#let me use superheroes and double lives as a metaphor for assimilation

[critical-thinking-is-mandatory]

Hey I wasn’t sure if anyone asked you before but how would you rewrite Marinette and her family to include her Chinese heritage or lack of Chinese heritage if you want to go down the path where some kids refuse to learn their parents’ cultures because of their peers or whatever and then regret it as they’re older? Also side note but I hope you had a wonderful week or as best of it ! :)

hey anon, thanks for asking! i think, given the fact that the show is set in paris, france (aka a very bad unsafe place for poc), that i'd probably lean more in the direction of Marinette being assimilated and play with the fact that she is fairly white looking.

because like, i think it's really important for white-passing poc to be represented in fiction because we do exist, we deserve to see rep for us, and also other people need to see that there is no single 'look' or experience for any given minority.

anyway.

i feel like, seeing as Sabine is like a 1st gen immigrant, we'd probably have a greater divide between Marinette's home and school life, culture-wise. especially given that Chloe is a racist bully. and i'd like to see that really worked with, especially as a source of conflict and then reconciliation between Marinette and Sabine.

i think because ML is a superhero show it actually gives us a fantastic avenue for Marinette to develop her identity and sense of self and the fact it's not worked with is a huge missed opportunity.

like say, at the start of the series we have Marinette doing her best to be "normal" aka white. she meets Alya, becomes Ladybug and suddenly she has a friend who knows what it's like to be picked on for looking different and having "stinky" food. she has someone in her life who is boldly and unapologetically herself and it's amazing for Marinette. and Marinette has this whole new avenue of her identity to explore as Ladybug.

she's not Chinese Marinette, and she's not white Marinette, she's Ladybug. and Ladybug is Marinette.

and it's just like, the kick starting moment of Marinette's development and as the show goes on we could see Marinette slowly bringing all sides of her identity together to just be Marinette. she invites her friends to celebrate Lunar New Year, starts bringing home-cooked Chinese food for lunch to school again, either learns her mum's dialect or starts speaking it again in public.

just...just having a secret identity as a way to really learn about who Marinette is and how to accept all parts of herself.