#or people with very euro centric features

[creatingblackcharacters]

Hi! I was wondering if you could make a lesson on the whitewashing of biracial characters and how biracial people are used to whitewash black characters.

I’m biracial so this is a subject I’m very passionate about, but I’ve noticed that there is almost no good representation out there, as almost all of it is A: A way to give black characters white features (green eyes, loose hair, euro-centric facial features) with the explanation of “oh, it’s just because they have a white parent”, B: A biracial character raised by their white parent because their black parent is out of the picture, or C: Somewhat implied because their actor is biracial.

This also happens a lot in live action adaptations, the directors will cast a biracial actor for an established black character but never try and address it.

I know this is probably kinda rambling now, but there’s just no good rep for us biracial girlies because all representations seem to be whitewashed versions of our lives. In fact, I’ve found the only character who represents me is Anne from Amphibia, and she isn’t biracial! She’s Thai!

Also, some examples of biracial characters or characters cast with biracial actresses would be:

G3 (live action) Clawdeen from Monster High

The girl from Ginny and Georgia

One of the girls from the live-action Bratz movie (still don’t know why they did that)

Summer from Wonder

I might just have to extend my anon section to Saturday bc on god I keep forgetting to turn them off 😭

Black please. It is definitely one of my pet peeves, the idea that every biracial kid is gonna look like Zendaya, which gives the excuse of drawing features closer to whiteness while claiming diversity. Admittedly, I do have an OC that has green eyes bc of her white daddy, but there's also more depth behind it than ye olde "I needed a reason for my character to have white features". I've spoken about this topic across most of my lessons, and my next lesson coming up is on whitewashing, but you're asking about one completely dedicated. Hm. I will see what I can do.

[allieebobo]

Merry Crisis—Cast of characters

Romance-focused x Slice-of-life x Queer x Non-Euro-centric x Character-based

Demo | Features | Dev log | Back to Main Post | COG forum | Dedicated tumblr | Ko-fi

Credit: The wonderful amazing INSANELY talented @dumplingcatho made these STUNNING character portraits!! I am still reeling from how dang good she is. I swear she probably made a deal with the devil for this talent but I shall not question it.

Nat [M/F]

The soulmate/ex/best friend.

Your ex. Your parents never approved of them, but you suppose it doesn’t matter anymore. Despite the breakup, you’re still friends, and worse still - you still live with them in a tiny shoebox apartment. New York rent, man—it's hard to say no even though you know you should be moving on, and moving out.

Height: 6′2 (M) | 5′11 (F)

Nationality & race: African-American

Occupation: Post-doc fellow, working towards becoming a tenure-track professor.

Description:

Warm, twinkling eyes, and big, infectious laugh. Can swing from nerdy charm to extreme goofyness at the drop of a pin.

Loving, thoughtful, and kind to a fault. Relaxed, gentle demeanour

The kind of friend—and partner—you can trust with your life.

An incurable optimist.

Loves people, art/movies (especially talking about them with friends), food/cooking, their two dogs. 

Nat's dogs

Kiho [M]

Breed: Cairn Terrier

Age: 8

Description: Proud, small, intelligent, standoffish, with a stern grandpa energy. Apparently, a reader/player told me long ago that Kiho means "big boss" in Finnish colloquial slang and that was so perfect that it stuck. If Kiho were human he'd wear an old patagonia vest and spend his weekends fishing (not very adeptly).

Liz [F]

Breed: Border collie

Age: 3 (adopted when MC and Nat were already together.)

Description: Not exactly literal golden retriever energy but... close enough. A ray of sunshine, playful, easygoing, happy-go-lucky and a voracious eater (she eats everything), loves playing in puddles and has a special love for chewed up tennis balls.

Qiu [M/F]

The estranged first love / soulmates.

Your first-love (or platonic soulmate), from junior college. You’d not kept in touch, and now, they’re ridiculously successful. But, according to your intel, still…single.

Height: 5′8 (M) | 5′4 (F)

Nationality & race: Chinese Singaporean

Occupation: Public prosecutor

Description:

Extremely intelligent, with a sharp, cutting wit.

Ambitious, determined, and a bit cynical / jaded.

Dark, piercing gaze, with a completely unreadable expression.

Formal, a little bit stiff, and always impeccably dressed.

Aloof, almost intimidating presence despite their relatively average height/slim build.

Loves a job well done, being useful, stimulating conversation, and solving problems. Peace and quiet.

Shay [M/F]

The charismatic stranger.

Your neighbour (Auntie Pearl)'s new tenant. Sexy, confident, and unabashedly unconventional. Your mother definitely does not approve, but you might not be able to resist their roguish charms.

Height: 5′10 (M) | 5′6 (F)

Nationality & race: Chinese (Peranakan) Singaporean

Occupation: Lead singer & guitarist in a rock band

Description:

Thick, sweeping eyebrows, expressive eyes that twinkle at the edges, and a permanent roguish half-grin.

Tan, athletic, with an undeniable swagger to their walk. Has a penchant for sleeveless muscle tees. Good with their hands (and... possibly other parts of their body).

Adventurous, resilient, unflinchingly honest, and uncompromisingly true to themselves / the people they love.

Loves the outdoors (and constant motion), music (especially rock, reggae and soul), dancing, soccer, nature/plants (including gardening).

Other asks

[atom-writings]

Main 8 and what they find psychically attractive in others?

(Hetalia Main 8 x Reader) Their Physical Preferences!

(Gender Neutral) Headcanons ~ A/N i realized i wouldnt be done with the other one for a bit so this one is a little shorter. To . still. Be active. ok contiuing. WAITI ASSUMED YOU MEANT. PHYSICAL. physical is what ur getting sorry. i did not proofread this u cant make me

Trigger Warning: Some of these may not apply to you but don’t worry they would still like you <3

Alfred would love an S/O that is not very traditionally attractive! Skin marks, acne, freckles, he absolutely adores all of that! The less euro-centric you look, the more perfect he finds you.

Someone who doesn’t put a lot of effort into their appearance. He’d prefer sweatpants, a stained shirt, and scrunchies over a nicely pressed outfit and done up hair any day.

He’d prefer that his partner doesn’t physically outmatch him. Looks wise or physique wise (he’s insecure about his weight…) So he’d like his partner to be shorter than him.

Of course, he wouldn’t mind a more traditional S/O either. In the back of his mind, he still remembers his dreams of a 50s housewife. But he’d never try to hold you to those standards!

Ironically, Arthur would prefer a partner that doesn’t look very much like… most British people? Basically, he doesn’t like most of the features he has in an S/O.

This is very specific… but he’d love an S/O with interesting eyes. Just plain blue or plain brown would be fine, but those with hazel or endlessly deep black would appeal to him much more.

He’d prefer an S/O that dresses more classically, sort of like him! But… he also had his punk years. If you’re punk as shit, with piercings, dyed hair, crazy makeup, he can’t resist you!

Basically, the less you fit the norm, the more he’s gonna like you. Even if he tries to tell himself he doesn’t.

Francis is surprisingly particular about how his S/O looks.  Of course, he can adapt to anyone, but he’d prefer his lover to be rather attractive.

He wants to be able to walk down the street and have people gawk at his partner. Of course, even if they don’t, he’ll make up for it plenty <3

Someone with beautiful hair! Whether that be intricate braids, long flowing locks, or some modern, artistic style. He just loves nicely taken care of hair (why do you think his looks like that?)

He’d love a partner whose taller than him! Basically, in every area, he wants to be outmatched by your attractiveness. Which, through his rose-tinted glasses, is not a very high bar.

Yao has dated many, many people, all of whom look completely different! He has no preferences, but his dream would be someone who looks more like his country's older beauty standards.

But more important than that, he’d prefer his S/O looks more natural than anything. Too much makeup while trying to look like you’re not wearing any… is very unappealing to him.

He’d love if you had longer hair! He loves braiding hair, it’s very relaxing for him.

If you wanted him to, he’d help, but he’d prefer if you’re pretty capable of taking good care of yourself. Regular showers, skincare, things like that. 

Someone with younger features like him! But not too young, that would be really creepy…

He’d also prefer a partner who dresses well. Whether that be more mainstream or more niche styles, he just wants to see a little effort.

Ivan, well… not to be crass. But he would definitely, really prefer a S/O who was more plus size. Someone more muscular intimidates him a little, and someone super skinny makes him worry.

Looks wise, I don’t think he’d have any strong opinions. But like Alfred, he finds non traditionally eurocentric features attractive!

Someone who he can dress up and share clothes with! Even if they don’t fit, he just wants to be able to wrap you up in his jackets and not have it look too unnatural.

Speaking of which, he’d love a shorter S/O. Of course, everyone is short to him (in my headcanons he’s like 6’ 8”…) but still.

Basically, someone soft and in no way intimidating. Exactly the opposite of him!

Feliciano may seem like he values beauty more than anything, but he’d really prefer a S/O that’s cute! With chubby cheeks and messy hair-

He’d prefer if you two matched aesthetics-wise- but that can really mean anything. If you carry yourself as he does,  dress in a similar or completely contrary way, and take care of yourself.

He’d really love someone tall. Much taller than him preferably. But maybe not muscley… he’ll get a little intimidated.

Although he wouldn’t look specifically for someone counter-culture, the more creative you get with your appearance, the more attractive he finds you.

But still, he’d love someone soft and warm like him <3

Ludwig would love an S/O that’s a lot like him! Or at least, like someone from his country. But he really doesn’t care that much.

He would prefer a partner that is physically active, whatever that means to them. As long as they’re able to keep up with him a little bit on runs, while still being able to enjoy his baking.

If you’re muscley, he would love it.

Someone who doesn’t stand out that much, whose attractiveness is more understated than blinding. He finds those kinds of people to be usually quite grating…

Funnily enough, he’d also prefer a partner that has a more… stereotypically nerdy appearance? He finds it really adorable. Plus… he’s secretly a nerd too.

Kiku is a lot like Yao, but has a lot lower standards. He doesn’t value traditional attractiveness in any fashion, and would prefer an S/O that doesn’t stick out that much.

He would love a chubby S/O! As skinny as he is himself, he doesn’t find it very attractive.

Like Ludwig, he finds understated beauty to be preferable to outright attractiveness. It’s a little silly, but it makes him a lot more comfortable in your relationship knowing you’re equal.

He’d prefer someone shorter, which is a little difficult since he’s a little on the smaller side himself. But he prefers dating foreigners anyway, even though it doesn’t have the greatest track record for him…

[dearweirdme]

https://www.tumblr.com/dearweirdme/730153990067716096/lots-of-shenanigans-these-days-and-i-felt-it

'And have arguably more euro-centric features'

WTF are you even talking about? 🤨 There is nothing 'euro-centric' about their features. They are both clearly Asian.

You know how many Asian countries there are in the world, let alone how many Asian people and here's you thinking we all look the same, like be..for...real. This so utterly racist.

Why don't you go ahead tell us which BTS member looks the least 'euro-centric', according to your expert opinion, anon 🙄 How about you break down for us which exact features don't quite meet your criteria of Asian enough, anon? 🙄

And even if we were to entertain this dumbass opinion, all you're doing is giving us MORE reason to question why HYBE doesn't capitalise on their 'eurocentric' ship when it comes to aiming at 'eurocentric' countries.

You're really tying yourself in knots over this one, anonnie. Time to give it a rest and maybe start looking at ships that doesn't have you falling all over your feet and making a whole fool of yourself trying to convince yourself it's real.

For real, when you gotta start insulting whole cultures just to convince yourself your ship is sailing, it's time to pack up and enjoy the view from the dock.

Hi anon!

These are Asian men, all of them.. very clearly so. There is not one of them with whom you’d go ‘well.. he could have some different roots in him’. It is an odd take to have, but one I have seen before.

I don’t think that anon’s intent was to be racist, but rather that’s what they think the company did. It just doesn’t make sense, since even if there was someone slightly less Asian looking.. that would not be apparent enough for the audience.

Now did anon imply that Jk and Tae are deemed most attractive to the western world.. and did they tie that with least Asian looking? In that case anon really should think again about what they are saying. Because anon has no idea about what the company thinks.. they just needed an explanation for something and then they themselves came up with this. Anon rants away in their previous ask about BH being different… being more honest.. but not when it comes to appearances apparently.

Attractiveness has nothing to do with where you come from. From a business perspective, attractiveness is something they take into account. It’s hard to measure attractiveness, since it’s highly subjective, but let’s go with Tae not having been voted the hottest man alive for nothing. Tae.. is not the one they make the most use of… from any perspective. Tae did not even promote in Us. More Tae and Jk content was not due to wanting to break into the US market. How do you explain the way Tae and Jk leaped into their public intimacy so easily again from that perspective. Like a day after the ItS talk Tae woke up.. strolled through the backyard.. only to fall asleep cuddling Jk. Was that for the Us market? Was that because Tae and Jk talked their weirdness through the day before?

It’s learned behavior that we finally got to see.

[mwolf0epsilon]

Hi there. I'm still new to tumblr and to the starwars animated series fandom so I'm not very good at keeping up with things or asking about stuff that's been going on. As of late I've noticed there's a lot of discourse about Tech from the bad batch show. Could you maybe explain to me why? It's ok if you don't want to answer, I just saw that sometimes you answer these kinds of questions and you never sound mean when you do it? I'm trying not to sound dumb but I don't understand what's going on.

Yesterday when I got this ask I decided I wasn't going to answer it immediately. Both because it was my birthday and I'd rather enjoy it than delve deep into fandom drama that I'm not 100% interested in following, and because I just didn't have the time to do it any sort of justice in terms of explaining what's gone down.

Newbie Anon I'll be frank with you, I am not really sure what sparked the recent mess relating to Tech (there's always hot debates sparked by TBB for obvious reasons if you ask some of the older people in the fandom, but that's something I think you'll figure out fairly quickly if you stick around tumblr for a while). But I do have a bit of a theory...

I'm gonna keep this one under a cut for the sake of my followers and pals that don't want to get slapped in the face with this topic.

---

To start this off Newbie Anon, The Bad Batch is unquestioningly a Whitewashed Mess.

It has surpassed The Clone Wars in piss poor poc design, and while this is not a new issue (the clones have always been inconsistently portrayed as white men in various forms of older media) the animated series haven't done jackshit to fix the models despite the producers going back to fix other character models in Tales of the Jedi (proving that they can do so but simply refuse to properly represent Temuera's features in the characters that should all look like him).

Temuera Morrison as Jango Fett, compared to clone trooper Dogma

The example above helps point out some of the issues with the clone models. The profile of the face, the shape of the nose, chin and ears, the bone-cheek prominence and even the brow ridge is incorrect.

The shape of the lips and eyebrows are the only parts of the model that look right. The eyes are almost correct if not for their size and coloration. This is less of a stylistic choice like many claim, and more obviously an attempt to make the clones's features resemble less of those of a Polynesian man and more of an Euro-centric man.

Cody is another excellent example of comparison because he was directly portrayed by Tem as well, and thus his model in the show is more blatantly incorrect in the way it was depicted. Down to both the features I mentioned above and also his height being needlessly exaggerated to make him look more "intimidating" (the wikia lists all standard clones as being 6 feet tall despite Tem being 5'7").

Commander Cody as he appears in ROTS compared to his TCW Model

And then we have Clone Force 99...

Clone Force 99 aka the Bad Batch

Newbie Anon, you'd need to be blind not to see the physical discrepancies between Jango Fett and the Bad Batch. The only member that looks remotely like a clone is Wrecker who unfortunately draws heavy inspiration from the Hulk...

The Hulk... Let that sink in.

Even Echo who was a standard clone prior to his capture barely looks like a clone anymore, and the insistence on keeping him looking the way he does while justifying it as medical in nature is offensive in many ways (both towards poc and the disabled) especially when Echo was most definitely treated very poorly by the writing team (dehumanized on various occasions because of his cybernetics all in the name of a "good laugh", portrayed as the broody "killjoy" that does nothing but complain and argue with Hunter, missing the point entirely on his character which we'd gotten to know long before cf99 were a thing, just to then toss him away when they no longer wanted to focus on anyone but TBB exclusive characters).

Their designs are atrocious examples of whitewashing and the fandom has been divided on this topic for a long long time now.

There's those who likely don't understand what the problem is, which doesn't make them dumb mind you. Not everyone who watches a show is super connected to a fandom or with this kind of debate. A show is a show, animated or not, and it's watched and sometimes not spared a second glance. And since TBB is mostly aimed at kids it's mostly kids who are watching it, and the issues pass over their heads because... Well they're kids and they're still learning. No harm in that at all, eventually they'll grow up and grow wiser (or not, sometimes that's just how these things happen).

There's those who have pointed this out time and time again, arguing that they should look more like clones because it makes no sense that they look so wildly different from the rest. Especially when the explanation provided is that their "desirable mutations" made them look like that (which essentially means that being white is a desirable mutation and that's a brutally racist thing to claim).

There's also those who see nothing wrong with their designs and that even consider them hot. Hunter, Tech and Crosshair especially are viewed as the Hotties of the squad and have a massive following of kinnies and girlies who would definitely not mind getting hot and bothered with them.

Which is where the recent discourse kind of starts off...

But not as unexpectedly as you'd think. More, it happened because of something I suspect is far too big of a coincidence to ignore. The overall timing matches up with the recent outcry at least.

So, there's this company called Sideshow. It's a figures/collectibles/merchandise company that has been producing high quality star wars figures for a while now. They take pride in making as accurate a facial sculpt as possible, and over the years they have improved tremendously especially when portraying characters who have Tem's features (mostly thanks to Hot Toys who've improved the original sculpts they were using).

A comparison between the original Sideshow captain Rex sculpt vs the more recent Hot Toys version

Commander Wolffe's two much older face sculpts compared to Commander Cody's more recent face sculpt

Clone trooper Domino Twins face sculpt compared to the Jango Fett face sculpt

ARC trooper Domino Twins face sculpt compared to the ARC trooper Jesse face sculpt

Sideshow and Hot Toys are undeniably good at what they do in terms of sculpting the faces of these characters. They've done a lot of improving and while some of the skin tones are still a little off off on occasion (especially in Rex who's lighter hair color automatically makes his skin tone look even more pale than it already does), you can't exactly say they don't look like the source material.

When it comes to quality figures, the fandom was of course pleased when Sideshow and Hot Toys started working on a TBB line where the figures had facial sculpts that matched Tem more closely than their show counterparts.

The first three figures of the TBB line to be unveiled

Obviously there's still issues (especially on the skin tone department) but you can see Tem's features more easily in Hunter and Echo. In Crosshair's case he seems more like he's related to the clones rather than being a clone himself (he looks like he could be the son of a clone) but at the very least the shape of the eyes, brows and ears is a more accurate match than what his model looks like in the show.

It's not perfect. But the fact Sideshow and Hot Toys tried to make them look like clones made a lot of people happy that there was someone in the companies trying. So when Wrecker and Tech's facial sculpts were announced everyone was excited to see what the end result would be like.

The Wrecker face sculpt revealed at long last

They managed quite well with Wrecker aside from how pale he looks. I'm very grateful they didn't try to make his brow and jawline thicker to make him look "meaner" or more brutish.

The Tech sculpt on the other hand...

The Tech face sculpt

They managed to get the ears and shape of the head right... But the rest is most definitely not at all what a clone should look like. I draw attention towards the shape and size of the lips, nose, brows and eyes specifically (coupled with his lighter hair colour and his hairline being quite receded and it's even worse to look at). The balance is way off to the point they manage to make him most definitely look like a basic white guy in altered clone armour.

This was a blow to people who were hopeful that the figure would make him resemble Temuera a little more like what they'd done to the others. It just didn't work for Tech and people were rightfully frustrated with it.

However, as soon as this was brought up there was a spark of "What's wrong? I thought you said Tech was hot :)" arguments with people laughing over the "Tech Girlies" getting what was coming to them for thinking their whitewashed pretty boy was suddenly less attractive than what they previously thought.

Now I could be wrong, it could have nothing to do with the figure reveals. I'm not very good at keeping up to date with fandom discourse because I mostly don't have the energy to care anymore (I'm here for a good time, I know my own convictions and where I stand morally, I don't need to constantly argue and moan about it when instead I could just pass along information and make my own stuff to share with the people who're here to have fun with me, I am not morally bound to star wars nor would I ever dare equate my enjoyment of the fandom to something like a marriage commitment because that's honestly ridiculous). But I donno Newbie Anon...

The timing seems too much of a coincidence and this fandom is notorious for starting fights very easily. Tech's figure coming out as the ugly duckling of the bunch and setting off a war between people who are genuinely disappointed the sculpt is bad, the Tech fangirls, and anyone who's just eager to pick a fight with everyone else, wouldn't really surprise me much.

I've seen shit like this happen in every fandom I've been. It's a matter of getting used to it and learning to pick your fights more wisely. Getting worked up about fandom discourse will only burn you out faster than you can say "oh bother".

[merrysithmas]

Okay im indigenous so not quite the same but I do have an easy answer. For us its basically a personal thing. No one can identify you as white anything for you, its a label you choose for yourself.

Like half of my entire family is indigenous but my moms side of the family is British. So i have very pale white skin but very native hair and facial features and a more rez accent. Its clear i dont have straight European features but my skin colour is and i grew up in the suburbs.

Sometimes i identify as white, sometimes as indigenous. Depends on the context, situation, who im around. Im more likely to call myself white around other white people but call myself indigenous around other indigenous people.

So we cant make the discretion for being latino or white latino for someone in my opinion. Its up to them and that opinion will change for various situations.

Pedro for example has light skin, but very clearly is not so pale hes caucasian and he also does not have euro centric features. He can be both, its not up to us to call him anything.

Just two cents from someone who tends to have this conversation be about her around other white people sometimes. ✌

posting this answer for my other anon who was looking for a discussion!

& thank you to @rise-my-angel for your input and perspective!

[longlistshort]

Wadsworth A. Jarrell’s Revolutionary (Angela Davis), 1971, spotted at Brooklyn Museum in 2020, is based off of a photograph of the activist.  The colorful painting includes words from her speeches and actual bullet cartridges.

From the museum about the work-

Wadsworth Jarrell’s Revolutionary (Angela Davis) is one of the most recognized paintings associated with the Black Arts Movement, a cultural manifestation of the Black Power Movement. Artists of this movement sought to create uplifting images that called upon Black people to harness their collective power. The power of communal action is here expressed through a chromatic swirl of individual colors that coalesce into a unified image of the radical activist and intellectual Angela Davis. Davis’s militant clothing—complete with bullet cartridges—was modeled after the Revolutionary Suit designed by artist Jae Jarrell, Wadsworth’s wife. An icon of Black Power, Davis continues to lead the prison abolition movement today.

Jarrell, along with his wife, is part of the African American artist collective AFRICOBRA, formed in Chicago in 1968.

Below is part of a statement about the group from their website by another of the founders, Gerald Williams.

AFRICOBRA began very loosely in 1968 as an association of visual artists. We decided to commit our selves to the collective exploration, development, and perpetuation of an approach to image making which would reflect and project the moods, attitudes, and sensibilities of African Americans independent of the technical and aesthetic strictures of Euro-centric modalities.  Jeff Donaldson, who spearheaded the movement,Wadsworth Jarrell, Jae Jarrell, Barbara Jones-Hogu, and myself, Gerald Williams opened the lid on what we called AFRICOBRA – African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists.  It was an original name that came to identify our place within the broader context of Black art.

Our mission was to encapsulate the quintessential features of African-American consciousness and world view as reflected in real time 1968 terms.  For months, beginning as early as 1967, we examined and talked about the forms of expression and images produced by previous generations of artists.  We came to the realization that there was not the existence of a consistent, unequivocal, uniquely Black aesthetic in visual arts as there was in other disciplines, notably music and dance. Many of our contemporary artists, at the time, generally said that they “were artists who happened to be black”, or held the view that their work was expressing universal ideas or concepts that were not tied to such a narrow category as Black art.   The notion of an intrinsically Black view point, expressed in characteristically “Black ways”  was a relatively alien idea for the most part.  That notion begged the question as to whether it was possible to create a style or approach to art that at its core could be identified as African-American or Black, notwithstanding  the presence of Black imagery or subject matter.  If imagery and subject matter were the sole criteria then the question was moot.  One could conclude, thereby, that Winslow Homer or any number of artists produced Black art when they painted Black images.  After numerous brain storming sessions where such topics were discussed, after test projects and critiques,  the five of us mapped out the core principles that became the foundation of AFRICOBRA.

[artikat]

New Girl

I can’t help but feel like I’m being repetitive with each and every post. New Girl, once again, has an Indian character that goes against stereotypes. She isn’t very smart, but she’s absolutely beautiful and a model in the show, which, again, makes my little brown heart so incredibly happy seeing that type of South Asian representation in media. Although I love the representation in shows like New Girl or The Good Place, there is definitely a reason why Ms. Marvel and Never Have I Ever stood out to me so much more. It might’ve been because the main character was the brown girl or the fact that they represent more of the brown community than Cece or Tahani. Hannah Simone and Jameela Jamil, the actors who play those characters, are both stunningly beautiful people, but that’s because they have more euro-centric features. Devi and Kamala, from Never Have I Ever and Ms. Marvel respectively, are both beautiful women whom I can actually see myself in. They could be my neighbors, my cousins, my peers, they look like me. The reason why I started this blog was because when I was growing up I felt so ugly and gross and a large part of that was due to the media I consumed as a kid. I never looked like the pretty white girl on screen, I looked more similar to the “ugly nerd” standing in the corner. I want brown girls to feel comfortable and confident with the hair on their bodies and the color of their skin, and with recent media portraying that I can’t help but feel we’ve gotten even a little bit closer.

[theprideful]

This may be a stupid question, but what does "terf" stand for exactly?

I got from the way it has been used, that it describes people who are disregarding to trans people and overall ignorant towards others.

Is it like an abbreviation? (English isn't my first language, I hope it's okay to ask)

no worries! im actually glad you asked. so the internet has unfortunately skewed the definition of terf to mean “just a transphobe” (which they are but it’s a little more nuanced), and synonomized it with “general bad person” among other things. on the worst end of it though, some people have even equated it with lesbians/women/nonbinary ppl who aren’t attracted to men, and women who speak about misogyny. none of these definitions are accurate, which is why i’m guessing so many people have forgotten or don’t realize that TERF is an acronym, which stands for “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist.” but even the full acronym is misleading because it implies that trans exclusion could ever be feminist or anything other than bigoted. but they call themselves feminists, which is what separates TERFs from all the other definitions. they see transphobia as a tool to “help” or “protect” (cis) women and AFAB people. they weaponize feminism, misogyny and gender inequality against trans people. they are transphobes, yes, and they are also “bad people” (though that generalization can be dismissive of the harmful effects of potentially good people living in echo chambers and can dissuade people from trying to get out). but at the core, they are transmisogynists. they view trans women as men who are trying to “colonize” (cis) womens spaces and use that ideation as an argument for stripping trans people of their rights, including gender-affirming healthcare and access to other types of healthcare such as abortion and sex-related tools like sex-ed and contraception. the irony in their use of the word “colonization” is that transphobia is a direct product of western imperialism and (british and european) colonialism, and is inherently racist. the idea of gender binary based on sex was popularized by white people and white supremacists. this is also why so many poc have been dehumanized and oppressed by their gender, because they weren’t seen as “real” men and women due to the idea of binary gender being based on whiteness. gender is also subjective to culture and ethnicity, so trying to force a “universal” gender binary on everyone worldwide is indeed colonist, xenophobic and racist. but TERFs gloss over this (whether intentionally or because they just don’t know (hence the existence of non-white TERFs)), because their narrative of gender being binary hinges on them viewing gender and sex through a black and white lens, and them looking like they’re the “good guys”. this is also intersexist (a term for the erasure of, prejudice, and/or general disregard and disapproval of intersex people) because it erases and dehumanizes those whose sex does not conform neatly to popular (and colonized) ideas of binary sex. TERFs’ racism and intersexism can be easily identified when looking at sports segregation (which they are generally in support of). they use skin lightness and euro-centric features to “clock” trans women and harass them out of womens spaces; and aside from the obvious issue of transphobia, TERFs cannot reliably determine someone’s sex or gender by just looking. in fact, the majority of women who TERFs think are trans and then harass are WOC, and oftentimes they’re even cis. but because they have ethnic features, they’re seen as inherently masculine and therefore male. in fact, a black cis woman was disqualified from the olympics for having testosterone that was “too high”, because acceptable testosterone levels were determined by average cis, perisex white and european models. gender and femininity is based in whiteness and this very important — albeit extreme — example demonstrates that.

i didn’t intend to go on a tangent, but “TERF” is a fairly nuanced term and knowing the history of it is important to understanding it. it’s misogynistic, colonialist, intersexist, and racist transphobia. i hope this helps

[saltysaltdog]

I think people who make humansona megatron (aligned/tfp) a man who conforms to nearly every gender norm are missing a LOT of context.

People like Megatron, but everyone outside of Gladiator Kaon finds him really unsettling. Like, Orion can be harsh and call everyone working with Megatron mechs who'll die in the gutter, but Megatron can't even say "my friend" without everyone thinking he's super suspicious and probably going to kill someone.

And while you can say "caste tension" and drop it, I think you can add more nuance by making Meg "caste-abberant," defining him as outside the norms physically within functionalism.

—For example: you may have noticed the mining vehicons are slightly smaller than the eradicons/ fighting vehicons. You can see this in background shots, with them being half Megatron's height, or in the scene where wheeljack startles mining bots while running from predaking– but that the eradicons are slightly taller than him/ taller than Starscream.(Some of this is hidden by weird framing tricks but the mining vehicons have more visors than the fighting ones though they both have weapons.)

So mining bots have a certain image. Small. But Megatron is very much not that. Whatever reason you want to make up for it (size gain like a lobster upon aging, just build different, etc) he is huge.

This in and of itself isn't what makes people uncomfortable. Optimus is tall but adored. Ultra Magnus, omega supreme, tall but trusted. It's not a height thing. It's a caste thing, specifically someone who doesn't fit neatly into a box.

Like, Have you ever seen a dude driven nuts bc a girl is taller than him? As if he thinks being a man is a title given to the "manliest" people around and if you aren't your man card gets revoked. And then to protect his "manhood" he starts trying to muscle in and prove himself but just makes himself look pathetic and insecure?

It's like that for Megatron.

People get that way for guys too. Where men act like someone having feminine traits or hobbies, as a man, attacks manhood itself and is trying to bring everyone down. Making men "look bad" or weak.

Or its attacking the notion of heterosexuality by having "womanly" features they find attractive. Thus they think the guy with features they like is actively trying to "turn them gay" and start lashing out in defense to that imaginary attack, while the guy is actually just living his life. And of course the reverse where a lady with "manly" features is doing the same as above.

There's so many examples of this discomfort with gender ambiguity/difference that trans ppl or people who's appearances don't fit euro-centric beauty ideals have catalogued that I won't go on with them.

I think the innate discomfort bots have with Megatron in exodus comes from something like this, or at least Orion's discomfort with him, since orion also instantly mistrusted Ransack for 0 reason on Velocitron in Exiles, probably because he was a three wheeled racer, where Override was a car. (Though it may also be a manners thing for that one. Since OP is a huge snob in those books.)

[hnnyoongs]

Kudo Yukiko Headcanons

the first few headcanons are from my post on my incorrect dcmk quotes twitter account so check that out if you want

She's half japanese and half white.

Her hair is all natural, since her eyebrows are also the same color as her hair, even in the flashback from high school so unless she's been dying her eyebrows for 20 or so years...yeah she's got natural reddish-brown hair.

It's not like she was adopted or moved to Japan because her birth name, Fujimine Yukiko, is still completely in Japanese. There are two different reasons for way he name cold be this way. Either she's a bastard/unwanted child of a white man so she adopts her mother's last name or she's got a japanese father and a white mother and she just uses her father's last name like most people.

Yukiko being half white with what seems to be canonically some euro-centric features would have helped her career boost a bunch on the international level. It's fucked up but people of color, especially asians, have a very hard time entering the international acting scene. Detective Conan tells us she's picked up awards from all around the globe and she's got connections throughout Hollywood and Broadway.

Her success in the United States would be easier for the western media to stomach if she had a white parent and could speak English. Unless Detective Conan suddenly doesn't have xenophobia and racism, she would have faced hurdles.

She bonds with Ai about the discrimination they face because of how they look both in Japan and in the US.

Shinichi used to demand Yukiko to read him the original Sherlock Holmes books written by Arthur Conan Doyle in English as bedtime stories, which she did

Yukiko was a child actor.

Now I know canon says that she debuted at 18 but that really does not make any sense what so ever for her to get like every single godamn award at that age. I think that she started out as a small time child actor in Japan but then her talent catapulted her into national fame by the time she started junior high.

The movies she was in Japan became hits internationally once she became a teenager, kind of like how Parasite blew up despite the language barrier. Some of the shows she starred in were dubbed into English because they became so popular but fans outside of Japan wanted her to star in something bigger.

Once she got into high school she began her international career, starring in Hollywood blockbuster after Hollywood blockbuster. She guest starred in some American TV shows and was so popular her characters became recurring characters. Yukiko even took part in a Broadway musical for the funsies, she was on American talk shows and the general population of the USA loved her.

Yukiko built herself up from the ground, from as young as the age of four she was handling her paperwork when it came to acting. This may seem unrealistic but at least in the real life American acting industry, child actors are instructed to take care of everything themselves. Producers don't want your parents on set, they expect 6 year olds to be able to have everything in order.

Yukiko had to travel a lot for her job and in doing so she started thinking that Japan was too small for her, that she wanted to see the world, all the interesting things outside of her boring neighborhood where the same things happen day in and day out. It didn't help that her parents would travel with the money Yukiko had made, so when she had her own son she began to do what her parents did and also what she had wanted to do since a young child. Little did she realize that her son was not her, that her travels would hurt him in a different way than it hurt her.

Teitan was a really accommodating school and took her absences in stride. Yukiko was on good terms with everyone there and was pretty good friends with Kogoro and therefore friends with Eri by extension since wherever one of those two went the other would follow behind trying start up some shit. This is why Teitan is so okay with Shinichi missing school for months, because his mother was similar. This is also why the school is so good at hiding info about Shinichi coming and going, since they had to hide stuff about Yukiko from the media back in the day.

Yukiko can hold a tune but she's not phenomenal at singing either.

She's not as bad as her son, she a little above average to be honest but her acting skills made up for her pretty normal singing when she starred in a Broadway musical. The only reason the musical did so well was because of her popularity.

She helped a lot of other people in broadway with their acting skills which is why even though she's nothing remarkable when it comes to her voice, she's still well loved by the industry.

Yukiko is bisexual.

Her first love was Yusaku and she never had a crush before him. all she really cared about was her career but she loved Yusaku so much she quit. Sometimes she regrets quitting because she misses being on the stage or the big screen or even the small screen but she never lets her husband or son know about these doubts because she's terrified of what their reactions would be.

Shinichi was not planned and Yukiko knew that if she were to raise him that would mean leaving her job at the height of her career but Yukiko felt like the baby inside of her was the light of her life and for him she would destroy the world, yusaku and herself if her child desired such a thing.

Yukiko knew Sharon (who we know as Vermouth) since Yukiko started to trickle into Hollywood but she only started to feel attracted to the woman long after she'd gotten married and had Shinichi. She never voiced her feelings but Yusaku found out anyway and they talked about it. They decided that the healthiest option was for Yukiko to tell Sharon about it in order to get it off her chest when they got the news that the actress had died. When Yukiko found out that Sharon was actually Vermouth it took a real toll on her mental health, not that anyone except Yusaku knew about how hard she took it.

Yukiko and Yusaku both partook in polyamory in the very early stages of their relationship though once they had Shinichi they stopped until they decided Shinichi would be able to chose because they valued his opinion and if their son wasn't okay with the idea that one day the media might unveil that the kudo couple were part of the Hollywood sex scene then they'd decide not to go back into the whole mess. At age 14 Shinichi told them they could do whatever as long as he didn't have to hear the details.

Yukiko wanted to pull Shuichi into a relationship with her and Yusaku, citing that the couple and the FBI agent only had a 5 year age gap Shuichi said he wasn't interested in anything romantic or sexual after Akemi died so the Kudo couple respected his wishes

Yukiko would spend time asking Shuichi questions about the FBI and about himself and observing the man in general whenever she came to check up on his disguise and once she got back to the US she would give Yusaku her notes who in turn wrote the screenplay for "The Scarlet Investigator". Yukiko suggested adding a side couple that owns the house that the main character rents, based off of Yusaku and Yukiko, which Yusaku does by inverting their genders and changing their nationalities to suit a western audience.

Yukiko breaks several laws to make sure that Conan's identity is not outed.

She has Jii and Kaito to mess with security footage, she pays off witness who see him and makes them sign NDAs, and Yusaku does this as well though he does it to a much lesser extent because Shinichi's more likely to get angry at Yusaku for sticking his nose into Shinichi's case than Shinichi would be angry at Yukiko

If Ai ever needs some banned substances that Agasa can't get in order to create the antidote, Yukiko sends her what she needs in bulk

Yukiko will forever hate herself for not realizing Shinichi had gone missing for 2 weeks. If apotoxin worked properly Shinichi would have died and Yukiko wouldn't know because her and Yusaku had turned their phones off for a month straight and only came back to Japan when they turned their phones on again to see that Agasa had left them a message about Shinichi turning into Conan, Ran had texted them asking if they knew where Shinichi was and the school wanted to know why Shinichi was absent

Yukiko continues to bribe Kogoro throughout Conan's stay at the Mouri Detective Agency but it comes to her surprise that Kogoro had saved almost all of it into a college fund for Conan, implying that Kogoro does not plan to give Conan back to his original parents if they ever decide to show up again.

sorry for this word vomit lol

[enbyhiro]

I notice that a lot of your redesigns have the characters having darkened skin (I’m not complaining, I love it so much please keep it up) and I see so many people getting mad at people who do it. I wanna know how you feel about that. If you don’t mind saying of course. And yes it’s a super random question, sorry.

as a black person, i feel that black/darkskin edits & hcs for characters are completely harmless bc:

1. poc [especially black ppl] are unrepresented & misrepresented in a lot of media especially in anime. many animes have shown very racist depictions of black & darker skinned characters.

2. black characters in media are, a lot of the time, stereotypes & caricatures. it's that or they are whitewashed later in their series, & the ethnic feature they possibly had in their og design is gone & the so is the representation.

3. "well, when you blackwash-" stop right there. no, blackwashing doesn't exist & it never will. first, whitewashing & "blackwashing" are supposed to be opposites of each other, but the thing is they literally are the opposites of each other.

whitewashing is when a poc character is striped of they're ethnic features & instead given euro-centric [e.g. facial features, hair texture, skin color, etc.]

"blackwashing" [which should just be called making a character black**] is usually when a characters features/culture/ethnic/racial background is mixed with black. these edits & hcs do not try take away the character's canon culture or ethnicity unlike whitewashing.

**by "making a character black" i mean mixing the character's og ethnicity/race with being black

4. finally, most black ppl who make these edits & hcs do it to feel represented by their favorite characters, [coughcough* me *coughhack] & sometimes even do it just for fun [coughchoke* also me *dies]

this, of course, doesn't into the nitty gritty of black hcs but i hope this can cover the basic questions around it. ultimately, if you aren't black you have no say on whether or not this okay ://

[zxxalta]

If your first move is to jump back with racism when someone calls you out for drawing Japanese characters with euro-centric features and then turn around and get angry with people who pointed out your very clear racism.

You may just be racist babe

[dearweirdme]

I'm the anon about the "Euro-centric features" and I was basing that statement on actual people who stan Jungkook and Taehyung who have said that they stan them because "they look the least Asian" and it IS racist but that's not my own opinion on them, just what they're described as. I guess Jungkook's Euro-centric features would be his tattoos and piercings, muscles (remember that part of the racism that Asian men face is them being 'too feminine'), while for Tae is he's objectively the most handsome member, some Korean medias even describes his visuals as "exotic" before, so. I don't agree about them being Euro-centric, I'm just saying they're the most popular ones in the west BECAUSE these countries have prejudiced views of Korean/Asian men that don't apply to Taekook and thus they're the most attractive ones in the eyes of foreigners. Even some Koreans who are self-loathing and grew up racist have those opinions on Taekook but it's even more so with foreigners.

Hi anon!

Thanks for elaborating. That’s a whole other level of concerning. I find it very odd that people would think like that, since they remain very clearly Asian.

[grass-and-citrus]

@Disney, why do you do this to us

Here's a post where I ask the question: "Who at Disney thought this was a good idea and signed off on it?" Sorry, this might get a bit long lol!

Today, I received a book I ordered called "The Art and Making of Artemis Fowl", as one can tell from the title, it's one of those sorts of books that documents the production of a particular film. I was already going to make a post about little tidbits in this book that (unintentionally) reveals a bit about the messy production of the Artemis Fowl movie. 

However, I became sidetracked by a particular page in the book that left me a bit baffled, and I decided that it warranted its own post. The two images here of both taken from page 154 of the book, where hair and makeup designer Carol Hemming writes about the work she did on the movie. This section does happen to touch on some of the, eh, cosmetic changes made to the characters, and some of the comments come across as odd to me at the very least, to problematic at worst, depending on how you interpret it. There’s a lot to unpack here, I feel!

In the first section, we’re already off to bad start in the first sentence with the use of “exotic” to describe the diverse cast of the movie. Carol goes on to explain that the reason they gave Butler white hair and blue eyes was because of the remains of “Cheddar Man”, a fossil of an ancient man found in England. However, a lot of the details given are incorrect when I looked into this myself. For one, Cheddar Man was not a 100,000 year old fossil, but instead more like 10,000 years old, so off by a magnitude of 10 times there! Secondly, from what I read, the scientists believe that Cheddar Man likely had dark skin, dark curly hair, and green eyes, though they can’t be certain, of course, with how old the sample is. So, using that as justification to give Butler white-blond hair and unnaturally saturated, bright blue eyes is certainly an interesting Choice™ they made. 

Frankly, I have always thought that if they wanted to make Butler black that they should have full embraced Nonso’s natural features, including his black hair and brown eyes. Altering his appearance in the way they did perpetuates that trope of giving POC characters more euro-centric features to “stand out” more. I mean, think of all the fictional media out there with dark skinned characters that have blond/silver hair or where asian characters are often given random streaks of bright hair dye. Of course, those design decisions aren’t necessarily offensive on their own, but one has to make sure they’re being mindful of their reasoning behind things, ya know? At the very least, they could have be more subtle, they changed Tamara Smart’s (Juliet’s actress) hair to be blond and it didn’t come off as unnatural, although if it were me I would have left her hair as its natural color too!

This second part is what really got under my skin, though. Carol says that in her research that she saw there was a wide variety of depictions of fairy folk in terms of skin tone and eye color, but that she tried to “show similarities between Artemis and Holly” and that they “share a subtle similarity of look that hints at a shared beauty and intelligence.” Um, let me know if I’m reading too far into this, but this makes it sounds like they felt the need to make Holly white, and appear very similarly to Artemis, so that they would relate to each other more? Did she have to look white to be seen as beautiful and intelligent? They already wrote in that odd addition to the story of them bonding over shared father related trauma, did they also need to look like to get along?

It seems she’s trying to say they wanted to show how the fairy people are very much like humans and have many similar traits and behaviors, but why does that have to involve making the fairies appear like Europeans? I don’t know, this whole part is very weird to me, especially with how this was a change from the novel and how Carol Hemming acknowledges that Celtic depictions of fairies can have a large range of diversity. But somehow, Artemis and Holly both being white is diverse according to her statement? Maybe it’s just so poorly worded that it sounds bad?

What do yall think of this? Maybe I’m over thinking a bit over here, but something just seems off with the reasoning given for their design decisions! There might be someone more informed than I am on these sort of issues that could share their thoughts!

Transcription of the images below the cut for those who need/want it:

First image: “Apart from the many curious and exotic characters in the film, there are human who become entangled with the inhabitants of the fairy realm. Nonso Anozie, playing Butler, was keen to have a different look from what he felt was his usual screen persona. The inspiration for Butler’s highly individual look came from new scientific research, published early in 2018, based on the one-hundred-thousand-year-old fossil remains of a man who once lived in the West Country of Britain. Known as Cheddar Man, the fossil possesses DNA suggesting that- contrary to earlier theories- the first modern Britons were dark skinned with curly hair and blue eyes. Fired by this revelation, Nonso was given blue contact lenses and white, tightly curled hair. ‘We shaved Nonso’s head,’ says Carol, ‘and, rather than a wig, his hair was laid on piece by piece- an operation that required three or four makeup artists working as a team.’    

Second image: “As for Artemis, Carol rook her cue from the fact that, as the story unfolds, a kinship develops between him and Holly Short. ‘During my early research,’ she says, ‘I explored many depictions of Celtic fairies and reference the popular imagery of blue- and green-eyed fairies with skins tones of alabaster through to dark. I tried to show similarities between Artemis and Holly and again, some diversity.’ As a result, the two protagonists, later compatriots, share a subtle similarity of look that hints at a shared beauty and intelligence. There is, it’s clear to see, much more to fantasy film makeup than just thousands of elf ears!”   

[jatpappreciationmonth]

JATP APPRECIATION MONTH – Update: Rules

Though this is an event that is grounded in the union of us all as a fandom, for us all to come together and have fun and celebrate the anniversary of Julie and the Phantoms as a show.

It is still important that this all happens under respectful terms.

So, here is a list of rules that participating in this appreciation month ensue:

ALL TYPES OF CONTRIBUTIONS ARE ALLOWED Whether you are a content creator, fic writer, artist or whatever you create, your contribution is very much appreciated! This includes gifsets, graphics, fanfiction, fanart, moodboards, playlists, etc.

NO HATE AND BE RESPECTFUL This is a fandom with all types of people and it’s not always our opinions work together. But, remember that this is an event based in having fun our similarities and differences alike. Keep a good tone in the tags and comments!

NO WHITEWASHING Any type of whitewashing is completely unacceptable. Remember that whitewashing is a problem because it perpetuates the idea that darker skin tones are less desirable and never okay to do. Especially not in a show like this that includes many POC in its cast. That means no lightening of skintones or enhancement of euro-centric features!

KEEP IT SFW Though a bunch of discourse in the fandom lately it’s important that this month is kept suitable for all audiences. With a show targeted towards children we intend to also keep the contents of this month the same. What you choose to post on your own blog in your own time is up to you but we wish that everything that’s included in the appreciation month to follow the same age demographic as it’s target demographic. Remember that a lot of people in this fandom are minors so keep your creations child-friendly.

NO BASHING This month is supposed to be an opportunity for all of us to come together and show appreciation but with that it’s also important to highlight that no bashing of any kind will be tolerated. No character or ship should be brought down in order to lift another.

Much love,

Nell @owenmercers, Kit @willexxmercer and Beau @oldsmobile-hotdogs