Aaaaaand THIS is how our princesses show up. Excited to share this black princess series which was a personal project orchestrated by Hair by LaChanda. The mission was to redefine and reimagine the traditional princess with our own dash of style, culture and swag. 🥰❤️ Thanks to all of the models and vendors who helped bring this project together. Photography: CreativeSoul Photography Hair/Creative Direction: Hair by LaChanda
hogwarts houses + hijabs
my favorite thing about this is that each of them is walking in a different direction, it’s like these girls are off to conquer the entire goddamn world
They’re gonna meet in the middle
In the middle they will find the avatar, master of all elements and the force:
I always find it so funny when people bitch about ‘forced diversity’.
because, like, once you work retail you start to see just how different everybody is.
for example, the other day I greeted a woman I was ringing up and started asking her the usual questions we’re supposed to ask (if they have a rewards card, etc) and she made a gesture pointing to her ear and mouthed ‘I’m deaf’.
and I was just like ‘Oh’, and so I skipped over the questions and just gave her a nice smile instead of the usual schpiel we’re supposed to give. she thanked me in sign language and smiled back before walking away.
and that’s just one tiny example. she was just one customer of hundreds that shift. that’s not even mentioning all the other types of people I ring in a day, of all ages, body sizes, races/skin colors, and gender expression.
it’s like…that’s how the world is.
when people say having diversity in a fictional universe seems ‘false’ or ‘forced’, that says to me that they must exist in a very homogenous, sheltered environment. because even working for a company that has a rather disproportionately-high white middle-class customer demographic, I still see more diversity on any given day than I tend to ever see in books and movies and TV shows.
it’s just kind of laughable to me when people say a movie/book/franchise has “too much” diversity. because there’s no such thing.
When they say diversity is being ‘forced’ they are saying “It’s bad enough I have to tolerate your existence here in this world. I don’t want to have to ever think about you in a fictional one.”
I was at Disneyland yesterday and when I walked into the Princess Fantasy Faire I welled up with tears as I witnessed a magical moment with the newest princess Elena of Avalor speaking in full Spanish to a small princess visiting from Latin America.
Representation matters.
Oooh she’s so pretty 😍
Me: crying at this beautiful magical moment…
Also me: I don’t understand what is being said except zapatos. They are talking about shoes and I’m crying again.
I guess I should’ve translated for the non-Spanish speakers. Elena: “Your shoes are so sparkly! You know my grandmother always says a princess needs something sparkly so everyone knows that you are a princess and look; you have your crown, your dress and your shoes. Everything is so beautiful!”
I keep thinking how much more powerful the Spiderman origin story would be if Peter Parker was an African American kid, whose Uncle Ben was shot by police while being arrested for a minor parking infraction. There is no formal investigation, and Peter decides to put himself on the line to prevent it happening again. He tackles the white crimes that go unpunished, punishes POC criminals fairly. He is the leveler, always fighting to be without bias, to be just. To protect people like his uncle.
This not only mirrors so much of what’s happening in America, but feeds right into the complex relationship between Spiderman, the authorities and the media.
Peter Parker is a brilliant student, awkward, a nerd, but is branded a thug, a gang member, a criminal, because of his appearance. The media latch on to that and misrepresent him totally.
The police, humilitated by the fact that he refuses to work with them and often punishes cops themselves for brutalizing innocent people, or guilty people who still deserve better treatment than they get, attempt to hunt him down.
I had to.
oh man. This is the shit.
The “with great power comes great responsibility” line gets such a deeper meaning within this context.
Not to mention a white nerdy boy with glasses is not the look of a social outcast or person of ridicule anymore.
^They never were to begin with. Just revisionist history and a victim complex.
I would watch the shit out of that movie by the way.
The interesting thing about discussing unpopular black female characters with certain fans is that many of them will openly acknowledge that fandom racism and racism in the media is a real thing, but will then go on to argue why a certain black female character should be written off the show, or sidelined, or killed off or be kept away from the white male lead. These fans know that fandom racism is a problem, but in their minds, their hatred for the character is completely justified. They know the trends. They know the pattern of black female characters repeatedly being abused by the fandom, but will still go on to list dozens of relatively benign reasons why a black female character should be written off the show. They like to argue that this time it’s different. This time it isn’t racial bias that’s driving their hatred of the character. This time it’s completely justified! So, next time when we’re listing all the black female characters that have been completely destroyed by the fandom, be sure to put a little asterisk next to so-and-so’s name, because that time was totally different.
Well, guess what? That whole list would be full of asterisks because to you, there’s always a perfectly valid reason for wanting the death of a black female character. There’s always a perfectly reasonable explanation for why the black female lead of a show should be sidelined and stripped of her status as leading lady. Whether it be Martha Jones, Iris West, Bonnie Bennett, Tulip O’Hare, Michonne, Gwen, Annie Sawyer, Braeden or any other intensely disliked black female character, the response is always the same. You may think you have perfectly valid reasons for disliking these women, but the fact is that they create a pattern. And whether you like it or not, your hatred is feeding into that pattern.
follow @the-movemnt for more about race, representation and justice
when white actors play PoC suddenly it’s “oh they just wanted the best actor” and “race doesn’t matter to the character” or “they need the star power” no matter how much proof you show about how Race is important to the character or hell the entire story
But when it’s the other way around White people will become ancient anthropologists, have a degree in geothermal studies and astrophysics and pull out ancient real world documentation to tell you why this fictional story set in a world with time travel magic and demons needs to be all white cast because it’s based off of a old 14th century time that has a fairy tale about a goat monster in Ancient Rome during the summer of 1348 and how they were white because the Teutonic plates had shift 2 degrees north.
So I really hope that Hollywood is listening and realizing that we aren’t the timid Asian-Americans anymore. That we do speak up now. That we do have a voice. | #IAm Ming-Na Wen
Q: Why does that character have to be gay/bi/black/Asian/Hispanic/etc?
A: As opposed to what?
I’ve found this to be a useful response, because many people will hesitate before saying “white” or “straight.” That hesitation comes from the realization, however subconscious, that they have defaulted all characters to white and straight, and are thereby declaring this normal, while everything else is other. From here, if they choose to acknowledge their internalized (unintentional but still harmful) supremacy rather than going on the defensive, they will begin to understand the real value of representation.
Q: This story isn’t about romance! Why does it matter if the characters are gay?
A: What should they be instead?
Essentially the same response. By that logic, any character in any story who does not have a romantic or sexual story arc should be aromantic and/or asexual. But the truth is, sexuality is only one part of a character’s identity (hey! just like IRL!). Any character of any race, gender, or sexual orientation can go on an adventure that does not involve sex or romance.
I think one reason I always felt so insecure and so ugly was because every time I watched TV, all the main characters were Caucasian and beautiful – blond hair and blue eyes, brunette and green eyes. To me, that was so beautiful because that was all that I had seen portrayed as “beauty” in the media – and then I would look at myself. It’s weird, because I grew up in neighborhoods that were all Caucasian people. My high school had no minorities at all. I felt like such an outsider. People would ask me what I was, and I would tell them, “I’m American.” I didn’t know what being Korean American meant. I didn’t know what being Asian American meant. I was literally one of those kids who just thought I was American.
#i don’t think i can put into words just how pivotal this moment is #because for so long we’ve been presented this female Chinese-American Watson and decided not to question it #“why is her last name Watson? because her father’s white; let’s move on” #“watson doesn’t have to be a white male; here’s proof of that!” #and that’s a perfectly fine way to engage a text #but suddenly we have this; something that engages in the complexity and cultural baggage behind that kind of name; that kind of title; #the cultural heritage and the politics of otherness vs assimilation that an immigrant’s name bears #that’s *huge* in terms of the meta-narrative and how to interpret a text because so many Holmes adaptations are just different variations #of the same song #Joan Watson was not born a Watson; she stepped into the name #it doesn’t just challenge and update the Holmes mythos but actively interrogates it #by asking it why this narrative is a) so exclusionary and b) so stifling in its interpretations #that’s extremely meaningful in terms of how we engage with cultural symbols and a franchise as symbollic as the Holmes mythos #anyway: i’m emotional/screaming/dying my skin is clear etc etc (tags via @stardust-rain)
