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whateven-is-my-aesthetic · 2 years

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Writing a Latine character

Here’s a little PSA for people who would like to write a Latine/ Latinx/ Latina/ Latino character in their stories and want to be a decent writer.

The great thing about writing is that you can make whatever you want, come to life. You can create characters and plot points and twists and all that good stuff.

You can also chose to not be a fucking racist piece of shit.

Recently there was a book written by a white woman called Drive which involved a lot of racist tropes, jokes, and stereotypes that deal with a Mexican girl. I feel like this should be talked about.

The writer issued a bullshit apology on IG but she turned off the comments so here the fuck we are. The examples listed are from said book as well.

If you don’t know how to write ethnicities that are not your own make sure you get a sensitivity reader to help you, or just don’t write them. However, this author had a “Mexican friend” who informed the general public that the author had lost her v*iginity to a person with a Hispanic sounding last name... yeah idk. And that she had lots of Hispanic people on her team because she is color blind, but “not in a bad way”. So idk get someone that doesn’t know you and is confined to a very racist state, again she’s from TEXAS.

However if you would like to make your list of characters more diverse without being a racist these are somethings you can avoid doing.

Don’t add r*cist jokes (that should go without saying, but here the fuck we are). Or unnecessary race jokes even if they are being said by your Latine characters. You aren’t us, so leave these things out of your writing.

For example:

Immigration jokes, specifically border patrol jokes. (Below is a screen shot from the book I mentioned)

Internalized racism “She doesn’t speak Spanish because she thinks she sounds stupid. She hasn’t used the lounge enough, and she doesn’t like being half a b*aner.” (This was written by a White Texan woman in 2017. I wonder what was happening at the time that made a lot of Mexican and Latine people the target of xenophobia and racism).

Inquisition jokes: “’No, it’s the Latina Inquisition,’ he said with a twist of his lips.”

Colonization jokes

Fetishization “’There’s the cocky little Latina I know and love,’”

Tropes

The spicy latine (angry/ loud/ jealous):“’You’re so rough around the edges, my little Latina.” And “’Yeah, well, you were getting a little fucking feisty back there, Stella.’ I laughed. ‘You don’t like it when I show my Latina.” WHAT THE FUCK!!!

The maid

The self hating brown girl: “And every dark girl want to know what it’s like to be a light girl at some point in their life.”

The dancer: “’Come on, woman, you’re half Mexican. You were born with rhythm.’” “’I’m Latina,’” I corrected “’And I have rhythm. Shut up.’”

Certain mentions of one’s ethnicity where there shouldn’t be

“’GO!’” I screamed at the top of my Latina lungs...” (Ah yes to show that she thought we are very loud.)

“‘How about you kiss my Latina ass.’“

“Paige, I’m fine,’ I said, trying to keep the angry, tequila-filled Latina at bay.’“ (Because we are always pissed off and prideful)

DON’T USE SLURS, even if you have heard people use them with each other, You aren’t us so stop. If you don’t know if a word you are using is a slur, look it up, thankfully Google is free, or don’t use that word you are unsure of. No one should have to remind you not to be a piece of shit.

Avoid racist situations towards your characters in your books especially if you are writing in a fantasy setting. Most readers like to escape to a different reality, why the fuck are you making them take these things with them as they read your book.

Just because you saw some racist shit go down from one Latine to another, DON’T WRITE IT IN! FFS

If you are a latinx/e person who has experienced these things and your main character is also Latinx/e that is fine because it deals with YOUR experiences, everyone else stfu.

And if any of you feel some kind of way about this post, figure out why and change that shit because what the fuck?

- Sincerely a Mexican- American woman that shouldn’t need to be writing this.

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greentrickster · 1 year

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Side note, putting my ire with Silvairre to the side for the moment, I’m going to admit, I’m a little disappointed with the storytelling in FFXIV overall so far. I like the game play, and the setting and world building are interesting, but the story telling with the various quests, mainline, side, and guilds, are leaving me feeling a little... I hate to say it, but a little bored. Fantasy is my favorite genre, so I’ve consumed a lot of media for it over the years (including every single cutscene of FFXII, which I enjoyed immensely), and I just... sort of expected more.

(This is a bit of a vent, so putting under a cut. Also, I’m not feeling overly vitriolic, mostly just frustrated in a writerly sort of way with rough dialogue and some clumsy story telling in places. No fault or judgement to anyone who likes the game or its story.)

I get that my character needs to be fairly generic in their actions so that it’s easy for various people to imagine their individual characters reacting as they see fit - I have no qualms with that, it’s a core concept in the genre in many ways. Just... the story telling and dialogue feel very awkward very frequently so far, and I was expecting a bit more from a company that had made a good thirteen games prior to this, and I was told the story in this one was fantastic.

Now, I will fully admit, I’m only on Scions of the Seventh Dawn for the main plot, so maybe everything gets stronger later on. And, like I said, I’m enjoying the heck out of the game play, I can absolutely see myself returning to this game for a long time just to enjoy the loop and mess around with the various classes. But I’m coming here with Dofus and Adventure Quest Worlds as my main previous MMORPG experiences. And, while both of them are deeply flawed games in many ways, Dofus has very strong world-building with a fairly clear tone, and AQW has some phenomenal story telling, especially in the Lords of Chaos arc (Iadoa’s arc messed me up, and the final arc was fantastic). With FFXIV, though... while it has its moments, it often feels disjointed, in a way that it’s hard to describe when I don’t have the cut scenes and dialogue right in front of me right now.

Like... take Silvairre’s story, since I’ve been complaining about him a lot. I get what it’s supposed to presumably be about - it’s a classic ‘twit learns not to be r*cist’ plot. Except it’s left me viscerally uncomfortable the whole time, especially with how they try to justify his behaviour at times with comments along the lines of “Oh, he’s just trying to preserve/honour the traditions of his people” or “He’s a big ol’ tsundere about stuff” and the implication that he’s acting this way at least partially because a woman of another race did him very dirty. I get the story they’re trying to tell, but the whole thing leaves me feeling very icky with how they do it, especially since he’s showing no signs of changing or even acknowledging that what he’s doing is wrong in any way. Especially with it ending with him in a somewhat mentorly position to Leih, when she’s been the one he’s been targeting most the whole time. I’m seeing a lot of this sort of story telling so far, the kind that knows what it wants to do, but is executing it very poorly.

I’m not hating on the game as a whole, I’ll fully admit that I was enjoying the story well enough through to being the emissary in Gridania, and perhaps, as I’ve said, I’m just in a rough patch and/or it gets better again as I get deeper into the game. It’s just... I’m a writer with a special interest in fantasy, and this aspect of the game is really standing out to me at the moment, and it’s disappointing from an entry in a series that I’ve always thought was supposed to have very good stories. :/

#my thoughts #finally a fantasy barding #not putting this in the fandom tag out of respect for the fandom #grumble bumble posts like this don't go in the fandom tag <3 #tw vent

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