"Twitter users are fleeing the site to Tumblr, and demanding changes that will annoy the original user base. Soon Tumblr will be a shadow of its former self. Everything is going as you instructed, Mr. Green."
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yeah i dont really have anything other than a friend asked me to draw callie so i drew her fishing because i could
Itโs time to activate itโฆ
Bites The Dust!
now this entire post will be reversed!
Am I having a fucking stroke
what the fuck was that
World Heritage Post
My autistic brother created a new family Christmas tradition
Okay, so last year, my mom bought this Christmas moose that she lovingly named Barry
This is him
Cute, right?
Well, for whatever reason only known to my brother, he decided that he wanted to put Barry in different rooms of our house and it usually scares the shit out of whomever happens upon Barry; usually the person who finds him is the person that my brother wanted to scare.
So far, Barry has been found
On our dining room table
On my dad's side of my parents' bed
In my parents' closet
Outside their bedroom door (at 5 in the morning and scared my mother shitless)
Near the kitchen door
Near my fucking bed
At the bottom of my sister's stairwell
In our bathroom
And down the hallway
This has gone on for 9 days and it doesn't seem to show signs of stopping. Most of the time we know who gets Barry because it's always followed with a very loud "FUCKING BARRY!!!!!"
My brother is the funniest fucking person I know.
Update:
He found his way into my sister's room.
And my brother is cackling maniacally downstairs.
Holy fuck this doll is creepy
Another update:
The soft glow of the Christmas tree seems to quell his bloodlust
vote to replace the evil surveillance Elf on the Shelf with Barry the Chrismoose
Broke: Elf on the Shelf
Woke: Moose on the Loose
Whitewashing in the ml fandom and why you shouldnt do (or support) it
Disclaimer: Because I am a Black person and the characters I am talking about are Black, this post will specifically address the white washing of Black people and characters.
What is white washing? White washing in the context of fanart is when you take a character of color, usually one with brown/black skin, and either make their skin lighter, give them more Eurocentric features, or both.
Why is it harmful? To explain why this is harmful, I will use one of the first examples of fanart; renaissance paintings of ancient Greek myths. Specifically, artwork featuring Princess Andromeda. Go to your search engine and type in "princess Andromeda". Based on those images, you would never have known that in the original Greek legends, Andromeda was black. So why is she most often depicted as a white woman?
McGrathโs article was definitive in addressing three things: that all the Greek mythographers placed Andromeda as a princess of Ethiopia, that Ovid specifically refers to her dark skin and that artists throughout Western art history frequently omitted to depict her blackness because Andromeda was supposed to be beautiful, and blackness and beauty โ for many of them โ was dichotomous.
That quote is from this article, and I highly recommend you give it a read. When you whitewash a character, you are perpetuating the idea in the quote above. That this character you like, whether you like them because they're funny or smart or beautiful, cannot be those things and also have black features.
White washing in miraculous ladybug
The show itself is guilty of whitewashing it's own characters. For example, look at these side by sides of Alya and Max alongside their hero alter egos.
Was this done with malicious intent? Hopefully not. But intentional or not, what it says to the people watching is, "These characters cannot have darker skin and also be heroes." And if you think it's not that deep, it is. The show's inconsistencies can't be used as an excuse for whitewashed fanart, because this shit isn't okay either.
Colorism and whitewashing
I'm going to bring up colorism, because even though Max's skin is lighter in that image, he still looks black. However, that doesn't make it okay.
colorism: prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group:
Lighter skinned Black people, while still targets of racism, are closer to whiteness than darker skinned Black people, and in some cases face less discrimination. When Black people first started to appear on TV, it was generally lighter skinned ones because that was more acceptable. This article goes more in depth about colorism.
Misogynoir and whitewashing.
Misogynoir is a word coined to describe the unique hatred that black women face. It is the intersection of racism and misogyny.
People may whitewash a female presenting character but not a male presenting character. In this fandom, you see it with DJWIFI fanart. People will make alyas skin color significantly lighter than Ninos. One trait of misogyny is tying a womans worth to their beauty. When you realize that beauty and blackness were (and still are) seen as antonyms, the issue with this type of whitewashing is made clear.
Texturism and whitewashing
texturism: a form ofย social injustice, whereย afro-textured hairย or coarse hair types are viewed negatively, often perceived as "unprofessional", "unattractive", or "unclean".
When Black characters were first introduced to media, aspects of them would be changed to heighten their proximity to whiteness and make them more palatable to white audiences. Black women would get perms or silk presses, and Black men would keep their hair cut short and "tidy."
Note: This does not mean that all Black women with silk presses or perms or all Black men with short hair are trying to heighten their proximity to whiteness, or do not love themselves and their hair.
Animation has a history of not representing Black hair. Nowadays, Black hair is more represented, and beautifully so. Just look at movies like Encanto and Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse or TV shows like Moon girl and Devil Dinosaur.
In Miraculous Ladybug, Max is the only character with blatantly afro hair. Nino's hair is always covered and is cut short, and Alya's hair has a looser texture. Therefore, I give fanartists a pass on that one. However, this is a good thing to be aware of anyway.
How can you help?
Don't create, support, or reblog whitewashed art.
(P.S. if anyone wants to come on this post bripnging up blackwashing, read this post of mine)
are there spider crickets living in your basement
yes
no
i don't have a basement
i don't know what spider crickets are (do not google them youve been warned)
