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drawesomeTitle: Maidens of the Magic Mirror
Artist:minoanmiss
Rating: G
Fandom: Original
Artist's Note: I drew this to explore why technicolor people can't swap in for POC, as it were. More after the drawing.
I've been in several challenges like this, though this one is the best, not least becausegoss is running it. *waves happily*. One of the questions people often ask, with varying proportions of good faith, is "Can purple/blue/green-skinned creatures qualify as "diversity of skin colour"?" The answer for this challenge is "no", and I wanted to talk a little about why that's the right answer.
I drew a brown maiden and a green one, clearly fond of each other. The brown maiden represents people who actually exist in our [real] world, who have history and culture and lineages. The choice to include her is representative of the goal to include a wider range of humanity in fantastic fictional worlds. The green maiden only exists in the fictional world, and the choice to include her is ultimately aesthetic, not representative. This holds true even if her fictional culture is 'based on' a culture populated by people of color in our world. (In this case I chose not to specify beyond brightly patterned clothes.)
Creations are in dialogue with the creations that came before, and in the Western cultural milieu where most of us have acculturated, "BIPOC are often relegated to villainous roles in (Western) Fantasy settings, or are sometimes completely absent from these worlds.," as the challenge rules state. The addition of technicolor people underscores that absence for many experiencing these fictional worlds, not least (but not only) those of us who are BIPOC ourselves. The underlying message can be that POC are only acceptable in worlds of the imagination as villains, or not at all because technicolor characters can supercede us, that we aren't allowed to be and do anything.
Technicolor characters can be very interesting and beautiful creations of the mind, but they are not the same as POC who reflect people from the real world and who bring in a wider range of real world readers and observers. I drew this thinking of that, and of how happy this challenge has made me over this past month.
Plus, spirals. I always love spirals. And recursion too.
Artist:
minoanmissRating: G
Fandom: Original
Artist's Note: I drew this to explore why technicolor people can't swap in for POC, as it were. More after the drawing.
I've been in several challenges like this, though this one is the best, not least because
goss is running it. *waves happily*. One of the questions people often ask, with varying proportions of good faith, is "Can purple/blue/green-skinned creatures qualify as "diversity of skin colour"?" The answer for this challenge is "no", and I wanted to talk a little about why that's the right answer.I drew a brown maiden and a green one, clearly fond of each other. The brown maiden represents people who actually exist in our [real] world, who have history and culture and lineages. The choice to include her is representative of the goal to include a wider range of humanity in fantastic fictional worlds. The green maiden only exists in the fictional world, and the choice to include her is ultimately aesthetic, not representative. This holds true even if her fictional culture is 'based on' a culture populated by people of color in our world. (In this case I chose not to specify beyond brightly patterned clothes.)
Creations are in dialogue with the creations that came before, and in the Western cultural milieu where most of us have acculturated, "BIPOC are often relegated to villainous roles in (Western) Fantasy settings, or are sometimes completely absent from these worlds.," as the challenge rules state. The addition of technicolor people underscores that absence for many experiencing these fictional worlds, not least (but not only) those of us who are BIPOC ourselves. The underlying message can be that POC are only acceptable in worlds of the imagination as villains, or not at all because technicolor characters can supercede us, that we aren't allowed to be and do anything.
Technicolor characters can be very interesting and beautiful creations of the mind, but they are not the same as POC who reflect people from the real world and who bring in a wider range of real world readers and observers. I drew this thinking of that, and of how happy this challenge has made me over this past month.
Plus, spirals. I always love spirals. And recursion too.
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Date: 2023-01-30 10:56 pm (UTC)Oh, everything every other commenter has already said, and I can't add anything to it except, maybe, frickin' WOW!!
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Date: 2023-01-30 11:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-02 03:34 pm (UTC)I adore the drawing too - the patterns (so different but both so pretty!), the hairstyles, the buttons on the blouse, the rainbow shoes, the recursive mirror! :) ♡
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Date: 2023-09-14 07:30 am (UTC)