#really really bad racism still

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads // twitter thread

To Shape A Dragon’s Breath

YA fantasy

a young Indigenous girl finds & bonds with a dragon hatchling - the first time in many generations for her people - and is required to go to the coloniser’s dragon academy in their mainland city, to learn how to raise her dragon and the science of its magic

historical inspired setting on the cusp of industrial revolution with steampunk vibes

bi polyamorous MC, Black lesbian SC, nonverbal autistic SC

[kithj]

is it just me or is the southern book club's guide to slaying vampires.... really bad?

[will-pilled]

Just saw someone post "an article debunking all viv allegations" and it was shit hardly anyone is mad about anymore and they were like "oh it was a long time ago so it's fine."

[klugpuuo]

okay but did anyone else notice the fact that the fat jokes kept getting worse and worse and worse and worse? like, quite literally every episode, starting from 101, the jokes just got worse and more harmful and targeted and descriptive. like did anyone else notice that?

[taniushka12]

local guy reminiscents on his big bang theory shipping opinions he had as a tween at 3 am, it is fatal 😔

[mrsterlingeverything]

🙂

[hard--headed--woman]

i'm sorry but if you stop being a radfem because radblr disappointed you, you were never a radfem in the first place

[galactic-rhea]

I can't believe they cancelled The Acolyte JUST after I finally made fanart of it.

Como diríamos acá, los empavé 😞

[salty-software-engineer]

Man I just finished Babel and I was excited to read discussions online because there's so much going on in it with so many little things and just....angry white people. Everywhere. Truly a dead dove moment.

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

Hey, so I saw your post about some fics demonizing Neytiri. That has actually been one of my major fears as a fic writer, attempting to balance Neytiri's extremely valid trauma and the POV I'm writing from (that is typically flawed in some way). I was wondering, since you seem very well-versed on the topic, what do you define as "demonizing" for Neytiri? Is it ok to write from a perspective where a character doesn't really like or trust her, as long as the trauma is noted? Do you have any resources so I can educate myself to properly write this kind of character?

I really want to make sure I'm doing right by Neytiri and improve as a fic writer overall, so any advice you could offer would be very much appreciated!

Whoa, what a complicated and nuanced question. A great one! And I'm super flattered you came to me! Just one I'm going to try to answer to the best of my ability. I'm assuming you're referring to Norm's pov in your fic?

First of all, I do not want to at all proclaim to be an expert on generational trauma; I am not a person of color, and I have been lucky enough to have a very normal and healthy family. I just had a best friend growing up in an abusive household and took steps to educate myself best I could to understand the situation, which I believe anyone would do. So I'm just gonna try to word vomit out my thoughts for you, please ask questions or challenge any of what I say if any of you see anything you think is incorrect. Buckle in, this will be long.

What do you define as "demonizing" for Neytiri?

Demonizing means portraying someone as wicked or threatening, as evil or worthy of contempt and blame.

For me, demonizing for Neytiri is the trend I've seen lately of portraying her as this unyielding, animalistic type character who's hatred of humans, Spider specifically, goes so far that she gets physically violent with Spider and eventually ends up tearing apart her family. In these fics, Jake is always a sad sack loser bystander, loving his wife too much to step in but of course shamefully knowing how wrong what she's doing is. Infantilizing poor white savior Jake Sully, being brow beaten by his mean indigenous wife into neglecting a child is a weirdly strong take in this fandom. Often Mo'at is a wise elder chiding Neytiri for being unable to get over her prejudice. Mo'at and Jake understand Neytiri as much as anyone would, they wouldn't shame her. To me, it's an extremely reductive and frankly borderline racist characterization. When paired with a sympathetic view of Quaritch, it is at best irresponsible and at worst knowingly dangerous.

Neytiri is representative of an indigenous woman. I feel like I don't have to explain why making her violent, volatile, and completely unreasonable is a little bit of a harmful caricature. In these fics, for me, Neytiri ceases to be a person. She looses autonomy to sort of represent this monolith of hatred and prejudice that has hurt our little baby boy Spider. It's crazy to me that people can't apply the exact same empathy they have towards Spider (saving Quaritch) to Neytiri (not being able to trust Spider). They are the most foil of foil characters. Their storylines are extremely similar, if I'm being honest. Essentially, ignoring the fact that Neytiri is a member of a minority community being actively genocided by Spider's people is intentionally reductive. If you can empathize with Spider, and ESPECIALLY if you find Quaritch sympathetic, finding Neytiri's actions unforgivable is racism, plain and simple.

Also, side note, the lengths people go to where Neytiri just literally will not budge under any circumstances at all is INSANE.

(I read a fic the other day where she gave Spider to child protective services behind everyone's back. That's LUNACY. She only came around after she almost lost Tuk when Tuk was suddenly born prematurely and Mo'at came in and was like "Eywa made it so you can never have kids again because of what you did, have you learned your lesson yet?" Like?? I do not understand the HATRED some of ya'll have for her, the suffering you all think she deserves. She's having an EXTREMELY NORMAL trauma reaction to surviving GENOCIDE? Examine yourselves greatly).

But where I was going was Neytiri is the same character who pushed her parents to let them go to human school, fell in love with human Jake, defended him and trusted him despite her family, mated with him and lost her religious position because of it, and then had a bunch of part human kids with him, and adopted a fully freak of nature kid born of a human she loved and respected. She has human friends, she wears and uses human tech, and she forgave Jake after he had betrayed them. Basically what I'm saying is Neytiri, despite her continuous trauma, is the most open and curious and non traditional Na'vi of all time. Girl is READY to meet new people and learn new shit, and to be open to everyone. Sometimes I think about a no trauma Neytiri and I get emotional. I think it's crazy to say she would never budge on Spider, if it wasn't for his dad I'm pretty sure she would've softened lonnnnng ago, if not having liked him from the get go.

Um, that got way too long I have too many thoughts. Second half of your question.

Is it ok to write from a perspective where a character doesn't really like or trust her, as long as the trauma is noted?

This is a tricky question, because technically there is nothing you can't do as a writer. Of course, it also means there is nothing anyone can't criticize you for writing. Like, Colleen Hoover can say she's writing realistic depictions of domestic abuse until the cows come home, I'm still going to say she's romanticizing and normalizing it in a super callous way. Neither of us can stop the other. So yeah, of course you're okay to write from the perspective of a character that doesn't like Neytiri. I just think the point will be what your prerogative is. One of my MFA professors says it in a way I like and I'm sure I've referenced before, if you aren't trying to make a point about something that might have to have a trigger warning then don't include it. I always say I would take it a step further; if your point is to defend that thing, don't do it. So for me, my big points would be try not to project my own feelings onto the character either way; if the character is wrong about something and the narrative intends to show that they will either learn, or we the reader will grow past them. But to be sure what you feel the takeway of the piece is is what you wanted it to be, I guess.

Do you have any resources so I can educate myself to properly write this kind of character?

Well, I have a few on white writers writing BIPOC characters and the ethics of that if you're interested in that. But I don't have any on specifically writing generational trauma. I guess I'd say reading and absorbing are my biggest tools; so reading books/watching movies or TV that use the speculative to translate generational trauma, and learning about and taking in the real life examples the character is based on. Read up on some genocides, and indigenous people today and how their lives are still affected. Even just watch the news; we're witnessing a very public genocide being pushed right to our attention right now. And of course, that is not the only genocide happening rn, it's just the only one we're talking about, so there's plenty of real world case studies unfortunately right in front of us.

[darling-valentine]

every now and then I remember that time my transfem friend and I were talking about her trauma and her transition and suddenly she said "but yeah you didn't go through any of that because trans men don't get harassed or bullied and have it overall easier" and I just felt so deeply upset at how she just assumed all the pain I went through couldn't exist because I somehow had it easier. I didn't even say anything because I didn't want her to think I was angry at her, because if I do then suddenly I'm an Angry Man that's exaggerating

[flashhwing]

I’m here to say that you may absolutely express negativity about veilguard to me as long as it’s not stupid. hate on it for real reasons, of which there are plenty, most of which I’m ignoring because of the hype but would be glad to discuss in a civilized manner. no forced positivity in this zone this is a safe space. unless your criticism is dumb as fuck then I will point and laugh

[randomnameless]

The impression I got from his Byleth support was that Claude was angry at Fodlan for not living up to his expectations. He came to Fodlan seeking to learn something he could use to change Almyra's mindset, believing Fodlan would be more accepting of "outsiders" and when he found Fodlan had a negative view of Almyra he got upset and blamed the Church. Part of his story in Wind is him realizing he jumped to conclusions and blamed the Church without getting to know what they really stood for, being confronted with his own prejudice.

Part of his story in Wind is him realizing he jumped to conclusions and blamed the Church without getting to know what they really stood for, being confronted with his own prejudice.

Imo, he still doesn't totally get over those conclusions and prejudice especially in the Billy S-support :

And I...I want a ruler who can lay down a new set of values for the people. Values that don't exclude anyone for being different.

But yes, in this support, he also mentions having to go to Almyra to change his homeland for the better.

I see which support you're talking about, iirc it's the A support, right?

He confesses he came to Fodlan wanting to prove Almyra that Fodlan people weren't cowards, but ultimately found out people in Fodlan were as biased and prejudiced as the Almyrans are.

So his plan is to bring a "new set of values" to Fodlan and expand them to the rest of the world - so first start to bring his "new set of values" in Fodlan, and then bring them to Almyra to... destroy prejudice existing in Almyra.

Sure, why not, but bar the inherent "sus-ness" of bringing new "set of values" to a place - never once in those supports Claude reveals that the equivalent of Almyran calling Fodlaneses "cowards" is Fodlanese people calling Almyrans "brutes/barbarians" - sure, when he was a kid younger in Almyra, he used his mom as an example of why everyone in Fodlan wasn't a coward - but obviously we don't have in VW any situation where he'd try to tell Hilda and whoever in the Alliance that Almyrans aren't "savages/brutes/barbarians" to fight against their own prejudiced views...

The only sort of situation I can see this happening is apparently, off-screen, when Judith reveals that Holst and Nader got drunk together and became BFFs.

All Almyrans aren't brutes and barbarians - and yet, when we see some acting like the racist stereotypes the Gonerils depict them as, Claude doesn't pop up to say a thing. The best we can have is, iirc, him saying something like "we can let past grudges influence our decisions now" when Lorenz and Hilda are kind of arguing with the intensity of a wet paper against the inclusion of Almyrans in the army - completely oblivious to the fact (or maybe it was an oversight from the devs?) that Hilda's paralogue could be unlocked/played 3 minutes earlier, so we're not talking about past events and a long history of raids that have stopped, but about very present events : those raids exist.

In a nutshell, I agree with anon about the WTF of Claude's plan and general arc in VW - even if he shows progress and lets go, as much as the game allows anyone to do so - his hatred of the CoS - he's basically asking Fodlan, the victim, to stop being so prejudiced against people raiding for funsies and open their borders to the same people raiding them for funsies, and only after this, he will ask the people raiding for funsies to stop raiding for funsies because the people the raiders call "cowards" don't fucking want to die in what is generally seen as a dick measuring context.

Even post VW, Claude is still prejudiced, not as much as he was in the pre TS and ultimately Nopes lol, against Fodlan, expecting to change and have a new set of values "first" before bringing the values of not excluding people because they are different to Almyra.

And IMO, this is even more bonkers when you realise this S-support happens after Rhea's infodump, aka after the infodump where she reveals that the people opposing the war mongering ones with nukes were genocided - you don't ask the randoms/victims to play nice with their abusers, and expect said abusers to play nice too because you ask them.

Maybe it's a bad faith reading, but the ending illustration has Claude try to mediate or sign a treaty between, on one side, people with spears, and on the other side, people with armors (who look resigned, but maybe it's just the artstyle) and no weapons that are heavily implied to be from Fodlan.

And fun fact, now that i'm looking at them - we see Billy - aka the Church - in AM and SS, but we don't see them in CF and VW... We only see Alliance Lords - but no King/Queen Billy of Fodlan in sight.

Did he really change his POV about the Church, or not?

[floralovebot]

ik i call out winx fans here a lot for racism but like,, the fan space here is genuinely so much better than any other social media. i've been looking at winx edits on tiktok and holy shit they're all so fucking mean?? every single comment section is just full of people complaining about how much they hate Insert Character Here, there's constant fighting between the editors, so much misinformation,,, its so bad!! even though there are people here who aren't as fond of certain characters, they mostly keep it to themselves and at the very least don't fight with other fans about it. like,, the fandom here is just full of really creative people who bonded over liking winx, which is what fandom should be, but the tiktok teens turned it into some pissing contest about which character is better. i'm so glad fans here aren't like that god it'd be so miserable

[leonardalphachurch]

also to be clear like… i wasn’t making a grand statement i was making an offhand comment in the tags of a post. i’ve wanted to actually talk about the depiction of tucker’s tattoos in the fandom for a while but i’ve found it difficult to word it in a way that wouldn’t get people to react like anon did. and so when i saw a post of someone already expressing basically what i was trying to say, though in a much more general sense, i figured i’d just reblog it with a simple comment and trust that my followers would know me well enough to trust that my full opinion was much more nuanced than could be expressed in a kind of jokey two sentence tag on someone else’s post.

because like. there’s a long history of tattoos, especially face tattoos, being associated with criminality. and while i don’t think a single artist’s intention with drawing tucker with tattoos is to call forth that association it is still soemthing to be cognizant of. and when i talk about “vague tribal-esque tattoos” i’m talking about designs that give tucker these meaningless random squiggles that call to mind an “exotic” feel that many non-polynesians, especially white people, associate with being “tribal” tattoos. in reality, of course, actual tribal tattoos have very specific cultural meanings that aren’t just the cool looking symbols that are like. this is the first result of “tribal tattoo” on google images:

if you want to tell me you have not seen many tucker designs with basically the same design philosophy as these have then i will tell you that you are lying.

and if you have a question of like, how do i not design tattoos that fall into this trap, then i would say to like, give meaning and intention to the design? whether or not you think the sword automatically gave him the tattoos or if they were given to him by the sangheili, they would realistically be of GREAT religious significance. if you want inspiration i shared an example of the sangheili script but i would look at designs of the stylings and architecture and symbols used by the sangheili, the covenant, maybe even the forerunners. you can look to the design of the sword and extrapolate around that, using the shape to create more designs and symbols that follow the same design philosophy of it but like. they should have meaning to them. there should be a reason that these designs were the ones that were chosen to be put on tuckers body.

not only will doing this prevent you from falling into “vague cool looking tribal symbols” you’ll also get a design that’s much more unique, much more interesting, and much more meaningful.

[shikai-the-storyteller]

I've talked about whitewashing in the community a lot before so I'm not gonna rehash everything again but I just saw someone draw KRISTIN with blue eyes and I'm just ?????????

Stop depicting Mexican people with blue eyes challenge frickin impossible, apparently.