#representation: racial

[representativecharacters]

Character: Moon Knight

From: Marvel (Comics + Show) 

Representation: Jewish, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Abuse Survivor, Autistic (Steven Grant), Latino (show only)

Their Importance: In superhero comics, an unfortunate recurring trope is that a character with a known mental illness or disorder will typically be a villainous character. Moon Knight is unique, then, for being a superhero with an explicit diagnosis of DID, having at least three distinct alters. While he will occasionally cross the line into being an "anti-hero", overall he's consistently portrayed as a noble and good person.

Many of the comics that feature Moon Knight provide an empathetic look at the experiences of someone with DID. The comics discuss difficulties with medications, with therapists, and Moon Knight's various struggles with how to manage his alters.

Moon Knight's Jewish identity isn't discussed as frequently but is still depicted as being very important to him. He is the son of a Rabbi and is shown to observe Jewish holidays. Additionally, Moon Knight practices a religion based on Egyptian mythology and discusses with other characters how being Jewish and practicing other religions is not mutually exclusive.

In the show, Oscar Isaac also stated that the alter Steven Grant is autistic, something that Isaac intentionally played in his portrayal of Steven. We get to learn more about Marc and Steven, and see them both in romantic interactions with Marc’s wife, Layla - who initially insists that Steven is Marc, but after learning about them having the disorder, acknowledges both Steven and Marc as their own individual selves. We get to see Steven and Marc becoming more of a cohesive unit and growing closer to each other, and by the end of the season, the two have excellent communication and are co-conscious with one another, and have accepted each other as important and needed parts of their system.

Issues: It's only been within the past decade that writers have finally settled on Moon Knight having specifically DID. In the decades preceding, much of the language discussing his disorder had been either outdated (like calling his disorder "Multiple Personality Disorder") or incorrect (such as conflating DID with schizophrenia despite them being completely separate disorders). 

Additionally, how competently the subject of DID is handled depends on the creative team that's writing the character, often leading to many wildly different and occasionally unflattering approaches to the subject of disorders. 

There is also another alter, Jake Lockley, who has at times been incorrectly portrayed or viewed as an “evil” alter, depending on the writer. It is unclear right now where a continuation of Moon Knight would go with his portrayal in the live action, but some fans have expressed concern on his introduction to the show, and how it could potentially add to negative stigmas about DID.  

Also, just as a general note,  episode 1x05 delves into their mother’s physical and emotional abuse, which is obviously very triggering for some people to watch.

Thanks to @silver-stargazing​ and anon for the write-up!

[icedsodapop]

I really need to stress how groundbreaking Martha Jones literally is. She made her mark as the first official onscreen Black Doctor Who companion, and quite literally paved the way for future Black and other companions of colour to star on the show, like Bill Potts, Yasmin Khan, and Ryan Sinclair. And these characters would also make Doctor Who history in their own ways with Bill being the first onscreen Black lesbian companion, Yasmin being the first onscreen South Asian companion, and Ryan being the first onscreen Black companion with a disability.

Marth Jones' power? Unparalleled.

[comparativetarot]

The Tower. Art by St. Jinx, from the Reclaimed Earth Tarot.

[oh-hush-its-perfect]

I once said this on Twitter and got a LOT of backlash for it, but I think it's worth saying. Piper McLean is not hyper-femme. She's not even femme. Piper McLean is a butch sapphic woman. Though there's no problem with portraying her in pink or doing "girly" things every once in a while, if everyone is doing it all of the time, it creates a fandom misinterpretation of the character. It erases her identity as butch. Yes, she improved her internalized misogyny. No, that does not mean that she has become femme or "feminine." Part of feminism and eliminating internalized misogyny is the realization that women have the choice of how they want to present. Piper presents in a more androgynous/masc way. That's how she is, and I don't think all fanart of her should misrepresent her in such a way.

[audioroleplayconfessions]

I usually avoid posting my own opinions, but I've seen a few posts like the one in the screenshot below creep across my feed lately and they're bugging me too much to keep my mouth shut. I censored the identity of this particular example because I don't want to start a Tumblr war or make them feel like I'm singling them out or attacking them.

I don't feel good about celebrating black history month through a character who was both written and performed by a white man. I know this is all just low-stakes fandom headcanon stuff and I'm not trying to control what other people do, but something feels not-quite-right about taking a character played by a white VA and deciding (on his behalf might I add) that he's black and using him as your example of black representation in the audio rp fandom.

There are black VAs out there, they can represent themselves. I really think it's disingenuous to sort through a cast of characters all played by the same white guy and assign POC races to them in order to give a singular white guy's one-man show racial diversity, then celebrate said "diversity".

Sorry, I'm not trying to be a Tumblr drama queen. If you're the person from the screenshot (or have posted something similar), I don't think you meant any harm. Your post probably wasn't meant to be that deep and not the worst thing in the world, but I don't know why you would pick a random character written and performed by a white guy and cheer "Rahhh, let's celebrate black history month with this!". If it really matters to you, you can celebrate a black VA, or a canonically black character, or even just a listener character that you/others HC as black. You can celebrate fan artists and writers who are black.

Why use characters played by Redacted for this? I promise I'm not trying to start a fight, or accuse people who've made posts like this of being racist or cancel anyone. I don't think they mean badly. But I see this a lot even outside of the context of BHM. It's almost always with characters written/performed by Redacted and it's always made me a little uneasy, especially with the amount of enthusiasm people throw onto the race they decided to HC for this one white man's characters.

If you disagree with me, I'm open to hearing you out. I don't want to try and dictate what people can/can't do in a fandom space or send a mob after anyone, but something feels off to me about using Redacted characters to celebrate BHM.

-Ringmaster

[kandiibow]

I was gonna call out the Nani thing but my lord the fucking hypocrisy! I saw someone with a halle pfp complain about it. so if you’re a racial hypocrite just shut the fuck up when it comes to casting you don’t like because ppl don’t wanna fucking hear it unless you’re completely unbiased

Also apparently the girl playing Nani is Hawaiian she’s just mixed like jasmine was so… maybe just say y’all are racist have an issue with white/light skinned ppl and go instead of embarrassing yourselves, thx

It doesn’t change the fact that at the end of the day all Disney live action remakes exist for scummy capitalist reasons so maybe just dont support these things in general lmao

Update: as a mixed user who has been harassed by self proclaimed “sjw’s” ages ago and being called white over and over again I know damn well ppl on this site have an issue with light skinned ppl, jasmine, Nani and my harassment are proof of this. Y’all have gone beyond shitting on white ppl and are now moving on to white passing POC’s and we ain’t standing for it

Again just admit you have an anti white/lightskin bias and go 😂

more ppl are agreeing with me tho so there’s hope for this site after all

[murder-incarnate]

tfw the bhaalspawn is the only one in your friend group with a real conscience and they are hanging on by a fucking thread

my friend ez's tav trine (at least they're a tav in her bg3 au) + my durge abaddon + astarion. trine and abaddon typically live in separate universes but ez and i love to talk about how the two would interact, and they both romance astarion so like. this squad gets talked about a lot. abaddon tries so hard to be good despite everything, trine and astarion not so much, and things aren't helped by trine especially having a real tendency to poke the metaphorical bear because it's funny.

colors are messy so here's the lines-only version, which i also like, and is, admittedly, also messy

[awakefor48hours]

I've written several essays about The Owl House for school, this college shit is not as stressful as high school makes it out to be.

[hussyknee]

Not entirely sure how I'm expected to respond when I point out something is white as fuck and the person I'm criticizing goes "I'm literally PoC!!" Okay? Good for you? Get well soon??

I literally live in South Asia, a place still nursing the world's worst colonial hangover. That's like one billion brown people desperately in need of joining Bootlickers Anonymous. If I had to respect the rancid takes of every yahoo that lives here I'd have to drown myself in the sea.

Living in white countries does something odd to diaspora brains. If you call yourself BIPOC in your own head long enough you end up forgetting you're just a garden variety idiot mainlining white supremacy like everyone else.

[representativecharacters]

Character(s): Sage Solara, Vega, Leona, Tessa, Gemma, and Adora

From: Star Darlings

Representation: Indian (Sage), Asian (Vega), Black (Leona, Tessa, Gemma, and Adora)

Their Importance: Star Darlings was a rather obscure and short-lasting Disney franchise starting as a book series before becoming a web cartoon. It focused on Sage Solara, Leona, Libby Rose, Vega, Scarlet Maroon, Cassie, Piper Dream Soule, Astra Torch, Clover Molensa, Tessa, Gemma, and Adora, 12 teenage girls from the planet Starland, and their missions to grant wishes on Earth. Most people don't notice, but many of them are POC. Sage, who is the main character (at least in the cartoon), is Indian (as revealed in one of the books, her mom is named Indira), which is very rare, as even other POC main characters are usually from other places. Sage is bright and hopeful, always looking forward to spreading as much good luck and granting as many wishes as possible. Leona is an aspiring pop star and the lead singer of her own band. Vega is practical and tends to think about things before doing them, and is revealed to be Asian from her Earth disguise. Tessa is an aspiring cook, and her younger sister Gemma is a supportive sister with dreams of also being a great wish granter. Adora is a combination of a nerd and girly girl, being into both science and fashion.

Issues: While in the books, each girl gets an equal time to shine, the cartoon only focuses on Sage, Leona, and Vega (as well as Scarlet and Libby) while all the other girls, including S=Tessa, Gemma, and Adora, are practically left behind except for them getting one 2 minute short each and the finale episode. They don't even get real focus in the pilot.

Thanks to @thedisneytardblr for the write-up!

[soanixx]

Representation in fanfics matters until its for us latinas

[alwaysbewoke]

[comparativetarot]

Two of Blues. Art by Stacey Williams-Ng, from the Rhythm & Soul Tarot.

The friendship in the 2 of Cups (Blues) is shown as a pair of Mississippi sharecroppers.

[spite-and-waffles]

Do diaspora PoC actually like it when white fans keep race-bending random Batkids? Apparently Jason's Asian now too? In a fic where he had red hair. And I'm sorry but white people making Jay Latino and Tim East Asian is racist stereotypying. The entire point of Tim is his white privilege.

Y'all are a hair away from making one of these people white-passing Black or Native, and I don't think you'd understand the enormity of insult that would be either. Unless you actually belong to the community you're race-bending them for, please for the love of God stop. This isn't representation, it's brownface for brownie points.

[paddysnuffles]

Bigots: I don't buy racially diverse or disabled dolls for my kid because kids should get dolls that look like them.

Me:

Bigots: Wait, no--

Friendly reminder that "kids need representation" and "kids need toys that don't look like them" are not mutually exclusive truths. They need both.