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escapistcatontheinternet · 16 days

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i love the extras of dungeon meshi in how it fleshes out the world because they make it so much more evident how race affects every part of the story while avoiding the zootopia racism problem. like obv a main theme of the story is like, humanity and desire, 'to eat is to live', etc, but since the majority of it takes place in the dungeon isolated from society and thru the lens of laios, the racial aspects play out more like shadows on a wall for most of the story.

then in the extras we get comics like this

which at a glance fleshes out the racial aspects via a character explaining the racial rules of universe - humans have x amount of bones, while orcs and kobolds have more. however, if u take it less straightforwardly, it points out how the concept of 'human' is a constructed concept in the world. the fact that there are different categories of human in different parts of the world based off of what types of humanoids occur there is already a demonstration of this. in response, the bones explanation seems to kabru and the characters as an objective way of measuring humans vs nonhumans.

but obv, when the culture was deciding what humanoids were humans and nonhumans, they weren't blindly analyzing skeletons and then deciding. just visually, one can glean that orcs and kobolds look less like the ingroup of tallmen, elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc. the bones explanation appears as a justification for that immediate prejudice under a scientific guise - I'm sure that one could come up with the same number of physical differences between a gnome and an elf that they would find between a tallman and an orc. it sounds a lot better to say 'well, an orc has 230 bones while a human has 206' then 'well, an orc looks ewwww yucky yucky to me while a human looks normal'.

and what i like abt the comic is that the characters take the explanation at face value for the most part. when a contradiction is brought up in the oni, kabru can neatly slot them into the predetermined number of bones framework. bc that's kinda how it works irl - there r cultural prejudices that we can posthumously justify, and if we find something outside of it, we can twist it to fit into our predetermined binary. however, since the reader does not live in a world where there are orcs and kobolds to be prejudiced against, we can see that flaw in the cultural logic. when the party encounters the orcs, the number of bones has no bearing on their humanity. They r shown to be cliquish and distrusting of outsiders, but not any more than the elves are later in the story.

tldr dungeon meshi worldbuilding is so good

#just me #dungeon meshi #kabru #there r 10000000 examples of how fantasy racism affects the story of dungeon meshi not brought up in the main story #like namaris backstory and chilchucks union and the oni #augh. tasty manga #girls when themes of social isolation #ppl talk Abt the neurodivergent rep/allegory #the racial allegories aren't half bad either #social isolation guys social isolation

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butchmartyr · 9 months

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ultimately you have to remember that complaining about "4chan white trans women who are bigoted and so and so" is almost entirely pointless for any purpose aside from raising transmisogynistic sentiments in observers. this specter of an evil tranny is constantly looming despite the individuals being rare and often total shut ins, and people expect transfems to take this shit seriously and be constantly swearing off association with """bad people""". these people, when they do exist, by and large lack the power to actually do anything with their beliefs; obviously if they do it sucks but this idea that there are trans women ~getting away with it~ and that all transfem communities allow and hide this behavior is blatantly transmisogynistic in addition to often being completely imagined! its insane to act like you have to choose between resisting white supremacy and resisting transmisogyny, and yet, people wind up continually portraying it as this

#trust me brother most of the people I’ve been friends with are trans women ive seen trans women say racist stuff before #my circles challenge it and figure it out #these subhumans are talking like we dont deeply value the contributions of black trans women to transfeminism #im all for combating white supremacy in lgbt spaces including transfem ones #which is why we have to stop people just adding 'white' in front of whatever transmisogynistic shit they want to say #transmisogyny and racism are closely linked due to the racialized expectations we have for womanhood and tackling them together is critical #and talking over trans women on this- especially trans women of color and jewish trans women- is batshit insane and yet impossibly common #genderposting #sasha speaks #stop putting spacelazarwolf on my dash lol

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queerslurheritageposts · 14 days

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If you're white, please can you not say bulldyke? That is a slur aimed at black lesbians. This is a just in case you come across it. I have been called it before and I would rather white people wouldn't say it. Thank you!

I am Black and am familiar with the term, but I'm also gonna post this as sort of a PSA because I've also seen it misused before by white folks who didn't know its history. The same is true for bulldagger (which is derived from the same term "bulldiker")- both words are generally used to refer to butch lesbians but especially Black butches specifically.

The exact etymology of the terms are unknown but the dehumanizing implication of "bull" is apparent. It is a term that, like others, has been reclaimed, but its use is complicated by its history of racialized usage; terms like "stud" are similarly racialized.

There's nothing wrong with reclaiming slurs, but be mindful!! Not all words are for all people, and some terms have more complex connotations than just meaning queer. Do your research!

#not a heritage post #asks #the fairy rambles #ngl it took me a bit to determine how to reapond to this #partially because I was jumpscared by the idea of someone assuming I was white #also because this post is my first usage of the term that I recall here so I'm also unsure what prompted the ask?#nonetheless a great opportunity to talk about how some queer slurs are racialized which complicates who's allowed to reclaim them #for the sake of clarity I'm not saying stud is a slur I'm saying it's another racialized queer term

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communistkenobi · 3 months

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everyone and their dog writes articles now about a totally new intersectional inclusive way to approach knowledge that decolonises the academy, and then the entire article just declares that subaltern voices will be included and indigenous ways of knowing will be respected but they never describe how or what confrontations with western academic thought will be produced or what will get revealed when this new epistemic approach becomes universally applied or what will structurally happen to the academy during this process. it’s like anti-theory, pure description and declaration, no attention paid to how the base units of western thought (such as subject/object), the capitalist logic of the university as a class/race mediator that necessarily reproduces white supremacy, will be problematised or made impossible, just an assertion that spaces will be made for previously marginalised groups. It’s so infantilising, as if the only thing stopping Black or Indigenous scholars from being considered scholars in academia was the lack of an EDI program or land acknowledgements and not like, foundational structural racism that regards all non-western knowledge and intellectual thought as non-knowledge. the academy as we know it would not exist without half a thousand years of pillage and plunder but I’m sure your new HR program will fix that

#having a run of just the absolute worst shit assigned readings. just fucking nothing dude #quite literally reproducing the neoliberal understanding of racism as simply a lack of racial inclusion in the market #you’re talking about an empire built atop a mountain of bones dude a land acknowledgement is not going to solve that. You’re just adding to #the fucking pile by reducing this issue to ‘inclusion’#book club

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wiisagi-maiingan · 2 months

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"If you point out subtle but invasive forms of bigotry then maybe YOU'RE the REAL bigot 🤔" I am biting you and I am killing you.

#this shit always fucking happens every single time #when you talk about racial coding in media #or dogwhistles that a lot of people don't recognize #it doesn't matter how horrible or even obvious it is the people talking about it are always going to be accused of being bigots #because we're supposedly the ones associating those traits with [insert group]#instead of pointing out established patterns of bigotry and violence

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worm-in-a-trenchcoat · 2 years

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I find it so funny that before Clawdeen’s race was explicitly confirmed in Gen 3 people used to argue that she wasn’t black and they’d say stuff like “she’s not black, she’s just a werewolf with brown fur!!”

Yeah, she has brown fur… and a Brooklyn accent even though she’s not from New York, a sassy attitude, and a huge family that comes in all different shades of brown.

Like… hello??

My girl and her whole family were a walking racial stereotype lmao 💀

#monster high #clawdeen wolf #she’s still a racial stereotype in Gen 3 but that’s a talk for another time lol

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jewishbarbies · 2 months

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every time taylor does something publicly or says weird shit to make it look like she didn’t get dumped by a good man and then settled for trash because Joe won’t acknowledge her antics-

#g talks #yes this is a swiftie tweet #it’s to highlight the hypocrisy #bc this was said about travis’s ex #removed the racial bullshit too #but you get the point #anti taylor swift #swifties dni #mine #/mobile #/okay to reblog

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ghelgheli · 8 months

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I think the adoption of "toxic masculinity" as a popular discursive phrase has, above any constructive and reformative effect, had the effect of gerrymandering our lexical terrain so that mascs who are not straightforwardly men (studs, butches, ...) get thrown under the bus, as assorted symptoms of patriarchy (and, inseparably, racism) are subsumed into the unifying header of "masculinity" as though the word explains the phenomena

#text #completely useless phrase #of course masc (esp racialized) men get some of the crossfire too but the way ppl will talk about masc lesbians istfg

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kaladinkholins · 3 months

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i know I've mentioned my interpretation of mizu's gender a million times on here but i don't think i ever fully elaborated on it.

so on that note i just wanna ramble about that for a bit. basically, it's my reading of the show that mizu is nonbinary, so let me dig into that.

putting the rest under the cut because it ended being pretty long lol. also here have a cute mizu pic of her being happy and most at ease with herself, symbolised by her letting her hair down. <3 ok let's proceed.

okay note that nonbinary is an umbrella term, and applies to a vast range of gender identities, but it's my personal preference to use it as is, simply because i'm not a fan of microlabels. more power to you if you are though, but anyway.

essentially when i refer to mizu as nonbinary it means that i interpret mizu as a woman, but not ONLY a woman. not strictly a woman. she is also a man. she is also neither of these things, she is something in between, while at the same time she is none of these at all. i've said as much many times, but i just don't want people to think that by nonbinary it inherently means a "third androgynous gender" that essentially turns the gender binary into a gender trinary. not only is that going against what the term nonbinary was crafted for (to go against rigid boxes and categorisation of gender identities), but also, not all nonbinary people fall under that category or definition, and that's definitely not the way i interpret mizu.

also, before anyone fights me on this, let me clarify further that gender means something different to everyone. it's not your biological sex or physical characteristics. but at the same time, gender is not mere presentation. you can be a trans woman and still present masculine—either because you're closeted and forced to, or because you just want to—and either way, that doesn't take away from your identity as a woman. same goes for trans men. if you're a trans man but you wear skirts and don't bind or don't get top surgery, that doesn't make you any less of a man. because gender non-conformity exists, and does not only apply to cis people! some lesbians are nonbinary and prefer using he/him pronouns while dressing masculinely, but that doesn't mean they're a man, or that they're any less of a lesbian. neither does this mean that they're a cis woman.

the thing about queer identities in general is that, like i said, they mean something different to everyone, because how you identify—regardless of your biological attributes and fashion or pronouns—is an extremely personal experience. so a nonbinary person and a gnc cis woman's experiences might have plenty of overlap, but what distinguishes between the two is up to the individual. there's no set requirements to distinguish you as one or the other, but it's up to you to decide what you identify as, based on what you feel. either way, by simply identifying yourself as anything under the LGBTQ+ umbrella, you are already communicating to the world that you are not what a conservative, cisheteronormative society wants you to be.

which is why i find all this queer infighting on labels to be so ridiculous. because we're all fighting the same fight; the common enemy is a societal structure that divides us into set roles and expectations purely based on our biological parts. that's why biological essentialism in the queer community is a fucking disease. because by arguing that women are inherently weak and fragile and soft and gentle and must be protected from evil ugly men, while men are inherently strong and angry and violent and exploitative of women, these people are advocating for the same fucked up system that marginalises and abuses women as well as effeminate and/or gay men.

anyway. i'm going on a tangent. this was meant to be a blue eye samurai post. so yeah back to that— the point i'm trying to make is that there's no one way to identify as anything, and everyone views gender in a specific way.

so with that being said, yes you can definitely interpret mizu as a gnc cis woman and that's a totally valid reading. however, interpreting her as nonbinary or transmasc also doesn't take away from her experiences with misogyny and female oppression, because nonbinary and transmasc folks also experience these things.

me, personally, i view her as nonbinary but not necessarily or always transmasc because i still believe femininity and womanhood is an inherent part of who mizu is. for example, from what we've seen, she does not like binding. it does not give her gender euphoria, but is instead very uncomfortable for her both physically and mentally, and represents her suppressing her true self. which is why when she "invites the whole" of herself, she stands completely bare in front of the fire, breasts unbound and hair untied. when she is on the ship heading to a new land in the ending scene, she is no longer hiding her neck and the lack of an adam's apple. we can thus infer that mizu does not have body dysmorphia. she is, in fact, comfortable in her body, and relies on it extremely, because her body is a weapon. instead, what mizu hates about herself is her face—her blue eyes. she hates herself for her hybridised identity, hates herself for being a racial Other. hates that she has no home in her homeland. these are not queer or feminist themes, but postcolonial ones.*

* and as a tiny aside on this subject, i really do wish more of the fandom discussion would talk about this more. it's just such an essential part to reading her character. like someone who's read homi k bhabha's location of culture and has watched this show, PLEASE talk to me so we can ramble all about how the show is all about home and alienation from community. please. okay anyway—

nevertheless, queer and feminist themes (which are not mutually exclusive by the way!) are still prevalent in her story, though they are not the main issue that she is struggling with. but she does struggle with it to some extent, and we see this especially during her marriage with mikio, where we see her struggle in women's domestic spaces.

on the other hand, though, she finds no trouble or discomfort in being a man or being around other men—even naked ones—and does not seem stifled by living as one, does not seem all that bothered or uncomfortable navigating through men's spaces. contrast this to something like disney's mulan (1998), where we do see mulan struggle in navigating through men's spaces, as she feels uncomfortable being around so many men, always feeling like she doesn't belong and that she's inherently different from them. mizu has no such experiences like this, as her very personality and approach to life is what can be categorised as typically "masculine". she is straightforward and blunt. her first meeting with mikio, she tells him straight to his face that he's old while frowning and raising a brow at him. she approaches problems with her muscles and fists (or swords), rather than with her words or mind. compare this with mulan, who, while well-trained by the end of the movie, still uses her sharp wits rather than brute strength. this is a typically "feminine" approach. it's also the approach akemi relies on throughout the show—through her intelligence and persuasive tongue, she navigates the brothel with ease. mizu, in contrast to someone like mulan and akemi, struggles with womanhood and femininity, and feels detached from it.

thus, in my opinion, mizu is not simply a man, nor is she simply a woman. she is both. man and woman. masculine and feminine. she has to accept both, rather than suppress one or the other. her name means water. fluid.

as a side note, while i do believe mizu is nonbinary, i also primarily use she/her pronouns but this is a personal preference. i find it's easier, plus it's what the creators use, and because, in general, being nonbinary simply doesn't necessitate the use of they/them pronouns. nonbinary is not just a third gender. it's about breaking the binary, in any which way, and that's exactly what mizu does.

also, i'd also like to mention that one of show's head of story even referred to her with the term "nonbinary", rather than simply "androgynous" (see pic below). and it's possible this could be a slip up on his part, in which he believes the terms are interchangeable (they're not btw), but regardless i find it a very interesting word choice, and one that supports my stance.

so anyway yeah that's my incredibly long rambling post.

TL;DR nonbinary mizu rights 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 congrats if you reached the end of this btw. also ily. unless you're a TERF in which case fuck off. ok i'm done.

#mizu blue eye samurai #mizu bes #blue eye samurai #blue eye samurai meta #sorry if this is redundant btw i just cant stop thinking thoughts :3 #btw i am a mixed* southeast asian who is also nonbinary. just in case that's important context #by mixed* i mean i'm asian+asian but diff ethnicities lol. i dont have a white bone in my body god bless<3 #my whiteness is purely learned thru cultural osmosis + bcs my parents taught me english as a first language (boooo 🍅🍅🍅)#also i live in the global south so i think EYE know a thing or two about being gnc in a society of rigid awful gender roles‼️#so likeee i think its ridiculous that its an either-or thing #mizu can be nonbinary while still being a woman of colour ¯\_(ツ)_/¯#also ummm as much as i love queer themes and gay people i wish people would talk more about the racial otherness / community aspect #as mentioned in the post above #you don't need to read bhabha's whole book btw but just take a look at some of his ideas and you'll get what im talking about #like the fact that the fandom mostly ignores those themes in the story makes me feel like :( :/#cuz to me THATS the thing that spoke to me most and its a shame that its just not talked about enough #i mean i know why thats likely the case. but still.#whoops im rambling again 🤪#fandom.rtf #shut up haydar #meta dissertations.pdf

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simplepotatofarmer · 1 year

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i still have reservations and issues with the whole qsmp mob pack thing.

i'm glad the mob pack was removed. i'm glad the creator of the pack is open to feedback and changing things so it's not racist or offensive. i get the intention wasn't malicious or to be racist and i do think that counts for something.

however.

there's still the way it was handled. yes, it's good that the mob pack was removed but it was deeply hurtful and racist and that warrants some sort of apology. especially from FitMC. what he said and the way he interacted with the mob was disgusting and racist and he absolutely needs to speak out on it and apologize.

there's still the way wider fandom handled it. just because the intent to be harmful wasn't there doesn't mean it wasn't harmful and didn't hurt people. so it sucks when you see so many people going 'well that wasn't their intent' because intent or not, it wasn't okay and seeing the reactions made it even worse because so often racism against indigenous people is minimized and anti-blackness is a huge problem. we're seeing that right now and as someone who is ojibwe and who has been watching qsmp, it hurts.

and there's still the fact that often white and non-indigenous creators/media feel entitled to taking culture that isn't theirs and using it in ways that are thoughtless and hurtful. so yes, the creator's intent might not have been that but the fact that it got this far just shows that the pattern of using indigenous and african culture without care is alive and well and it does contribute to a lot of hurt.

if you're not indigenous or black, i really implore you to think about these things and this situation because a lot of people were hurt.

#loyal talks about stuff and things #qsmp #discourse #i really really hate tagging it as discourse but #racism #fitmc #i kinda wanted to talk about how i've been called racially charged things since speaking out on this #but i don't want to make it too personal #i guess i'll just say if your first instinct is to get MAD at a post like this. stop and think why that is.

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sanyu-thewitch05 · 11 months

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Me watching the LGBT community who almost never rarely gives black women and girls, asexuals, or aromantics genuine respect, pretend we’re all friends and have always treated us right the minute it’s June 1st and want to use black women(mainly darkskinned) and girls as their little poster girl:

#asexual #aromantic #It’s always coming from the non black people(including other racial minorities) too #and the stuff coming out of the lgbt community towards black women and girls has gotten real nasty #i have seen numerous people(although they’re mainly black) say that black people are inherently queer because we’re unnatural and strange #in the eyes of white supremacy and white people #like are you ok in the head??? why do you want to say that black people are inherently strange and we defy every social standard #as of our existence is a social statement #I personally think the worst thing I’ve personally heard(from yet another black person)#was that black women and girls would get seen as men or trans women because our hair is nappy #what does our natural hair have to do with getting seen as men or trans women??#and the white lgbt people just applauded them and hearted their tweet #it annoys me how for some weird reason political and social movements will mainly use black women especially darker black women as rep #and It’s almost always by a non black person #like why don’t you use a girl or woman from your own race in your political and social justice artwork #oh wait that’s right #because in general the lgbt community views black women and girls as magical negras who will be their ride or die sista soulja #who will mule and fight for them no matter how badly they outright insult us or sneakily talk badly about us #pride month is basically another black history month when it comes to how everyone reacts to it #every reaction to it is superficial and they’re only celebrating us because they feel like they had to or wanted social points #had it been any other month they would’ve been focusing on the group that they belong to

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crossguild · 8 months

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things about lovelace that are canon:

went to west point

played basketball in high school and college

basketball career cut short because of a car accident that shattered her knee

deployed in iraq

born & raised in brooklyn, NY

broke her wrist trying (unsuccessfully) rescue mason fisher in an asteroid shower

brilliant tactician, has problems with authority

described as 'both a workaholic and a prankster'

dad is a district judge, her mom was a marine

both a career military woman and a staunch liberal

the only thing about lovelace the fandom seems to talk about:

lesbian

also she's very hot

... like listen. my point here isn't that no one should headcanon her as a lesbian (i do most of the time as well!) or find her hot (i also do this), it's that it's just very obviously something primarily white fandoms do to characters of color, to project their own non-canon experience onto them rather than relating to the character on the things that are explicitly canon about them. it's also highkey fetishistic when all people can talk about with her is how she's a lesbian and they find her hot.

like, non-polish fans can relate to minkowski's desire to be taken seriously and fit in, which are things she actually has. people who aren't white men from texas are capable of relating to eiffel's self esteem and impulse control issues, which he actually has. people who aren't AIs are capable of sympathizing with hera's struggles with anxiety and disability, and extrapolate on her experiences on her terms, without projecting their own. what is it like to be a disembodied voice whose best option for 'friend' still doesn't hold you in high enough regard to not call you derogatory nicknames?

why are white fans so deeply incapable of taking isabel sofia lovelace as a character in her own right and analyzing her as she is without projecting their own experiences onto her?? why do i never hear anyone talk about how her relationship with her dad and her mom might have influenced both her decision to join the military and her political views? or about like. fucking literally anything about her that isn't predicated on their attraction to her? can we get maybe a mention of the all-but-diagnosed ptsd? that's a rhetorical question. we know why.

#isabel lovelace #wolf 359 #i mean once you start seeing it u don't stop seeing it #lbr the way ppl talk about the other characters is garbage too #but at least it's just cringe and not actively indicative of deep racial biases!#every time a white fan says they hc her as a lesbian i conjure another keplace headcanon

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ataleofcrowns · 1 year

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I truly sympathize with you receiving hate mail and I agree that no one deserves to receive such hate-fuelled and insulting messages but I also am, admittedly, a bit disappointed in the way you choose to respond to the hate. Your anger is valid. Truly, it is. It really, really is. And I know that no one is obligated to be nice or forgiving of other people, but it really saddens me to see you sometimes generalizing and assuming that the intent of all anons who ask these things intend to hurt and insult you to begin with.

Take the half-white anon for example: while I no doubt agree that what they're asking is unfair and rude, they could easily just be ignorant of their actions and unaware that what they were asking was inherently wrong. I'm not asking that you forgive them and grin and bear with these anons 24/7, but all I'm asking is that you please at least be a little kinder and diplomatic in responding to them if you ever do wish to respond to them.

You could have just as easily replied politely that it comes off as a rude ask and corrected them respectfully. Each of us all have a responsibility to not incite more hatred (especially on the internet) and I hope that you remember that.

At this point, I can already anticipate that you would likely release a heated reply about how I should die/kms or just unfollow the blog if I don't like how you're being or even label me as just another hate anon and I think that, if this is indeed what you wish to reply, this unfortunately reflects your true colors as a person. If you consider this bordering asshole-like behavior of yours at present justified, then I hope that you're proud of the person you've become.

I'm not saying this to discourage you from connecting with your readers or appear all high-and-mighty but, rather, becuase I don't think all this anger is very healthy for you as a very concerned reader and longtime follower of this blog. If given the chance and if you think it would help, I hope maybe you can take the time to process your own anger in a more healthy way and maybe clear your head a bit when the asks get too heated for you to handle sometimes.

sincerely, a concerned reader

Anon, I'm begging you, go outside. This is genuinely an absolutely unhinged thing to send to a stranger.

#i call 1 out of pocket anon a weirdo #and people log on to psychoanalyze me #then tone police me #then pretend they care about my mental health #babe please just call me a racial slur instead of doing all this #spent a whole essay calling me an Angry Brown Woman #log off!! go take a walk!! talk to your friends (if you have them)!!#this is not normal behavior omfg #i wasn't even mad until i had to read all this dear lord 😭

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