Stereotypes are good for representation actually

[_Izzy_]

Hey y’all’s, so I was tryna figure out the lore behind the black Rosie the riveter, and I ran into this image of “black Rosie” but it was just Rosie with dark skin, and it had me thinking: black characters that only look black because they have dark skin…. Aren't good representation

I know this sounds stupid and obvious, but ive seen this kind of generic “representation” quite a few times. Fogado from fire emblem engage, I love Fogado and his sisters design sm but they’re one of those characters that literally are just white but have dark skin (like, the only Black features they have are their skin tone, without it they blend in with any other character in the game)

The reason I think characters like this aren’t good representation is because they fail to actually represent Black peoples or make them feel “seen”, dark skin isnt the only feature associated with Black people that sets them apart, they tend to have different nose shapes, plumper lips, wider eyes (this one most people dont notice), and most notably, kinky hair (which i rarely see represented btw, even in live action stuff most female black characters have weaves or wigs, which is fine but it’s kinda overdone. BTW i know everyone is different and overly relying on these features is OBVIOUSLY not good representation either)

When I see characters like Fogado they feel like token characters. Also it’s kinda messed up that a lot of the times when black people are represented, they always have the most Eurocentric features possible TvT (light skin, straight hair/silkpress, slim nose and lips) and it just shows that society still sees Black features as undesirable.

Now dont go yapping abt how everyone looks different and not every black person has these features, I know that, everybody knows that, the point of this post is that a lot is of black representation doesn’t actually represent Black people and isnt FOR Black people and it’s a little sad

So yeah, basically, dont be afraid to have your characters have “stereotypical” features as long as they’re done intentionally and respectfully, because then you are not stereotyping, you're representing (which is kinda the point)

Here are the characters who inspired this yap session:

Anyway, yall got anymore examples of lazy representation in media? (Doesn’t have to just be black ppl ofc)

[Yanderemenhera]

eh, im not found of dahr man, he had an autism episode where the moral just kinda felt like ''don't bully the autistic kid, he'll play chess for you!'' i think a shit load of people HATE dahr man tbh, his ''rep'' feels like lazy moral slop like those brain rot AI youtube shorts where some cat child is terrible to there mom and they tell you to sub if you love your mom. i am pretty sure dahr man has made insulting moral slop about everything now so finding something targeting your minority group isnt hard. i also wil say i do have autism, im just high functioning and dont get out much so its not super noticeable i think. i feel like the dahr man video kinda makes it feel like he doesn't genuinely care about autism, or at least he isnt even trying to pretend otherwise. good autism rep, even if ''stereotypical'' to other people, would be nicolus cage from willy's wonderland and yuri from doki doki literature club! in my opinion anyway

[trashghoul]

literally any hoyoverse dark-er skinned character. its insane how they are just. not of color at ALL

[Johnny.SS]

@trashghoul they don’t even have any shades darker than a tan white person so this isn’t the best example TvT

[Johnny.SS]

@Yanderemenhera you didn’t explain your other examples :P

[_Izzy_]

@trashghoul fr this applies to dark skinned anime style characters in general TvT
the dark-skin purple haired girl trope is the first example i think of

[Yanderemenhera]

@Johnny.SS sorry, i just really dont like dahr man and that is all i could think about at the time

[_Izzy_]

@Yanderemenhera based off what you said, he sounds like he only brings attention to minorities for profit TvT

[Yanderemenhera]

@_Izzy_ i actually draw people of different body types/skin colors. anime usually has over the top hair so i draw textured hair too bc if im gonna draw crazy ass hair why only have straight or curly hair? idk why most people are afraid of drawing different body shapes and hair types in an anime style, i do. if i had to guess it might be bc most anime characters have pale skin, straight hair, and are thin with disproportionate chests, so they use that as a frame of reference and thats kinda sad, drawing textured hair is very fun

[Yanderemenhera]

@_Izzy_ yeah, i was tryna be nice, but dahr man is a jerk tbh. he mostly makes moral slop content last i checked for views on youtube and he wanted to sell his ''show'' to a tv company. i frankly think he is a scum-bag tbh

[_Izzy_]

@Yanderemenhera frr th amount of ppl who say they dont draw poc bc 'it doesnt fit their artstyle' is so sad TvT
its their loss tho bc textured hair and darker skin tones create so many cool possibilities for character design so theyre just missing out as artist