#cw cultural appropriation

[telekitnetic-art]

Have you seen the formline art in splatoon? It's present in a variety of salmon run decals and on some of the locker graffiti. Idk if the Devs just googled "salmon art" and got indigenous art and decided to copy it or what. Not sure how I feel about it personally.

Long post incoming, gonna put a break here. Also sorry for the late response, I wanted to take a couple days to formalize my thoughts together before responding fully.

I have, I remember noticing in 2018-2019 (when i first started playing splatoon 2) how much one of the decals/graffiti located on the ruins of ark polaris back in 2 sort of resembled a formline bear and salmon. (near the logo in this screenshot, I couldn't find a clear picture online)

Back in 2019, it was pretty easy to think of it as coincidence or a stretch for a comparison. But with splatoon 3's salmon run decals, the resemblance is far easier to see, specifically with the TS-ORBRS graffiti and the TS-SCHL graffiti.

(also this was the best image size I could find for the graffiti images, sorry)

A couple of the banners have the designs on them as well:

The website Sealaska Heritage has info such as textbooks and an online doc about formline art (specifically geared towards Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian nations' style) with lots of info about formline art, and the Seattle Art Museum website has an info sheet (with credits listed as being from the Sealaska Heritage site as well) breaking down some of the basic shapes of formline art.

with this chart, you can definitely begin to notice the similarities between the Salmon Run graffiti and formline art. the ovoids, crescents, and u-shapes appear noticeably in some of the graffiti such as ORBRS and SCHL.

For perspective, here are some formline pieces featuring salmon or fish from various Indigenous artists from various nations.

"sk’ug sdang" (Two Dog Salmon) by Robert Davidson (Haida)

"metal medallion", by Crystal Kaakeeyáa Rose Demientieff Worl (Tlingit Athabascan)

"Salmon People" by Alano Edzerza (Tahltan)

"Jumping Chum" by Stephanie Anderson (Wet'suwet'en)

"Salmon" by Art Thompson (Nuu-chah-nulth)

And that's literally just the surface of dozens of Indigenous artists from the PNW.

With these pieces, you can begin to see the resemblance that the graffiti designs have. A lot of the heads follow the pattern of utilizing ovoids for both the head and eyes, and u-shapes for the bodies and crescents to fill in specific areas are also common. For example, TS-SCHL has a small school of fish where the bodies are entire ovoids.

However, there are a couple flaws in the graffiti designs too. With a few of the designs, you can see they utilize the u-shape (see the formline shape breakdown from Sealaska again) in designs like TS-WHP and TS-SMFR. I can't speak for every Indigenous formline artist ever, but from how I've been taught to design formline art from my family, the u-shape should connect to the rest of the form instead of free-floating. I drew a quick example here:

you can see similar mistakes with a different kind of u-shape with TS-RLPL and TS-C0HK.

Another very specific mistake that takes a bit of squinting to make out is that ovoids are sort of top-heavy, for lack of a term I can't think of right now. The line or the area should be thicker on the top then the bottom. This mistake is frequent in the graffiti designs utilizing ovoid or ovoid adjacent face or body shapes, like TS-ORBRS, TS-C0HK or TS-SCHL.

Full disclaimer, I am not an expert at formline art. I've been practicing it under the tutelage of my aunt and father for about 3 or so years now, and there are definitely cultural variations that come into play as well. My culture's formline art style can look completely different from someone who is Haida or otherwise. This critique of the graffiti designs is based off my knowledge and skill at formline art, as well as critique and feedback that I've gotten from family. Formline art isn't just something you look at and replicate, there is a specific process of utilizing the shapes and negative space that you need to account for too. Some shapes have their own rules for how they're used as well.

Despite the beginner mistakes, the clear resemblances are pretty definitive proof that a good section of the sticker/graffiti designs for the salmonids are meant to be, or at the very least based off of or inspired by, formline art.

Splatoon's lore has a lot of elements of taking inspiration from real life culture (which is sort of one of the main elements of the story, the squids and octos are basing their society off long dead humans). Hell, Shiver and Frye are two prime examples of Splatoon working in real world culture into their setting and characters.

With that in mind, using an art style that's exclusive to an ethnicity of people as inspiration or baseline reference for the game mode that's all about taking natural resources from a species that in-game dialogue tends to treat as dangerous and lesser-minded is... not a good choice. Especially an ethnicity that has historically been ravaged and attacked by settlers for natural resources.

Now, technically if you do digging into lore for salmon run, you can find out that the salmonid are not as simple-minded as the dialogue in-game (I am staring directly at the deep cut big run announcement dialogue we've gotten so far -_-) makes them out to be. The salmonids do trades and commerce with the octarians for equipment and gear. That's why they have such technically high tech gear, like the scrappers with their shields that actually resemble octarian shields and the flyfish with their missiles and flying aircraft. That's also why power eggs show up in the story mode; they're from the salmonids' trades with the octarians.

So the salmonid could technically be as just as smart as the inklings, which is why the dialogue and some of the portrayals of the salmonid are confusing and contradictory (shiver's dialogue from the first big run, that one promo picture of an inkling walking a smallfry on a leash????). I think a good bit of the fanbase sort of thinks of the little buddy we get during the game as a pet, and I'm sure that much more of the fanbase/playerbase doesn't really care about the lore whatsoever. Salmonids sort of have a similar vibe to me as hilichurls from Genshin Impact, where the lore tells you that they're smarter than people assume while NPCs talk of them as less intelligent monsters. And you're also caught in this paradox where killing/fighting them feels morally wrong but the gameplay loop has you continuously doing that while also telling you on the downlow that you should sort of feel bad about it.

Rassicas did a really good video on translating salmonid lore from various interviews, which is where I learned a lot about the salmonid lore that doesn't really get explained/brought up in the game.

The usage of formline art in Splatoon has me sort of mixed on my opinion, because besides using an Indigenous art style for an enemy species that are considered lesser in intelligence by the NPCs, Indigenous art and culture as a whole has suffered a lot under colonialism. I don't know how much awareness whoever is reading this has about Indigenous history and colonialism, but Indigenous culture as a whole was banned in North America by the respective governments from being practiced by the respective cultural groups. Things such as ceremonies, regalia, and even practicing formline art were banned from being used by Indigenous people. Non-Indigenous people however were free to use it, which is why a lot of bastardized versions of Indigenous regalia and culture exists. You can see it in non-indigenous spiritual practices utilizing Indigenous practices and terminology like spirit animals and dreamcatchers, and sports teams utilizing Indigenous culture in its labelling and mascots. That is where cultural appropriation comes into play. And before I get anybody commenting about this, the salmonid formlines don't count as "cultural appreciation" because as far as the info available is concerned, there wasn't any Indigenous people that were consulted for the designs. And even if there were, I again have mixed feelings about Splatoon utilizing an Indigenous art style as a design piece for an enemy character in the franchise.

On another note, this isn't the first time Indigenous cultural appropriation has popped up in the Splatoon franchise. There was actually a headgear that was unreleased in the first Splatoon game called "Warrior Headdress", and you can guess what it looked like.

Yeah. That was all levels of yikes and I'm thankful as hell that it didn't make it into the game (technically it's not in the game as a wearable item, but you can spot it at the very back of the headgear shop ingame)

So Splatoon has utilized Indigenous culture as inspiration beforehand with the games, so it's not much of a stretch anymore to think that the salmon run graffiti designs were based off formline art or was an attempt at formline art.

I'm not really sold on the idea that the salmonid are meant to be representative of Indigenous people though, nor do I believe that utilizing formline art for the salmonid was a malicious decision. But it was a slightly ignorant decision at best, because again using Indigenous specific art for a species of enemies that gets fought for their natural resources and is referred to by some of the NPCs as basically being lesser-minded animals is really not a good decision.

This whole thread is not meant as a guilt trip for anyone who likes the salmonid lore, has bought any of the salmonid graffiti stickers, or enjoys salmon run, nor is it an accusation of the devs for maliciously misusing Indigenous culture. I actually really enjoy salmon run for it's PSP and concept, but this design aspect gives me mixed feelings as an Indigenous person. And to be honest it's hard to label intentions or the thought process because there isn't any info available on the development of salmon run and those graffiti designs specifically. So it's hard to know if the devs employed an Indigenous artist for feedback or if they indeed just looked at some formline art of salmon and tried to replicate it or used it as inspiration. I'm inclined to believe the latter judging by the beginner formline mistakes seen in some of the designs. There is an art book coming out soon for Splatoon 3, so maybe that will give more info.

To wrap this all up, I don't think there is really anything to be done about the designs. The game has been out for a while and I don't know if the game would change the designs at this point. I also don't think this should stop people from buying the sticker designs in game or playing salmon run. However, it is important to learn about the context of these designs so that you know why they exist and why they can be harmful, and so devs and creators can avoid making the same mistake in the future, and so Indigenous issues with cultural appropriation can be made more aware in the public space and not be ridiculed by non-Indigenous people. And again, I am just one Indigenous person so there may be other opinions from other Indigenous people on the graffiti designs and how they should be handled or viewed.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading and have a good day!! Be sure to check out some actual Formline art made by Indigenous people, like the ones I listed near the top of the post!

#long post #salmon run #indigenous discussion #cw cultural appropriation #whoof that took a while to write #I really don't think this whole situation is one of maliciousness #but one of ignorance. #the devs had the foresight to (almost completely) remove the headdress item from the first game #so good on them for that #I just sort of wish they'd thought through using Indigenous art for the salmonids a lot better. #I wish the salmonids had a different sticker design entirely tbh #graffiti is such an open-ended style concept so they could've found lots of inspiration there #instead of using an Indigenous specific art style #(and making beginner mistakes while doing it) #also if you're here to cry cultural appreciation or about how “oh this is preserving Indigenous culture actually” I'm gonna need you #to walk back out that door. #I did not spend four hours writing this whole post to deal with “but cultural appreciation actually!!!” chuds. #Look up the definition of cultural appreciation vs cultural appropriation and get back to me.

[mogai-sunflowers]

oh my fucking god. i'm going to talk about this a little bit because i'm fucking livid. i am not a person of color so I don't want to speak over anyone, and i'm not an expert on this topic, but... this is way too fucking far, even for radqueers.

[Image ID: A screenshot of a coining post by tumblr user @/centipedekiyoko. It reads:

“Transgeisha: A transid term where you wish to be a geisha.”

Then, there is a flag. It has 13 horizontal stripes, of varying sizes but in a symmetrical pattern. From top to bottom, the colors are black, medium purple, purple, blue, red, white, golden, white, red, blue, purple, medium purple, and black. End ID.]

this is truly appalling. first, let’s just start with the fact that the geisha are not an aesthetic. they are a deeply important part of Japanese culture, and they have been for nearly 8 centuries, and that's AFTER they were inspired by aspects of Chinese culture. i bet this person would not be able to tell you what geisha even means in Mandarin (aka the language geisha is in, it literally translates to art person, usually interpreted as artisan), or that geishas were originally men, or that they are HIGHLY trained in MANY aspects of Japanese culture. the geisha that this person is imagining- the makeup and hair and attire? that’s just the surface of what the geisha are.

girls usually start their training to become a geisha around the age of 14-15. they live in separate housing and undergo rigorous training for YEARS. they become experts and masters in Japanese culture and arts. and they don't do it so that white strangers can fetishize them and shit. there is absolutely importance to the typical geisha appearance and style- but it's impossible to fully appreciate the depth of even that, if you're not from that culture, so you can't just fucking say "oh im transgeisha now" because you like the aesthetic. if you don't have the experience of that culture, you can't just "become" one of the most honored traditions from said culture. when geishas don their traditional attire and makeup, it's their culture. when we do it, it's called yellowface.

so let’s talk about the term “yellowface”. it refers to when white people use orientalist stereotypes and caricatures to dress up as, impersonate, and/or act as Asian people/characters. and for over a century, white people have been doing exactly that with the geisha- trying to dress as geishas, without knowing any of the cultural significance of them, or bothering to find out how to even accurately "portray" the geisha. American film has LONG endorsed this kind of stereotyping, and it has led to an EXTREMELY orientalist, racist, anti-Asian Hollywood and media culture in America. Asian creators in that industry have long spoken about this term and the issues it describes.

but yellowface is exactly the sentiment this "identity" reeks of. a persona of Japanese culture, not anything more. Japanese people are not our aesthetic. if you can't even recognize the basic humanity of the people whose culture you're taking, then why the fuck are you even making terms like this in the first place?

again, i'm not trying to be preachy about this. i would greatly welcome perspectives from actual Japanese people about this, I just saw this earlier and it hasn't left my mind since because it's so horrible. please block and report this person.

#🌌when the stars align ; reigns rambles🌌 #cw racism #tw racism #cw cultural appropriation #cw anti-asian racism #anti radqueer #anti transid #anti transx #anti transrace #anti trace #tw radqueer #tw transx #tw transrace #tw trace

[celestialmaison]

it’s interesting that the existence of xg is such an uncomfortable topic for so many people.

if they aren’t openly discredited for being a primarily fem east asian group, then they get misbranded as an act from the country they primarily train & promote in (south korea) aka a kpop group when they Are Not A Kpop Group plus: they’ve have faced various discriminations in sk. if it’s not their use of english in all of their official music, then they’re suddenly not as hardworking as others or are “too comfortable” despite their free documentary showing us how much hell they’ve gone to just to debut the same as nearly every group in the east asian music industry. and of course there’s the ever-prevalent “the group doesn’t even make sense.”

and this part requires even more nuance nuance: xg’s music is written + produced primarily by other poc (rachel west, jakops, poe leos, patrick “j.que” smith & more) & includes heavy aave (african american vernacular english). in recent months there’s also been valid discussion surrounding jurin + cocona’s hairstyles + whether they are culturally appropriate or not. many east asian idols+groups continue to engage in cultural appropriation, but people act like these things are unacceptable when it comes to xg when these are not experiences unique to xg & are part of many east asian music group experiences (ESPECIALLY KPOP GROUPS) for a variety of reasons not limited to racism, wanting to mirror the “western” industry, & racism. there are also a lot of black songwriters+producers working in sk. all poc (especially black & indigenous people) are entitled to their nuanced perspective on the prevalence of cultural appropriation in east asian music industries+culture; it impacts us in different ways & we will have different, possibly changing perspectives on it.

xg’s entire concept is breaking boundaries stereotypes & expectations. english+aave are the primary languages they perform their songs in, & they are known for using korean, japanese, & english on non-official releases. they regularly release dance+music content between promotional periods, showcasing the experience they’ve gained from training + being an active group. they’ve performed at kcon japan + head in the clouds new york & have been promoting in the west on billboard, elle, + more. they’ve collaborated with ciara, jackson wang, & rico nasty. they’re so fcking popular i can’t find their albums! anywhere! plus, xg debuted in march of last year.

if credibility is a concern, they’ve established it. if success is a concern, consider why you think you get to decide what they deserve. and again (with nuance) if you’re a poc, your perspective on the cultural aspects of the group is yours. i know for a fact that xg is especially adored by black people for their music, lyrics, & non-official releases, many of which include covers + samples of poc songs/beats (like “two tens” a beat by j.cole, a black american rapper, that maya+harvey recently sampled). i also know a lot of us were angry+thrown+confused+hurt+etc when cocona + jurin wore certain hairstyles. (girllllll if you don’t get that shit out your head.) for me, there’s no final good vs. evil conclusion to be made bc of how prevalent it (appropriation) is & how much i’ve exhausted myself in moments past attempting to find one.

if you don’t like how xg does things (not the hair stuff)(never again…please) or can’t appreciate what they stand for as a group, then no, you won’t like them & you probably won’t enjoy their content. xg does not exist to make sense to you, or anyone else for that matter.

#xg #blue rambles #xtraordinary girls #xgalx #cw cultural appropriation #does that warrant a cw #i think it does #the next person that says xg is too comfortable is getting an indefinite timeout in the void #i mean it #music

[drfrankensteinvsthequeerborgs]

ugghhhhh leave Indigenous cultures alooooone...

#dfvq liveblog #dfv queue #dfvq spn #spn9x5 #cw racism #cw cultural appropriation

[no-empathy-culture-is]

Low/no empathy culture is being told something that should be shocking (a friend told me she killed in self defense for example) and only processing it logically, not emotionally, so you're pretty chill about it

low/no empathy culture is

#murder cw #cw murder #i think that would be the appropriate tags #mod gabriel #low empathy #no empathy #no empathy culture is #low empathy culture is #low/no empathy #low/no empathy culture is #queued post culture is

[theemmtropy]

Kratos would punch Nazis for misusing his wife and son's heritage.

#friendly reminder that nazis like to appropriate norse culture #and that shit ain't acceptable #gow #gow 2018 #gow: ragnarok #god of war 2018 #god of war: ragnarok #kratos #atreus #my stuff #cw: nazis

[autisticplants]

A group of Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus) tear at a dead Striped Skunk (Mephitis mephitis).

#vultures #is it appropriate to use the tag vulture culture here 💀 #black vulture #Coragyps atratus #—— #animalia #aves #animal death cw -/ #my vids

[atherix]

With the pantheon, how do they effect the culture? Like how certain religions have certain standards/ beliefs/morales. Qnd how with the fae one, they keep their hair longer.

(I'm bad at phrasing questions so I hope that makes sense)

Ohohohoho I only have like ten minutes to answer this but here we go!

I lied, I saved it as a draft in the middle of answering this. I rambled so much-

Of course the Fae Pantheon has the hair thing, but the hair thing actually stems from something else- head coverings. Long hair is viewed as a "natural headcover," and elves with short hair actually wear headcovers/scarves! Not all elves are comfortable with long hair (whether their job/role in society is just not good for long hair or if they just in general don't like having long hair/feel physical or mental discomfort with it) and will opt for a headcover of some kind. It's viewed as being honorable/respectful, and is 100% a cultural thing and not at all related to their magic. There are followers of the Pantheon who opt out of this completely (for example, Tubbo has short hair and doesn't wear a headcover despite being part of the Pantheon) but yeah. Just a fun fact. But other than that, their teachings are big on things like honor and respect and family and community and responsibility; self sacrifice (for the right reasons) is something to be honored and respected (by other people) but is not something to be done lightly.

The Death Pantheon is extremely respectful, in general, to all living things and especially honors the dead- thus why Vampires are considered such an insult to the goddess, having denied themselves an honorable death and funeral in line with the beliefs of the Pantheon (generally, followers of Death would have funeral pyres, where their body is burned in the hopes that the smoke would guide their souls. Of course Vampires turn to dust when they die so can't have a funeral pyre). Zombies and Skeletons do not get the same rep, as more often than not they did not ask to be infected/cursed. (Hi, this fact should in fact give you a hint to something I cannot explain) Death is closely related to Destruction and can be self-harming as well as extremely harmful to others, so those who are part of the Death Pantheon and have Death magic are expected to hold themselves to high standards and learn self restraint. L'Manburg is a perfect example of what happens when someone with Death magic loses self restraint and control. ( :) ) They are also taught a bit of a symbiotic family-group type relationship; the strongest is meant to protect and care for those weaker than them, and in return the weaker among them swear loyalty to the protector. This is why they group up- Vampires into Covens and Angels/Lower Deities into Flocks and (sentient/hybrid) Zombies and Skeletons into Hordes. It's a very "we take care of our own" family-group type culture. The Illagers are a favored group of Naturals who follow Death, and even they fall into this family-group take-care-of-our-own mindset.

The Old Pantheon is, if you remember from Midnight Alley, a very, very exclusive Pantheon not because you have to be born into it but because it denies all other Pantheons (it was The First of the modern age, when people first started picking up the pieces again) and is very Humans Are The Chosen People (Hybrids came about during the Ancient period (they started as mobs/animals with human level intelligence and started taking on human characteristics, and eventually humans started taking on animal/mob characteristics as well) but unfortunately small vocal groups of people can be awful, thus why many hybrids would hide out or live in places that didn't have humans). Which makes situations like Tubbo, a Hybrid's bio parents followers of this Pantheon rather ironic and extremely sad. The Old Pantheon was good for one reason; it gave people hope for the future and guided them to rebuilding, but in the modern age of Hybrids and Magic and the Supernatural it just isn't a Pantheon that appeals to people anymore, and only a few (well, less than a thousand) people still follow. The good parts of this Pantheon focuses on community and loyalty, which unfortunately fostered a lot of Othering feelings.

The Moon's Pantheon is wild. The Moon god's favored being were wolves, who would sing to her every night. As the Moon is very wolf-centric for this reason, packs and families and "it takes a village" style parenting are at the forefront of the Pantheon, and loyalty and pride is serious- namely, on the pride front, having pride but not letting it consume you. Not all followers of this Pantheon are Werewolves (as there ARE Natural followers of each Pantheon as well). Of course, most Werewolves live in their own villages where they function at night, under the moon, and the Natural followers of the Moon also tend to live nocturnally. That being said, Naturals are not welcome in Werewolf villages unless they come with the intention of joining and becoming a Werewolf. (This is where you should be side eyeing Ren and Martyn.)

The Sun's Pantheon is quiet and low-key. Its followers wake up early to welcome the rising sun but they don't communicate with their god or anything like that. No, they kinda like... literally just worship the sun. They don't even know if there's a god attached to it, all they know is they wake up and the sun rises and brings them warmth and light and chases away the monsters of the night. The only thing a follower of the Sun is expected to do is greet the sun in the morning and bid it farewell in the evening, that's it. Nothing on morality or values or how they live, just greet the giant ball of fire and gas that gives us light, as if if they don't it won't rise again.

The Watchers you have to be brought in by a trusted member. It's very exclusive. I can't actually... explain a lot about the Watchers and their values/morals because it will be important later, and what they actually do I can't explain because it would be hella spoilers, but the tenets are very "community/chosen family" oriented; "Find your people." They're meant to protect their own and be loyal and faithful to those they choose to be "their people," which as we know wasn't always the case and still isn't in some communities.

Listeners are extensions of the Watchers, a special group who can sense/communicate with them, even when they're not physically there. (Again, you need to be side-eyeing Ren and Martyn here.) If the stars are the Watchers' eyes, the Listeners are their ears. They are meant to be loyal to the Watchers and are often meant to be silent, so they can serve their purpose without distraction. Listeners are a class of Observant, but they are very much so a servant-type class, their natural ability to connect the Watchers in [redacted] to the Natural world being desired and necessary. They're expected to travel the world so the Watchers can learn and, well... watch over everything.

Creation... well, Creation is just that. The First after Fate. The one who created the Natural world (or what we would call the Overworld in-game). No one follows this Pantheon anymore as all information about it was lost over the tens of thousands of years of known history (and however long it was before that), but there's still a sense of respect for it as everything around them, their entire lives, are all thanks to this long lost Pantheon. It was based in honor and respect for all things, whether living or not.

Destruction, well, I really can't explain that one right now. That one will be explained in-story, because there is a complicated-as-fuck situation going on here.

The Nether god created the Nether as an attempt at finding a peaceful place away from the Warden's wrath. Unfortunately, the Nether god was only a child of Creation and was, specifically, a volcanic god... so it could only create something volcanic. Thus came a world of magma and volcanic rock. It was utterly inhospitable for humans, which led humans to fear and revile it, until it was a forgotten piece of their history. Creatures found their way there and adapted, though, and Piglins evolved from the common pig and built societies, which pleased the Nether god. Unfortunately, some of the creatures that found their way there weren't so peaceful and honorable and wanted to find a way back... :)

What created the End? No one knows. Humans discovered it so long ago and explored it at the height of their technological advancements. Some never left. Strangely enough, prior to humans finding their way to the End, there were no Endermen in the Natural world... That being said, Endermen worship something. No one really knows what. It could be some kind of Creation god or it could be the Void that surrounds it all, it could be the Dragon they've bound at the heart of the dimension. Eye contact is disrespectful among Endermen and Enderman-related Hybrids, and generally non-Endermen (who will naturally avoid eye contact with each other) would wear a mask or veil to keep from accidentally making eye contact.

The Void... well, it's a defunct Pantheon now, but it was about community and loyalty, as many Pantheons are. Its followers would bring offerings- often bundles of food, sometimes things like precious stones and metals- to places that claimed to have access to the Void itself. Its people were generally hardy and faithful, with a strong work ethic. Of course, though, it had its... groups. Worship was generally held in small community houses or around a shrine... if you saw a giant temple dedicated to the Void, it was best to avoid it lest you become the offering.

Fate is Fate. Fate controls the fate of all things, and is one of the hardest things to defy. There's arguments on whether you CAN defy it, if you even have free will to stray from the path it sets out. There's debate on whether or not Fate maps out everything or just key points- if the journey to get to the end point even matters. No one knows Fate. Everyone is bound to it. Even the gods. Fate came into being when there was nothing at all, and set the wheels in motion for everything that came after. No one can even agree on if Fate is actually a god or just a concept. Many people don't even believe in Fate. Certainly, with a god out there who plans out all the paths and every turn the world can take- surely a god like that would never allow the Warden to come to be. Well, one thing's for certain among those who do believe in Fate; it doesn't like to be challenged.

I spent way too long on this :o I hope this answered... anything at all honestly, I had fun rambling about them~

#ask #Midnight Series #do I need to CW religion for this? #hhhh #You have no idea how much I've been waiting to say that the elves actually wear headcovers of some kind #whether it's just their hair being long or a veil or something #though it's not actually a requirement it's just considered appropriate and respectful to the Fae god #nothing to do with modesty and everything to do with culture #but anyway hi yes finally the reveal of why long hair is actually important to the elves #long post #VERY long post #I'm not joking I didn't even talk about every single Pantheon #inthe time it took me to write this I have gotten 84 new things on my dash and a new ask #MidnightLore

[fictionkinfessions]

post/717400814318157824/okay-so-i-have-a-lot-of-thoughts-on-this-i-am-a

trans people ‘steal names’ from others all the time where do you think we get our names 🥴 i literally named myself after a fictional character… my friend with a troll name did the same. chill, we can get inspo from somewhere without it being ‘cultural appropriation’ of s place that’s not real.

To be frank both your examples is pretty terrble because people shouldn't be stealing Black names or names of color when they aren't a part of that culture at all. Like that's a legit problem. Being trans does not prevent one from being antiblack or racist.

Also this is the last ask response I'll be posting for this because people are getting pretty mean about it. You guise talk to your friends like this? Smh. Thanks to the other two people for trying to discuss this reasonably.

Connie / mod party cat

#fictionkinfessions #mod response #not confessions #mod party cat! #ask response #racism cw #cultural appropriation cw

[telekitnetic-art]

about your last post: I totally understand where you’re coming from. I’m a Coast Salish artist and have published some art for my tribe but I’m terrified of posting it online for these reasons. I’ve considered a side blog but I’m not sure if it’s worth it :(

I wish I could give some sort of reassurance or advice or hypothetical way of handling it that i'm trying out that might help, but the truth is that I'm just as torn as you are on the subject of sharing traditional art and culture to a broad audience who might or might not respect and appreciate my culture ;o; I don't *want* to have to not share my artwork, but the way the internet is sometimes, it feels like it's better to only share my art amongst close friends/family members because there are so many non-native ppl out there who will do and say hurtful things because they cannot comprehend boundaries and respect for a protected culture that the government and churches and general public wanted to pick apart like carrion while hoping that the people that belonged to it would vanish and meld into society quietly.

#thinking and organizing my thoughts on this is so depressing for me. #bc unlike what a lot of racists think I want to share my art!! I enjoy telling ppl about my culture and about how I do formline art and- #-how I want to combine formline art with modern media so the two can mesh!! #but at the same time the amount of people who are willing to see my artwork as an aesthetic or commodity for them to just consume and then- #-treat me and other Indigenous artists like me as shit (all while consuming our culture or what they think is our culture) #it just makes me feel miserable. #it's very ironic how many ppl will use the excuse “I'm honoring your culture so it doesn't disappear\you're just being sensitive and greedy #all while consuming culture and stereotypes alike without forethought and refuse to listen to Indigenous ppl they are supposedly honoring. #ask box #this is a pretty heavy answer but if it's any consolation I guess I'm relieved that I'm not the only one struggling with this dilemma #cw racism #cw cultural appropriation

[magdaclaire]

don't be fucking stupid and i won't call you fucking stupid

#just. learn from other cultures. knowledge cannot be appropriated. the problem is Taking pieces of culture not appreciating where you got #them from and claiming them for your own. you can and really should engage with cultures you are not a member of #read a book. watch a historical or cultural youtuber. listen to the active and dead voices of other people #is this thing on #you know when you open the app formerly known as twitter see the worst take of all time and then close it #this post is somewhat related to that phenom #mer rambles #vent cw #this also applies to disability culture !! like if you don't know a goddamn thing about the disabled community or mobility aids or #disability law or just any fucking thing. if you're here you can be on google doing research. learn more #you do not have to be knowledgeable only on things that affect you personally. god bless

[drfrankensteinvsthequeerborgs]

whyyyyy, not being racist was free, it literally cost you nothing, leave Indigenous cultures alone

#dfvq liveblog #dfv queue #dfvq spn #spn8x3 #cw racism #cw cultural appropriation #forced to live bad writing

[thedepartmentofdiscoveries]

Not Gwen Stefani proclaiming she is "Japanese" in an interview with Allure Magazine. 🙄

Girl, you drunk? 🥴 or just very, very unaware? I'm going to say the latter.

This is just wild though:

#gwen stefani #no doubt #cw: cultural appropriateness #japan #harajuku

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

i've said it before, but the more i think about it the more i pin down exactly what the biggest fundamental issue is with lorien legacies, and that is that it tries to mix its metaphors while also pretending to be an explicit recreation of Certain Real World Dynamics where you really need to know what the fuck you are saying.

like, fantasy metaphors don't always have to be a 1:1 for real world historical events. you need to very carefully examine the real-world components of what you're portraying--what you're saying--with said metaphors, respectively and in the context of each other, that's true. they can even shed some interesting light on each other--the situation with the cêpans on lorien before the war is an interesting inversion of ableism as a structure on earth, and it's interesting to examine how non-fantasy, non-inverted ableism nests into that. and setrákus' whole thing could be a good commentary on Certain Parts of the transhumanist movement that need addressing, and on cultural appropriation, and on how scratch an ableist and you'll find a racist and vice versa, because Fascists is the Same. and the care involved in this process, of course, goes many times over when the thing you're tackling is a heavy subject like genocide.

but if you're drawing a straight, explicit-or-borderline-explicit line directly between your fantasy metaphor and real-world history? hooooly fuck you need to be SO on top of recreating that history as accurately as you can. you do NOT want to fuck up your commentary on What Happened Irl by erasing the contributing factors, putting blame in the wrong places, or perpetuating lies about what was happening in order to justify or perpetuate it or cover it up. if your villains are a ham-handed metaphor for manifest destiny YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT MANIFEST DESTINY IS, HOW IT HAPPENED, ITS AFTERMATH, AND ITS GOALS.

LL doesn't just drop the ball here, it spikes the ball so hard it noclips into the backrooms. even if they had had an ounce of self-awareness about the fantasy dynamic they were creating with lorien, mogadore, and by extension earth, they absolutely should not have brought real-world history into it to make their goofy evil cartoon aliens Deep. it's fascinating to pick apart as a trainwreck but jeeeeeeesus, man.

#lotien legacies #setrákus ra #LL mogadorians #LL crit tag #LL tag #genocide mention cw #racism mention cw #ableism mention cw #i feel like there's something else i should be tagging here but my brain is not Fully Online yet #just..... man i have so many thoughts about this #but i also keep having to just stop and psyduck about this because Lord #oh right there's also the fact that the cultural appropriation part we get in canon is transphobic as fuck lmao #transphobia mention cw

[morebedsidebooks]

Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye

Important to note Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye has after its publication been banned in some US libraries. Because of this I decided I should share this review I’ve been sitting on for way too long because of different controversy the title has been involved in.

From an affluent family but with a messy home life and teased about his disdain for high school relationships, captain of the boys’ soccer team Bryson Keller is dared to date anyone from among the senior class (including underclassmen apparently would be gross) who asks him out on Monday. BUT… only for the school week. After over two months of Bryson with a parade of girls, the closeted and less than popular Kai Sheridan impulsively asks Date Me, Bryson Keller!

Kevin van Whye, a gay mixed race South African writer, in an author’s note to the book besides speaking on his own lived experiences lists several works and their creators he feels indebted to as inspiration for his debut OwnVoices young adult novel Date Me, Bryson Keller. These are Skam a 2015-2017 Norwegian teen drama TV webseries (especially season 3), two other English language young adult novels in 2014 To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han, in 2015 Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, also the latter 2018 film adaptation, going way back a 1999 American teen movie rom com She’s All That, and finally a Japanese boys love comic series Seven Days written by Venio Tachibana and illustrated by Rihito Takarai. But it was concerning this last well-liked work where a nerve was touched across readers of Japanese comics and YA books.

Firstly, with accusations against Kevin van Whye of plagiarism. Seven Days features a popular first year high school student who dates the first person to ask him out on a Monday but, only for the week. Until, instead of a girl, a handsome upperclassman on a whim asks him out. For more details on Seven Days, I have previously reviewed the 2010-11 English edition. While dating with a time limit is common in the romance genre, I hadn’t encountered another title quite like it before. In fact, it was the mention of Seven Days which led me to put Date Me, Bryson Keller on my list of 2020 anticipated releases.

Secondly, the conflict involved the concept of representation and critique of the BL genre. During February 2019 the author posted a response on Goodreads. In part: “There were themes that I wanted to explore in a western setting and as an own voices writer. These were born from my own critique of the work with respect to actual and realistic LGBT culture, people and issues. I wanted to write a story for the LGBT reader, as told by my own lived experience.” Further in an interview on the YA Sh3lf blog in November 2019: “my own critique and feelings toward the manga Seven Days (and the Boy Love genre in general) definitely served as a jumping off point as far as inspiration.”

Critiques and the question of representation in Japanese BL is a decades long complex discourse. At times swinging from the more apolitical to political. Furthermore, especially fraught when involving identity politics. Which may be somewhat familiar as many other examples of queer literature from elsewhere around the globe undergo analysis, critiques, and disputes. Too movements like OwnVoices, intended to promote marginalized writers, became less helpful and after years faced demise. Unfortunately, I cannot begin to outline the parallels, differences, and nuances of these debates in this review. (Though if one is interested, I can suggest some scholarly reading.) However, it is this background which the author, who also pointed to a rudimentary TV tropes page on the BL genre, stepped right in to.

Speaking of tropes, I have a soft spot for dating tropes. Also, to include works like To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. After old love letters are sent, Laura Jean Covey ends up faking dating an old crush Peter Kavinsky, which then turns into the real thing. (Also, Peter’s character most influenced Kevin van Whye with Bryson.) The concept of a dating dare is also the premise of She’s All That (itself a take on My Fair Lady, in turn adapting the stage play Pygmalion). Where soccer star and class president Zack Siler on a bet tries to make Laney Boggs, an artistic clumsy girl, Prom Queen to his King.

But heaping parts tropey teen dating novel Date Me, Bryson Keller is also a coming out story, with hardships. Grappling with the meaning of gay identity and the effects. In common with the hugely popular Simon (among several other similarities)and Skam Season 3.

Seriously, if one is well read in a genre, one knows the scènes à faire. Further if you are familiar with these works you can pick up the beats and bits from here and there, and there and here with Kevin van Whye’s book. He calls the stories “woven into the tapestry of this novel “. But, unlike some cases, these threads do make the work stand out less and feel more derivative. Even as the author specifically also talks about some of the aspects that are personal. Still, it is true as he writes in the author’s note: “I’ve always believed that more than one story of a certain type can exist. We need more representation all around. We shouldn’t settle for just one thing, because we are not just one thing. Our race, culture, geography, sexuality, and experiences make us different. These things shape our stories, our lives.”

#banned and challenged books #date me bryson keller #kevin van whye #long post #cw: homophobia outing violence injury blackmail #cw: cursing car accident racism cultural appropriation infidelity pregnancy

[manicbeans]

lmao a lady posted on the local garage sale facebook page looking for a g*psy costume and I commented that she should reconsider and posted some links about Romani oppression and cultural appropriation and she replied "wow thank you I had no idea! I learned something new today" and I was like sick good job everyone and then someone else commented "I have a costume you can have" and she was like "sick what size" ok I guess you didn't learn anything today

#cultural appropriation #cw slurs