way, since this isn’t what you intended.

No author is perfect, least of all people writing for fun on the internet and it’s not always apparent to the audience how much their comments can hurt, in the end you wrote this story to communicate something and you’ve become a better writer for it. Likewise, you’ve learned something from the response and you’re under no obligation to leave it up or take it down or fix it or whatever. Don’t let it scare you away from writing more things.

I hope this helped. Take care of yourself anon❤️

Edit: I wanted to add that if people are genuinely drawing a direct link between your views and that of a purposefully flawed character then that’s on them and you should do whatever you feel is best for you and your well being.

[theserpentsadvocate]

Tell HolyClothing Racial Slurs ARE a Big Deal

I have two friends getting married this summer, and I’m in both wedding parties, so naturally they’ve been sending me pictures of dresses to look at. Since my BFF is both pagan and really into LARP, she also considered some dresses from a historical/fantasy clothing site, which would be great, normally (I got my prom dress from one, and it was awesome)... but I was really disconcerted to see that one of the dresses she was looking at for me had a racial slur in the description.

This is really common, unfortunately, with sites like that, because there’s an unfortunate lack of awareness (at least in North America, I can’t speak for elsewhere) about the fact that g*psy is a really offensive and oppressive term for the Romani/Rromani people (and an offensive and inaccurate term to use for other nomadic groups like Irish Travellers).

Anyway, since the company is committed to ethical practices, I hoped they’d be receptive to a request to change the descriptions on clothing featuring that word (which also appears in the hover-over text for the tab), and I sent them a long, very polite email about it, including a link to a Romani person discussing the issue. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Evidently, HolyClothing had been alerted to this previously, but because their Facebook followers didn’t see an issue with it, and since they’re of the opinion that they’re using it in a non-derogatory way, they think it’s fine to keep using it.

I’m sending them a still polite but markedly disapproving response email, but if they want to ignore me... they’ll ignore me. However, if they were suddenly inundated with polite-but-markedly-disapproving (or even polite-and-utterly-distressed) emails and Facebook comments, that might sway them.

I’ll include all the emails under a cut. If you want to help, you can email them at  store@holyclothing.com for Customer Service, or info@holyclothing.com for Press/PR. If that’s a little overwhelming, their Facebook page is here.

Please send them an email or a Facebook message or comment if you can. If you can’t, for whatever reason, please don’t feel bad about it, and signal boost if you’re up for it.

Here’s my correspondance with HolyClothing, unaltered except for spaces for readability and editing of personal details: Bolding for clarity of formatting.

My first email to them:

Hey, I posted this on your Facebook earlier because I couldn't find your 'Contact' link on the website. I suspect this is the fault of my computer, which displayed a few bugs when I was looking through the website for other things; sometimes it's kind of temperamental.

So, here's what I said:

"I'm looking at some clothing from your shop because my friend likes them for her bridesmaid dresses, and while I really like a lot of your clothes, I'm uncomfortable about buying clothes from a company that uses a racial slur in their descriptions.

I know it's common for companies that sell historical- and fantasy-inspired clothes to use the term 'gypsy' to refer to a certain style of clothing, but it is in fact an offensive and marginalizing term to a minority group which is still persecuted today, and I would feel a lot better if you would address it, and, hopefully, change the names on articles like this one:

http://holyclothing.com/…/kyla-scalloped-hem-gothic-embroid…

Here is an article by a person who IS Romani explaining why the word is offensive and some of her negative experiences with similar branding. http://gypsyappropriations.blogspot.ca/…/problem-with-word-…

Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to my concerns." Since I'm off Facebook I'd like to elaborate - I know the company is based in India, but I understand that it's run by Canadians. It's VERY common in North America for non-Romani people not to know about the offensive implications of the word, and I myself (I am not Romani) only found out this information a few years ago. I am sure that your company's usage of the word was done unintentionally rather than callously.

At the same time, as you can see from the article I've linked, using the word the way you have can cause huge amounts of unintentional harm to Romani people who see it, and who have to deal with people who have normalized it because of seeing similar things, so I really felt I had to say something immediately.

I'm very conflicted - I love most of your clothing and I'm thrilled to find an ethically-sourced and semi-Canadian company selling the sort of thing I'm so interested in... and, of course, I want to make my friend's wedding perfect for her, which includes wearing whatever she picks out. But I'm really uncomfortable purchasing from a business that uses a racial slur not just in some of their product descriptions, but in their branding.

Given HolyClothing's dedication to ethical business, I'm confident you'll address the matter in a satisfactory manner, which would send a good message to your customers, as well as distinguishing you among other historical and fantasy-esque stores who use similar branding.

Thank you so much for your time and attention,

Riley [last name redacted]

Their response:

Hello Riley,

Thank you for taking the time to email us. This has been addressed in the past with HolyClothing and more than one poll was taken on our Facebook page. We are not using the term in a derogatory manner and to date, have not received any complaints from Romani people.

We appreciate your feedback.

Regards - Brenda

And my latest email:

I'm really disappointed to hear that. I had higher expectations from you as a business.

May I suggest that you read (or reread) the post at the link I sent you ( http://gypsyappropriations.blogspot.ca/2010/04/problem-with-word-gypsy.html ), in which the large guest section details a Romani person's experience, and demonstrates how the term is no less hurtful even when not used with malice. There's also an explanation of how such use of the term contributes to erasure of the Romani people (the author of the blog is regularly told that she's not real), and gives some context to its history and utter inappropriateness when used by anyone who isn't Romani. If you require anything more than that, it's easy to find Romani people discussing or explaining this in various places online, and I would also be willing to provide you with as much additional material as you require.

I'd also like to suggest that perhaps it's time to set up another one of those polls - but even if the response doesn't condemn the term, it would reflect well on HolyClothing as a company, especially one committed to ethical practices, to do what's right rather than simply what's easiest.

(Incidentally, in my experience it is very easy to rebrand anything described as 'g*psy' as either 'boho' or 'pirate' as is fitting. If you find 'pirate' doesn't quite fit your store, you could always try 'nomad', 'hippie', 'flower child', and so on, or in specific descriptions, substitute one of your other branding terms, like, again, 'boho', or 'peasant' as appropriate. Simply dropping it from your hover-over tab description would still leave you with four adjectives which still convey very effectively the variety and type of clothing you provide.)

Thank you for your time. [initials redacted]