#even if someone breaks convention and gives Loki a birth mother it's usually a he/him one and like...

[nostalgia-tblr]

u know, once someone has pointed out the orientalism in most of fandom's depictions of jotun!loki you can never unsee it.

#it was always easy enough to spot in fanart but in fic you can't *see* it so it's maybe a bit less obvious? or else i'm just a bit thick. #but he's always in diaphanous silk 'bellydancer'-style garments and covered in gold hoop jewellery isn't he? D: #and none of the *other* jotuns get dressed like that so that plays even more into the 'exotic flower full of delicate eastern promise' thin #he's dressed to lounge around in a 19th century englishman's interpretation of the ottoman sultan's harem for some reason #(i've been reading some Thorki Arranged Marriage Fics of late and oh. my. god. can you find another less racist aesthetic pls?) #also semi-aside but i only just noticed fandom fixed the lack of jotun women in canon by just making them all Fantasy Hermaphrodites #even if someone breaks convention and gives Loki a birth mother it's usually a he/him one and like... #on one hand this looks Progressive but on the other it conveniently means nobody has to add any women to the story #that might actually explain why i felt weird when i was attempting a Jotunheim AU and i invented some women for it? #like oh my god you can't make his mother a woman what is this mary-sue self-insert nonsense?! #(i probably won't ever actually manage to write that fic but at least the planning stage was kind of fun)