crackerhell:

imactuallynotdemonic:

geth-metal:

frostbackscat:

Oh my god if you’re going to judge someone’s cosplay you better learn your fucking shit because this is Duela Dent you goddamn assholes.

AHAHAHA

Perpetually laughing over the fact that “real gamer/comic book nerd” males keep insulting women for cosplaying things they’ve never even heard of 

who’s the “fake geek” now, fuckers? 

How dare she dress the way a character is actually designed!

I’M DYING

(Source: cosplay-paradise)

h4ilstorm:

Day 3 - Turtle Yoga (by Cris Ward)

(via southcarolinaboy)

thebigblackwolfe:

girljanitor:

thebigblackwolfe:

Ok I got permission to publish this because I honestly do not know exactly where or why this started other than what I looked up on wikipedia.

Many fantasy stories and worlds refer to their main sapient humanoid species as “races” rather than species.^{[citation needed]} The usage of the term in this context was popularized by J. R. R. Tolkien^{[citation needed]} and was further adapted and spread by the use of races in Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games.^[17] Many fantasy settings use the terms “race” and “species” interchangeably, such as the World of Warcraft video game.^[18]

And ze asked me to attach this to this post:

“are we okay with calling humans a “race” and defining East Asian, West Asian, Desi, Black, African, and other groups we recognize as races in the real world “sub races” in a fantasy game with other groups (cat like beings, amorphous squidly beings, and floating interdimensional entities, for example) receiving the same treatment (i.e. classifications)?”

Or in my own words why are the fucking tentacle monsters from Cthulhu land getting better treatment than the Brown folks.

bolded for yes exactly

because language has meaning

that’s why it’s language

For instance, here’s what happened to me early this morning (cause I couldn’t sleep cause I just got home from LA and I’m stuck on west coast time)

I have been planning on playing Guild Wars 2 since it was announced and now I finally have the computer that can run it, and Thellady and I have been getting ready to play together.

Ok.

I made my first character before I left to visit my brother a few weeks ago and was vastly disappointed. In a game that prides itself on customization there were no Black hairstyles available for Human women, Human men on the other hand have Dreadlocks and an Afro. I ended up rolling a Norn (a near-human race based off Norse mythology, think Nords from Skyrim) because their women were able to wear Dreadlocks.

Beyond the hair, I also had trouble building a character that looked like they were of African descent. Norns are based on Northern Europeans and most of the default faces look like that, Humans do have one face that looks like she’s part of the diaspora, but she looks almost like Rihanna.

So my thing is this

Why is it that

1. That games that pride themselves on freedom and allowing their player base to customize their characters in anyway they want STILL have an issue with recognizing that POC exist and are a part of their player base and would also like characters that look like them.
2. When POC features are available why is it that they are placed on groups defined as savage or primitive (Orcs and Nords in Skyrim, the Norn in GW2) or are displayed in an way that only show cases one type of POC that is more in line with white ideals (The Rihanna face of GW2) OR are displayed in away that is highly stereotypical and/or fetishizing (The way East Asians seem to be handled by GW2 is gross as hell, check out the Elementalist in the Human women’s character creation for examples).

Back at Thellady’s original point, Lord of the Rings Online did it slightly better by having you pick a race and then pick what culture your character came from. I would really love seeing more games do that instead of having the almighty whitey be the auto default and having POC have to dig through the CC to build characters that only vaguely look like us.

Yes, SERiously. I’m glad that Dungeons and Dragons have gotten better somewhat about their issues with representation in their rule books and guides. Even in just the last ten years, there’s been a shit-ton of changes.

For example, here’s a few snappies of a rulebook I have from 2001. Here are the drawing of the “races”:

Errrrrm. :(

Here is literally the only person of color i could find in 300+ pages:

:/

In contrast, here is the Player’s Guide for within the last few years. Almost EVERY illustrated page has a person of color. Even the “example of something” pages have POC:

If Wizards of the fucking Coast can get their shit together, there is NO EXCUSE for fantasy video games, which PRIDE themselves on their character customizations, can’t give a Black woman a decent fucking hairstyle.

wharrawha:

medievalpoc:

Unknown (formerly att. Johann Zoffany)

Dido Elizabeth Belle

Scotland (1779)

oil on canvas

Scone Palace, Perth (private collection of the Earl of Mansfield)

Although this painting falls outside the usual scope of this blog, it is one of my favorite historical European paintings. Dido Elizabeth Belle was the illegitimate daughter of Admiral Sir John Lindsay and enslaved African woman named Belle.

This painting was most likely commissioned by her father, the nephew of the Earl of Mansfield, and depicts the beautiful and vivacious Belle alongside her cousin, Elizabeth Murray.

The first time I saw this painting was in an art history classroom, accompanied by a story regarding the dehumanization of Africans in the Unites States, and the scores of visiting Americans who were scandalized by this painting. In America and several places in Europe, contemporaneous paintings always depicted people considered Black in subservient positions in relation to people considered White, if they bothered to paint them at all. To raise a bastard daughter of color alongside legitimate heirs was antithetical to American thought.

Dido Belle was raised and educated alongside the other highborn daughters of the household, and remained a favorite of the Earl and her father well into her thirties, after which an advantageous marriage was arranged.

Her position in the Earl’s household supervising the poultry yards was typical for any lady of high birth at the time, but her job overseeing the lord’s correspondence was usually a task reserved for a highly educated male clerk or scribe and is evidence of her importance and elevated rank. She received an allowance of £30 per year, more than any except the heiress herself and a sum unheard of at the time for any illegitimate daughter.

Upon Lord Mansfield’s death in 1788, Belle was furnished with a £500 lump sum in addition to a £100 annuity, as well as a suitable marriage to John Davinier, with whom she had three children. In Mansfield’s will, her status as a free person was carefully confirmed, since many would have been all too happy to divest her of her fortune.

Belle died in 1804 and was interred in St. George’s Fields, the parish to which she and her husband belonged.

My interest in this story was renewed recently when I learned that an upcoming film, Belle (currently in production), will be a dramatized biopic of Dido Elizabeth Belle’s life. The titular role will be played by South African actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

[x] [x] [x] [x]

I think I might be taking a trip to Scone when I get a job…

I get the really strong feeling here that the artist preferred painting Dido - Eliabeth is the supposed centrepiece of the painting, but her expression is the usual bland serenity of aristocratic women in paintings in this period.  Dido, though… That smile!  Those sparkling eyes!  She looks mischievious and witty and fun, and though she’s off-centre and in the background, she dominates the painting.

Everyone who sees the painting remarks on it. Elizabeth Murray just comes off as whey-faced and generally unremarkable.