Boyks

D Tier Internet Sensation

Twitch Partner, Variety Streamer, Speedrunner, Pepsiman SGDQ 2016/2018, Retro Console Modder, Indie Dev, Mashup Artist, Ex-Card Gamer, Co-host of @RuffCuts, Cat Dad.
He/Him. Bi.


Ryyudo
@Ryyudo

Post will contain sexual terms, references, themes, race-focuses, and likely personal TMI and experiences around them.

A subject during yesterday's stream was how the Everyday John was the main character in OverBlood (pictured) and my surprise at it. It led to conversations about how folks don't want Everyday John as protagonists, some folks won't play games without a character creator, and the lack of PoC main protagonist representation in media has left me numb to the idea of "expecting games/movies to fulfill my personal fantasy character."

As an offshoot of the subject, that I opted out of talking about at the time, was how black women often get it worse: Sexualizing by removing elements and placing them elsewhere.

The sparking example is one of the original Twi'lek, and slave dancer, in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, promoting plenty of attraction over a race of characters in the Star Wars franchise. The actress was black herself, but it took a lot of those elements and put them under another veil, hiding her blackness at the core.

It takes minimum effort to see the "chocolate/caramel/tan/tomboy waifu" comments in anime and artwork featuring black women as well. Taking elements of black women, namely skin tone, and just placing it onto a character who looks the same as every other character otherwise. To be clear: I'm VERY happy to see a lot more representation as time goes on.

This isn't strictly onto "White/Asian" folks; Studies have shown how light-skinned blacks "get over" better than darker shades in white communities/businesses. Not appearing as threatening or "other." Think Tyler Perry films, how the light-skinned characters were often protagonists and darker skin were antagonists.

(Hilariously parodied in the Boondocks as well)

This comes not only from what I've seen but as well as heard black women's testimonies, when it comes to actual black women there's an aversion to them as a full package. Folks embrace and take pieces found in black women and place them onto a more fair-skinned palette, leaving the actual black person behind.

Folks want big butts? They get BBL. Big lips? Inject fat fillers.

Even in pornography, nearly any video with a black person in it is often rated lower than very similar videos and/or is met with racist comments. Best parity examples are animated videos with light and dark palate swaps for the men have very different responses.

It's impossible for some (white men) to enjoy media if it doesn't contain some representation of them in it; I've never required it because it was seldom ever an option. So I greatly appreciate seeing more black women, and folks in general, being represented without just being stuffed into the, often white, mold from the paths that were accepted before them.

There's still more that can be done and be done better, but I'm here to celebrate to the progress, criticize the missteps, and, of course, hate the haters who don't think we deserve it or set up representative media to fail. ๐Ÿ˜Œ


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