#exotification

[writingwithcolor]

Black woman with shockingly dark eyes and impossible features - is this exotification?

@pretend-this-username-is-funny asked:

Okay so I'm writing a superhero story and one of my main characters is from Ethiopia. I know it's really frowned upon to give black characters "exotic" features, especially things like light eyes and perfectly straight natural hair. My character is described as having very dark skin but she also has some features that are meant to show her powers. For instance, her eyes are very dark but they're described as being like oil in that they're very shiny and reflect a lot of color, and she has specks of shiny green and blue on her cheeks which are described as freckles. 

She also has really long bright green hair but I want to make it clear that it's really thick and not at all straight. It's not really curly though either, but I don't know any words for hair like that. Are there any adjectives I can use to describe the texture? 

These features are supposed to reflect her powers which are basically colorful blasts of energy but I don't know if they could come off as trying to make the character exotic. I have a bunch of white characters who also have unusual or otherwise impossible features (one is a girl with white hair and unnaturally pale skin and there's also a boy with cat like pupils and fangs). Having unusual physical traits is normal for superpowered people in this world but I don't know if this could be potentially harmful.

"Exotic" features on Black people

I know it's really frowned upon to give black characters "exotic" features, especially things like light eyes and perfectly straight natural hair.

I wouldn't say it's frowned upon to give Black people light eyes and straight, natural hair in itself. It’s when creators choose these features for Black people time and time again over those with darker features and those more commonly associated to their heritage. 

It's also a problem when characters with these "special" traits are exalted, either by the narrative, fate, or other characters, while the other "non-special" Black people aren't given favorable treatment, if they even exist in the story at all. Books tend to represent Black people with light skin or stand-out features first, especially Black women (Black men are more often allowed to be dark and still be seen as attractive, although not always).

When you do have characters with these extra-special traits, it's nice to avoid the pitfalls mentioned above. Also, adding important Black characters without these traits helps to balance out the special snowflake syndrome.

This applies to your character as well. The oil-dark eyes doesn't read as exotifying to me. The shiny green and blue freckles are adding some more "main character syndrome" to the mix, but i'm not too concerned. You have characters of other races with unusual and impossible features. This helps to avoid implications of her only deserving to be there because she's not like the others.

As for her hair Thick, not quite curly, but not straight at all? I think you're looking for the word wavy. Check out our hair guide for more words that may help with texture words, but I think wavy works fine.

~Mod Colette

#Black hair #afro hair #description #exotification #special snowflake #Black women #asks

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

Finally, a mainstream game with some good male armor.

You've come a long way, Prince of Persia, assuming there's no iron battle thongs in this one. I mean sort of.

I can't help but notice that our new sexy prince is a little... darker than the previous one.

And I would love it if I could just dismiss that thought as me just nitpicking, but the reality is black men have been subject to exotification for a very long time.

Which would be extra awkward in this case, given that it seems the look may have been inspired in no small part by Michael B Jordan as Killmonger in Black Panther (2018).

Lets hope that when its released, the game puts all concerns like that to rest.

-wincenworks

#prince of persia #the lost crown #sexy male armor #killmonger #black panther #exotification #image #video games #Bikini Armor Battle Damage #BikiniArmorBattleDamage #BABD

[gothhabiba]

Exoticism [...] allows no cultural confrontation. There is on the one hand a culture in which qualities of dynamism, of growth, of depth can be recognized. As against this, we find characteristics, curiosities, things, never a structure.

[...] Exploitation, tortures, raids, racism, collective liquidations, rational oppression take turns at different levels in order literally to make of the native an object in the hands of the occupying nation.

— Franz Fanon, "Racism and Culture" in Toward the African Revolution, trans. Haakon Chevalier

#Franz Fanon #quote #colonialism #exoticism #exotification

[appendingfic]

Reading This Article Gave Me Psychic Damage

"The origins of Chinese New Year are steeped in myth and legend"

"The festival is a means of ushering out the old year and bringing forth luck and prosperity for the new one."

How the hell do you exotify the CONCEPT OF CELEBRATING THE NEW YEAR?

#exotification #orientalism

[jyndor]

friendly nudge wink teehee reminder to all of us in the andor fandom to not exotify and fetishize latine actors for being latine tyvm, especially since the show opened with a callout on exotification and fetishization.

good: being attracted to someone you find hot

bad: getting off on a fucking stereotype

tyvm now carry on <3

#just a pleasant reminder #andor #star wars andor #exotification #fetishization #some people need to learn the difference between finding a person hot and finding a stereotype hot

[thisismisogynoir]

Do you consider “exotic” to be a racial slur? People apparently do and it surprised me (I live in a predominantly White country and hardly ever see people of color). I’ve always interpreted “exotic” as “not from Europe or North America”. Like exotic fruit or exotic animals. I don’t want to offend anybody by being ignorant, so I thought I’d ask somebody I trust.

In that case, no, it wouldn't be a slur.

But when referring to real people, especially people of color, yes.

#racism #exotification #greatmarta

[eeldritchblast]

Between commissions, and finishing my end of an art trade, I've also picked up a Yuan-ti mod for BG3 too. So I've been reading all the lore I can find on them to familiarize myself more, yeah? And oh my god. Why is D&D so fucking obsessed with assigning a moral alignment to a whole race?

"Yuan-ti are all evil"

#especially bad cause there's also this exotification of them going on #can't wait to throw that in the garbage and do my own thing lol

[writingwithcolor]

Fantasy Race Character Coded Asian with Light Eyes (+ PSA)

creatingstories asked:

I'm writing a fantasy book and one of the main characters is an half Japanese-coded character. But he is also a half elf too so he has some magical characteristic, like clear eyes, but just because elf has some specific characteristic ( to be clear elves are not coded to any existing ethnicity, they have just specific fantasy characteristic ).

I do not want it to seem offensive. In particular I read the article about the "green-eyes Asian" and the "colored hair asian". I do not want to give him particular features to make them stand out to readers so that they’re marked as ‘special’ and not like the ‘other East Asians, as you said in the article. He is a major character and has an extremely complex arc.

Submission has been abridged for clarity.

Still green eyes in my book unless you can tell us how the clear eyes relates to magical characteristics and the magic systems of the story. It's changing eye color for an Japanese-coded character to demarcate their uniqueness in some way. OP can either give up on Japanese coding, provide us with further info, or just give the character regular colored eyes that turn clear when using magic abilities to more explicitly link the magical ability to the ~ Special ~ eye coloring.

- Marika.

Announcement: Please consider this the final Ask on East Asian characters with light/green/blue/etc. eyes, as Marika has presented a clear workaround for this trope in the case of fantasy worldbuilding.

#East Asian #East Asian tropes #Japanese #Japanese tropes #Mixed race #Mixed race tropes #green eyed asian #Green eyes trope #exotification #fantasy #magic #worldbuilding #PSA

[number1villainstan]

The two stories/series/media creations that make me want to gnaw on the drywall right now are Revolutionary Girl Utena, a masterful deconstruction of tropes rooted in sexism and queerphobia but with pervasive racist/imperialist elements* in the background, and Dune, a masterful deconstruction of tropes rooted in racism and imperialism but with pervasive sexist/queerphobic** elements in the background. it's hilarious it's like they're made to cancel each other out

#shitpost #rgu #sky #revolutionary girl utena #shoujo kakumei utena #dune #dune series #dune movie #*i'm not the only one who thinks that akio and anthy being the only ones with skin darker than snow white's is kinda weird right? #that's not just me? #something something japanese imperialism and the exotification/fetishization of Desi people or darker-skinned people in general #**the recent movies do a better job of this but hoo boy the books are Utterly Saturated with heteronormativity and the gender binary #the whole thing with the Bene Gesserit and the Kwisatz Haderach can really only exist with the acceptance of the gender binary #and it breaks down once you try to analyze why it's in place. in order for it to work you just kinda need to ignore the existence of #intersex/transgender/genderqueer/nonbinary people and treat the categories of 'men' and 'women' as mutually exclusive homogenous boxes #and then of course there's the fact that in the books all the female characters are either Bene Gesserit or Fremen (wives) #the Dune books very much treat men as the default #as a final note i'd joke like “posts that are gonna get me cancelled for enjoying Problematic Shit” but like #i don't think either the rgu or the dune fandoms are that kind of community lol

[grendelsmilf]

its so fucked that we let white men get away w saying they hate white women. all i hear is "i hate my mom"

#thats literally just misogyny #and usually also indicative of some kind of racism / fetishization / exotification / dehumanization of women of color #o

[coolspacequips]

Cryinggggg 😭😭😭😭 let me just put him in my pocket and keep him!!!!!!

#i've fallen and i can't get up #tbh if I'm gonna start posting about this game I'll prolly make a side blog LMAO wgnegnwgnqfb #text posts #seeing him hop and drink his little desert juice... help....... #i...dk i like the desert characters and this is meant to be a tantalizing game but it still feels like there's issues w exotification #every otome game I've ever played has been BAD about this and watching genshin fandom go thru sumeru they've been bad about it too #so i feel a little guilty that i do like their desert looks as much as i do 😓 #I'm new to this game so IDK what ppl were saying about this event when it first dropped 😓 #nu: carnival

[0809sysblings]

idk why I'm posting this here but it's fine because I can do whatever I want. sorry I think I'm having an enneagram type 1 moment. it's not mental illness, it's because of my enneagram type! can't help being a Gemini Enneagram Type 1

also I keep using the amulet's powers so I've been being hit with the after effects. such power deranges a man /ref

#milgran't #type 1 momence #btw as a prefacw this is not directed at anyone here. this is just. a thing. that is everywhere. #ok. anyway. #the....... Exotification of DID/OSDD-1... is always so annoying. #and like. i get it. i understand. its probably a difficult thing for many ppl to actually comprehend as a real human experience #which brings me to the main point of this Pussy-Rant (ranting in tags bc im a pussy) #i think. the main reasom its So Exotified. is. '''''''MPD'''''''' #serioisky that name has done. so much fucking damage its insane. absolute wack shit #anyway yeah. like. the concept of it being Multiple People In One Body/Brain... when like... that's.. not really whats going on.. #like if youre a system and that's how you understand your system to be. then power to you. i dont care do literally whatever #its just. i think CDDs would be a LOT easier for people to understand if-- #--it was not looked at as the Multiple People Disorder. but instead as the Fucking Extreme Compartmentalization Disorder #idk its just annoying seein ppl (who are probably very well meaning!) talk about the disorder i experience as if its bizarre and fantastical #~look wooooowwww this is something that can happen to the brain due to The Most Unreal And Most Traumatic Events!! crazy right?~ #i am going to get the Evil Alter out here so he can beat you to death. #like yeah its fucking. sad and fucked up what has to happen to develop a CDD. and that should be acknowledged. #and many systems Have had to go through experiences that a lot of ppl can only fathom as being able to happen in fiction. #but.... its just so isolating and makes me feel Capital C Crazy 🥴 #dear lord ive just been so irritable and frustrated lately... obligatory apologies. #ah. i think i suddenly figured out why this in particular triggers me so much. #god damn it it's always the fucking trauma huh! #<- spent basically all of elementary school and middle school feeling like there was a giant sign over my head that said-- #--''this poor soul went through something so tragic! how awful to think that something that serious could happen to just a little kid!'' #its the ''hey can you stop treating me as something helpless that needs to be fixed and just treat me like A Fucking Person'' feelings #but see this disorder is just so beautiful because in a week i may be wanting ppl to see me as a suffering freak who needs to be fixed #or hell even fucking tomorrow. who knows not me #.. ok im actually genuinely afraid talkimg about this is going to lead to her gettinf triggered out KDJSNKDJSNJD so im gonna. stop.

[mymlody]

consider the fact that "BL/yaoi has a precedent of being written by women for women, and with that tend to romanticize tropes that are usually considered toxic in m/f media because it's instead being acted between two men" and "the assumption that any piece of media (whether described as BL/yaoi or not) coming from countries like japan, china, or korea that includes a relationship between two men automatically suffers from this issue and european/american media with gay relationships don't and are better somehow is just straight up racist" are statements that can and should coexist

#txt #saw some very annoying posts on twitter about this re: heartstopper #where self proclaimed Profic proshit whatever idc what they call themselves were like #see this is why BL/yaoi is SUPERIOR LET QUEERS BE MESSY #or whatever #and im like. my brother in christ you live in delaware first of all #the orientalism and exotification is showing #and also like. Theres gay media from EU/US where gays are messy youre literally just not looking. #Just say you have an obsession with upholding BL/yaoi as the ultimate media made by the oppressed #while ignoring BL and geikomi written by like actual gay men #or asian media explicitly depicting other members of the LGBT community that you ignore bc like #its not from japan or korea or china bc you have a weird colorist bias you havent considered #Theres like a fuckton of Thai films for example like way more than youd expect #and even in EA there are documentaries like shinjuku boys which is about trans men in JP #but youre too busy caring about your freedom to write boku no hero omegaverse slave fic to actually care about real LGBT people lawl #but whatever what do i know im just a stupid fancop right giggles

[rudjedet]

Hey there! I have plans to create an animated adult show that takes place in Ancient Egypt in a couple years. Are there any common writing stereotypes I should look out for when writing about AE or AE characters? Ways to make the setting and show feel more natural will also be a big help and is appreciated!

Oof, that's a big ask, my friend! I'm not sure you realise quite how much you're asking of me here, though I'm very glad this is evidently something you are wanting to take into account while creating your show.

Unfortunately I cannot tackle this with the thoroughness this needs in a Tumblr ask. What I can do is give you a few pointers that will make your own research more focused. If you haven't already, look through my FAQ for the various book recs in there as well. Further pointers or clarifications you're welcome to ask, but their answer will depend on the relative size of the questions.

As for stereotypes: Read up on orientalism and exotification, especially as utilised in the Victorian age/during the height of Egyptomania, but also within modern day narratives. You will find a lot of stereotypes in there, such as the idea of the ancient Egyptian harem as a den of sexual debauchery. Avoid mystification at all costs, and portray the ancient Egyptians as, simply, human. Also pay attention to current stereotypes of the Arab people as well as BIPOC in general, and avoid those as well.

As for the setting: The most important thing is specifics. When is your show set? Old Kingdom? New? Late Period? First Intermediate? Which dynasty? A lot of the setting depends on this, because ancient Egypt is not a monolith and was subject to many changes great and small in the realms of politics, religion, and society as well as fashion, iconography, and personal piety, and beyond. Find books, papers, anything on the time frame you've chosen. If you haven't chosen a period yet, I would recommend the New Kingdom, since that is the period we have the biggest amount of information on.

I can't give you anything more specific than this without knowing the time frame of your intended show, barring these two:

Ancient Egypt had a people of heterogeneous ethnicity. Egyptian individuals did not answer to a standard set of physical features and certainly weren't in the possession of a single skin tone. From northern African complexions to Sudanese and everything in between, if you remember to make your Egyptian people heterogeneous, you'll be on the right track. You will have to take locality into account: people in the north would in general (exceptions apply) have lighter complexions than people in the south, and vice versa.

Egypt was a lot greener and a lot more colourful than most people think/Hollywood would have you believe. Remember you're writing a show set in a verdant river valley.

Final tip: If you haven't played Assassin's Creed: Origins, do so. It's Ptolemaeic Egypt, but certainly captures the overall vibe.

#among the people who did it wrong re: exotification and orientalism is Wilbur Smith #if you can stomach it I'm unironically suggesting you read River God to see how you should NOT be doing it lmao