Okay. So the bad batch teaser is out and many fans have rightfully called out star wars out on the clones still being whitewashed. In response to this outcry, the bad batch stans have called out these angered fans for being overdramatic, stupid and theatrical, all over a cartoon. And while poc don't have a responsibility to teach you just how a cartoon can have an impact on us, I want to give it a try from my perspective. Its a bit long but try would you?
So, I'm brown, desi, and darker than most desis so I've basically been identified as the unfortunate child who didn't end up with the right genes in the family. Desi culture is obsessed with white skin, no surprise keeping in mind the British's involvement, but that's not the point. As a child, I really pissed off my parents for not bleaching my skin regularly and not washing my face ten times a day because by then, I considered any form of skin care as an evil. I hated that I had to do it all to get whiter and so I rebelled against any form of skin care. I hated all the damned whitening creams that were meant to make me beautiful because while it wasn't being stated explicitly, I was ugly for being darker.
In the 90s and 2000s, Desi movies from Pakistan and India showcased darker actresses as the ugly girl in the movie. The one who wanted the guy but wouldn't get him. The one who was pining for a guy who was however pining for the pretty white desi girl. And even if the dark girl somehow did end up winning the heart of the hero, it wasn't because he thought she was beautiful... it was because she had a great personality or was kind or whatever. But despite everything, watching Rani Mukherjee on screen, who I saw myself in, made me feel all sorts of giddy. When she did get the guy and he did tell her he loved her and she did get the happy ending, I believed it was possible for me too, despite being told by every passing aunt and uncle that I'd have a hard time getting a guy, if at all. Rani Mukherjee's presence on screen gave me hope because it told me that I could exist in this fucked up world and expect some form of happiness.
This sole example kept me going for a very long while. I'm not saying it helped me forget everything that had been engrained into my head for the first thirteen years of my life. It didn't make me rethink everything or made me more confident in my own skin. It didn't make me embrace my color, or my features, or my nose or my darker lips. But I knew I didn't have to be ashamed of the way I looked. And that there was more beauty in this world than the Eurocentric beauty I had been forced to accept as the only beauty since I was born . Seeing someone who looked like me has made a difference! This one person's presence on screen helped!
So, for those of you who are screaming out louder than the fans who are very rightfully angered by the whitewashing of the bad batch, you need to stop for a second. If you're white, you've never even had to think about this! That is because every actor in Star Wars looks like you! Bar some aliens and mace windu, the multitude of characters in star wars are white. The greatest jedis, the greatest villains, every skywalker, Kenobi, Rey, Ben Solo, Han, Padme and any other major character you can think of. You don't have to worry about how it feels to not be seen. You've been shown again and again that every princess looks like you and every actress resembles you and every hero has your face!
Polynesians were given a singular chance to see themselves in Star Wars as the clones who were modeled off a polynesian actor. This amazing role that showed us that people of all colors and races do exist! How hard is it to put yourself in our shoes, and empathize for one second, just how awful it feels to see that sole role snatched away ? That out of the millions of stories to tell about the clones, star wars chose to focus on the white versions of the clones. That they actually informed the fans, and proudly might I add, that they chose to model the clones off of white actors? That they went ahead and decided that for some reason it was okay that Tech have a British accent (???). Why is it so hard to understand that its absolutely horrible to see the one role offered to a colored guy, be transformed into a white man who, lets not forget, are supposed to be a new and improved version of the OG clones. And that the only one who most accurately resembles the clones, was made the bumbling brute of the group. And that the young girl who was a copy of Jango is not only blonde, but whiter than any clone ever seen on screens.
Can't you pull yourselves out from your own bubbles for just one second to understand the point of view of those against the bad batch? When they're telling you that the franchise's decision to whitewash one of the few colored characters is hurting them, cant you see why? That when an author tells us it was too hard to bother finding out how polynesian hair works, cant you see why the outrage makes sense? Every decision that star wars makes has an effect on the fans and its absurd for you to negate the impact that media has on all our lives.
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Many people have been wondering about what the difference is between transgender and transsexual, and in my viewpoint, the difference comes down to what you're comfortable with claiming.
I personally think that the difference can come down to the perspective you have about your transness. For me, I claim transsexual for myself because I view my sex as changing, not my gender. It doesn't have anything to do with what I've done to transition, and honestly, that's nobody's business but my own. I think the same goes for every trans person.
The way you define your transness can look radically different, and that's okay. What matters to me isn't if you're doing things "right" and get approval from every living being on earth to use the label you use. What matters is that you find language that describes you best.
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