someothermonstra:
fantastic-nonsense:
crackerhell:
also anything written by white people about PoC sucks
Read anything by Tamora Pierce, Riley?
you mean the same Tamora Pierce whose main characters are consistently white, even in a book about Brown people fighting against the colonizers in their country?
you mean the same Tamora Pierce whose first series included a book in who had a plot point wherein a white female character essentially went into a small community of Brown people and taught them about sexism? the same Tamora Pierce where—in that same first series—had a white king take up a position of cultural power & importance from that same group of white people? i could go on, but it’s a while since i’ve read her books.
like her shit all you want, but don’t fucking kid yourself that she’s free from problematic shit. >|
You mean the same Tamora Pierce who consistently includes non-white people in central roles in her book, the same Tamora Pierce who has two out of four main characters in her Emelan series as ‘people of color’ and who consistently portrays characters as characters, regardless of what color they are? You mean the same Tamora Pierce that is basically one of the best examples of YA feminist literature you will ever encounter?
You mean the same Tamora Pierce that, when that female was forced to stay in the ‘small community of brown people’ because she killed their evil shaman and their law dictated she must stay until someone killed her or she trained someone to take her place, she selects three Gifted children, two of which happen to be girls, to train, and though the People spoke out, she calmly pointed out that they were the ones available at the time and that they had no problem letting HER be their shaman so why should having another female be their shaman be any different? She acted as she always had: as a warrior, as a knight, because she was one by that time. She did not teach the community anything about sexism; they came to that decision themselves by watching Alanna train her apprentices and what the girls accomplished on their own. And if you remember, the whole point of the series was Alanna proving that she was just as good as any man, to EVERYONE. If you remember, she had to cross-dress and pretend to be a boy until she was outed right after she got knighted because that was the only way she’d be able to be a knight? The entire POINT of the series was that sexism is wrong. Why does that particular instance have any particular bearing in this conversation?
You mean the same Tamora Pierce who has women of all classes and ethnicities working in various jobs of all kinds? Knight, mage, Knight, Spy, Police, weaver, Metalsmith, ruler, QUEEN, financial manager, dancers, business people, herbalists and botanists, healers, authors…I could go on.
You mean the same Tamora Pierce who had a prince that happened to be white take up the throne that was rightfully his? You mean the same Tamora Pierce who, when a ‘white’ girl got kidnapped and ended up being a spy in a rebellion, helped put the rightful ruler (who was ‘brown’ or whatever Dove was) on the throne? She was not the main player; she was a helper. Let’s not forget Pierce’s numerous, numerous, capable ‘non-white’ characters that appear everywhere, from the Yamani Islands to Galla, to Carthak. Tamora Pierce has a wildly diverse world, with a similar wildly diverse cast of characters. No, she is not without her flaws: nobody is, regardless of their skin color. But Pierce does something that many, many authors do not.
She does not focus on their color. She focuses on their personality and their skills, their words and actions. They are PEOPLE, not a color. They are described, and their CULTURE is described. She mastered the art of having diverse characters without focusing on ‘OMG DIVERSITY!’
Both Briar and Daja are ‘non-white.’ Daja is, as far as I’ve been able to tell, black. She’s also bi, but it’s not really relevant in this particular conversation. Briar is harder. He’s not black, but he’s definitely not white. I’m not really sure.
Numair? Not white. One of the most accomplished mages in Pierce’s world, and one of only seven black robes. Immensely capable. I could name more. Nawat.
You mean the same Pierce that had a world that was full of rich, developed characters of both genders, all ethnicities and races, and various sexual identities?
You mean that Tamora Pierce?
![stfuconservatives:
cruelyouth:
ceepolk:
thinkspeakstress:
trubr0wn:
invisibleblackunicorn:
trubr0wn:
madamethursday:
[Image: A picture of a tall, very thin Black woman with her shoulder over a shorter, older white man wearing traditional Orthodox Jewish clothing on a New York sideway.]
staghunts:
“This one is very serious, guys:
I came upon these two on the sidewalk. They were having a conversation. “Excuse me,” I said, addressing the girl: “I’m sorry to interrupt, but is there anyway I can take your photo?”
“Why would you want my photo?” she asked.
“Because you look beautiful,” I said. And she did. She was Sudanese. There is a very distinct beauty among people from the Sudan, and she was filled up with it. Suddenly the man cut in:
“I was just telling her she was beautiful,” he said.
Naively, I assumed I had just walked up on one stranger giving a compliment to another. I wanted to capture the moment. “Let me take your photograph together,” I said. The man seemed reluctant, he started smiling nervously and inching away. But the girl called him back.
“Come take a picture with me,” she said. Encouraged by her attention, he returned. She put her arm around him, and I took the photo.
As I examined the photos on my camera, the man started whispering to the girl. She answered him in a loud voice: “I told you! I’m not that kind of girl.” She seemed agitated now. Finally sensing that I had misread the situation, I stepped between them. The man began hurrying down the sidewalk.
When the man left, the girl’s demeanor changed completely. She seemed shaken. Her eyes were tearing up. “He just offered me five hundred dollars to go out with him,” she said. “And then when I said ‘no,’ he offered me one thousand. Why does this always happen to me?”
“It happens a lot?” I asked.
“All the time,” she said. “I’m sorry I’m getting emotional. I just can’t go out of my house without this kind of thing happening. I have a son. I’m a mother. I would never degrade myself like that. I just don’t understand why this keeps happening.”
“Do you mind if I tell this story?” I asked.
“Please,” she said. “Tell it.”
Let’s hope this man, and all men, realize the emotional damage they are inflicting on the women they try to buy. In the meantime, feel free to SHARE.*
Dear Tumblr, fuck you for trying to erase this.
I’m saving this post because as many times as Tumblr tries to erase this woman’s story and act like anything about this was okay, that’s as many times as I’m reposting it. They can either cut me off or stop being assnuggets about this. whichEVER.
i will always reblog this. because if this woman were white, the mass-erasure of this image and story would not be happening. and that just speaks volumes to me. the bigotry that contributes to this woman’s constant harassment is the same bigotry that led to the erasure of this story in order to ‘protect’ this man. they are COMPLETELY connected. this is a vicious cycle that perpetuates anti-blackness and the degradation and silencing of black women and women of color as a whole.
oh look trubr0wn just deployed more truth bombs.
i am the truth bomb terrorist.
NOT erase this woman’s story just because HONY is a bigot who is full of shit. Tumblr staff is full of shit. They are ALL full of shit. And fuck every single one of you shitty people for thinking that you’re going to win. You will NOT.
Hey this disappeared off my tumblr how strange
anyway, here it is again, supporting this lovely lady who has to put up with this crap just because she exists and goes outside, and to call shame on a society that would actually force her to put her arm around the creep who just upped his price after she told him that she wouldn’t whore for him
Here it is, calling attention to the FACT that the aggressor, the perpetrator of this outrage was the one protected, and the victim is just supposed to disappear
To that I say no
no
Open season on Black women is OVER.
I’m going to back up my Tumblr.
But I just want to see if Tumblr will ignore the e-mail I just wrote to them getting unwanted messages by users I’ve told to leave me alone and will send me another e-mail about “violating copyright,” if not try to delete my blog for reblogging this picture and story that needs to be seen and heard.
I’m not claiming ownership of anything, BTW. Picture, story behind the picture, and the erasure of the picture copyrighted2012 by humansofnewyork.tumblr.com . And reblogging this picture has an educational reason behind it — to show how black women are dehumanized, and then silenced if they ever speak out.
Tumblr deleted this post from everyone’s blog. Here it is again. And people have saved copies to their computers, including me. Story’s not going away. The internet is forever.
-Jess](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3v4ahIMJ41qlxu8ho1_500.jpg)
![attackofopportunity:
spicyobsession:
fuckyeahfanficflamingo:
[WRITE FIRST FEMALE CHARACTER IN YEARS (Fanfic Flamingo) DON’T KNOW HOW TO WRITE OWN GENDER ANYMORE]
I knew this blog was gonna piss me someday. Today’s the day guys!
This is the shit I’m talking and ranting about. Look at that shit. The author wrote male characters for years to the point where she can’t even write from what is essentially her own POV anymore. Fuck this. This is why I write so much womencentric fic. THIS. THIS FUCKING POST. I can’t even type properly right now.
It’s horrifying to think how much sexism fandom’s internalized to produce this kind of confession. Everything about our stories, our experiences, our feelings, our characters—all of that’s completely subsumed by The Male Character Experience. Some of us have this profoundly huge disconnect to our own LIVES that render us incapable of even writing about a woman that isn’t somehow connected to some fucking man.
OUR NARRATIVES MATTER. OUR CHARACTERS MATTER. WE FUCKING MATTER.
Get the fuck out, OP. Examine your fucking choices.
And laugh at this all you want. My blood pressure just shot up from reading this.
^^^ This is important. And, honestly, it’s not just fanfiction. Look at published fiction. Even in books by female authors, most female characters are sidelined, and even the ones who are central tend to be underdeveloped. Writers learn to write stories not just by living, but by reading, and watching, other stories. People can have their own experiences, but not know how to tell stories about those experiences because storytelling is so centered on white men.
It’s a hard trap to break out of, but it’s still important to work on breaking out of it.
I was just talking about this a week or two ago, on the idea of “male gaze” as a launching point, and expanding it to “normative gaze”, which in our society is abled white cisman. The overwhelming bulk of existent narratives even when written by people who fall outside the demographic of “normative gaze” as specified, often adheres to these narratives.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/987a4032beb43e453f4b2046ab18c068/tumblr_mfdmleUKH21qi6haxo1_400.jpg)
