#hispanic ace representation

[shy-forceghost]

I just remembered that Tori is, in fact, half-Spanish. That means that there are at least three canonically asexual Hispanic characters in media I consume and I don't know what to do with that. That's way more representation than I expected.

just in case you want to know, they are:

Tori Spring, Solitaire and Heartstopper

Reyna Ávila Ramírez Arellano, Heroes of Olympus and The trials of Apollo series

Todd Chávez, Bojack Horseman

[theaceandaroadvocacyproject]

We posted a Latin American Aspec Voices article recently in honor of the many Latin American countries that celebrate their independence in September! You can read the full article here: https://taaap.org/2022/09/30/latin-american-aspecs/

[ID: Latin American Aspecs. “Overall, I think it is important for white and non-hispanic aspecs to listen to our voices and let us be heard. [...] I don’t think there’s enough representation of Latin American aces, and I think a lot of people don’t realize just how many of us there are.” - Veronica. “In a culture where so much revolves around romantic love and sex I feel like I'm not seen as a full adult. As if I'll eventually grow into these things when I know I won't.” - Larissa. “The spicy hypersexual latinx stereotype is so wrong, please stop perpetuating that idea”. - Mariana. Pictured is a guiro with green and red accents.

“[A] lot of our experiences are affected by our specific personal background (country, socioeconomic status, etc.) and not just broadly "our ethnicity". Just because you heard your Latine friend in the US say their family holds a specific belief, my context in the opposite corner of the Americas is not the same [...W]hile some aspec experiences are probably more common for Latin Americans because of shared culture or language, we are far from a monolith.” - Noche. “A lot of Latino media also puts a heavy emphasis on love and sex and it makes it harder for me to enjoy them so I often find myself avoiding Latino media all together.” - C. Pictured is a llama piñata. End ID.]

[mysticalartist1]

Ahem attention all I have come up with my own possible comic series called the adventures of constalation and Polaris

This is a story about our three main characters our first character is moonshine a star that has travelled to find two special people that were told to hold incredible power thanks to a prophecy

Our second character is Estelle a 13 year old girl who loves anything that has to deal with stars or astrology she is in the same school as lunella Lafayette and casey Calderon

And lastly kai a 13 year old who is friends with Estelle she never goes on adventures without her I would say it's like lunella and casey you can ship them platonicly or romanticly but the comic will have some cute moments with the two of them

Now that you know our three characters it's Time to talk about their hero identies

First up we have constalation aka Estelle when in her hero form her light brown hair becomes longer and galaxy like

Second we have Polaris her hair turns into pretty shades of light blue with stars

Now the representation of the show our cast of characters are all diverse Estelle is black

Jai is Hispanic

Monshines human form she has Vitiligo and heterocromia

Now for sexualities

Estelle/constalation is bi

Jai/Polaris is lesbian

Moonshine is gender fluid and aro ace

Ages Estelle is 13

Jai is 13

Moonshine is 15

[h2-no]

As a latina, it really gets on my nerves that latinas in media get oversexualized a lot. A couple of first characters that come to mind are Gloria from Modern Family, Adrian from The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Veronica from Riverdale, Paulina from Danny Phantom, and Chel from The Road To El Dorado. Obviously this isn’t meant to be a complete list, but just some examples from content for adults and for kids.

Not only is there an expected look latin women are stereotyped to uphold, we’re supposed to be fiery, spicy, and sexy. For Gloria, Adrian, and Veronica, all their characters are depicted as loving sex and something they do regularly. The problem isn’t that they’re women who enjoy sex, it’s the fact that compared to their non-latin female characters, they have sex a lot more often, are seen as more experienced and knowledgeable, and are highly more desired by men because their appearence is seen as sexier.

Paulina and Chel are both from kids media, so they’re not sexualized that same way in their universes. But from how they dress, it’s clear that they’re supposed to be a kid friendly version of this stereotype. And outside of their universe, people sexualize them a lot and talk about how hot they are.

There are latinas who fit into this stereotype, and there’s nothing bad about them choosing to live how they wish. They have every right do live this lifestyle. The problem is that a majority of the time, this is the representation latin women get and people think of when they hear the word “latina”. The only times I can picture a different type of latin woman are for Coco, Encanto, and Wizards of Waverly place. But since those are all Disney owned titles, it doesn’t surprise me. Even then, although Alex from Wizards wasn’t sexualized, her mom kind of was. There’s even a time where Max (Alex’s brother) brings up how their mom says “If it ain’t tight it aint right” about clothes, and she wore deep V-necks a lot. This is just a Disneyfied version of that stereotype.

This isn’t a hate list of these characters and their titles, because they’re not bad characters or titles, but I’m just tired of seeing this stereotype and havining it be applied to latinas in real life. I moved from a hispanic area to a majority white area when I was really young, and all the white kids had the same idea of a latina. And when I didn’t fulfill that stereotype, they were confused. Especially since I’m ace and want nothing to do with sex. I’m glad that at least Disney has given us different types of latin women, but it’s time for other companies to do that too. Sorry for the long post, thanks for reading.

[iceling4ever]

The Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) program, established in 1999, is a 1.6 billion dollar initiative funded by grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Goal:

The goal of the GMS program is to promote academic excellence and to provide an opportunity for outstanding minority students with significant financial need to reach their highest potential by:

Reducing financial barriers for African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian Pacific Islander American and Hispanic American students with high academic and leadership promise who have significant financial need.

Increasing the representation of these target groups in the disciplines of computer science, education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health and the sciences, where these groups are severely underrepresented.

Developing a diversified cadre of future leaders for America by facilitating successful completion of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.

Providing seamless support from undergraduate through doctoral programs for students selected as Gates Millennium Scholars entering target disciplines.

GMS Scholarship Benefits:

Support for the cost of education by covering unmet need and self-help aid. Renewable awards for Gates Millennium Scholars maintaining satisfactory academic progress. Graduate school funding for continuing Gates Millennium Scholars in the areas of computer science, education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health or science. Leadership development programs with distinctive personal, academic and professional growth opportunities.

GMS selected 1,000 new Scholars each year and we are now funding over 20,000 Gates Scholars since 2000.

Approximately 54% of scholars are first-generation students – the first ones in their families to go to college.

The average undergraduate GPA is just over 3.0.

The average first-year undergraduate student retention rate is 96.2% (Active or deferment) among Gates Scholars; the average second-year rate is 93.2% (Active/Deferment).

The six-year graduation rate is nearly 90%, compared to the 58% of all college students in America (for low-income students specifically, the number is around 41%).

Nearly 37.5% percent of Gates Millennium Scholars transition into graduate school after earning a Bachelor’s degrees.

Gates Millennium Scholars have enrolled in 1,742 different colleges and universities.

14,677 Gates Millennium Scholars have completed a degree since the Program’s inception.

Of the active entering Freshmen in the 2015 cohort, 40.9% (n=399) are attending highly selective colleges which admit one-third or fewer of their applicants. 51.1% (n=499) are attending colleges which admit 40% or fewer of their applicants. 58.7% (n=574) are attending colleges which admit less than half of their applicants.

Gates Scholars have come from all 50 states and all American territories and commonwealths.

The GMS Program is more than just a scholarship. GMS offers Gates Millennium Scholars with Academic Empowerment (ACE) services to encourage academic excellence; mentoring services for academic and personal development; and an online resource center that provides internship, fellowship and scholarship information.

[opinated-user]

Wait I just realised, does Lily even have like asian ocs? For someone so selfrighteous about representation I don't remember having saw any asian/middle east/Jewish/etc characters, just plenty of white american or europe like lesbians (ascentia, anevay, caida, all look mostly the same, there's also old!Elethyn but she's Lizzy's). And even if they are somewhere there they definitely have a lot less attention from their creator than all the characters above. Not gonna talk about cultural representation or just basic respect it's pointless.

well, just so happens that LO herself has provided us with a handy refrence picture containing all her current OCs, the ones that are relevant enough to have gotten fanart at least.

let's evaluate if LO passes the diversity quota or not. first, a few rules: i'm not counting characters who are non human (so bonnie, g and mara are out; the elves are humanoid enough to count, at least according to LO) and i'm refering to all of them by their position on the chart if i don't remember any name. if do, i'm add them with their number. LO!comic and Valitria both don't count because those are self insert/representations of LO herself (a culturally appropiated one at that). i'm working on my own memory an what i can quickly found out on my own so if i have some detail wrong, let me know. i'm starting with 100 points as a default. 10 points will be taken away for particular things about any character. 20 points for issues that LO has criticized on other creators. 30 for particularly egregious issues. right off the bat, all of the characters we have left with are sapphic as far i'm aware of. as far i could tell only 7, sutanu, is pansexual, with 13, tolrah, and 17, spectrum, are bisexual. everyone else on the scar universe is either gay or otherwise not established so they don't count. no other variations has been found immediately. no one that is asexual or aromantic (and human). minus 20 points since LO always goes about how other people should include more diversity on their writing and if they do, it should be the right way because "ace people deserve better", right? all of the characters that count are cis female, femenine presenting and gender conforming. the one and only exception is spectrum as a femme cis boy. no one is non binary, trans or has any other gender identifications. no one is masculine. LO has made a big deal about accepting all the people across the gender spectrum so this is 30 minus points. racial diversity, at least as far i can tell, goes from number 1, alaina, to 5, ellie, 7, sutanu, and 13, tolrah. i'll also count 15 just to be generous because i'm not entirely sure who that even is. still, only 4-5 characters who are POC when LO has so many fictional universes on her own? compared with the rest that leaves us with 6-7 white human characters, 10-11 is we do count the non human ones. minus 20 points. 30 minus points because there's not a single east asian character.

other 30 because there's not a hispanic or latine one either (despite LO using spanish words as quirky names, 10 points minus for that). that character that i don't know who that is, minus 20 points because representation has to be explicit and clear at all times in order to be valid on LO's world. 1, alaina, has a bionic leg when LO bothers to remember it, and 7, sutanu, is blind. those are only 2 characters with a disability in the middle of all these other abled ones. 10 points and only that because LO has never cared about representation of disabed characters anyway. sutanu originally was blinded as a punishment by her self insert, 10 minus. neurodivergency is only present on the self-inserts or non human characters. 20 minus because representation with non human character doesn't count. 30 by the sheer lack of them among all. let's count what we have then. sexual diversity: only one pansexual character and two bisexual ones among a bunch of gay ones. that's a staggering difference. gender diversity: even worse than the sexuality one. racial diversity: better but it's not good enough. white characters are still the norm and some ethnicities are just never brought up, unless it's for a quirk name for a character that isn't that ethnicity anyway. abled diversity: just as bad as gender diversity, if not worse because alaina's missing leg is very rarely an actual thing anyone concern themselves with and sutanu was turned disabled as punishment. neurodivergency diversity: the worst of all. not a single one openly neurodivergent character we can count. final count: -80. or as LO would put it...

[greatworldwar2]

• Oscar F. Perdomo (USAAF U.S Ace)

Oscar Francis Perdomo was a Hispanic United States Air Force officer and fighter pilot who was the last "ace in a day" for the United States in World War II.

Perdomo was born June 14th, 1919 in El Paso, Texas, one of five siblings born to Mexican immigrants to the United States. His father served in the Mexican Revolution under the command of Francisco "Pancho" Villa before emigrating to the United States. After completing school Perdomo enlisted in the army reserves in 1942. In February 1943, Perdomo entered an Army Air Forces (AAF) Pilot School in Chandler, Arizona. The AAF schools were civilian flying schools, under government contract, which provided a considerable part of the flying training effort undertaken during World War II by the Army Air Forces. Perdomo received his "wings" on January 7th, 1944. He was then sent to the Army Air Forces Basic Flight School at Chico, California, where he underwent further training as a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt pilot.

Upon the completion of his training he was assigned to the 464th Fighter Squadron which was part of the 507th Fighter Group that was sent overseas to the Pacific theater to the Island of Ie Shima off the west coast of Okinawa. The primary mission of the 507th was to provide fighter cover to 8th Air Force Boeing B-29's which were to be stationed on Okinawa. The 507th began operations on July 1st, 1945. Perdomo was assigned P-47N-2-RE number 146 aircraft. maintained by crew chief S/Sgt. F. W. Pozieky. Perdomo nicknamed his airplane Lil Meaties Meat Chopper with the nose art depicting a diapered baby chomping a cigar in his mouth and derby hat on his head, clutching a rifle. The name referred to his first son, Kenneth, then a year and a half old. Perdomo flew his first combat mission on July 2nd, while escorting a B-29 to Kyushu.

A "flying ace" or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The term "ace in a day" is used to designate a fighter pilot who has shot down five or more airplanes in a single day. The last "Ace in a Day" for the United States in World War II was 1st Lt. Oscar Francis Perdomo. Perdomo was a first lieutenant and a veteran of ten combat missions when on August 9th, 1945 the United States dropped the world's second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. The allies were still awaiting Japan's response to the demand to surrender and the war continued, when on August 13th, 1945 1st Lt. Perdomo, shot down four Nakajima "Oscar" fighters and one Yokosuka "Willow" Type 93 biplane trainer. While the 507th Fighter Group mission reports confirm his kills as "Oscars", they were actually Ki-84 "Franks" from the 22nd and 85th Hiko-Sentais. The combat took place near Keijo / Seoul, Korea when 38 Thunderbolts of the 507th Fighter Wing, USAAF, encountered approximately 50 enemy aircraft. It was Perdomo's last combat mission, and the five confirmed victories made him an "Ace in a Day" and thus the distinction of being the last "Ace" of the United States in World War II. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Air Medal with one leaf cluster.

After the war, Perdomo continued to serve in the Army Air Forces. In 1947, he was reassigned to the newly formed United States Air Force and served until January 1950. When Perdomo returned to civilian life, he joined the Air Force Reserve. On June 30th, 1950, Perdomo was recalled to active duty upon the outbreak of the Korean War at the rank of captain. He continued to serve in the Air Force until January 30th, 1958 when he left the military at the rank of major. Perdomo was emotionally affected when his son, SPC4 Kris Mitchell Perdomo, was one of 3 men killed on May 5th, 1970, aboard a U.S. Army helicopter UH-1 Iroquois which crashed and exploded about 5 miles southwest of the city of Phy Vinh in Vĩnh Bình Province, South Vietnam. He had trouble coping with the situation and developed an addiction to alcohol, which took Major Oscar F. Perdomo's life on March 2nd, 1976. He was proclaimed dead upon his arrival at USC Medical Center, Los Angeles. His name is inscribed in the United States Air Force Memorial.

[lightly-toasted-corn-syrup]

People in majorities always undervalue representation for minority groups and it's really frustrating because I hear a ton of "we don't need anymore of that" or "that stuff is everywhere now" when we DO need more and it's NOT everywhere.

I see a single same sex couple in a commercial or something and I get a shot of serotonin directly into my brain. I can only begin to imagine how it must feel for even more oppressed groups, like genderqueer people or PoC's when they see people of their own groups in media and other places.

Representation is super important, and there's always more to be fought for. As long as there's one person who gets a rush from seeing their group in something, we need more.

[dreamcast-official]

the videogame industry hates brazil

let me preface this by saying: for those of you who don’t know me, I am Brazilian. born, raised and currently living in Brazil. not all Brazilians are gonna have the same opinion on everything, this is my perspective as one Brazilian person.

so in a Discord server my friend is playing a game where you go to the Amazon, but the characters are only Vaguely in Brazil. and that reminds me of how the videogame industry treats Brazil as a country and Brazilians as a people. spoiler alert: it’s not good.

before I go on about this, think to yourself: how many videogame characters can you think that are Brazilian? if you can even think of any, they’re probably not very good of a portrayal. and I’ll explain why.

let’s start with one of the most famous Brazilian characters in videogames: Blanka from street fighter. for those unfamiliar, this is Blanka:

[ID: An image of Blanka from Street Fighter. He is a large humanoid creature with green skin and orange hair. /End ID.]

Blanka is not a human. that much is obvious. his color pallete is reminiscent of the Brazilian flag - if his hair was yellow instead of orange, he’d just be Brazil walking around. there are many problems with Blanka as a portrayal of Brazilian people, the first of which being that he isn’t even Brazilian.

that’s right, the most popular Brazilian character in all videogames isn’t even Brazilian. Blanka used to be a man named Jimmy whose plane crashed into the Amazon. him being “Brazilian” comes from the fact that he fell and crashed into the Amazon. he is a beastly creature who is reffered to many times as a monster. this is not what Brazilian people are like.

if I limited myself to talking about Brazilian characters in fighting games, I’d be here forever, but it’s notable that they are usually racist portrayals of indigenous people, they are usually inhuman, their color schemes are limited to green and yellow (blue if we’re lucky), and if they are lucky to be human and not a racist caricature, they usually fight using capoeira. I honestly could not explain what capoeira is without making this post about it, but it is not the only style of martial arts prevalent in Brazil. another sidenote: these characters usually have hispanic names. Brazil is not a hispanic country. yes, people in Brazil can have hispanic names, yes there are hispanic people in Brazil, but the bottom line is that naming these characters that way is not being representative of hispanic people who live in Brazil, it is unaware that Brazil is not a hispanic country.

let’s get to another videogame character with a green and yellow color scheme: Lúcio from Overwatch.

every. character. from. overwatch. got a voice actor who could speak the language of the country the character was from.

Lúcio didn’t. his voice actor (no hate to the man) is not Brazilian and cannot speak Portuguese. Lúcio has no lines in Portuguese in the original English version of the game, while every other character has at least one line in their native language. Lúcio does not get that luxury.

the only Brazilian character I can think of in videogames that isn’t from a fighting or shooter game is Godot from Ace Attorney, and I can’t even say he’s Brazilian because the only time that was said was in an unsourced interview.

it is deeply upsetting as a Brazilian person when the only representation of us is decked out in our national colors. the only representation of us is violent and “savage.” the only representation of us doesn’t even have our names.

the videogame industry hates Brazil. they act like we as a people don’t exist. they act like we are either just “fun” or “violence” with no in-between, and that’s when we get to be human.

the videogame industry hates Brazil.

[dumb-post-cowboy]

I came back from my slumber because APPARENTLY there is a high chance the next survivor and/or killer might be from Chile. Like, I've been asking for hispanic representation since I started playing (Jane and Ace barely classify as such tbh), but I didn't want to get that representation from my country of all places jsjss it feels a bit unsetting, I don't even like living here. Don't know if this will be enough to make me come back to it but it feels nice to be acknowledge.

[scripturient-manipulator]

Perfect World Book Signing 7/15/17

So they’re quite late, but I thought I might share some pictures from my book signing in case anyone was interested. I still can’t believe it went well! Dreams come true if you work for them, it’s incredible.

This signing was for my diversity-heavy novella Perfect World, which you can buy in physical form, as an ebook, or for your kindle.

A young government agent shoulders the burdens of his utopia’s secret origins, and must fight to avoid psychosis because of them.

Rolled up with this box of books, my mini box of business cards, and animal crackers for if I walked around too much. Pro tip: when you’re an unknown author, bring about forty books. If you bring 200 you smell (in my opinion) just a little like desperation, and people’s subconscious goes, “well if there are that many books left they must not be good”. That’s why Limited Supply!! pitches work on us; we think that if everyone wants something it must be good and creates a fear of missing out on a good thing. The opposite happens when there’s tons left hanging around. Worst case scenario if you bring forty is that you have to have people fill out an order slip.

Picture for my dad, and then I just had to do the finishing touches.

And here was the set up once I finished! No, not all forty of the books were put out, it’s good to not overwhelm potential customers.

Speaking of customers, you’ll have to pitch your book all over again to pretty much every person who stops by or who you stop. It’s nerve wracking, especially for those of us who have anxiety. But worth it! This woman here bought a book and picked it up the next day since she couldn’t right then.

If you look at my body language you can see my nerves here. But that’s okay! It’s completely normal to be nervous, and most people will accept and sympathize with such feelings.

And Mrs. Dauphin!!! My favorite teacher of all time stopped by to see me and buy a book! That’s an important thing; even if you haven’t talked to them in a while, use whatever means you can to contact literally everyone you spoke to in your hometown/high school/etc. Even though some might not be able to make it, it might surprise you who can and does. A girl I barely remembered from high school stopped by, and so did a friend I’ve known for years but dropped out of contact with once we left high school.

~

So that was my first ever book signing!! Should you like to buy Perfect World and didn’t get a chance to come, you can buy it in print, in ebook form, or for your kindle.

[karmamiakat]

First, I'm gonna get this out of the way first because so many like to assume quickly the moment someone disagrees with these people. I'm Asian and Native American and I'm bi sorta. It's complicated really. Used to think I'm ace but over time I've become unsure. Point is, I'm not a straight cis person!

However, I understand when say a game or show made in a country that doesn’t have many people of different ethnicity or even sexuality nor do I expect them to convert to what western folks like me see as fitting or acceptable.

Put it short, I don't expect games like Love Nikki Dress up Queen or Line Play even to have proper representation that I expect in the US. Same with anime! If you ever been to China or Japan, they don't have many people that are black or any ethnicity that has dark skin!

Though reality your skin color has more to do with how extreme the Sun is where you or even your ancestors came from than it does race. It's science people! Why you think some people tan and others specifically white people burn easily? Your skin color isn't just something to make you look pretty! There's an actual point to it!

Back on subject, China and Japan have obviously very different outlook on subjects of race and even LGBT+. Sure, they copied many influences of European society into say their clothing and anime characters having blonde hair but that's to make the characters stand out, hence you have other characters that have hair and eye colors in basically every color of the rainbow! However, that doesn't mean they're gonna convert everything from the west nor should we expect them to. Unlike the US and other western countries who have variety of people of different cultures, languages and even sexuality and gender, countries in Asia especially China and Japan do not and this is reflected in their media including their games and animation.

I bring this up because I see so many people in the fandom of Love Nikki and anime such as Precure, that expect a country that literally has very little representation in their people, convert to the their ideals. It's like watching a Bollywood film expecting to have Irish people in it! It doesn't work that way!

Same with LGBT+, over there they aren't exactly friendly about it. Even Japan voted against gay marriage. Look it up, people are even discourage from being public about it. It sucks but that's their country and we western folks have very little say in it. You could try to fight for change in a country that isn't your own and therefore isn't your business, but unless a majority of the people say they had enough, it’s not our call. (It's not our call to begin with quite frankly.)

And to be fair, expecting another country to convert to your ways is the exact attitude that is the ideal stereotype of an American! You're basically acting what you're supposedly against, it's laughable!

That's also why I had to bring up I'm not white or straight because most likely people will think I'm some ignorant white dude, despite I'm from two minorities (three if you include bi) that get ignored and even slammed even by other minorities and I'm a woman.

These same folks least quite a few it seems that also assume only white people are pale despite Asians and even people of Latin American descent can be very pale. Look up Jhonen Vasquez. He's Hispanic and very pale. I have friends that are Latino that are pale. Again, it has to do with the sun! How do you think tanning works?

Anyway, that's my rant for the day. I'm sorry that I stepped on so many toes, but honestly, I feel like most people fighting for social justice, their hearts are in the right place but their head is somewhere in lala land and ignorance is disrespectful and even hurtful even if you mean well. Instead of focusing on bringing a change to a country that clearly doesn't care, focus change in the country you're living in.

[hsetau]

Hey this is kind of weird but I have a suggestion for Nepeta’s and Equius’s relationship, maybe it could be a QPR(Queer platonic relationship)? I think that might be a good representation for a morailegence. And it’s nice to have some aro and/or ace representation

I appreciate the idea, and I’m glad to inform you that this is the EXACT relationship they have!

For some backstory, Lupe and Arthur met while Arthur was an art model and Lupe was in class. Over time they encountered each other more often and confided in one another a lot. Eventually, Lupe was in danger of being deported from California, which prompted Arthur to help his best friend and the love of his life. So Arthur asked to marry her as a way to naturalize her as a citizen. Lupe hesitated because she was asexual and told him so, but Arthur assured her that he didn’t want to have sex or children with her, because he was gay. Their marriage later caused the police to investigate if these two “really were in love” (which is a thing I have seen happen in my own experience as part of a Mexican/Hispanic/Latino community myself). Arthur and Lupe’s relationship is not and never will be sexual, but their affection and care for one another’s well being was enough to prove it was genuine and now Lupe is safe and able to live in the United States while the paperwork gets sorted out.

[mayflowers07]

“Why can’t I headcanon Janus as black? I’m adding diversity!” Of course you can headcanon him as black, but when you make a human AU where Patton and Virgil are white, Logan is East Asian, and the twins are Hispanic, you’ve now made it so your significantly darker character is the “evil” Side with animal traits. You can see the problem with that, can’t you?

“I really like the headcanon of Logan as ace aro! What’s wrong with that?” Nothing is inherently wrong with that headcanon. But in situations where he is the only Side who is on the ace spectrum, you’ve basically said that the one Side you associate with ace people is the “cold, unfeeling, almost robotic” Side. You can see the problem with that, can’t you?

“The body types of the Sides in human AUs should be diverse, so I headcanon Patton as plus-sized! Great, right?” Well, it’s nice that you want diversity, but by making Patton the only plus-sized character, you have now shown that the character traits you associate with fat people are “cute, adorable, parental, and/or infantile.” You can see the problem with that, can’t you?

All of the scenarios above are actually easy fixes. You wouldn’t be able to call the first one racist if Virgil was also black too. The second one isn’t acephobic if Patton is acearo too. And the last one isn’t fatphobia if the twins are also fat characters. A lot of the times I see authors and artists pull up the excuse, “so I can’t make anyone diverse? So the Dark Sides have to be white, cis, able-bodied people?” And it just seems lazy to me. Just admit you don’t want to include meaningful representation, and instead want to rely on stereotypes to seem “accurate.”

[antique-ro-man]

Hey, I’m getting more in depth on plotting a story/characters, and I intend to do more research on this very soon, but I wanted to just make a post on here to see what tumblr has to say.

What do you want to see from representations of the following groups:

Jewish Butch Lesbians with ADHD

Jewish High Femme Trans Lesbians who are Profoundly Gifted

Muslim Indonesian Aro/Ace Trans Men with Autism

Hispanic, Pan Non-Binary Amputees

[klutzymaiden123]

Things I would love to see more of in fiction (and hopefully, when I’m a writer, will be implementing myself)

Female Friendships

Enough said. If you follow this blog, y’all already know. 

Bisexual men 

I feel like whenever I see bisexuals portrayed in movies or TV shows, it’s always women, and, unless they’re directed by people in the LGBTQ+ community, it’s almost always so they can fetishise bi women. It would be nice to see some beautiful bisexual men.

Less romances 

I love romance as much as the next person, but honestly, not every story needs to have a romantic subplot. I’m fine with it being about platonic relationships.

LGBTQ+ hanging out together 

This comes from Hollywood’s need to look diverse so they’ll include someone from the LGBTQ+ community, but only one person, because token representation has gotten them enough praise for the past twenty years. 

Feminine/Flamboyant Straight Men

Toxic masculinity is a root for a lot of our problems, which is very heavily pushed in our media. Showing men who identify as straight who are comfortable wearing dresses, painting their nails, or doing things that are considered traditionally “feminine”, I feel, would be a big step in curing this way of thinking. 

Trans and Non-binary people

This might be totally a me thing, but I feel like I rarely see trans or non-binary people represented in media. And if they are, it’s definitely not in the mainstream, or it’s in a more slice-of-life plot that revolves around their identies, rather a more action-y story where the focus isn’t on how they choose to identify. 

I would love to see (and hell, even write, if I can educate myself enough) more superhero, or chosen one, or just pretty standard adventure plots with trans or non-binary people in the main casts. 

Also, while I’m at it--

Trans and/or Non-Binary romances. 

Straight up, I’ve never seen this. Except maybe in She-Ra. Other then that, I’ve never seen it. 

Girl Gangs.

No, this is not the same as the first one. Shut up. 🙄✋

Detailed Fight scenes. 

Or better choegraphed fight scenes. 

This one’s specifically in reference to books. I’ve recently picked up books again (because I want to better educate myself and also just understand writing from professional authors), and though everything else tends to have a lot of focus, fights are really . . . underwhelming.

Like, it’ll describe general swipes or ducks, but other then that, it doesn’t go into detail. And from my years of reading tumblr writing blogs, I really thought there would be more detail into something so physically straining. Especially if it’s told in first person (which, given my preference, it always is). 

You shouldn’t just be explaining the movements, but the impact it has on their bodies. It should be quick paced. I want the descriptions to be vivid; make me think of the gross sweat curling at the back of their necks. Make me think of the blistering in their chest, that makes it so hard to breathe, and any time you try, it almost feels like you’re bleeding. Gimme the grim that gets stuck underneath their fingernails as they’re thrown to the ground. Give me the hacking, the gurgling, as blood dries and cakes along their face, making it even more difficult to breathe. 

I want details. If it’s first person, we should be seeing, feeling, thinking everything they are. 

Also, the fights are just so badly cheographed. I know that film is a visual medium, so obviously it has a much higher advantage, but fight scenes can absolutely still be pleasent in book form. The problem is, I seem to only see that in works that are indepedently published online, not in professionally published novels. 

(Which makes me think that this might be the publishing houses censoring authors. Or possibly a tighter time restraint.) 

Asexuals. 

Seriously. They’re always, always, always erased, especially in book to film adaptions. Cause y’all wanna add in yo nasty spice scenes or romantic drama subplots. 

Again, we don’t need romance to make something interesting. And ace people deserve to see themselves as heroes or main characters.

Racial Representation.

Honestly, should be higher, but this is a stream of consciousness post. 

Relatively simple--I’m black. I didn’t get to see dark skinned girls in media growing up, and given my family is majority white, it didn’t do well for my mental health growing up. 

I would like to see more races being represented. Not just black or dark skinned people. Everyone. Asians, Hispanic people, the Aborignal peoples, Native Americans--there’s a lot of us. It would be nice if we could be represented as more then our sterotypes or token minorities made to fit your ‘I’m so diverse’ agenda. 

Hooookay, and that’s all I can think of right now. Probably will think of more later, because honestly, our scope of representation is very limited. But yeah, so far, that’s my list. Reblog with your own if you want, or just scroll. I’m gonna go eat pizza now

✌️