#blacktober is hard to keep up with

[multifandomishere]

TIME FOR AN INTRODUCTION

Template here to use and the picrew I used

Just overall quick explanation of me since I never really did on here.

[alieinthemorning]

Whip My Hair Rock Ver. [Xinyan]

Content: Black!Reader, Xinyan being best girl, Hair Braiding, lil kiss at the end uwu

Pronouns: None

Reblogs: Appreciated

I’ma get more shine in a little bit

“I just don’t know what else to do…”

You turned your attention to your friend. “Hmm?”

Soon as I hit the stage applause

I’m hearing it

She sighed. “I just… the kids are ‘fraid of me and I want to change that, but nothin’ I do seems to help.”

You sat up, confused and a little pissed. “What do you mean they’re afraid of you?”

Whether is black stars, black cars

I’m feelin it

“I think it’s my rock aesthetic,” she shrugged. “But even when I tried to do somethin’ like Yunjin but it didn’t work.”

“I mean… I don’t think lolita really is your style.” You shrugged but then quickly, “Not saying you wouldn’t look good if you decided to go for that aesthetic but rock definitely suits you.”

But can’t none of them whip it like I do (I)

“But rock isn’t appealin’ to kids!” She whined with a pout.

I get to that mm-yeah go hard

“So we have to make it appealing!” You hopped up from your reclined position. “First, let’s get rid of some of those spikes.”

When they see me pull up

I whip it real hard

I whip it real hard

“Uh… the only ones not attached are the ones in my hair.”

Real hard

I whip it real hard

“Oh, well that’s okay. I was gonna do your hair anyway.” You reached up and removed the spiky hair bands, the pigtails falling apart and past her shoulders. “You have really nice hair.”

“Yeah, I try to take really good care of it,” she paused, “speaking of which, wash day is tomorrow.”

Don’t let haters get me off my grind

“You want me to help?” You rummaged in your bag, pulling out a brush and comb. “I think I’m gonna do a zigzag part and just do two braids.”

“I wouldn’t want to take you for a whole day.” She fumbled with her fingers as you started. “Also the grease is in the bathroom.”

Keep my head up, I know I’ll be fine

“Do you want me to grease your scalp?” You peered over her shoulder. “Would seem like a hassle if you’re just gonna wash it tomorrow.”

She thought about it for a moment then agreed.

Keep fighting until I get there

In two minutes flat, you finished the first braid. You guided her hand across the braid, letting her feel it.

When I’m done and I feel like giving up

(I think again)

“Oh wow! You’re real good at braidin’.” She looked back at you, eyes bright. “Can you teach me sometimes?”

“Of course!” You started on the other braid, continuing, “I think you’d look really cute with braids, and they’re so versatile you could do so many different looks.”

All my ladies if you feel it

Gone and do it, do it

Whip your hair (whip your hair)

“Could I do something like you’re doin’ now, but with my pigtails?”

Don’t matter if it’s long, short

Do it, do it, whip your hair!

“Yeah ‘course! And if you use flex rods on the ends, you could have curled pigtails!”

All my ladies if you feel it

Gone and do it, do it

She gasped, “Really? I should have been doing this forever ago.”

Whip your hair (whip your hair)

Don’t matter if it’s long, short

You tied off the last braid, “It’s a good thing that you found me, then huh?” then leaned down and gave her temple a kiss.

Do it, do it, whip your hair, your hair, your hair!

She smiled brightly, “Yeah, more than a good thang.”

My first ficlet for Blacktober! Starting off strong with my girl Xinyan. Ever since I heard Willow sing Whip My Hair but as rock, I have been hooked. Also paired with that one voice line of Xinyan's, I knew this would fit her. Also if you haven't seen that video, please go see it. Willow truly popped off on that one.

Ko-Fi | Commission | Masterlist

[palmett-hoes]

this was originally meant to be a response/follow-up to @i-did 's post about race in the aftg fandom (that you should read). i ran it by him first and asked permission to add, but then we decided it was too long so i should make it its own post

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i want to talk about fandom's take on the twins' race because it's rather glaring in the fandom that andrew (and then aaron by necessity) are often portrayed as the only white characters on the team and i have to question why?

there's nothing in the backstories that would mean writing them as POC would fling them headlong into offensive stereotypes that the fandom hasn't bypassed over to make another fox a POC.

they have a history of addiction? but it's okay for matt and seth to be addicts and be brown.

they're violent? but it's okay for renee to be non-white and a former gang member.

they're blond and 'pale'¹? but allison can be a WOC and bleach her hair without saying it explicitly? renee can have white rainbow hair no matter the AU? neil can be a blue-eyed redhead and still be drawn darker skinned half the time?

'pale' in and of itself is a very vague word that's only brought up in the context of comparison to notably dark skinned nicky. it's completely relative, and multi-racial families where people look wildly different from each other exist (pretty commonly). or if you're prescriptivist how about the multiple ways a POC can still be a natural blond including but not limited to pigmentation conditions or being mixed race? similarly, i think less than a quarter of the FCs i've seen for andrew over the years have been natural blonds themselves.

so if our holdups aren't about racial stereotyping and they aren't about the incredibly vague character descriptions, then why are the twins always white when it's approached as a good thing that no one else is? when i've seen multiple different posts lauding the fandom for adding diversity where nora didn't write it, except for here?

.

to be completely, bluntly honest, it's because we as a majority-white fandom are uncomfortable when we are not the central characters. or maybe we are uncomfortable when people of color ARE the central characters. i don't think there's much of a difference.

we are comfortable writing and drawing nicky, the upperclassmen, then kevin (in that order) as poc because, simply, we use them as background characters. they are rarely the main characters of fics, or have their own storylines in them; it all revolves around andreil.

.

additionally, while i've used neil up to now as an example of the fandom being OKAY with writing POC, let's also admit that it's an,, imperfect representation, as he will often be racially ambiguous with no explicit ethnicity, he will be the lightest skinned of the foxes of color, and he will still have eurocentric features. also it's genuinely a toss up as to whether he's drawn brown or not, there are still plenty of white neils, much more than there are white dans and matts and renees (not an attack on anyone who draws white neils, simply a statement) and FCs and edits of him still tend to be white people.

he's a bit of a schrödinger's person of color, not really any one thing or another, very few people being willing to take a hard stance on him and do the work of taking that decision under consideration when writing and drawing him.

(quick shout-out here to @hi-raethia for making content about an explicitly chinese interpretation of neil).

(additionally, to be as clear about my intended message as possible, this isn't a statement on the politics of passing or undermining the ethnicities of lightskinned poc, this is about a lack of detail being put into making a character a character of color in any thoughtful, meaningful, or significant way)

.

so when i talk about the centralization of white people in fandom, neil gets to be included, perhaps with a footnote indicating that this is somewhat of a more complicated statement than it is with lily-white andrew minyard.

nevertheless, i feel comfortable saying that 75% of fandom content revolves around andrew and neil, major exceptions only being jerejean which are often stand-alone from the foxes, and the rising branch of kevaaron shippers. however both of those ships are actually subject to this exact same criticism, as ships between a a flat-out white character and a dubiously "non-white" character who can also be white sometimes. it varies.

conspicuously, content about the UPPERCLASSMEN tends to revolve around andrew and neil.

fics where the upperclassmen are the pov character are often outside-perspective fics on andreil.

HC posts about the upperclassmen, especially matt, will devote major portions to his time spent helping, hanging with, and thinking about andrew and/or neil.

secondary ships like danmatt or renison tend to be just that, secondary ships moving in the background of andreil-focused works. they get more of a,,, scenic shout-out than a storyline

it is only comfortable for us to write these characters as characters of color if they revolve entirely around white characters

.

.

.

so after all that? what should we do, as a white-majority fandom? what should YOU, specifically, as a white person, do?

i hate to talk about a problem without also talking about solutions, and i try not to carp on something i don't want to be an active part of fixing. public criticism without an action plan only leads to hurt feelings and guilt, and that's never my intention when bringing this up. my goal is to address a general problem, not anyone specific's personal failings.

in all honesty leaning completely into all of the foxes being people of color, though i think neat and i certainly support, is not the best solution, and would be more of a hollow action than anything else without addressing the underlying problems that lead to the development of this dynamic.

i think the best thing to do would be to 1. do some research on writing poc, usually by following some writing-specific blogs like @writingwithcolor or @pocinmymedia . look up the 'black best friend' trope and really spend some time tjinking about it. spend an hour seeking out a random assortment of blogs that interest you that are also run by people of color. checking through tags like drawingwhileblack or blacktober may be good kickoff points.

tumblr is great because with an hour of active work to find these blogs, you can then go months passively seeing content from them. try not to interact, actually, simply watch and listen and become familiar with general trends and concerns in different communities. remember that every blog is run by an individual person, not an elected representative of their race, and always keep this in mind.

you are teaching YOURSELF that people of color are individuals, they have interests and inner lives that don't revolve around whiteness, that don't revolve around YOU

at the same time, 2. challenge yourself as a creator to make more content about the upperclassmen, specifically. make art about them doing stuff as a group separate from neil and andrew's group. find a compilation of 'draw the squad' memes and draw/tag the upperclassmen only. make jokes where they talk to each other. write some meta about their character motivations. write a fic where andreil isn't even mentioned, it can be super short, you can even use a prompt generator.

as a reader, reread their backstories in the extra content. reread son nefes. use ao3's filtering system to read some fics about JUST the upperclassmen, few and far apart though they may be.

if we've decided that the upperclassmen are people of color then lean into that, and learn to CARE about them on their own merit, because they are the most underutilized characters in the fandom. we need to make content centralized around them to combat the fact that fandom centralizes whiteness