#someone like you who is usually playing some super stereotypical racist role | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

seattlesea · 3 years

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bad representation in the riordanverse

Racism:

-Gave Hazel and Piper gold and ‘kaleidoscope’/brown-blue-green changing eyes and pretty much went ‘Let’s add some characters of color but they cANT HAVE BROWN EYES THAT’S NOT PRETTY ENOUGH’ as if whitewashing isn’t more than just the skin.

-East Asian characters: Riordan pretty much went 'Here are my East Asian characters- one of them looks like a fat baby on steroids and is super undeveloped, his mother is strict and cold, and all the others are just described as 'Asian' because different countries in Asia don't exist and there's obviously no difference between Japanese, Chinese, and Korean'. His portrayal of East Asian characters went like this: Frank: Chinese, chubby, hates himself, underdeveloped, described to look like a 'Chinese Canadian baby man' and a 'panda' as if that's not stereotyping, and only learned to love himself when he looked hotter. Drew: Asian, villainized, rude, shallow, vain, and selfish. Ethan: Asian, rude, evil, a traitor, and deceased. Grandma Zhang- rude, strict, cold, traditional, and deceased.

-Hazel: Has gold eyes. Has 'cinnamon brown' hair even though dark brown or black hair would be way more inclusive and realistic. Had a mother portrayed as a rude and selfish witch who sacrificed, used, and trafficked her own child. Was the only character called or described as a witch while African-Americans were usually accused of witchcraft just for their skin color. Was the only character who was cursed. Had a mother who literally practiced voodoo. The only African-American character in the series before ToA who isn't dead (but she also died). Was paired with a sixteen year old guy even though African women are constantly forced with older men and that's blatantly racist stereotyping.

-Piper: Had 'chocolate brown' and then 'mahogany' hair? Has kaleidoscope eyes. Put a feather in her hair (which is stereotyping)- and it was an eagle feather, which is also wrong because eagles are extremely sacred to First Nation tribes and only spiritual leaders or warriors can wear it or it has to be gifted by an Elder of the tribe, and Riordan basically went 'Feathers are very important and it's racist to make a character wear one at inappropriate times but I'm going to make my character wear one as a cute accessory to make her look cool, pretty, and headstrong and to add to her 'Aesthetic'’ even though Cherokees didn’t wear feathers (which proves he did the bare minimum of research). Constantly oversexualized (56% of First Nation women are sexually harassed and Riordan had the audacity to put Piper in an 'embarrassingly low v-neck' and to have her constantly drooled over by a WHITE MALE and have her sexualized by her 1000+ mother without her knowledge or consent). It's said that her father was from a reservation in Oklahoma...but there are no reservations in Oklahoma, only cultural centers (which also proves that he did the bare minimum of research). She's the only First Nations character and she's the only character (besides Nancy Bobofit) depicted as a kleptomaniac (First Nations people are constantly called thieves by racist assholes). “The week before, he’d turned down several million dollars to play Tonto in a remake of The Lone Ranger. Piper was still trying to figure out why. He’d played all kinds of roles—a Latino teacher in a tough L.A. school, a dashing Israeli spy in an action-adventure blockbuster, even a Syrian terrorist in a James Bond movie. And, of course, he would always be known as the King of Sparta. But if the part was Native American—it didn’t matter what kind of role it was—Dad turned it down.” (The Lost Hero, page 165). So her father is fine with playing an extremely racist and stereotypical Middle Eastern role but not a First Nations role. Uses a cornucopia as a weapon (how she got it- cutting it off a half-bull- is disrespectful to her culture as hurting an animal is banned and she used a cornucopia- a symbol of Thanksgiving- as a weapon). Cut her hair, which is basically taboo in First Nations culture.

-Samirah: Had an arranged marriage (at age twelve, and she believed that she was groomed to be married to a rich and respectable family and nothing else). Ripped off her hijab in front of tons of male characters. The only Muslim character. The only Muslim character and she's the only character who married her cousin (you're supposed to break stereotypes, not enforce them).

Thomas Jefferson Jr: Said that he was thankful to the British for not siding with the South during the American Civil War even though they needed the South's cotton (but they didn't side with the North either). AKA a black man and son of a freed slave was thankful to Britain for not openly oppressing him? And at the same time he was named after a racist slave-owner.

Reyna: She's brown and her entire story revolves around her being independent, strong, alone, and self-sufficient but also desperately needing love and support but then Riordan says that she can't get her heart healed AKA she went through an abusive home, killed her father, left her sister, felt alone her whole life, worked a two-person job alone for months, and had to put on a brave face for others throughout all this then was literally told 'Shut up no one wants to hear about your struggles, just suck it up and deal with it’ and have you seen all the shit brown girls have to go through and keep silent about it?

Extra: -Latino, Puerto Rican, African-American, Chinese-Canadian, East Asian, First Nations, etc. characters and the two most powerful, best, and most skilled characters and who the stories mostly revolve around are two white guys AKA white supremacy.

-"Harriet Tubman, daughter of Hermes, used many mortals on her Underground Railroad for just this reason" and that World War II was caused by a child of Zeus and a child of Hades fighting very blatantly erases the shit those people went through and Riordan just went 'Let's use these racist movements as little easter eggs in my story'.

-Thanatos, who was chained and enslaved, is described with dark skin.

-Riordan writing the characters went a little something like this: Drew: You get common Eastern Asian features like dark hair and eyes because you're arrogant, selfish, conceited, and rude, and because you're an antagonist and you're going to be used to make one of my protagonists- who has unique traits- look good so you're going to have the basic, 'boring' physical traits so the readers know who's the more superior of the two of you. Leo: You get common Latino features like curly dark hair, dark eyes, and light brown skin cause you're the weird, hyperactive unattractive one who's very flirty but constantly gets rejected and you're the only main character without a love interest and the only way you can get a girlfriend is when she's forced to fall in love with you through a curse. Frank: You get common Chinese features like dark hair and eyes cause you're the fat unattractive loser who catches the eye of the African character who already has unique and 'special' traits so you don't have to be super attractive. Reyna: You get common Puerto Rican traits like dark skin, hair, and eyes cause you're the stoic, lonely, intimidating, and cold one who wants all the guys (two white guys for that matter) but none of them want you and they both have girlfriends with traits like blonde hair and gray and kaleidoscope eyes so the readers know who are the more interesting couples. Piper and Hazel: You two get eurocentric features because you're the main characters I have to set apart from everyone else- including other females whom I'm going to make one of you rivals with- so the readers know who's more superior so I'm giving you unique eye colors that literally cannot be found in humans so I'm going to try to validate it by saying that it's from something mildly associated with your godly parent even though neither of them have those traits. Riordan basically said that the common features are bad and boring and that unique and special features- aka features not found in those ethnicities- are good and cool. Also- if gods don’t have DNA how can their traits be passed down to their demigod children checkmate Riordan.

-Cecil Markowitz is the only Jewish character in PJO and the first thing used to describe him is "That kid, always thinking about the potential payout".

-Lavinia said that she was going to bring her date to her bat mitzvah even though you don't bring dates to bat mitzvahs or bar mitzvahs and she said that it was 'awkward' to tell her rabbi that someone was going to be her date even though you don't explain your guestlist to your rabbi, and they're most likely not even going to be at the party.

-Only three Latino and Puerto Rican characters (Leo, Reyna, and Hylla) and all three came from abusive households.

-Leo said 'Mamacita' as if that's not stereotyping.

-Made Nico ‘pale’ even though he had olive skin and gave him black hair and dark eyes despite Italians usually having light hair and eyes just to add to his ‘Goth Boy Aesthetic’.

-Hazel described Pluto to look like Adolf Hitler.

-Carter Kane said that Elvis took African-American music and made it sound like rock 'n roll and described it as cool- like no it’s cultural appropriation.

-Leo was abused and Riordan thought that it'd be funny to make all the other characters line up to punch him and then try to make it look funny.

-Gave almost every single POC character a white name and sometimes gave them white first names and POC surnames, and Reyna and Bianca are the only POC characters with names from their culture/native language and one of them is dead and reborn as someone else and the other’s full name wasn’t revealed until the fourth book in her series and she hates using it.

-Made two POC characters with names from their culture- Samirah and Olujime- go by white nicknames (Sam and Jamie) to make it ‘easier to read’ despite having white characters with the same amount of syllables in their names (like Annabeth) that didn’t go by nicknames.

-Never actually described the characters of color with physical traits from their ethnicities (Reyna, Hylla, and Leo with big eyes, thick eyebrows, brown hair, wide noses, full lips, etc., Piper with almost-oriental eyes, shovel teeth, high cheekbones, black hair, etc., Nico with light or brown hair and eyes, olive skin, a narrow nose, etc., Hazel with a wide nose and lips, dark brown eyes, black or dark brown hair, big eyes, thick eyebrows, etc.).

Anti-LGBTQ+:

-Nico was forcibly outed by Cupid and Riordan and the fandom didn't care and the only thing they thought was 'Aww, he has a crush on Percy! So cute!' AKA romanticizing a forced outing.

-Riordan said that he didn't want to make Reyna lesbian or bisexual because he thought it'd be stereotypical making her LGBTQ+ because she didn't want men anymore even though she could've been bisexual all along but Riordan casually dismissed the idea of that saying "Having a girl end up with a woman after dating men is a bad stereotype" and basically said that real bi girls don’t exist.

-The Hunters of Artemis were made so Artemis/Diana could protect those girls from men and their behavior towards women but Riordan dismissed lesbian relationships- even though nothing about that was said in real Greek mythology- meaning that he thinks that women need protection from other women just as much as they need protection from men.

-Alex Fierro is the only gender-fluid or transgender character and she/he’s seen as rude, snarky, and sharp and Magnus could magically tell when Alex changed gender.

-Riordan said that he wouldn’t make Reyna a lesbian because of stereotypes despite the reader asking if Reyna was going to get a girlfriend, not come out as lesbian AKA Riordan thinks ‘Girls liking girls’ is automatically ‘lesbian’ and completely dismissed bi, pan, poly, omni, etc. girls.

-Used a self-insert to make fun of wlw readers who saw themself in Reyna and thought she could be a cool character to relate to.

-Enforced LGBTQ+ stereotypes like the cold-hearted Asexual, the flamboyant bi/pan, the snarky gender-fluid, the emo gay, the laid-back and rebellious lesbian who dyed her hair pink and chews a lot of bubblegum, etc.

-Has one-hundred fifty-five characters total minus gods/goddesses, Titans, giants, nymphs, dryads, satyrs, monsters, etc. and only has fifteen confirmed LGBTQ+ characters (do the math, that’s exactly one out of ten regarding OCs).

-Only one character that isn’t cishet.

-Saves most the LGBTQ+ for the side characters or only confirms characters LGBTQ+ once they’ve become a minor character despite being a main character before.

-Only stated that Reyna was Asexual outside of his books and on Twitter as if that’s not exactly what J.K Rowling is doing.

-Used the LGBTQ+ community to make Piper seem like the ‘special snowflake’ and to set her apart from her siblings to make it seem like she’s better than all of them and used Hera/Juno and Aphrodite/Venus as excuses for his homophobic mindset that believes that straight is the default cause “Suddenly, much of what she and I had talked about started to make sense. Not being defined by Aphrodite’s expectations. Or Hera’s ideas of what a perfect couple looked like. Piper finding her own way, not the one people expected of her” in synonymous words is 'The expectations for love and the idea of a perfect couple are a heterosexual relationship, and anyone who 'finds their own way instead of the ones people expect' are different'. ‘Different’ and ‘default’ are antonyms AKA if he thinks that LGBTQ+ people are ‘different’, he thinks that straight is the ‘default’. Remember- an author writes their own personal beliefs.

-Josephine is the only black LGBTQ+ character.

-Reyna is said to be Asexual despite feeling sexual attraction towards Percy cause no one likes someone five minutes after knowing them and it’s anything but sexual attraction.

-Magnus and Alex are the only LGBTQ+ relationship whose growth and development is actually shown in the story (while there was also Apollo and Commodus, Piper and Shel, Will and Nico, Apollo and Hyacinthus, Emmie and Jo, Lavinia and Poison Oak, etc.).

-Riordan never canonically said the name of any sexuality and is clearly uncomfortable with the LGBTQ+ community shown by his little to no writing regarding physical affection and deep emotions in his LGBTQ+ relationships.

-Only added in LGBTQ+ relationships for publicity- Percy Jackson and the Olympians release dates: 2005-2009. 2005-2009: LGBTQ+ support was nearly at an all-time low. No LGBTQ+ characters, relationships, or references in the books. The Lost Hero-The Mark of Athena release dates: 2010-2012. 2010-2012: LGBTQ+ support was still very low. Still no LGBTQ+ characters, relationships, or references in the books. The House of Hades release date: late 2013. Mid-2013: the giant spike for LGBTQ+ support and allies. One confirmed LGBTQ+ character. The Sword of Summer release date: late 2015. 2015: LGBTQ+ support was good and gay marriage was legalized. A few LGBTQ+ references but no confirmed characters. The Hammer of Thor and The Ship of the Dead release dates: 2016-2017. 2016-2017: LGBTQ+ support was quite high. Two confirmed LGBTQ+ characters and the first canon LGBTQ+ relationship and kiss. The Trials of Apollo release dates: 2016-2020. 2016-2020: LGBTQ+ support was very high. More LGBTQ+ characters confirmed in one book than all the other series combined. Kind of obvious he was just following the public opinion.

-Legit said ‘Reyna can’t like girls cause she has had crushes on guys before’.

Ableism:

-It was heavily implied in The Battle of the Labyrinth that Rachel Dare had schizophrenia/psychosis but it's never brought up again.

-Grover's fake feet made it look like he was disabled from the Mist and it was said that he was bullied because of it but it was never brought up again.

-It was said that Tyson looked like he had down syndrome from the Mist covering his one eye but it was never brought up again.

-It was stated that every character but Frank has ADHD and dyslexia but never actually showed any symptoms after Percy Jackson and the Olympians and characters like Piper and Leo were even able to read English writing throughout The Lost Hero and the only symptom of ADHD Riordan showed through his characters was ‘a lot of fidgeting’ as if that’s not a blatant stereotype.

Pedophilia:

-Luke, a twenty-two/twenty-three year old had a crush on Annabeth, a sixteen year old. That's a six-seven year age gap.

-The only two girls put into relationships with much older men are black (Hazel and Sadie).

-Hazel, a thirteen year old, got together with a sixteen year old guy. Hazel's crush on Frank is normal- a girl having a crush on an older guy, but Frank's crush on Hazel is disgusting- an older guy looking down at a child and thinking about making out with her.

Misogyny:

-Aphrodite's kids are seen as useless, weak, snobby, shallow, vain, and selfish just because they’re feminine.

-Riordan portrayed Aphrodite’s kids as feminine despite Aphrodite being the goddess of love and beauty, not femininity, as if romance and beauty are reserved for women only.

-Piper is the only 'tomboy' child of Aphrodite and she's portrayed as tougher, stronger, and better than her feminine siblings (and it's portrayed that way multiple times throughout the story like other characters telling Piper she’s "-tough for a child of Aphrodite").

-Piper immediately stereotyped and disliked every single feminine character like Drew and the rest of the Aphrodite cabin just because they liked makeup and skirts as if that’s not shallow criticism.

-Feminine characters like Drew, Isabel, Khione, and Medea are used or even created solely as antagonists to make Piper- the tomboy- look better.

-Calypso is the only feminine character and she sucks at everything.

-Riordan’s take on female characters: Drew: a vain, rude, selfish, snobby, and bitchy mean girl. Silena: a shallow traitor. Reyna: a cold-hearted robot. Piper: internalized misogyny that was never brought up again. Calypso: an island whore. Athena: a rude, aggressive bitch with no emotions. Aphrodite: shallow, vain, conceited, and self-centered. Hera: completely evil with no backstory added into it. Marie: an evil witch who selfishly used and sacrificed her daughter.

-The Hunters of Artemis were blessed by Artemis to protect them from men but Riordan made it only about the men in their lives (again) and portrayed the whole 'losing men' thing like it was a burden and that they're 'giving men up' even though they join the Hunters to leave men. He distorted the original meaning of the Hunters- protecting women- by making it about the Hunters hating and being forced to leave men even though they're asking to have no men in their lives, cause that's the point of it.

-The Amazons and Hunters of Artemis despise men and literally attack them if they so much as speak as if sexism is reserved for women only.

-Portrayed femininity as weakness (and masculinity as strength, it’s even in the word- tomBOY).

-Constantly pit women against women for the sake of romance and love triangles instead of normalizing women getting along despite liking the same people and let the female’s relationships get controlled and influenced by the men in their lives.

-The men always outpower the women in powers and skills. Riordan’s portrayal of powers and characters- Percy: You’re going to have epic water powers and can even create your own personal hurricanes and even though you’ve only been canonically training for eight months total you’re going to be the best swordfighter despite multiple characters having years more training than you. Jason: You’re going to be able to fly, control lightning, create storms, and electric shock people into another dimension. Leo: You’re going to be able to create and control fire and blow shit up with just a screwdriver. Frank: You’re going to be able to shape-shift into any animal you want, even a whole dragon. Nico: You’re going to be able to control darkness and shadows, literally teleport, and raise a whole army of undead soldiers. Reyna: Powers? Nah, your only ability is to lend strength to others as if that benefits you at all. Annabeth: Powers? Nah. Piper: You’re going to be able to manipulate and seduce people and are literally going to use your body and attractiveness as a weapon and your power is literally called charmspeak. Hazel: You have more powers than all the other characters combined that can literally destroy anyone in less than a second but you’re never going to use them or even remember that you have them cause screw the female character being more powerful than the males.

-The men always accomplish the most incredible feats and if the females ever do accomplish something great (Reyna healing the riff and defeating Orion while the Hunters and Amazons couldn’t combined, Annabeth going through Tartarus, Hazel learning to control the Mist, etc.) they are never praised or rewarded or all the credit goes to the men.

-Ares/Mars in real Greek/Roman mythology was the feminist patron of the Amazons who loved his daughter very much and killed a rapist but was portrayed as the dumb, cruel asshole who loved nothing but bloodshed and tried to kill a twelve year-old kid who was trying to help him while Poseidon/Neptune in real Greek/Roman mythology was a greedy, short-tempered, and arrogant asshole who raped almost as much women than Zeus/Jupiter but was portrayed as the kind, caring, and gentle father figure.

Fatophobia:

-Frank is the only chubby character and he hates himself because of it, was constantly fat-shamed, and only learned to love himself after he got rippling abs, muscles, and looked hotter (because fat = ugly in Riordan’s mind, even though it's not).

-Clovis was depicted with a pot-belly and Drew described him as 'repulsive'.

-Dionysus/Bacchus is also depicted with a pot-belly and he's portrayed as a useless, rude, lazy, and drunken asshole.

Lookism:

Basically how Riordan wrote his characters- Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Reyna, Hazel, Piper, and most minor protagonists: You’re all going to be super attractive, have at least one character or more pining for you, have your looks constantly commented on, and some of you will even use your looks as a weapon cause that’s not obvious sexualization cause you’re all the main characters and protagonists that readers need to know are the protagonists. Nico, Leo, and Frank: You three are originally portrayed as unattractive but at some points are described as cute and two of you are insecure about your looks cause you’re scrawny and chubby and one of you hates yourself cause of your body and only learn to love yourself once you magically gain abs cause more muscle obviously equals more attractiveness. Luke, Silena, Chris, and Ethan: You four are going to be super attractive because you’re traitors but all of you make up for your actions and decide to help the demigods and become protagonists again. Octavian, Bryce, Michael, Titans, giants, etc.: You all are the antagonists so you have to be super ugly with multiple physical imperfections cause you’re not allowed to be attractive since you are against the protagonists and I have to set you guys apart and show the readers who’s the better and more superior character.

-Frank hated himself cause he was chubby and only loved himself once he got skinnier and gained muscle through magic but even then was called ‘cute like a panda’.

-Leo was described as scrawny and unattractive and was insecure about being short but even then was called ‘cute in a scrawny way’.

-Piper had facial imperfections and even a pimple on her nose but once she got claimed all of those disappeared and they stayed gone even after the blessing washed off despite all the magic being gone and only then was Piper’s looks commented on multiple times.

-Lester/Apollo hated his appearance cause he had a little flab and acne and his physical imperfections were used as comedy by making fun of it as if insecure readers don’t exist.

-Percy and Annabeth had one canon physical imperfection- a gray streak in their hair- and that magically washed away.

-None of the other characters were described with any physical imperfections like pimples/zits/acne, body hair (despite none of the characters having the care or time to wax or shave), bushy/frizzy or messy hair or eyebrows, big or small hands or noses, blackheads, super thick or thin eyebrows, blemishes, birthmarks, scars, stretch marks, braces, lazy eyes, yellow or chipped teeth, eye bags, glasses, moles, dimples, love handles, flab/fat, visible veins, freckles, etc. unless it added to their ‘aesthetic’ despite none of those being bad and saves it only for the antagonists as if ‘physical imperfections’ = ‘evil’.

Bias:

-Riordan portrayed the Romans as cold, cruel, ruthless, strict, and overall horrible despite them being the more inclusive camp regarding family and godly parents, have multiple families and rules that ensure their camper’s safety, and hold the nicest characters in the series while the Greeks are portrayed as fun, wild, reckless, silly, and cool despite holding the most prejudiced and rude characters, outcasting and ostracizing characters of certain godly parents just for their parentage, stereotype almost every single cabin, and make some campers without siblings live, sleep, and eat alone.

-Every Greek traitor (Luke, Silena, Ethan, and Chris) were portrayed as powerful, kind, attractive, and awesome and each made up for their actions but each Roman ‘traitor’ (Octavian, Bryce, and Michael, and only one of them are actually a traitor) were portrayed as unattractive, cruel, ambitious, ruthless, and extremely weak and never actually did anything useful.

-The Greeks were part of the Union and the Romans were part of the Confederacy (adding on to Riordan adding racist movements as fun little easter eggs in his stories).

-Four out of seven of the main Seven are Greek.

-There are at least 70+ Greek characters and less than thirty named Romans.

-The Battle of San Francisco Bay was used for the sole purpose to weaken the Romans and make the Greeks seem stronger than them and while the Greeks went through two whole wars, their camp laid almost completely untouched but the moment the Romans are introduced, half their population is wiped?

Romanticization:

-Romanticized Annabeth judo-flipping Percy AKA romanticized physical abuse/harassment (emotions, angriness, feelings of love and affection, ‘they went through a lot together’, etc. do not excuse hitting someone) despite Annabeth knowing where Percy’s Achilles Heel was and not knowing he lost it and flipping him on his back anyways (if Percy didn’t lose the Achilles Heel, Annabeth would’ve killed him).

-Romanticized Leo killing himself to see Calypso again and to take her off her island AKA a romanticized suicide.

-Romanticized Calypso yelling at and insulting Leo and Annabeth insulting and canonically lowering Percy’s self-esteem AKA romanticized verbal abuse/bullying.

-Romanticized Will trying to help Nico through his loneliness and depression as if that can’t be portrayed as someone just wanting to help another person AKA romanticized mental illness.

-Romanticized every character kissing another character without asking first and without their consent AKA romanticized sexual harassment.

-Romanticized Piper taking advantage over Jason’s amnesia and mental state and jumping onto him despite knowing there might be a girl he couldn’t remember AKA romanticized manipulation.

-Romanticized Piper and Annabeth’s possessive, overly-jealous, and controlling behavior over Jason and Percy (even before they were canonically dating).

-Romanticized Nico being forced to confess his crush on Percy AKA romanticized a forced outing.

Rick Riordan:

-Refused to apologize for his actions even after being called out by people from the groups he was writing inaccurately and stereotyping (Muslim, Jewish, African, First Nation, lesbian, gay, Puerto Rican, etc.) and tried to make himself look like the victim.

-Claimed he was being ‘bullied’ by readers half his age who were just pointing out his books’ racist flaws.

-Showed time and time again that he is not willing to listen to the voices of minorities.

-Clearly didn’t do his research on ethnicities, sexualities, religions, etc. shown by how he got the simplest things wrong.

-Tried to say that he- a straight white man- was right when people of the actual groups he was writing about (gay, First Nation tribes, etc.) were wrong.

-Used excuses like having a ‘headstrong’ and ‘stubborn’ character who wants to ‘show their culture in their own way’ for his stereotypes. No, Riordan, you want to show the culture that way, not Piper. She’s a fictional character, you’re real. Dumbass.

-Literally said ‘Sorry I put feathers in Piper’s hair, I can’t change what I wrote in the past and I didn’t know that sensitive readers existed’ then continued to write feathers in Piper’s hair in the future books.

The Fandom:

Note: Not to all of the fandom, obviously

-Draws Piper with light skin, light hair, and kaleidoscope eyes with feathers, hippie bands, and beads (yes, it's canon, but you're allowed to change it if it's blatantly racist, and the bead and hippie band thing was created by the fandom and that's also stereotyping).

-Almost always draw Reyna, Hylla, and Leo with light skin and Caucasian traits (props to the few artists who drew them with the right skin tones).

-Draws Hazel with gold eyes, ‘cinnamon’/light brown hair, and an adult body.

-Sexualizes female characters by drawing them in sexy and revealing clothes and giving them all the same exact sexy, slim, and perfect hour-glass shaped bodies.

-Almost never include physical imperfections, muscle, scars, stretch marks, etc. in drawings.

-Fancasts white actors for characters of color and puts actors/faceclaims of white people or people of different ethnicities in the moodboards or aesthetics for characters of color.

-Participates in cultural appropriation by wearing feathers when cosplaying Piper and wearing a hijab when cosplaying Samirah.

-Supports Riordan, tries to defend him, and condones his clearly racist and bigoted actions just cause they ‘like the books’ (if you are straight, white, and/or cishet, I definitely don’t want to see you trying to defend a fifty-five year-old multi-millionaire who is clearly racist, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic).

-Romanticize physical abuse, verbal abuse, mental illnesses and panic/anxiety attacks, etc.

-Ship pedophilic, manipulative, abusive, and wrong relationships.

-Barely allow others to have their own opinions (looking at you Perachel haters) without yelling at, insulting, cursing out, and/or even threatening them for liking or disliking different things than them including ships, characters, books, plots/faults, and Riordan himself.

-Straightwashes characters like shipping Nico with female characters or setting him up with a female character in fanfics.

-Whitewashes characters like drawing Hazel and Piper with eurocentric features, Reyna, Hylla, and Leo with white skin and Caucasian traits, Nico with white/pale skin, etc.

-Try to excuse and explain abusive, manipulative, possessive, and overall very wrong and toxic behavior.

-Fail to recognize and/or admit the toxic, racist, homophobic, sexist, transphobic, wrong, abusive, etc. faults in the books, ships, and characters just cause they like them.

The Percy Jackson franchise does not add good representation. You can still like the series as long as you don’t condone Riordan’s racist and toxic writing and actions and don’t try to ignore the horrible and stereotypical faults just cause you don’t want to admit that your favorite or childhood story is horrible.

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chibimyumi · 4 years

Note

Hello Chibimyumi, I apologise in advance for the uncomfortable question I have about the musicals. I hope I'm mistaken, but for those musicals where Soma and Agni are included, is it truly the case that they are portrayed by actors in brownface? Is this a common occurrence, and what is public perception of this in Japan today?

Dear Anon,

You ask an incredibly good but complicated question. It is great to hear that you are aware of how cultural contexts can play into such matters. Now, since you asked, I’d ask you all to strap in; this is going to be quite a ride.

Short answer

If you mean whether the actors used darker make-up to portray a race with a darker skin tone, then yes. The actors are all ethnically Japanese without any Indian heritage to the best of everyone’s knowledge.

However, before we can discuss this “whether this is an issue”, the following is what I need all readers here to keep in mind at all times (i.e. don’t continue reading with White SJ in mind). Namely: In Japan and Japanese live theatre medium especially, ‘[colour] face’ has entirely different connotations than in the White West. To anyone mid-pounce of their attack in light of social justice, halt. Please hear me out. I am talking ONLY about Japan.

Brown Face in Japan?

Demographics

So, before we begin, I wish to instill in you all that Japan is very, very homogeneous in comparison to most other countries. Japan has LESS THAN 2% of ethnically non-Japanese people, and half of this >2% is ethnically Chinese or Korean. So yes, in Japan, ONLY 1% is racially and phenotypically different than the native Japanese. Japanese people are the natives in Japan, so they consider their skin ‘neutral’; it is NOT coloured. Then there are the ‘white coloured’ people who are semi-neutral, and you have everyone else who have a ‘darker colour’.

Now with this framework in mind, let us jump to how this demographic makeup affects the theatre world. For clarity’s sake I shall discuss this in sections.

Section 1 - Poor, poor industry

Japanese theatre and especially 2.5D industries are really poor. As discussed in full detail in this post about the extreme harm of pirating JP theatre, the vast majority of theatre actors need to juggle 2 or 3 jobs to make a living because most theatre companies ONLY pay the performers for their stage time (no rehearsal pay, no food, no accommodation). One run of a show is usually no more than 5 or 6 weeks. If one show gets a run of 3 months, that is considered ridiculously long. So far, only the top three Japanese theatre companies can manage such long runs, being: Takarazuka, TOHO and Shiki.

Section 2 - ‘Broad utility value’ and chances

The super short runs means that on average, an actor only has an income for 5 or 6 weeks for one job, even though their work for one production takes much more time than that (formal rehearsal is usually one month, but there’s a lot of ‘homework’ and ‘overwork’ too). This again means that in order to make a living in the theatre industry, a performer needs to have ‘broad utility value’, that is to say: they need to be ‘castable’ into as many roles as possible, and therefore ‘neutral’.

The selling stories in Japan usually have an all-Japanese or all-white character list, as you all must have noticed. When there are non-white foreigners in such stories, they’re usually countable on the fingers of one hand. And sadly, when they are present they‘re often comic relief, antagonists, or ‘exotic accessories’.

The wider sentiment in Japan is that if you are ‘neutral coloured’ you can be painted into a different colour. But if you are ‘darker than neutral’, you can’t be painted lighter. “You cannot take the colour away”, so to say. That is the reason why in Japan, darker skinned minorities would have very little incentive to sign up for the theatre industry. Why bother get a job that pays so terrible and ONLY be allowed minor/bad roles if there happen to be darker skinned characters once in a blue moon? Why bother competing with ‘neutral’ skinned people who can replace you easily?

In a nutshell, the terribly racist reality is that darker skinned actors are not considered to have broad utility value because the entertainment industry and common populace decided so. With so few dark skinned characters and the wide acceptance that ‘neutral’ skinned people can be painted into any other colour, darker skinned people’s chances of getting by on theatre work is just very slim. The entertainment industry makes itself very unappealing to these people, and indeed resulted in a shortage of darker skinned performers.

This current shortage means that if a production wants to feature differently skinned characters without ‘brown facing’, they’d have trouble finding enough people who: 1. are ‘the correct colour’, 2. are willing to work for virtually no pay, and 3. also have the skills to perform in Japanese language (many of these people also really lack the practice to build up theatre skills because - as explained - they have very little outlook in this field). So again, “why bother going through the trouble if you can just paint these actors white and those actors brown? Same difference right? Here have some brown foundation and you’re good to go!”

Section 3 - The race is the costume

Well, is painting Japanese actors white or brown ‘same difference’? In practice... to Japan, ‘yes’. Japan does not have an issue with pretending to be a different race through make-up. This means that there is no concept of ‘brown face’ or ‘any other-colour-face’. Seeing Japanese actors painted white in modern theatre and cosplay is the standard. Countless modern theatre shows feature almost exclusively white characters, after all.

As a representative example, Kuromyu mostly has white characters. But so far it has had 4 mixed-race actors in 10 years! However, all of them are partially white, meaning they’re “““light neutral””” or even “““extra pretty”””.

There is no such thing as ‘white face’ in Japan, and outside Japan, nobody (in their right mind) should compare ‘white face’ to ‘black face’. When the Europeans arrived in Japan, the Japanese were actively challenged to prove themselves as white as possible. Japan was spared from colonisation because they proved themselves “white civilised enough” for the Europeans. That is the Japanese-Western legacy: “pretending to be a colour is part of ‘modernisation’ and ‘globalisation’”. If painting a ‘neutral’ person white is okay, why wouldn’t painting someone ‘brown’ be? It sounds quite hypocritical to Japanese people because Japan has a different racial relationship than the White West has.

Unlike white-colonising countries, Japan does not have such a long and problematic history regarding brown/black races, hence there is also no collective guilt about having systematically oppressed and excluded dark skinned people. In the White West if you paint someone darker it’s because they don’t want to employ dark skinned people. In Japan however, it’s because there are hardly any darker skinned people to actually take the job. It’d be an altogether different problem for the theatre industry to just go: “we shall only stage all-Japanese-characters productions now!” ... that’s what they did in Imperial Japan during WWII, and that was NOT pretty.

Besides, Japan in being so homogeneous, we can imagine why awareness of ‘brown/black face’ was never deemed immediately ‘necessary’ in Japan. In combination with the legacy of ‘pretending to be a colour is fine’, the current status quo had taken shape.

Unlike American media or South Korean media, Japan predominantly creates solely for the purpose of domestic consumption. Hence the DVDs are often sold in Japan only without subtitles. Hence that many websites are Japan restricted. Japanese theatre no exception, it’s made by Japanese, for the Japanese, in Japan. As explained above, because there is no concept of problematic x-colour-face, then why bother avoiding it?

Section 4 - Orientalism though....

So, are Soma and Agni ‘brown face’ in Kuromyu? Not in the same way it would be in a Euro-American way, but that does not mean it’s ‘no problem at all’.

The main problem in Japan is not the ‘brown face’, but Orientalism. The common Japanese people would not bat a single eye at two Indian characters going on and on about curry, elephants and Hindu Gods. But unlike ‘colour-face’ not really being a problem in Japan because of different cultural heritage, the perpetuation of stereotypes cannot be excused.

When there are so few dark skinned characters in an otherwise all-white/ “neutral” cast, it surely is quite aggravating that the musical chose to reduce Indian people to... well, curry, elephants and Hindu Gods. Had the writers not reduced Indian culture to a stereotype however, then as long as the portrayal of dark-skinned people is respectful, ‘brown face’ really is not a problem in Japan, just like ‘white face’ is not.

Conclusion

In this post I have discussed the demographic makeup of Japan, the terrible circumstances of the theatre industry, and how this lead to a real lack of dark-skinned performers. The lack of dark-skinned actors, in turn, means that if a theatre/film industry doesn’t want to go ‘pure Japanese race pride!!!’, they’d have to ‘paint actors into a race’.

Japan narrowly having escaped white colonialism also means that the Japanese have a very different awareness about race and sensitivity. In being challenged to ‘perform the white race’ in the 19th century, Japan gained a legacy wherein ‘race is just performative’.

That Japan has a different cultural heritage and racial history can explain why x-‘colour-face’ is non-problematic in Japan. Applying white-social-justice to Japanese standards would cause entirely different problems simply because the Japanese demographic makeup and film/theatre industry simply cannot adopt this western standard without doing more harm than good. This Japanese heritage however, does NOT excuse offensive stereotyping of people however.

So in a nutshell: Soma and Agni are not ‘brown face’ in Japanese context because there is no such concept. However, there is a problem, and it lies in the Orientalist stereotyping of Indian culture.

#Kuroshitsuji #Black Butler #Kuromyu #Agni #Soma #soma asman kadar #Brown face #black face #white face #culture #cultural context #japanese society #japanese context

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zm-sc · 5 years

Text

On the racism MJ/Zendaya (still) faces

So, it shouldn’t be too long before the new Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer gets released. Therefore I’d like to humbly try to provide help to fight the racism these ladies are victims of, by pointing out what I think are the most reccuring patterns in the commentaries MJ/Zendaya receives. This idea came to me as I remembered I had fun screen shoting messy comments at some point and keeping them in a file just in case I’d need to prove a point, and I guess this time has come

Disclaimer: Sadly, these are in no way edits. Real people, type this stuff online. I'm aware a bunch are just really dying for a redhead, fiery and all that, Mary Jane on big screen, and that a bunch are just jealous fangirls thinking they stand a chance with someone who doesn’t even know they exist, but also none of these are reasons to be borderline, or full on racist. Some usernames are masked because I thought it wasn't that deep but still dumb, some are lucky they didn't appear, and some appear because I think that if one has the nerves to make these kind of statements, probably some exposing can not hurt them

Here we go.

1. Racism:

2. Rationalization of hatred:

NB: A spot on response to this post

I have no screen shots for this, but the reactions to MJ saying “Therefore I have value?” in the first Far From Home trailer. In which the NEXT second she says she is joking, but you know, gotta make this an issue.I read with my own two eyes that it would "put Peter in a bad mood", or "I hate how feminist she is, makes me hate her and the actress". For this latter point, notice, Brie Larson has been getting the stupidest hate for saying she wanted her press tour to not only be white as men interviewers and being a feminist

But still, let us not be delusional, this remains about race.

3. Language: Let’s see: "Gross, "ew", "too black", “woc aren’t attractive”, “sick to my stomach”, “no chemistry”, “ (bonus: letting a single character ruin your whole love for Peter…..) Oh and bad attitude” “rude as fuck”, “basic-ass negative”, “forced”, “NO Chemistry”, “she made fun of him”. I could go on but it’s not in these posts, but you get me. Like what is gross? What is the standard for chemistry? Is calling him a "loser" truly the end of the world or is it all a reach because MJ doesn't cater to hegemonic feminity, so it makes her rudw? (S/O to Brie Larson again, who is having her whole body language analyzed to prove her co stars hate her/is being compared to every actress who has played a super hero to prove that it's ok to dislike her because she is not "nice" compared to the hegemonic standard these x other actresses correspond to.) Btw, “I love Zendaya but” is a classic too, usually prefaces nonsense

4. "I love x character who is a poc/x black character so this take is invalid”. Wrong. Not being racist towards one race is not a stop from being anti black, furthermore in this case, it is not a stop from not falling into mysoginoir. Very simply, “mysoginy directed towards black womenwhere race and gender both play roles in bias.” It’s all systemic. Loving Ned doesn't prevent you from being anti black. Men are privileged over women and then it’s race coming into play, always. Zendaya/MJ is a black woman, so she is less worthy of everything, and so it makes little sense in these people’s minds that Peter would like her, let alone that he’d want to date her. Ned is a man, so he is not a threat to fangirls’ fantasies, in which you’ll also notice they treat Ned/Jacob Batalon better than MJ (well, whatever "better" is when you aren’t a skinny white boy….).

5. "Liz was better". (Very often is the pov of, wait for it, white girls (often male fans would rather not even have Spidey in a relationship all short, so yeah). Because she was a fleshed out character absolutely not solely designed as a plot device to the Toomes reveal, or because she embodied the behavior that is deemed as THE one women should have if they want a man's attention and so it is easier to project yourself into her than it is to do so with MJ? That was rhetorical. Gender socialization. Hegemonic feminity. Be white, nice, docile, so very sweet and ready to please, or you won't find a man/job! But men can be shitty and yet will be called badass or witty. Think here for a sec, how many people who dislike Michelle for being rude, are into TONY STARK/Irondad? And God knows I love Tony, but as if he is a saintl? From his pre cave antics to the way he was with Peter in Homecoming and some other stuff in between. Also, he would fucking love MJ lol? What differentiates them so much at the end of the day, from the constant sarcasm to the obvious need to hide their feelings behind it? And that she clearly loves Peter, as did Tony but it took him until Endgame to show it. What makes it ok for him to not have shown it from the jump but makes MJ undeserving of character developpement and of Peter falling in love with her in Far From Home after an obviously planned character developpement? The fact that Tony is white and male. That's it

Candice Patton/Iris in The Flash, hell, Serena Williams in tennis, are all examples of this

6. Another thing that does not appear here but that exists, related to MJ or not, is attempting to erase Zendaya’s blackness to deny these reactions could possibly be racially motivated. “She is half white”. Or whatever headass take of the likes. But we know those 50% are not the reason why she is “Not the real MJ”. So which is it? Is she too black or not white enough? The answer is: Both. And both are racist statements, period. The people saying “they should have just named her Mary Jane” are also the same who were all up Zendaya and Marvel’s ass when her casting news dropped, bet

In conclusion, racism has many more faces else than explicitly using the n word, exactly like these microgressions above

They are not ok, because they stem from systematic racism and oppression, including negative stereotyping. This idea that black women are aggressive, not desirable, and not beautiful enough etc is nothing new but it still does not make it tolerable. Nobody who is racist or using a microagression, consciously or not, will actually ever admit it when called out on it. So dare to open that can of worms if you can. And for those who have been called out, please actually listen to why this statement is being made, especially if it's by a POC. That way you should technically never face this accusation again because you'd have listened and learned, instead of not listening and learning and finding yourself getting called names every turn, because you refused the lesson you could have gotten at the last turn

Spider-Man: Far From Home comes out on July 2nd and its press tour is starting today. I'd like to encourage everyone to above all, provide Zendaya/MJ the support she is going to need online, as she will this time get more to chew in this movie than in Homecoming, and yet people will still find reasons to complain, but also to not forget to pay attention in the future, to the frequency of use of these patterns when talking about MJ/Zendaya and to not let them stop you from defending these ladies. Let Z (and Marvel too while at it) know you have their back. She is a very attuned to social media lady, she would not miss the memo, nor would Marvel

A cute edit: We love racism and disrespecting drug addicts for no reason. Carry on though, idiots

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edream93 · 5 years

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Do you have some Headcannons of Genderbend of HUMA? If not what's your view of Genderbending?

Oooo so....this is kind of complicated? Let’s hope I can get this out in a way that’s understandable.

Generally, I’m okay with genderbending. However, as an African American female who writes a lot for Huma, I personally would never genderbend them. I’m not saying that I dislike or think anyone who does is wrong but personally I would never genderbend Uma specifically.

Why?

Because there’s very limited examples of black female characters in the media that are inspiring. And there’s even fewer where a black woman, who isn’t racially ambiguous, has a love interest who is actually supportive and loving. Now I know some people will say “It’s a kid’s show. It doesn’t matter.” Actually, as a mental health professional, I can say it does. Research has shown that constant exposure to media where children do not see characters that look like them has a negative impact on those children’s self-esteem and also their views on whatever is their minority identity.

Take for instance all the Disney princess movies. I was born in 1993. Growing up, before the Princess and the Frog came out (and oh, don’t even get me started about how that still felt like a cop out because she was a frog for the majority of the movie), the only princesses that I could pretend I related to were Pocahontas, Jasmine, and Mulan and that’s ONLY because they were not white.

Now, I know this may be hard for some people to imagine but just honestly and truly try: You’re a kid growing and all the TV and books and movies that you see all have a character who doesn’t look like you at all. The fews times you do see that a character that does look like you, they either only have one line, they’re a charicature of some negative stereotype like either a thug, gang member, an idiot, a sidekick etc, or they’re identity is so ambiguous that it’s super hard to relate to them. Obviously, race is an easy thing to pick up on but this also goes for those who identify as LGBTQ+, immigrants, those who have different body shapes and sizes than that of those who are typically shown in media, those with disabilities, and a whole bunch of other minority identities that I’m unfortunately blanking on at the moment.

So yeah, did I memorize a crap ton of Disney songs and make my mom buy me most of the Disney princess movies? Um, yeah, but seriously - and I’m not exaggerating - I remember seeing a Belle costume when I was little (like 6 or 7) and instantly thinking, “I can’t wear that. Belle isn’t black.”

Now because there’s always that one person who likes to point out the obvious, yes, I do know that I could have worn that dress and at the age of 6 or 7 no one was stopping me from wearing it other than my mom who was like “Do you have a Belle princess dress money?” (Of course not mother, what 6 or 7 year old knows about saving like that?) but it’s still the idea that though I had certain qualities that I could relate to with Belle, I knew that if magic did exist and Belle came into the real world her experience as a white woman would be very different than mine.

Anyway, going back to the whole genderbend Uma thing, though I can’t say I have love spelled any King’s lately and I’m pretty sure I’m not a sea witch, I can relate to Uma on both physically and in terms of characteristics. China Anne McClain, though not the darkest black woman is solidly, no denying it, a black woman. There’s no ambiguity and though race may not play a role in terms of her character, it plays a HUGE role in terms of little black girls watching her. Obviously, there are other little girls who like Uma and can be inspired by her too but to have a black female character who is 1.) a leader (she’s captain of a crew), 2.) who’s smart (we see this in the movies during her scenes but also the book really displays this as well), and 3.) who has a heavily implied love interest who obviously supports her and thinks the world of her (have you not seen “What’s My Name”?) changing her to a male character would take away a lot of things that make her awesome. I mean, let’s be real. At least in the U.S. WOC generally but specifically black women are the most looked down upon.

Some people might think I’m thinking way too deep about this but I’m a black woman fanfic writer. I can write whatever the heck I want to write about and what I choose to write about recently focuses on black female characters or at least women of color characters. I honestly think that’s why I’ve stayed in the Descendants fandom for so long. Uma is a fascinating character for me to write because she breaks all the usual black female stereotypes and I think when she and specifically her actress, China, are allowed to shine they’re fantastic.

Like I love fandom and I love fanfiction and all the creatives but I would be lying if I didn’t say that fandom generally has a lot of latent racism. People tend to think that’s people blatantly saying “I hate x character because they’re black/asian/latio/etc.” but that’s not really the truth. Personally, I see it obviously in who people choose to ship characters with. I’m not saying that if you don’t ship x character with a person of color you’re racist but going back to Descendants, I think it’s super evident when you see Harry shipped with basically everyone under the sun and other than Huma and a few Uma/Ben or Sea Three stories (though the Audrey/Uma ship has been growing lately), Uma is never shipped with someone and more likely than not, she’s the bad guy or the suddenly jealous ex or she gets killed off. (I’m a sucker for pain and read a lot of non-Huma stories unfortunately.) And you see that in other fandoms too.

So long answer short: I’m okay with genderbending in general but my personal choice is to not genderbend Uma specifically. (Genderbent Harry would be interesting though.)

I hope that answered your question anon!

#disney descendants #huma #uma descendants #representation matters #sorry but I won't genderbend Uma #Harry is free game though #edream93 answers

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riancraigjohnson-blog · 6 years

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would you be willing to share some of the issues that you had with tlj as a woman of color? I was telling some friends about issues people were having with the film's treatment of PoC and I figured it would be better to share an actual PoC's perspective.

thank you so much for asking!!!! now, full disclosure i’m a super white-passing latina. or hispanic. ( i’ve referred to myself as both, so ) i’m puerto rican on my mom’s side. so i haven’t personally experienced the racism that my mom has, or my grandfather ( popi ) has, or my aunts or my mom’s cousins or, well, that entire side of my family.

as such, i can’t speak from a woman of color’s perspective because i’m white-passing, just because that hasn’t happened to me. i can be outraged about it, certainly, because i see my family in someone like oscar, or benecio who is actually puerto rican, and yeah, their treatment pisses me off.

now, that being said, let’s continue: ( note: i’m going to focus more on poe in regards to personal experience, as he’s the one i most closely relate to in terms of racial-themed questions )

what is the narrative that is being fed to us today, politically? one of harsh anti-immigration, one of an us vs them mentality-- you don’t have to be a poc to realize that, but it’s the reality that’s facing us. ( we’re particularly seeing a strong anti-latinx/hispanic, anti-black, and anti-muslim sentiment, but that’ll come in later. )

in tfa, we have our main trio-- a white girl, a young black man, and a latino man-- our heroes. in contrast, we have our villain trio-- a white woman and two white men. to me, that sets the tone-- we’re offered a movie that allows two main non-white characters the chance to shine and break free from racial stereotypes, and they do so spectacularly. i look at poe, and that’s my family, that’s a positive representation for other latinxs/hispanics, something we sorely do not get enough of in big-budget films. ( usually we’re portrayed as either hot-tempered, hyper-sexualized exotics, or stupid comic relief. ) imagine how awesome it was to see poe be none of these things?

he’s sharp-witted, funny, intelligent, quick on his feet, resourceful, and above all, kind. he’s sweet and clearly loves both what he does and the people he works with, and even without the background the books and other media provide, poe is obviously shown as someone who both respects leia and she respects in turn, someone who is well-deserving of his high-rank in the resistance, especially when you consider just how quickly this man came back after being both physically and mentally tortured by the first order/kyle. poe is, at the core of it, a gentle soul compared to the many brash and/or stupid ‘latinx/hispanic’ representations we’ve been fed in the past, so this was such a nice change of pace. he doesn’t yell or get violent, even at his most frustrated-- he’s level-headed and demonstrates all the needed qualities for a leader.

now.

the poe we get in tlj is painted as if he’s none of those things-- in the beginning, he’s shown as being in it just for the glory, the thrill of taking down a dreadnought instead of the guilt that might have plagued him over the excessive deaths in that scene-- that seems more in line with his character in tfa. he’s disobedient, petulant, impulsive-- and then he gets slapped by leia. ( here’s a hint, rian: white people slapping poc is never cool, even if you think it’s ‘empowering’ just because it’s a woman slapping. ) he then gets demoted from commander to captain, placed under the charge of holdo with the rest of the crew, and then denied even the slightest of answers when he, quite reasonably, asked for what the hell the plan was. however, the whole movie stands to paint poe’s mutiny as childish. his mission that he sent rose and finn on as a failure. that he’s going to learn the lesson of ‘sacrificing oneself for the greater good’ from a white woman, when poe has CLEARLY demonstrated in the past that he’s more likely to put himself in danger than let others do it for him.

we supposedly get this great character arc showing poe grow as a character from an impatient, hot-headed man-child who throws a literal tantrum ( hmmmmmmmmmmm sound like a certain white 30-year old we know? ) into this seasoned, war-tested officer who now knows the value of hope because he should have just blindly trusted this woman who gave him no reason to.

that’s regression, and that’s harmful, and that’s why we’re getting people talking about not liking poe, or downright hating him, or in buzzfeed’s instance, calling him worse than jar jar binks.

when i came out of tfa, when other people i know came out of tfa, poe was a role model for non-whites and whites alike. he was likeable across the board, and now, there’s not even that.

the same goes for finn, but like i said before, i can’t speak as personally about the regression in finn’s character other than we were given this selfless, brave character with so much heart and emotion in the first film, someone who saw the evil of the first order and before he could even fire a shot at a helpless villager, he said no. in tfa, there’s this whole theme of him ‘running away’-- running away from the order, from jakku, from takodana-- but we see his progression through the movie, and by the end, no one would dare call finn a coward. he risked his life for rey, helped the resistance destroy starkiller; he’s a hero, which is what ties into rose’s hero-worship of him at the very beginning.

however, in tlj, we see the exact same story-- finn is branded as selfish and cowardly by rose, who never even bothered to listen to his story-- we’re given the notion that he was leaving the ship to go get as far away from the order as possible so that when she does return from ahch-to, she’s not walking into a first order trap. before finn can even explain to rose why he’s doing this, she tasers him without a second thought, and that’s the groundwork for their relationship. ( note: rey also hit finn when they first met, doing so because bb-8 said finn stole poe’s jacket-- this doesn’t make it okay, but the fact that rey trusts finn after that, never calling him a coward or traitor or selfish, even after he told her the truth of his past and still tried to leave takodana-- she never once called him any of those things. ) the rest of the movie has its tone set from that first interaction-- finn is played as the butt of all the jokes in their scenes, continuously called selfish or cowardly by rose, or treated as if he’s somehow stupid-- we, again like with poe, see no actual character development within him. we already saw all this in the first movie, only guess what? it worked that time because one: it was the first time seeing this character and two: rey never belittled finn or tore him down.

finally, let’s touch on rose. ( and by extension, paige. ) listen...... we got fucking robbed. before i read spoilers for the movie, ( and i did so because i didn’t trust rian johnson further than i could punt him, and i still don’t, ) i was so excited to see ntv as paige, i was so excited to see the tico sisters onscreen together and interact and like? we had great interaction with hong kong donnie yen and chinese jiang wen-- and that was men. to have two vietnamese women on screen? in a star wars film? color me fucking stoked! but.... we didn’t. paige doesn’t even get to say her own sister’s name, she gets one line saying the guy who was supposed to drop the payload’s name, and she dies. instead of manpain, we get to see the aftermath of ‘sisterpain’-- as if paige’s death is supposed to positively affect rose, who we can see is OBVIOUSLY affected by the loss of her from when we first see rose on screen? that first moment seeing rose, devastated by the loss of her sister, i was honestly willing to forgive the killing of paige-- here we had another chance to break boundaries, by showing a soft, warm, loving person in rose from the get-go....... and instead they have her tase finn and treat him like shit the whole movie. have her talk down to him as if he’s an idiot and all he’s ever done is run away his whole life, when that is clearly not what finn is about at all. as a result, i feel like her own story for personal growth is grossly surrounding insulting finn, up until the very end in one of those ‘twists’ johnson seems to be fond of-- overall, what should be a positive experience by having a lead non-white female added to the mix feels more like it was written by a white feminist where it’s the idea of ‘female > any male’ as opposed to, y’know, intersectional feminism, where things like race are taken into consideration.

overall, the treatment of the three leading non-white characters is overall poor, cruel, generally racist ( particularly in terms of the ‘white women putting the latino hothead man in his place’ ) narrative that johnson seems so desperate for us to chug down, and also misleading-- it seemed pointless to include paige in the movie when her whole purpose was to die. ( because killing off poc, particularly woc, is considered ‘good writing’ in johnson’s book. )

#anti tlj #anti rian johnson #tlj spoilers #if i say something wrong or out of line #particularly regarding say finn or rose #please let me know!!#bread-alligator-boy

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freebooter4ever · 6 years

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I've never seen it but now I want to watch The Magnificent Seven. But I have to study. Rip me.

I heartily reccommend it my dear anon! I was super hesitant going in and reading reviews that were like “the minority characters were flat and tokenized” . and I mean like you read the summary and goody is a ex confederate marksman and theres only one native american role so thats like ugh why but the key here is that this is a western directed by a black man with a black male lead playing the role of that mysterious righteous sexy cowboy archetype usually reserved for white dudes in the 60s. I also read complaints that the lack of racism wasnt “historically accurate”, but damn it if white cowboy movies got to rewrite history and tell noble self sacrificing but ultimately Hopeful and Good and Happy stories about the brutal american wild west, so can this one. My one complaint is that there is a heck of a lot of religion in this movie, but its done in a spiritual way and the native religious traditions are treated with equal reverrance/romantic cheesyness, and mostly it only adds to how Noble the overall movie feels, so I kinda liked it. Racism warnings and stuff under the cut because I know theres gotta be other people who are hesitant watching things

I also take issue with the claim that the main characters dont experience racism. Because they do, except in this story every instance of that racism is not only shown as bad and gross but also is overcome. I dont want to give spoilers, but the first badass moment Sam’s Suave Cowboy gets is the bartender refusing to serve him while the rest of the all white clientele watch. bar tender gets what he deserves and Sam proves his skill and superiority with ease in smooth cowboy style. It is badass and I got all fangirly. There is also a moment at the end where Sam’s motivation is finally revealed, and it is intense, but again Sam proves that he is a force to be reckoned with and ultimately, is the better person for overcoming the racism and getting his revenge (this is the one moment where sam almost loses control). Also, most of the white dude characters serve as foils for sam’s character, like Sam forgiving and befriending Goody, who clearly deeply regrets his role in the civil war, is used to show how much pain Sam has gone through and how he now is the one with the upper hand - its sams choice to forgive if the man EARNS Sams forgiveness and goody works really hard to do that. Or how Chris Pratt’s characters goofy bumbling drunkenness is shown in stark contrast to Sam’s steady, wise dignified old cowboy persona - that is straight out of western tropes, I have seen bits and pieces of enough of my step dads shitty old john wayne movies to know. And Sam is Always the leader, like there is never any question. And yeah, maybe this is what people mean when they say it doesnt feel historically accurate because our society cant imagine a black man being a leader immediately after slavery, excet for the fact that Sam proves his leadership abilities again, and again, and again, and there are logical reasons for all these six men to accept him as their leader. And even if that wasnt the case, again, wild west movies rewrite history, the director should be able to just give us a black leader without question lol.

The other minority characters fall into some tropes, which leaves a little to be desired, but not in a totally horrible way. Billy nearly crosses the line into model minority, stern silent Asian fighter stereotype but like he has so many badass scenes, its hard to be bothered by that too much. Also the movie makes it clear that Goody uses his white privilege to diffuse situations between racist assholes and Billy. The Mexican character is…well almost as flat as the white trapper character. He was charismatic and had a debonair sense of honor and definitely gave back as good as he got but theres not much for the actor to work with. I dont even remember the poor dude’s name. Same with the Comanche character, who is again used mostly as a foil for Sam, to show Sam’s sympathy for Native Americans and Sam’s ability to act as peacekeeper/leader even across cultures. It would have been great to see more of the native characters, and have them be less magical but honestly the representstion is leaps and bounds better than say that norman reedus flick “Sky” which was just plain embarrassing. This comanche character clearly has his own agenda and motivation, and he is given quite a few “woah!” fight moments. If anyone can find a good critique of the movie by a socially aware critic, I’d love to read it!

Oh, also the female roles were non existant but this falls under the LOTR type sexism where like…women arent really there much or relevant to the plot at all so you dont need to put blinkers on to watch it lol. Theres a throwaway female character and shes super beautiful and gets her crowning moment at the end but mostly shes just there to look pretty. They put her in the most impractical revealing outfits like lady if you are traveling across country on a horse under the hot desert sun dont wear a dress that exposes your shoulders and the tops of your breasts to sunburn lol. Kinda funny that they werent historically accurate with that but they did decide all the people doing the fighting had to be male becsuse men did war back then and women just hid under floorboards. Except the female lead becsuse shes Special. lol. At least no one is gross or sexist to her, that was refreshing.

BASICALLY haha for someone like me who hates the politics of westerns but loves the aesthetics and the desert vistas and the adventure feel and the damn catchy music, this one feels like a breath of fresh air and i’d watch it ten times in a row like i did with the 3:10 to yuma remake when it came out haha.

#journal shit #anon #goodnight rocks

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narwhalhowell-blog · 7 years

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skam spin-off

to keep with the theme of positiveness for this blog, i wanted to talk a lil about the US version of skam ! admittedly hopes for the show aren’t the greatest, but rn there’s heaps of love in the tags for some really promising outcomes for the series and where it could be set. and it got me thinking, what if in some alternate universe we could have an english spin-off of skam that wasn’t set in america ?? i, as an australian, think skam would translate perfectly into a quaint little show set in australia, and below i wanna list why !

Most of what I’m going to say below is applicable to southern Australia (Melbourne and surrounds) so if you’re a fellow aussie and this doesn’t make sense, this is the geographical context !

also this is kinda long (....2440 words....) bc i got super passionate about this so if you wanna chuck me a like (even if you didn’t read it) it will make me feel better for wasting the past hour of my life AHAHAH

Australia is an incredibly diverse country, both in the people that live there and the terrain. Where I live, you could drive for thirty minutes in any direction and could find yourself in a) a bustling city b) a small suburbia c) rural areas/farms d) dense bushlands, and e) a beach. i’m not being dramatic either, i could legit do this right now.

but i think the allure of skam and love of it is not because of the characters and the appeal of a new culture (although character reliability helps, especially with the personalised touch with real-time clips and texts) but the authenticity of the experiences in the show transcend geographic barriers, and although australia has so many customs that may not translate well (but may in some places in the uk or in nz), we would still get the same feelings behind it if the show was treated well. below i have a small template about what the show would be like if it was set in australia, following the themes our beloved characters have left behind in the original series.

also keep in mind this is an abstract reimagining of the themes, the events i’m hypothetically discussing (and secretly wishing someone would hire me to write lmao) are about a show like skam, not an actual remake. this is basically an Australian!OC au of skam.

season one; eva (and noora) equivalent

for this to make sense, if set in australia, it would probably set in a small suburb near melbourne. the main character would have moved from a small town (probably rural) and settled into a new high school. i want a storyline about a girl dealing with the societal expectations behind vanity, appearance, and how we present ourselves. i want a character that’s not a size 0, and a story following her. especially in australia, with a massively sports dominated culture (seriously, it’s all we care about), and her love of sport often being disregarded because of her weight and the fact that she’s a woman. fun fact, AFL (an australian sport that’s the most popular sport in southern states and has been around for DECADES, only just created a national league for women this year). alongside AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE that would be displayed throughout the season about embracing self-love, health doesn’t equate appearance, and we all have the right to pursue what we love, the main would befriend other girls in the school (and the local sports club, where i’m assuming a lot of time will be spent since that’s a fairly small town aussie thing) that don’t particularly ‘fit in’ and would become close, much like our girl squad. also along the lines of eva/jonas in s1, i want the romance for the season to follow the main and a boy, who she doesn’t like but feels obligated to like because she feels no one else will. this is something so many young people deal with, and i’ve never once seen it adapted to screen. it would be amazing to share the message that you have the freedom to love whoever you want, and you never have an obligation to like anyone back, even if you feel like there won’t be ‘anyone else’ (and hint: there will always be someone else). the season would end with the main having a beautiful group of friends, loving herself, allowing herself to play a sport she loves, and not feel the pressure to love someone because they like her.

season two ; sana equivalent

unlike skam, it would be awesome if season 2 (and arguably the show’s main premise) to follow the sana equivalent as opposed to a noora. this main season’s character would be another girl from the first season’s new friendship group, who happens to be an indigenous australian. for those of you who don’t know about australia’s institutionalised racism, indigenous australians (or aboriginals) were the nation of people who lived in australia before the british colonised coastlines in 1788. basically the british ignored them and still claimed australia despite the land being rightfully theirs, and the settlers built our nation on segregation and racism. from 1905-1969 (and in some places, even still in the 70s) the australian government actually seized mixed-race aboriginal children from their families in what is now known as the ‘stolen generation’ because the white men running the country believed that every single aboriginal was unfit to take care of their own children. many aboriginals still live in poverty, some retaining their old customs and others trying to 'join in’ westernised culture (with much reluctance, because like i said, so many people are still racist as shit). even in australia we hardly talk about this racism, let alone the rest of the world. so i think it would be so incredible to have an entire season (and really, a show) centered around a young aboriginal girl who’s grown up in the suburbs like everyone else (due to the tireless efforts of her parents who battled adversity) to try and ‘fit in’ despite no one accepting her. unlike sana’s season, this hypothetical season 2 would primarily focus on the season’s main, her insecurity about her heritage and thus distancing from her family and perhaps engaging in behaviour she wouldn’t otherwise. it’s so important for this character to have a personality in the sense that she’s more than a stereotype, and i see her as being a bright but quirky girl who isn’t very athletic but she’s so kind and optimistic but has a lot of self esteem issues and tends to distance herself from people due to her feeling inferior. the season’s romance would probably orientate around one of the more popular guys in her school (but nothing like william) - he’s very extroverted and funny and charismatic, hence why he’s popular, but the main feels like she never has a chance because he’s not indigenous so why would he acknowledge her??? i want them to develop an unlikely friendship (the viewers knowing that the main has a massive crush but unbeknownst to the actual main herself) and idk the exact details but the season will revolve around some sort of event that will end with the main embracing her heritage and proudly sharing her origin story and being extremely proud of her aboriginal ancestors, as she rightfully should be! also, she eventually gets the boy despite resistance (both on her end and her family’s) and we’d have a really sweet interracial relationship to grace us. :)

season three ; isak equivalent

This is still such a big issue in Australia, all things lbgtqia+ related, because as you may know, Australia still hasn’t legalised our marriage equality bill (although our government technically legalised it in 2013, albeit not properly so it was nullified after a month). But surprisingly, especially in sports clubs and smaller towns, Australia is still so conservative in the way it views gender roles. Everything is still so static. School uniforms at school are still so strict and gender orientated (people can get sent home for not doing up their shoes, legit. And this was at a public school). And the sports clubs we have here are typically an AFL/Netball club, in which the boys play Australian Football, and the girls netball, and it’s sort of just assumed you date the opposite gender depending??? (Much less allow boys to play netball and girls to play football, until recently at least). This season would follow a boy, who probably befriended the season one main at the football club and helped her out during that time, who is gay. Now it’s important to note that yes, there’s still a major deficiency of good wlw relationships and trans, intersex and asexual characters, well, everywhere, but funnily enough australia seems far more accepting of wlw as opposed to mlm, in terms of sports clubs, which is why i think this is still an important story to tell. often homophobic language is still tossed around and some people don’t even know there’s an underlying context to it. it’s just so ingrained in the culture that it’s hard to think of alternatives (if you’re wondering, i live in a family of football players, grew up at one of these clubs as a netballer and have many footballer friends, so i know all of this from experience). This season would follow the main, as all of his mates are getting girlfriends and boasting about it as they tend to do, all hyped up for the end of season presentations after the football finals, which people usually showcase their girlfriends at .The main is obviously terrified, thinking there’s something wrong with him, that their entire team/family will discard him if he comes out. The sideplot of this season would follow season one’s main, who contrasts to this season’s main as their both the other’s main support (I also want the season one main to be bi or pan, not only to demonstrate to the s3 main than there are such sexual orientations outside heterosexuality, but damn i want some cute and healthy wlw relationships okay). Let’s say this season’s main is either the captain of the team or the coach’s son, and he feels so much pressure to excel that he’s lost a piece of himself and has such receded into himself and his battling his own demons (cue my lame ass excuse to play troye sivan constantly). NOW THIS IS AN ACTUAL THING THAT HAPPENS, some clubs in smaller towns develop rivalries with the closest club and it’s actually a tangible thing??? Like my dad still speaks badly of his rival club even tho it was such a childish thing based on nothing omg. So I picture insecure season main training up, and meets a guy from the other club (either as a player, or maybe a rare male netballer bc that is a thing, or even just a worker in the canteen but still tied up with the other club) and it’s basically about overcoming the prejudice of class (which is why the clubs are rivals) as well as homophobia and how supportive a group of these ‘manly men’ (die gender roles, really) and it being just the sweetest and most important thing ever. as well as a romance that, even though sort of forbidden bc of club rivalry, it all works out in the end and the main ends up taking the boy to that end of season presentation despite all the conservatives bc he’s proud and happy and so are all his friends. ALSO I NEED A MAJESTIC BEST FRIEND that supports the main so much, a Jonas!equivalent. I think it would be really special if it could be the romantic interest from s2, purely to see more of that healthy interracial relationship, but bc he’s also popular and to destigmatise status and see the only reason you have for not understanding other people is bc you’re an asshole. stop making popular kids in school inhuman or completely removed from ‘normal’ people.

season four ; even equivalent.

so this final season would obviously deviate from skam as well, and i mean even equivalent in the sense of his character, not as the s3 romantic interest. i feel mental illness (and disability) are things that skam could have explored much more, and a season dedicated to mental health would be so incredible. i feel like this character would be a female character in the original girl group, and the main drama of the season is the end of year exams in the final year of high school. as for which specific mental illnesses or disabilities this character could have, i haven’t done enough research on this to give a proper and educated answer, but i’m sure ao many of you can name some that are so relevant in today’s society but aren’t discussed in the media at all (and should be). back to the season, unlike norway we don’t have any ‘big’ graduation things, besides muck up day (a day where everyone really goes crazy with pranks and dress ups), schoolies (which is where you go on holiday for like a week and be drunk the whole time) and val (formal dinner/dance/graduation thing). but unlike a lot of countries, australia’s education system is kinda stupid bc if you wanna go to university (in victoria, australia anyway) your exams for your final year are the only thing that can get you in. in australia, you are literally only assessed on the final year (every other year of high school is irrelevant) and universities don’t see any extracurriculars or anything about you. we also don’t do entrance exams or essays. literally all universities get is a number (out of 100) that ranks you with the rest of the state by how you went in your exams. that’s literally it (i honestly almost died in that year, it was the worst thing). so i want a season to sort of talk about the school stress, and anxiety of planning out your future, and mental health because although everyone relates to the stress of school, there’s not much media about why it’s so stressful (and hence, why no governments will ever try to change it). it’s also so important to talk about mental health issues, and i think this would be a wonderful way to end the series because it will be good to devote this season to other characters as well (so it’s not as heavy) but can end on a really uplifting note and talk about health and how the bad things, no matter how bad, are never permanent, and even though friendships aren’t permanent either, there are such things as soulmates (platonically or not), and i want to emphasise the platonically part in the friendship of these girls and how they survived these years together and overcame adversity in different ways.and that the experiences we all feel as teenagers and young people are not only relevant but are valid, and no one can demean you or your thoughts for your age. because we lack in wisdom doesn’t mean we lack knowledge, and our generation has plenty of love in our hearts to hopefully share and ensure we can overcome adversity together.

... so yeah. That was a rant and a half about what an australian skam could look like! This is basically a fanfiction, really. But the whole point of writing this was just to say that yeah a non-US based skam adaption would be great (I would also love to see a Canadian or New Zealand skam, purely because they are countries that are also rarely acknowledged in terms of english-speaking countries in the media). Also this wasn’t a dig at Julie or her incredible show, as regardless of what happens I’m so glad I’ve been part of the skamily. But all I’m saying is that Julie has definitely inspired me, and hopefully others, to start telling more stories that are authentic and real, and not just what people want to hear.

Alt er love. <3

#skam #skam season 4 #skam season 5 #julie andem #skam US #sana bakkoush #isak valtersen #eva mohn #noora saetre #skam fanfiction #norwegian narwhals #norwegian narwhals: mine

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