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Before you ask your question, please do the following:

Review these rules & guidelines.

Read our What Does Our Motivations PSA Mean? post

Read the FAQ and the recommended reading within.

Search for the answer to your questions via:

- WWC's Main Navigation & Stereotypes Navigation

- Use the “search writingwithcolor” bar to search keywords

- Try WWC’s Google Search, which picks up phrases & sentences

WWC Ask Rules (ASKS CURRENTLY CLOSED)

Do not ask...

General writing questions.

As in writing q’s that have nothing to do with BIPOC or only deal tangentially with them.

Questions that are very broad or vague.

For example “how do I write a Black character?“ or variations of this question. See the FAQ and our WWC General Topics Compilation

Questions that ask for facts you can easily Google.

Need help using Google? Check out: Writing Research and Google Search Tips

Questions that seek our permission or approval to write about a topic.

We call these rubber stamp questions. Asks designed to solicit simple approval are time consuming and difficult to answer.

Further explanation on rubber stamp asks, what they are, and how to fix them:

No Longer Accepting Rubber Stamp Questions

Questions that ask us for resources.

“Do you have resources for–” STOP! We will not do your research for you.

Please don’t use WWC to point you towards references. We are not here to be your Google. Specific questions that arise within your research is one thing, asking us to spoon-feed you where to do your research is another thing entirely.

- WWC Research Tags: Research | Writer Reference - How to research your racially/ethnically diverse characters - guide - WWC How to Research Compilation - WWC Recommendations and Resources

Questions using “PoC” as a replacement for an applicable race.

Person/Woman/Man of Color is not a fancy way to say Black people; It’s an umbrella term for a coalition including a lot of different races/ethnicities. If your question isn’t specific it’s 1) difficult to answer and 2) generates a general and not as helpful response

Questions that indicate you have not browsed WWC thoroughly if at all.

If you start off by saying “sorry if this has been asked before” or “this may already be answered but-” You’re telling us you haven’t checked. These Q’s are grounds for automatic deletion.

Questions that ignore our ask submission guidelines.

- Use “ask” for questions that are 2 parts. If a question is longer than 2 parts, use submit. - We also request that you don’t send writing questions via fanmail.

Questions that have nothing to do with writing.

We are a writing advice blog. We consider questions seeking our perspective on current events or controversies to be off topic. We will only answer these sort of questions at our own leisure (or if we find them helpful for others to answer).

Banned questions (due to excessive discussion or other reasons, explained within the links)

questions about Muslim characters + magic. Here is why.

questions about the Wendigo. Here is why.

questions about Asian women (and Asian characters in general) with colored hair / colored streaks in their hair. Here is why

questions that ask for a rubber stamp of approval. Explanation

Additional Guidelines

Submit your question properly

Use “ask” for questions that are 1-2 parts. 

If a question is longer than 2 parts, use submit. 

No fanmail writing Q’s (Fanmail for general commentary is fine)

Please read below the cut for instructions on how to be anonymous

Ask questions we haven’t covered at length

We will not answer Q’s that are too similar to ones we’ve already answered (Check the navigation and/or our multiple search functions very thoroughly). We will not often redirect you to the answer. This is not the same as having a follow-up question about an existing guide or discussion. Go ahead and ask. We’d be happy to clarify!

Provide All Relevant Details | We Are Not Mind Readers

Please provide all racial demographics of all characters involved. Our responses will change depending on the race of the characters involved, and if we are not provided race, we will assume parts of the demographics (just to make the question answerable) which leads to further problems down the line

Keep asks focused: Avoid providing a laundry list of multiple characters that you want rubber-stamped for correct characterization. Ask about a specific character or situation. You’ll get a more detailed answer on that specific character/situation that way.

Don’t expect an instant response to your question

Have patience with us!

We receive hundreds of asks. It takes time. 

Also, it’s impossible for us to answer every question we get.

We will prioritize questions that are on fresh topics not covered extensively here before.

Please stop asking us to recommend blogs that are...

...like WWC except for disability, lgbtqa+ etc. We have answered this already. Check our recommendations page! 

Slur policy

Finally, we urge you not to send in questions with racial slurs that aren’t blocked out or denoted as “n word” “g word” etc. We may choose to delete uncensored slurs (and any other blatantly offensive Q’s) as to avoid triggering ourselves and/or others.

Frequently Asked Questions

“What are ways to describe my character’s skin tone?”

“What about hair?”

“How do I introduce the race of my characters?”

“How do I denote the race of my characters in a fantasy setting?”

“How do I describe my Asian character’s eyes respectfully?”

“I want my real-world Native American character to do/experience X.”

“I’m afraid my character has harmful stereotypical traits.”

“How do I write a ____________ character?”

“Wouldn’t including PoC make my writing forced?”

“It wouldn’t be historically accurate for my story to include PoC.”

“What is Cultural Appropriation?”

“What is tokenism and why is it harmful?”

See below for answers to our FAQ!

“What are appropriate ways to describe my character’s skin tone?”

Please see the Words for Skin Tone Guide.

“What about hair?”

We’ve covered that too! See the Words to Describe Hair Guide.

“How do I introduce the race of my characters?”

Please see the description tag, WWC's Top Description Guides Compilation or one or more of these posts:

Ways to indicate Race

Defying White as Default

Indicating Race Explicitly

Identifying Race Inoffensively

Describing POC and Avoiding Caricatures

Introducing Race and Skin Color Naturally

When to Introduce Race/Ethnicity in Writing

“How do I denote the race of my characters in a fantasy setting?”

Try these posts:

Indicating POC in Fantasy Settings

Describing POC without stating Race

Describing PoC and Avoiding Caricatures

Coding Tag (addresses race, ethnic, and religion coding)

“How do I describe my Asian character’s eyes respectfully?”

Please see the Describing Asian Eyes Guide.

“I want my real-world Native American character to do/experience X. Is this appropriate?/I want to write my real-world Native American character this way but I don’t know if it’s right.“

Until you give a nationality other than “Native American”, this question is impossible to answer. “Native American” is a catch-all term for every Native nation across the United States and Canada, which means it encompasses a very large continent’s worth of cultural variety. Stereotypes, beliefs, naming conventions, internal regulations, and day to day lives of each tribe are different, and you cannot accurately depict how a Native person will display their culture unless you give them a specific one.

Please research what tribe your Native character belongs to (actual tribe with a location so you know what fraction you’re dealing with) before continuing, in order to make your question possible to answer.

“I’m afraid my character has harmful stereotypical traits. How do I avoid making them a caricature?”

Trace your logic in this character’s creation. What traits have you given them and why did it turn out this way? Does it just “make sense” for your Black female character to be the motherly figure of the group? Why?

Is your character comprised of several stereotypical traits, or are they allowed to act and think in ways that are not confined to stereotypes? If your character is three-dimensional and allowed to be more than the stereotypical trait(s) they may possess, you should be fine. It also helps to have another character of their same race + gender etc. whom you can say are distinctive from each other, but this isn’t catch-all advice and some cases may require more than just an “offset” character. Please also see the Tropes and Stereotypes navigation for more information on particular tropes and stereotypes and how to handle them.

Before asking questions regarding characters and stereotypes, make sure to read the guide: Stereotyped vs Nuanced Characters and Audience Perception

“How do I write a ____________ character?”

1. First off, check the tag pertaining to the character you’re looking to write. For example, if you’re writing an Indian character, search terms such as “Indian” and “South Asian” or “Indian Women” might be a good start.

2. A general rule when writing any Character of Color is to be mindful that while they might not be like you in terms of some cultural and certain daily experiences, they are like you in that they’re human. Humans with thoughts and dreams and feelings just like you. Capable of joy, snark, and laughter. So remember: human. Not aliens.

3. Don’t focus so much of whether you’re writing a proper ______ character.

You risk homogenizing your Characters of Color when you do this. Not all Black women think the same. Not all Japanese men act the same. There may be some common experiences and feelings within a group, but everyone has their own perspective, experiences and thoughts despite their race– no hiveminds here.

Also, as with any character, background is a huge factor of a person and where they live and family life has an influence on a person’s making. For example, a Black boy who grew up in a mansion in California will have a different outlook than a Black boy who grew up on a Wisconsin bee farm swapped in cornfields. Same for their accents, style, and overall experience with life.

More recommended reading: 

The Do’s of Writing PoC | Creating Characters of Color | How to Show Culture

“I’m uncomfortable with all the pressure to include People of Color in my writing. Wouldn’t it just make it forced, anyway?”

Distance yourself from this pressure and ask yourself why you feel it. I’ve yet to encounter anyone who’s barging on doors demanding people be inclusive, but rather trying to illustrate its importance and encourage it, so where do you think the pressure to be inclusive is really coming from?

Campaigning for diversity should not feel like an attack, so do not perceive it as one.

This comes easier when you step outside yourself for a moment, and stand into the shoes of those who call for diverse books, who need diverse books. These are people whose voices and faces have and are shunned from the multitude of literature, enjoy an adventure as much as anyone, and have learned to “become” characters who look more like you…yet when it comes to those of color being the hero, being included beyond the small and often troped role, they have their presence immediately questioned, discredited, fought against, because folks just cannot “relate.”

This resistance reflects a larger one.

And that is uncharacteristically high levels of empathy towards White people and a lack of empathy for People of Color, especially Black people.

Reading fiction improves empathy.

Those who read about aliens learn to emphasize with aliens. Those who read about wizards empathize with wizards.

And if we’re only (or mainly) reading about White people, no wonder they’re so easy to relate to. But not so much those BIPOCI guess, whose pain folks literally cannot relate to.

And we’re just brushing the surface of the adverse effects with lack of diversity, such as lower self-worth in the underrepresented. Because really; it causes pain on high and low levels. Never the beautiful princess in the tower, never the badass kicking butt and flying dragons. Then when we do show up God forbid it’s a two-second role or in the form of a stereotype, not as a real, complex human being.

Long story short: People of Color are people and want to be seen and treated as such. Not as a burden to devote your time to, but people who have a place in the world, fictional or no.

As for the issue of diversity being “forced”…nah, what’s forced is the all-white fantasy some authors conceive for their stories. Whether you consciously or unconsciously make all your characters White, this is a choice. One that does not reflect the magnitude of the real world, which actually has more People of Color than White people. And yet you wouldn’t be able to tell from reading a book…

Becoming comfortable with diversity requires unlearning White as the default and BIPOC as the Other. It takes setting aside feelings of pressure to emphasize, open your heart and listen.

More reading:

“Diversity has gone too far!”

Diversity is for everyone.

Children and the Myth of Colorblind Youth

“It wouldn’t be historically accurate for my story to include PoC.”

In topics such as the movie Frozen the argument of “historical accuracy” has been flung around most vigorously by fans of the Disney movie. The story was set in a fictional country bases off of Norway and according to many (white) fans the county has little to no BIPOC. Especially in the time period it takes place. Adding BIPOC to the casting would make the movie historically inaccurate.

And that is nonsense. First of all, there are indigenous people in Norway – the Sami – (and many surrounding countries) and they were a part of the original story and concept art. Now only a token amount of their culture, bastardized as it is, has been permitted into the movie.

But enough of the movie and more on the topic. Historical accuracy can never be used as an excuse (a credible one that is) for media to be exclusively white in its casting. No matter which time period, there are and were POC everywhere around the world. There might be some places which are predominantly white, but there will always be travelers, merchants, sailors, artists, etc. from surrounding countries.

This argument has been a very popular one for stories set in Europe. Europe is known by many for people the home continent for white people. What they do not know, is that is also a home continent to POC. This fact has been written out of history by historians in the past centuries because of racism. White supremacy which has spread its dreadful influence across the entire globe has done so since before colonialism. And of course when you want people to think that they are superior and grand, they whitewash not only their religious figures (Jesus), but also the complete history of the world and its people.

The presence of all the POC in Europe throughout time can be found in many art pieces, such as paintings and sculptures. There have been black people (royalty as well) in Britain. The moors had a great influence and control stretching throughout south Europe from Spain. There have been black Vikings. Sailors, merchants, artists and more from different parts of Asia and Africa.

“What is Cultural Appropriation?”

Cultural appropriation involves a culture and/or sacred aspects of it being worn or used by people outside of the culture with little to no understanding for the significance of the usage at hand. Cultural appropriation is void of any “cultural sharing” aspect, since this would imply someone of the culture inviting them to engage in certain aspects of their culture (aka you can’t put on a headdress and say you’re appreciating Native culture…because who invited you?)

When applied to writing, cultural appropriation/misappropriation is what happens when you write about a culture that is not yours and either perpetuate racist stereotypes about it or egregiously misrepresent it. It’s taking a culture for your story because you think it’s cool or interesting, but when you don’t bother to look into the aspects of how that culture works. Why is this harmful? Because writing about these marginalized cultures in such a way leads readers to believe that your work is presenting the truth about them, even when that’s not the case. Members of these cultures already have a difficult time finding proper representation—that is, seeing themselves as they really are—and it’s incredibly important that outsiders wanting to write them do so with care.

How can you do this? Do your research. Read books by people from that culture. Talk to people from that culture. If you’re writing a story, get someone from that culture and have them read it and point out the inaccuracies. The key is that you’re depicting these cultures with care and respect.

If you’re writing sci-fi and/or fantasy, that doesn’t let you off the hook (one of the most tired excuses people have for cultural appropriation is that because it’s SFF, we all should get over it). You might be writing an imaginary world or a story far in the future, but your work is going to be read by people who live in the here and now, and they’re going to know if you were lazy and didn’t do your homework, and they’re not going to be happy about it.

“What is tokenism and why is it harmful?”

Tokenism in writing is the practice of doing something (such as writing about a person who belongs to a minority group) only to prevent criticism and give the appearance that representation is included. Tokenism is writing about a minority character to give the illusion that the author is being diverse and inclusive while relying on stereotypes as an attempt to make the characters seem “authentic.” while giving majority of characterization to the main (often White) character.  

The problem with tokenism is that characters placed into this position are suddenly put into the position of being the single representation of their particular group. Everyone has seen the sassy Black friend, the flamboyant Gay friend, the smart Asian friend, etc…  Stereotypes are damaging because they state to readers that if you are in a minority group, you can’t be anything other than what the Eurocentric media portrays you as. It’s hard to rise above these stereotypes. This is even more damaging as this spills over into the real world. (i.e. “You aren’t like other Blacks/Gays/Asians,etc…”)

Tokenism is harmful in media because it reduces a character to his/her most harmful stereotypes. Invoking tokenism does not force creators to be creative and gives viewers a false sense of diversity. Jokes are taken at the expense of tokenized characters regarding their race, ethnicity, accent, etc….. Token characters are only created to be the proverbial Black friend who makes it okay for White characters to make jokes at the character’s expense, inviting the consumers (in this case readers) to make jokes as well. (i.e. Many of us have heard someone being openly racist and excusing it by saying they have a Black friend, so it’s okay)  Being an “equal opportunity” racist won’t get you points either. This would be including as much diversity as you can only to take cheap shots at your characters cultures, languages, and/or ethnicities. That is not meaningful diversity and can be just as harmful as tokenism.  

How do you avoid tokenism? It’s not entirely “wrong” to have a character of color be the only character of color in your story. There have been plenty of times when I’ve been the only person of color in the room. The problem comes when you place that person in the position of speaking for the entire race and saddle them down with stereotypes that they can’t get away from. It is okay to add a character of color to be a main character’s best friend, but don’t reduce this character to a cliché or a trope. Write the character from a place of empathy, make them three dimensional, do your research on the culture, and avoid stereotypes.

More Reading:

Why We Need More Directors of Color

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Disclaimer: We cannot answer every question we get.

Due to the high-volume of questions we receive and also receiving questions that may fall outside of our expertise, we do not guarantee every rule-abiding question received will be answered. However, we truly do our best. Also, we’ll accommodate frequently posed questions via guides and compilations.

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To close out AAPI Heritage month, here is a list of books by East and South East Asian authors with East and South East Asian protagonists!

Any books missed? Feel free to flesh out the list for South Asian, Central Asian, West Asian, and Pacific Islanders in the notes!

- WWC

writingwithcolor :

Middle Eastern /Arab Muslim mercenaries

Anonymous asked:

Hi there. I wanted to write a Middle Eastern action story set in near future Kurdistan. These are 5 of the most important points: 1) It’s about a syndicate called “The Kurdish Order”. 2) My two heroines are a Kurdish woman and her Arab partner. 3) The reason for them living their lives as professional assassins was because their parents were survivors of a civil war in their country. 4) The supporting characters are the Kurdish woman’s parents who contacts her from the headquarters via a radio, and informs her about the targets’ whereabouts. 5) The main villain is an Arab woman whose evil plan is to distribute a lot of firearms to the mercenaries around the world. When the two heroines confronts her and asks, “What did your parents taught you when you were young?”, the villain’s response is; “You’re correct, my nemeses. This is not a ‘My mom and dad hated me for no reason when I was young’ type of excuse. It’s more of a ‘My mom and dad taught me that the world is about the survival of the fittest’ type of motive.”. The issue here is that I want my story to take place in the Middle East, but I don’t want to perpetuate the “Muslims = Mercenaries” stereotypes. Would my story still work the same if my characters are coded as Christians or Atheists?

I don’t know enough about this topic to speak on it authoritatively but I do want to point out that Kurdistan isn’t currently a country. It isn’t clear from your ask whether you want to set your story in a near-future setting in which Kurds have gained independence and founded their own country, or whether you are referring to the geographic region that spans present-day Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran in which Kurdish peoples are mostly concentrated. 

Either way, it’s worth noting that Kurds are currently a marginalized ethnic minority in all of the countries in which they reside. Kurdish nationalism dates back over a thousand years and has a complex history including many instances of violent repression. If you are not Kurdish yourself, I would recommend doing a lot of research into Kurdish history and current political issues before attempting to write this story. 

-Niki

The Middle East is diverse in ethnicities and beliefs. Even though Islam is the religion that many people from the region follow, is not the only one. My suggestion in this case, to avoid the “Muslims = Mercenaries”, is to give your readers a clear image of how much of a mosaic the Middle East is. And this can only happen when the worldbuilding is correctly done and the focus is not only on the Muslims but on the rest of the people as well and their customs. As for the rest of your question, I agree with Niki that before you proceed with this project you must inform yourselves deeply about Kurdish history and especially the current political climate 

-Asmaa

We would like to turn this over to our Kurdish and Arab readers. How do you feel about the asker’s story premise? What advice do you have for them and which stereotypes would you like them to avoid?

nuittrouble :

I’m Kurdish, so I’d just like to point out that Kurdish people, especially those living in Turkey, are already suffering from lots of prejudices because of the on-going political issues with the armed guerrilla and political organization PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). It’s important to know that its labelling as a terrorist organization is very controversial and a very touchy subject, but despite that, Kurds are often labelled as terrorists, and it’s one of the many reasons why we’re marginalized. There are many other factors depending on the history of the countries where Kurdish people are mostly concentrated, but I did a brief summary of this specific issue because the whole idea of a Kurdish assassin belonging to a “Kurdish Order” may come off as insensitive to our history if there are no other important Kurdish important characters to balance the general image given of Kurds.

It may be an action story made for fun, but it’s talking about realistic and current issues : a Kurdish organization of assassins, the acknowledgment of Kurdistan as a country… those are very real subjects that cause wars and cost lives still today. If you yourself are Kurdish, I believe you’ll understand what these things truly mean for us. If not, I would advise you to inform yourself deeply about our history and really think about what messages your story will give to the audience, to remain as respectful.

We’re an ethnic minority with a very complex history, so I would actually be more than happy to see Kurdish representation in an action novel, especially if it’s to see a fun story without any political implications, which is something I’ve never come across, since our sole existence and cultural identity seem to be a political issue for people for a reason I don’t even want to understand. But like I explained, the elements in your story do have political implications given our history, so I would advise you to inform yourself to not give off the wrong messages that will further our marginalization.

Black Royal Family, deaths and survivals

@funkyfrogwhore asked:

Hi! I’m writing a fantasy series with the primary cast of characters being POC. This particular submission is in regards to the Black characters. The series’ main driving conflict is colonization from a Catholic coded religious organization, and the royal family (the current generation of which is all Black) was converted a couple generations back. The primary catalyst event of the series is a coup overthrowing the queen and king following a religious crusade. I’ve been looking over this blog after seeing it recommended for sensitively writing characters of color as a white author and one thing I’m afraid of falling into in the beginning of the series is the abused Black people trope/Black one dies first trope.

For the first third of the first book in what I plan to make a trilogy, it appears that the oldest child, the son and heir, (aged 18) is the sole survivor of this coup. However, it is then revealed that the princess, his younger sister, (aged 17) survived as well, physically unscathed, and emotionally recovered for the most part. They were both taken in by lowborn people who had suffered at the hands of the church, (the prince’s group’s ages are 20, 22, 19, and 19, princess taken in by one man who is 20) which was heavily supported by their parents. The two siblings don’t reunite until the end of the first book, and the loss of their parents and the attempts on their lives during that coup are the only real violence they face throughout the series. The queen and king being overthrown and dying is intrinsic to the plot of the series (it’s the catalyst for everything else that happens). Their children regain power in the second book after they are reunited with their aunt, and the only real suffering they experience following the coup is emotional (pining for the lowborn romantic partners they fell for during the first book). I don’t plan on going into much detail about the coup (it’s told from the perspective of the prince who is out in the town incognito when it happens, so he’s away from the action). I want to be able to write these characters and events respectfully and in a way that isn’t triggering to Black readers. Any recommendations for that?

Hi! Focusing on your Black characters and not other plot aspects of the story:

This does not read as highly violent or full of suffering for your Black characters. They experience hardship, but it does not feel exploitative and has minimal physical impacts. It’s definitely unfortunate that the Black parents die, but 1) you do have prominent Black men and women 2) their deaths are highly plot relevant and are a catalyst for all the events to come. I’d say carry on with this story, sounds like you’re on the right track and doing an excellent job. 

If other Black readers have anything to add or that this writer should keep in mind, please chime in.

~Mod Colette

Black Scientist Self-Sacrifices and Comes Back to Life, Experiences Racism, Bad Relationships

Emmy asked:

Hello, thank you for your time reading and helping me with this. I am currently writing a novel featuring a main character who is a Black man. I am a white woman, and while I did a great deal of research, I want to make sure that I am not using any negative tropes or propagating any harmful stereotypes. 

My main character is a mycologist with the power of mushroom manipulation and, later on in the story, functional immortality based on the condition of a book. He received a PHD from the University of Chicago in the late 1960s. (the story takes place in 1971). After being denied tenure due to his race, he takes a job fighting monsters in a national park. (it had a really high salary) He is a highly empathetic, rational, person who spends most of the story trying to make sure everyone stays focused on the mission at hand. His greatest character flaw would be his tendency to see the best in people to a point that it borders on naivete. Throughout the course of the story he slowly grapples with this flaw and eventually has to come to terms with his new boss, his old mentor, and his girlfriend manipulating him. 

He eventually saves the park using the power of loopholes in a demonic contract. The way he exploits it however, is by killing himself. (The demon’s power was contingent on him staying alive) His body reforms and he comes back a few days later due to his functional immortality. 

A additional potential problem is that one of the side characters, a doppelganger that usually presents themselves as a white man, is the one who performed the ritual giving the MC immortality. Additionally, this character spent a great deal of time lecturing MC into learning how to prevent mind control (a detail that is relevant to the plot) and not to trust the other characters. However, this character has shown themselves to be decidedly untrustworthy. Is this an example of the white savior trope? 

Sacrificial Black man

This is an interesting concept. Regarding the Black man MC killing himself to kill the demon and save the park: Does he know about his immortality? If so, I don’t see it as explicitly sacrificial or devaluing Black life. I’m seeing some Christian / Jesus connections (not sure if intentional) though. If he undergoes torture or pain in killing himself, that feels a bit more iffy, but also not as explicitly problematic if he knows that he’s returning.

If he does believe his death is final upon the self-sacrifice:

Please ensure he (and/or his allies) explored all other possibilities before deciding to kill him. 

For example, was there no way to entrap the monster or an attempt before it was decided to sacrifice the Black man?

Why was the curse connected to his life or death in particular?

Based on the character’s personality of high empathy and rationality, perhaps the sacrifice goes hand in hand with his nature. Still, his life should hold value. 

Who mourns him? 

Or, if knowing he’ll return, helps to lessen the burden of things or cares for affairs in his absence?

What do others do to contribute to saving the park, or is it all on the Sacrificial  / Magical Negro to save the day? 

If you want to reduce some less than stellar aspects of this, it should not all be on him. If it is, then you’ll want to explore those problematic aspects in the story and how racism likely contributes to others devaluing him and taking advantage. 

White savior

So, a white person (or presenting, as they can appear as others it seems?) gave the Black MC his immortality powers and offers advice that will protect his mind. This doesn’t feel like a white savior to me. Not on its own, at least. Giving him powers isn’t directly saving him (although, perhaps it does eventually) White people helping and mentoring BIPOC doesn’t make them a savior. I’d need more specific details to say if I thought it went into that territory. Perhaps their reasoning might change things. For now, I'd say look into the definition of a white savior and see if they apply to your character.

~Mod Colette

Middle Eastern /Arab Muslim mercenaries

Anonymous asked:

Hi there. I wanted to write a Middle Eastern action story set in near future Kurdistan. These are 5 of the most important points: 1) It’s about a syndicate called “The Kurdish Order”. 2) My two heroines are a Kurdish woman and her Arab partner. 3) The reason for them living their lives as professional assassins was because their parents were survivors of a civil war in their country. 4) The supporting characters are the Kurdish woman’s parents who contacts her from the headquarters via a radio, and informs her about the targets’ whereabouts. 5) The main villain is an Arab woman whose evil plan is to distribute a lot of firearms to the mercenaries around the world. When the two heroines confronts her and asks, “What did your parents taught you when you were young?”, the villain’s response is; “You’re correct, my nemeses. This is not a ‘My mom and dad hated me for no reason when I was young’ type of excuse. It’s more of a ‘My mom and dad taught me that the world is about the survival of the fittest’ type of motive.”. The issue here is that I want my story to take place in the Middle East, but I don’t want to perpetuate the “Muslims = Mercenaries” stereotypes. Would my story still work the same if my characters are coded as Christians or Atheists?

I don’t know enough about this topic to speak on it authoritatively but I do want to point out that Kurdistan isn’t currently a country. It isn’t clear from your ask whether you want to set your story in a near-future setting in which Kurds have gained independence and founded their own country, or whether you are referring to the geographic region that spans present-day Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran in which Kurdish peoples are mostly concentrated. 

Either way, it’s worth noting that Kurds are currently a marginalized ethnic minority in all of the countries in which they reside. Kurdish nationalism dates back over a thousand years and has a complex history including many instances of violent repression. If you are not Kurdish yourself, I would recommend doing a lot of research into Kurdish history and current political issues before attempting to write this story. 

-Niki

The Middle East is diverse in ethnicities and beliefs. Even though Islam is the religion that many people from the region follow, is not the only one. My suggestion in this case, to avoid the “Muslims = Mercenaries”, is to give your readers a clear image of how much of a mosaic the Middle East is. And this can only happen when the worldbuilding is correctly done and the focus is not only on the Muslims but on the rest of the people as well and their customs. As for the rest of your question, I agree with Niki that before you proceed with this project you must inform yourselves deeply about Kurdish history and especially the current political climate 

-Asmaa

We would like to turn this over to our Kurdish and Arab readers. How do you feel about the asker’s story premise? What advice do you have for them and which stereotypes would you like them to avoid?

Black Character in a Faustian Bargain

I’m pondering on whether or not to write a Black character for what can be described loosely as a shared roleplay multiverse. This setting is strongly influenced by Xianxia novels, power fantasy Isekai, and the kinds of videogames where you get to go around killing gods. Extremely powerful magic is rampant, power and might makes right is the order of the day. The effects of power on people, and the implications of single individuals being powerful enough to challenge armies are recurring themes. Atrocities of cosmic scope are rampant, like gods seeding worlds with styles of magic that incentivize atrocities from their users, or annihilating universes to win fights. The unifying factor of the setting is a being of extreme power, borderline omnipotent, who’s disgusted by this but burdened by Curses powerful enough to threaten even his freedom of action.

To get allies to fix the status quo and eventually free himself, he approaches people and offers them a semi faustian bargain(because one of his curses means very few will ever do anything for him for free). A shot at power beyond reason, power beyond common sense, power beyond the fever dreams of lovecraftian horrors should the contractor live long enough to attain it, but the price of entry is taking up a measure of his highly unpleasant curses, and should they do so, their only shot at being fully free of most of those burdens without dying is becoming the kind of being who can say “Puny God” and back it up. 

The exception to this rule is what I’m wondering about. One of the options for curses he gives people the option of taking is Isekai as deconstruction, Isekai as a fate potentially worse than death. One that carts you around the multiverse demanding you perform assassinations of chosen ones and conquering territory or die trying for octillions of years or whenever you become powerful enough to  break the curse, whichever comes first. Supposedly the curse ensures the work is not totally abhorrent but your milage may vary.

If a Black Protagonist takes a curse like this, does it fall under the “Why we always gotta be slaves” territory? Is there anything else you’d suggest watching out for in a scenario like this?

Disclaimer: I’m not familiar with all of your story influences, except perhaps a video game that has god-killing (i.e. god of war)

There are slavish aspects to this. For example, being trapped and in servitude to do the violent bidding of the curse, but the concept overall is different enough that my mind doesn’t associate this story with chattel slavery. Still, the connection is there, even from just looking at the definition.

The Faustian bargain is

 “a pact whereby a person trades something of supreme moral or spiritual importance, such as personal values or the soul, for some worldly or material benefit, such as knowledge, power, or riches.”

(britannica.com) 

It’s also described as a “Deal with the devil.”

There’s some things to think about:

Why was your MC targeted with this curse? Did they “play with fire” or are they an innocent person who was entrapped with a curse?

What other type of people have been given this curse? Do they come from different backgrounds and not all just Black or People of Color, etc. 

Are there Black people in the story who aren’t entrapped in a curse? What about non-violent Black characters?

What sort of choices, freedom and accommodations does the character have while living with the curse?  E.g. living conditions, free time, nutrition, ability to form friendships or romances. Essentially, do they get to have a life outside of their commitment to the curse or is it all about the job with no sort of rest in between?

Also, depending on the setting’s relation to earth history, it’s not off-limits to acknowledge slavery or explore how the Black MC feels about being bound to this curse. If their ancestors were connected to slavery, they might lament the entrapped connection and compare it to their people’s history. Or perhaps they don’t feel highly burdened by the curse, and learn to co-exist with it due to still being able to have somewhat of a normal semblance of life (besides the whole high-stakes assassination commitment and violence, right?). That’s up for you to explore. 

I do think of Marvel’s Moon Knight upon reading this, so reading it or watching the series may offer some insights on how to handle the bargain without explicit chattel slavery connections. The Moon Knight character does have the power to make decisions and live their life while balancing the commitments associated with their bargain.

~Mod Colette

Black Woman in Assassin Program, Black Father Killed her Mother

@ask-jeff-and-the-lads asked:

My story follows a bunch of criminals and one non-criminal who was kidnapped in a robbery gone wrong. The criminal group is a robot, an alien, a white woman, a white man, and a black woman. The two women were raised in an assassin program (like black widow but done better) until they defected as young adults. However, they both had early childhoods before being ‘selected’ and it could be problematic. The black woman’s story was that her father was abusive and eventually killed her mom. She bore witness to this, and attempted to later kill her dad with the same gun, in a ‘young child not really comprehending the gravity of things’ sort of way. I don’t want it contributing to the violent black man stereotype, and the non-criminal character is black and had a loving and supportive father. Everyone in the story pretty much has a terrible backstory to varying degrees, but should I change hers to have less outright violence? 

The white woman was neglected and physically abused by her single mother, and eventually locked her mom in a room and ran away, for comparison. They’re also mostly morally grey, but a central idea of the story is recovery and redemption, so they end up as better people after working through the violence they were forced to commit by the program.  

Fiction in which

Others inflict death and violence against Black women

Black men are violent, abusive or murderers

Black men perpetuate violence against Black women

Combos of the above

Requires you, the writer, in my opinion, to do the following:

Trace your logic

Why these particular scenarios out of all the other possible ones? I understand that all of your characters have violence in their pasts. Still, you the author choose these particular details for the history of your Black characters. Brutalized and murdered Black women and Black men / people being deemed violent are common, overplayed scenarios in media. You can give a character a tumultuous history without making Black people violent / victims of violence. Before jumping to this idea, brainstorm the many other possibilities.

Check if you’re the right voice

Now, it’s one thing to choose stereotypical, overgeneralized portrayals because that’s where your brain goes. It’s another to make intentional commentary on an issue. Violence against Black women and/or violence done by Black men towards Black women are all real issues. But note that you’re adding your voice to a topic in which you might never have been asked to speak on, and will not be openly embraced by all. If this is not your lived experience based on events in your life or community connections, your voice may not be welcome in the conversation, or able to capture nuance, avoid stereotyping, etc.

Do some hard work

Writing this sort of background requires research and work with the right beta or sensitivity readers to portray this well. This is the case even if the character’s background isn’t a large feature in the story. As long as you’ve written that in, it needs careful writing and potentially, revising.

Balance it out with non-stereotypical portrayals

Whenever you brush even the essence of a stereotype for BIPOC, it’s always a good idea to have a clearly non-stereotypical portrayal. You have a Black non-criminal character with a loving and supportive father, so that aspect is taken care of. Also, please include Black women who aren’t abused and murdered as well. Another thing: If the murdered mother is a dark skinned woman, while she’s not replaceable, please ensure there’s dark-skinned Black woman (who live, aren’t abuse) as well. It’s a whole different commentary to have an abused and murdered dark-skinned woman while light skinned Black women are allowed to avoid abuse and struggle.

~Mod Colette

so, when i was a young teenager (about 13), i created a fantasy world based off of fairytales, with characters that were predominantly white, and or jewish, as that's what i am. over the years it's been diversified, with characters changing to reflect some of the countries of origin that the stories have come from (all through coding, as this is a series set in a world i created). i've become attached and can no longer see these characters as white (honestly taking out the descriptions and pieces of coding would just feel wrong at this point, and isn't something i want to do in any way) however, several issues have popped up as i've grown and my consciousness about what can be deemed as problematic representation has grown. firstly, many of my characters have eurocentric names still. as a writer it's hard to rename characters i've been working with for over a decade, and for some characters it makes sense (for example, the main characters of one of my series is a princess, half white and half iranian, though coding makes this more vague, and has a mostly european name as she's the heir to her father's kingdom, and her father was the one to name her) however, for other characters i'm aware that it doesn't make sense, and am having trouble renaming them as the names no longer feel like the same character. tips on this would be appreciated!

another issue i've run into is that in being fairytale inspired, a small handful of my characters (only two or three) spend some time as animals in the series, a critique i've seen of disney films such as princess and the frog. out of these characters only one is a person of color (the princess from before) and she spends half of her time as a human, as her book is based off of the swan princess, as opposed to one of my white characters, who's in my retelling of beauty and the beast as the beast (with the "beauty" being an indian character i've been having issues renaming). i feel like in comparison to religion, which has been very simple for me to integrate due to my own personal experience, as well as overlaps in the muslim and jewish faith (both of which i have characters from), my handling of race and making sure that my meaning and intentions are clear doesn't translate as well. td;lr: i conceptualized characters as white when i was a child and nearly a decade later am having issues with making sure that i don't portray the changes i've made wrong, as well as renaming characters that have had set names in my mind for this time

Can my characters of color from non-European backgrounds have European names? Also, Characters of Color spending screen-time in animal form

Names

It’s good that you’ve recognized where you’re having difficulty with this. While there may be scenarios in which a character of color has a Eurocentric name for plot reasons, it’s done so often that it wouldn’t feel quite as genuine, as you mentioned. For your Indian character, you will likely need to go more in depth on her background in order to find a name that feels authentic to her character. Check out our naming guide, as well as this previous post as to why we feel that characters of South Asian origin, as well as all other characters of color, should be able to have names that reflect their background. I would suggest looking for names that have a) a similar syllabic/phonetic structure to your previous names and/or b) similar meaning. To make it a bit easier, try to look for names that have a traceable origin before trying to make up your own. 

For your animal shifting characters

look here for some commentary from mod Colette on the connotations of racism in animal transformation. Since you’re not solely transforming a character of color, and the swan princess is presumably going to spend most of her interactions as a human, it doesn’t really ping as fantastic racism.

In terms of your swan princess in particular, while swans tend to be a good-neutral association, many of the original stories of swan maidens tended to center around the maidens being rendered helpless by a man stealing their ‘swan-skins’ and forcing them into a situation where they had to escape or simply acquiesce to their captors’ demands. This can get dicey–where are you intending to go with it beyond the inspiration?? 

Finally, I’m assuming you’ve included multiple specific cultural aspects and traits that indicate the bases you’re drawing your coding from. Reflect on the manner in which you’ve done so and see how it compares to your sources of inspiration. Then, see how your biases/impressions have affected your coding.

~Abhaya

A few notes on the Iranian-coded character

Firstly, you mentioned that you chose your characters’ cultural coding based on where their stories originated from, but Swan Princess is not an Iranian story. Is there a different inspiration for making her Iranian, then? I admit I’m a bit confused on that front.

Secondly I don’t see anything inherently problematic about giving her a European-sounding name. But coupled with the fact that she lives in and is the heir to her (European) father’s kingdom, I would advise you to make sure you’re also giving her cultural connections to her mother’s culture. Writing mixed characters can be tricky, and if you make her essentially disconnected from one of her two cultures, you’re creating a lot of baggage that can be hard to address appropriately, especially if you don’t have that experience yourself.

Some ideas of how to emphasize her connection to her Iranian culture:

Give her an Iranian middle name and/or a hyphenated surname

Have her eat Iranian food–maybe it’s hard to come by in her European kingdom, but she has special treats shipped to her and cherishes them? Or maybe she has Iranian cooks and staff in the palace that make her favorite dishes for her?

Mention that she visits her mother’s country regularly, or if she can’t (with a good reason why), that she misses it

Give her Iranian clothes and jewelry and explore her relationship to those: does she feel comfortable wearing them on a daily basis if the fashion where she lives is very different? Or does she only wear them on special occasions? Does she make a point to use them to honor her culture?

Have her make references to Iranian stories, songs, and poetry that she likes. Is it something her mother taught her as a child? Is she still immersed in them now?

If your worldbuilding includes different languages, mention that she speaks the Iranian-analog language. Who does she speak it with? Do people in her European-coded kingdom speak it too? If not, are there other Iranian characters around who can speak it with her and engage in her culture with her? (if you don’t have any, I highly encourage you to consider including them)

Which brings me to my last point: make sure she’s not your only representation of an Iranian character. All of the things you’re worried about are much less of an issue if they’re not happening to the only Iranian-coded character in the story. If you have other Iranian characters with relatively important, positive roles who have Iranian names and don’t spend half their time as animals, then it becomes easier to see this specific character as just a character instead of a trope.

- Niki

Hi, I have a subplot I’m considering adding to my story but I’m unsure if it would be offensive. One of my main characters is a black girl who had died previously but has since returned from the dead, and is really obsessed with making her second life count. I was planning on ending the story with her completing her goal, and sacrificing herself for the greater good (though she will be able to get reincarnated again, an option she only gets if she lived a good and moral life). I was thinking of increasing the tension by having her slip up and do something super not moral, which would make it so she has to overcompensate in order to live a good enough life to be reincarnated. My thought was that she’d get harassed by a random guy and feel unsafe, and accidentally kill him using her magic. I’m worried this would fall too much in the realm of “black girl has anger issues and lack of emotional control” or something like that, or that the concept itself (“black girl has to work 10x harder to prove herself than the white/other poc characters”) might be problematic. Please let me know if you have any thoughts/advice, thanks!

Sacrificial Black girl, second-chances and redemption

A young woman protecting herself and accidentally killing the man harassing her does not make me think “angry” or “lack of control / animalistic.” Things may have gotten out of hand, but she was ultimately defending herself. Also, Black characters should be allowed imperfections. Humans make mistakes. She wants to live a good and moral life during her second chance, so this incident seems like a great way to give her moral conflict. 

Sacrificial Black woman

My bigger concern is the Black girl sacrificing herself. She died in another life and is eager for a new life, only to give up her second chance by sacrificing herself? This meets the definition of Sacrificial Negro. 

Plenty of stories already choose to make Black women character’s storylines about struggle and sacrifice. In a world where our presence in stories is limited in the first place, this type of plot often becomes the focal point. Truly consider how necessary it is to walk this same road so many writers have taken before you when writing this character.

As a Black woman reader, It would disappoint me to read that she ends up dying, particularly by sacrifice. Putting a modern twist on this old tale does not lessen the disappointment. Same thing, different day.

Before you write this, ask yourself:

How necessary is it to give her this storyline? 

Why must she give up her life in order to help the greater good? Why is this sacrifice on her hands vs. someone else?

How can she help out without dying? 

What makes her so willing, having been so grateful for this second chance, to give it away now? You mentioned she feels like she has met her goals. Perhaps expand on that.

If you tied her reasoning into feeling unworthy due to the killing accident, that would provide more of an explanation for her actions. Without a reason, though, you may imply her sacrifice is just what she should do, as if her life is not as valuable as others.

If she went through with it, but survived:

Her not actually dying, in spite of her willingness to sacrifice herself, would be a moment for her to:

Unpack what made her so willing to sacrifice herself.

Come to terms that she is worthy of this second chance

Sometimes surviving truly is more interesting. Once a character is dead, they’re dead. But surviving allows all sorts of emotions, aftereffects and coming to term with things that the character must deal with.

Or, at least, allows her to self reflect. Not everything ends in a grand epiphany, but it’s worth allowing the character to explore her feelings about her choices.

Good vs evil and The Struggle

Overcompensating in order to live a good enough life to be reincarnated, Black girl has to work 10x harder to prove herself than the white/other poc characters

The whole incident seems like a morally gray area. She kills someone who was harassing her. Likely in an attempt to defend herself. Also, it was completely by accident. Now, she’s being punished and has to work to deserve reincarnation. 

Based on the details of the killing, consider whether it was an action deserving of this harsh of punishment.

Who makes the rules on whether this is something that makes her unworthy in this world?

What are those rules and does anyone ever question those definitions of good and bad?

Perhaps there’s a higher authority making the call. Perhaps she is deeming herself unworthy until she accumulates enough good acts.

The struggle of having to work harder plus prove oneself is definitely a reality that many Black women face. And again, this is putting a magical twist on racial tropes, which doesn’t make it less off-putting, in my opinion.

Consider how much she has to devote her new life to hard work and redemption. How much of this struggle you include will define if you’re giving the Black girl a “Struggle novel” storyline. In that case, readers should be warned that you’re writing about these hardships. This allows those of us who didn’t sign up for yet another Black woman struggling story to avoid your book. 

How much work and struggle your Black character faces compared to other people in the novel can indicate if you’re leaning towards Struggle Novel and singling out the Black woman. If it’s disproportionate compared to others, you may be writing into tragedy exploitation.

Recommendation:

Also, based on some of the concepts in your story, I recommend watching the Good Place. I’m noticing some relevant themes, but I won’t say too much, as the show is full of twists and turns! 

~Mod Colette

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Hey so recently I was making a character and got to the colouring phase when I realized I wanted to make him black. The problem is that I already built up large portions of his backstory and characterization which I'm worried will become problematic with him being Black...

Basically he's an necromancer with heavy ties to blood. He dresses as a clown because he doesn't like to look at the scars from a run-in he had with some flesh-eating bacteria which "killed" him. The way he got said infection is due to his immense love of rats and the fact he isn't exactly that smart. His general personality was planned to be just completely full of love despite being very morally grey and pretty dumb. Is there anything I can do to keep as much of his intended personality as possible without him seem racist? Or if not is there a way to keep him dark-skinned without being problematic?

Black character w/ flesh-eating disease, dresses like a clown and portrayed as unintelligent

We do not recommend writing this, as is. The character seems like a racist caricature. 

There’s not a lot of redeeming qualities put forth to rework the character into something not insensitive. It might be easier to thoughtfully assign him an equally important role, just as a different character. If that cannot be done, we’d recommend shedding some layers of these stereotypes.

The clown part stands out as the worst bit, in my opinion (Colette), and feeds that caricature image. 

Combined with the:

Necromancy - not bad in itself, but is heavily misrepresented so must be handled respectfully.

Association with rats - they are seen as dirty and lowly in some / many perspectives. Your story also associates them negatively, as he literally gets a flesh-eating disease from dealings with rats.

His being “not smart” - which can feed the stereotype of Black people being inferior in intelligence. 

Again, these elements in isolation are more workable. All stacked together, it becomes troublesome.

What are other ways he can hide his scars without dressing as a clown? There’s always clothing, masks, thick makeup, surgery, etc. One can cover up their scars without pulling a Joker.

He can love rats, have pet rats or even work with them as a scientist or something. He could have had a run in with rats, like an infestation in the city of his home, that caused him to get bitten. Getting bit by them could’ve been bad luck or an unfortunate consequence, and doesn’t need to be because he acted in a way that puts the blame on him or his lack of smarts.

Smarts should not be measured in one way. I don’t think we do people justice to call them ableist language. In what other ways is the character talented? Is he artistic, a great musician, have a green thumb, a great storyteller, good with people? Look into the multiple forms of intelligences for ideas.

~Mods Colette and Norma

My main character is half Korean and half Russian, she was raised in russia by her bio mother (🇷🇺) and her father who has no relation to her.

The main character, she’s not human, she has abilities like her people (which are just people who’ve undergo genetic mutations in the 1600s), usually, your powers usually correlate to some of your looks, like for example, MC is able to control fire, so that lead to her having red hair.

The genetic mutations can allow you to have any color of eyes, certain diseases, and a very long ass life.

What i’m worried about is totally erasing MC’s Korean features with the red hair and kinda grey eyes. I know that there’s no exact way for a race to look, but I’m worried it just throws the representation right out the window.

Korean Russian, red hair and gray eyes

There is no one way for someone to look Korean, and doubly so for anyone with mixed heritage. I’m personally fine with her appearance, but I suppose you could give her monolids or make her shorter than her peers. But if you want her to be better representation for your Korean readers, why don’t you focus more on what culture she is coded as, instead?

Does her mother encourage her to learn Korean? 

Do they cook Korean food, or eat kimchi regularly? 

Do they celebrate Seol (the Lunar New Year) or Chuseok? 

There are many more suggestions if you look through our #coding tag, and I also heavily suggest looking through our #mixed tag as well.

Any suggestions or additions from mixed Korean-Russians are welcome!

- Rune

I'm writing a story where one of the main characters is ethnically Japanese, and she is described several times as being "less than beautiful" and "unattractive" in a traditional sense. I wanted to make her this way since before I settled on her ethnicity because it's fairly relevant to larger themes in the work and I think it's important that women in fiction are not all beautiful. I've tried to make sure that it is not just her traditionally Japanese traits that are described negatively (i.e. her eyes, nose, skin tone) but the truth is that these characters, while not all white themselves, are approaching her description through the lens of western beauty standards, which she does not fit for a variety of reasons. Is it okay for me as a white woman to take a WOC and describe her like this? Note that her physical appearance is one of the least important aspects of her character and references to it could easily be changed or removed. No one in the story ever thinks poorly of her or treats her differently because of her appearance and she doesn't care one way or the other how she looks. Also, all the other POC in the story (including this character's also-Japanese mother and a Vietnamese character) are described either neutrally or positively, and I ensured that white characters were described in similarly negative terms..

Unattractive Japanese Character 

Bluntly, if her appearance can be easily changed without really affecting the story and how others treat her, her appearance probably doesn’t matter, even if physical appearance has thematic significance in your story. If character appearances aren’t serving any real purpose and I am the person editing this story, I would likely cut most descriptions for all characters, recommend you just indicate people’s ethnicities and let your reader’s biases take over from there. That’s my preference. I like my words to earn their keep.

Diversity in appearance is wonderful, but I prefer to have that diversity mean something, rather than be purely for diversity’s sake/ “local color”. Thus, I don’t see the value of judgments or agendas at a meta level (“I think it's important that women in fiction are not all beautiful”) in writing. Surely, the larger issue is that it is accurate to show that humans vary in appearance. No person is objectively beautiful or ugly, because beauty standards are ultimately social constructions unique to the cultures and people who hold them. The above indicates to me that you have an image of this character that is not attractive from your perspective or a perspective with which you are familiar. You say she is not attractive “in the traditional sense”, but give me no indication as to what culture that “traditional sense” applies to, who in the story holds it, and why those things matter (Other than that it perhaps relates to nebulous Western beauty standards). Can you see how, as an author, you are already presenting the illusion of a uniform beauty standard to your reader where none exists?

I personally think this is unproductive and liable to create more work and angst than necessary (As I can see in the effort you are going to assure me that her appearance can be easily altered, you are being equitable in your distribution of unattractiveness, this is not an indication of how others treat her, etc. etc.). Thus, I recommend you be especially alert if you are slipping into omniscient voice when indicating judgments on the appearance of all your characters, not just your Japanese one.

Detailed descriptions of appearance without judgment (See WWC Description Posts for a collection of WWC links to describing various aspects of PoC appearance) is one way to increase diversity in writing physical appearances without imposing a beauty standard on your reader. I will cover another method: how to indicate standards of beauty held by differing characters without using such explicit detail. These examples also demonstrate better characterization and character development without conveying judgment from a more omniscient (i.e. the author’s) perspective:

Mr. Darcy in Pride & Prejudice initially describes Elizabeth Bennet as being “tolerable, but not handsome enough” to tempt him. As the story goes on, he notes that she has charming dark eyes, and that her form is “light and pleasing” though he detects “more than one flaw of perfect symmetry in her features.” Later, he refers to her as the “one of the handsomest women” of his acquaintance. Thus, the novel shows how his assessments of appearance change over time, but specifically how his assessment changes over time as his feelings change. 

George Cooper in Song of the Lioness is described by the protagonist as having a nose “too large for good looks” but with laughing hazel eyes and distracting charisma, emphasizing his trickster-like qualities, but also showing that the protagonist is drawn to him despite not viewing him as objectively good-looking by prevailing norms.

A female character from the Japanese novel Points and Lines is described by another character as having a charming overbite that peeks out from her red lips when they are parted. An overbite is not charming to everyone, but the description indicates how that feature makes the other character feel and that this character is observing her closely. The passage thus doesn’t attach judgments to people in general who have overbites.  

These descriptions are useful as they tell us how a character looks either by the beauty standards of the character’s world or another character’s perspective, further fleshing out your story. And yet, they don’t necessarily give the reader clues as to how the reader should feel about the character’s appearance. Given that these novels were all written at different points in time in different countries, the descriptions remain relatable to many different audiences regardless of the individual reader’s perception of beauty. 

Thus, I suggest you are overt in initial drafts when indicating how differences in beauty standards cause characters to evaluate your Japanese character the way they do and relevant consequences. As opposed to describing any characters as simply good looking or bad-looking, regardless of their ethnicity, describe specific features precisely, from the perspective of multiple individuals or over time from the perspective of a single third party, continuing to emphasize that different characters will perceive beauty differently because beauty standards are not uniform even between people from the same culture. As drafts go on, you will likely find it easier to modulate the language to be more subtle even as no ambiguity remains as to who thinks she’s unattractive, why and how that impacts your story.

- Marika

Hi! I'm writing a fantasy story rn and was interested in your opinion about a part of it. One of the main characters is a Black elf named Enrel, and she has an animal companion of sorts, a black panther called Jox. Enrel was a dnd character I made and later adapted into a character for this story, so I've changed a lot about her origins and stuff since ideally she's going to be in a published novel and there were things about her character and backstory I hadn't really considered critically before I moved her over to the new story. Mostly, I was concerned about whether or not it would be weird for her to have a panther companion. Jox isn't bonded to her by anything but his own emotional attachment to her (he's a familiar who's bonded to her parents. in the world, there are spells that can form bonds between people and animals that give the animals longer lives and human-like intelligence (wizards didn't want their pets to die and that was the result), and Enrel's parents formed one with Jox when he was a cub, so he's basically Enrel's third parent? at least he feels that way haha) and Enrel ran away from home after a traumatic event so he followed her to make sure she was safe. My concern is that a) I don't want their relationship to fall into the "character of color who's super in-tune with nature and animals" trope (I've changed Enrel's relationship with Jox a lot from where it started to avoid this, but I'm not sure if it could still be read that way despite my efforts), and b) I'm not sure if me (a white writer) giving my Black character a panther friend would give off weird vibes or not since black panthers are symbolic in real-world Black rights movements, and I don't want that aspect of their characters to be read like some sort of reference or something like that (I made Jox a panther originally because I really love black cats and didn't realize that there could be other implications about Jox and Enrel specifically). I'd really appreciate your opinion about this, and I'm also open to further discussion if there are things you think would be good to have conversation about (or if parts of this ask need to be expanded upon). Thanks so much for your time! :)

Black elf with black panther companion

I think this is just fine. I love animal familiars! This does not feel dehumanizing. 

You make a clear distinction between the elf people and animals, so it doesn’t feel like you’re equating the Black elf to animals. It’s going to help to have other non-Black characters with special ties to animals (including white coded elves if they exist in your story), but I think your history takes care of that, even if you don’t have other active characters with familiars (seeing as a spell was used to form the bond).

As for the black panther itself: If you provide the readers the reason for the black panther vs. some other animal or big cat, that would help steer thinking away from any other symbolism. 

However -You might not be able to completely erase the association or assumed symbolism. Our choices don’t exist in a vacuum, and we can’t simply make folks not compare our stories to real life context. Not that it’s a deal breaker if people wonder if you’re choosing black panthers for reasons other than you love black cats. 

If it’s really something you don’t want people to connect, you’d need to 

1) really sell the reason or alternative meaning as to why it’s a black panther and not something else. And even so, people might still connect it to real life black panther symbolism) 

or

2) Change the familiar to a different animal or another big cat. If you want it to be black (because you like black cats. I absolutely don’t think you should make it a black animal because the character is Black.) there’s always... 

black jaguars

an actual black domesticated or purebreed cat 

Black wild cat (serval, melanistic wild cat)

or a cat mixed with a wildcat (e.g. Savannah cat)

Silver fox (although, it’s actually a canine, but they’re just adorable!)

~Mod Colette

Am I fetishizing my Japanese character?

noedandelion asked:

Hello ! I’m currently writing a comic where my main character is a mixed Asian/white man, to be more specific, he is half Portuguese half Japanese. And it’s there that i’m asking myself a question.

I’m consuming a little of pop culture from japan (I say little bc it’s not the same as when i was younger) and because of this i’m kinda worried that this could be seen as fetishism of Japanese people, he’s not the only Japanese character in the comic bc i have a lot of characters and i try to include several characters who share the same ethnicity. As my mains, he is the only one, not the only Asian character but they are not Japanese (he is not not the only main protag but he is more central, i hope i’m clear sorry).

I’ve never have any people told me it was not okay but bc i’m white, i’d like to have feedback. I don’t remember why i make him Japanese because i have him for a while, but i know it has nothing to do with worshiping of Japanese people. I’m writing him as fully developed character, he as flaws, qualities, things he likes and his development is not related to the fact he is miked or anything, i’m learning Japanese culture, tropes etc for writing him respectfully (and i ofc don’t use anime as reference of representation).

I’ve always seen people tell “as long as the character is written respectfully it’s okay” but maybe there’s things I don’t know that are fetishization, like well writing a Japanese character when you’re white and consume a little of Japanese pop culture/like to learn about Japanese history culture etc. (i’m actually learning about a lot of different culture not just the Japanese one but still).

I was thinking also that if it could be seen as such, i could change the fact that is half Japanese and make him from an another Asian country as ethnicity (east or south-east Asian), i don’t want to whitewash him (i will rework my character of course to be accurate bc it will not be the same culture), but i don’t know if it’s okay.

So should i keep my character the way he is ? (and be careful of how i’m writing him as I do with every character i have) or should i change it ? Thank you for your time and I hope you have a great day. (I’m sorry for my english, I’m italian so my first language is not english)

When people say “Write a character respectfully”, they often mean “Write the character as if you were treating that character with the level of respect you would want accorded to a character from your background.” 

In my experience, many individuals from European countries, like their American counterparts, do not have the requisite knowledge of cultures outside of their own background to create characters from many other cultures in this fashion. This is rarely bad intent. Rather you can’t know what you don’t know. Fetishization, particularly, is often the result of lazy/ ignorant writing, and ignorance is often linked to poor research or limited education. Japanese pop culture, for instance, does not remotely qualify as education in Japanese history or culture.  It’s hard to write a well-developed character if you have difficulty understanding the way their culture and background might (or might not) affect who they are. 

If you are new to this blog, you likely haven’t yet heard that:

We are not a great source of information for people in the early stages of research (These are called Google Scholar and Wikipedia)

You will often only be able to ask good questions after you have done considerable research

Are you planning on distributing or sharing this comic to others at this stage? My advice is that if you have all these doubts about what is or isn’t fetishization that you keep this character to yourself and play around with his development on your own while you do more research:

Read notable literature by Japanese writers in Japan

Read literature by members of the Japanese diaspora (ex. Kazuo Ishiguro, Shusaku Endo, Ruth Ozeki)

Consume nonfiction content on or by mixed Japanese people (Eg. Hafu: film, 2013, Naomi Osaka: 2021, docuseries, When Half is Whole: book, Stephen Murphy-Shigemitsu) 

Becoming familiar with a wide range of Japanese experiences is the easiest remedy for fetishization. I’m also going to make the unusual suggestion that you read up on Japanese food culture (Knowing the number of Italians I do, food is something that weirdly helps us understand each other very quickly). 

A common in-joke between me and the other moderators is my suggestion that if an asker is unsure whether or not they should write something that they should: 

Create a secret room with a door only they can open

Wear a disguise that hides their identity (I often suggest a plague doctor’s mask)

Write their story in invisible ink from the comfort of this environment. 

This is obviously an absurd idea, but who will judge you for something they don’t know about? Similarly, who is harmed if no one knows what you are doing and it doesn’t affect anyone else? The purpose of this blog is not to tell you what is right or wrong, but rather to help you create content that a wide variety of individuals can appreciate, regardless of their background. Whether you think that is important is purely your choice. 

In summary: If you worry about whether or not you are fetishizing your character, do more research. This applies to all of your non-Italian characters, including the Asian ones. Learn as much as you can about their backgrounds as you develop them, and then consult us again when you better understand what else you want to ask us. 

- Marika.