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Eskel

Frutiger girls 😎🩷🩵💚

Family lore

(Yes, Dick was in full clown makeup and outfit when Tim found him in A Lonely Place of Dying.)

One of her family told us that she had given birth yesterday evening, but that Child Protection services had taken her baby away with no warning, claiming that she wasnt prepared to look after him. What had happened, is that she'd literally only just given birth -- hadn't even passed the afterbirth yet, is holding her blood-coated, crying, newborn baby to her chest -- and a nurse asked what her feeding plan was. She was tired from the birth and distracted by the brand new baby in her arms and thrown off by the timing of the question, but still, she managed to answer, and said she planned to breastfeed him whenever he was hungry.

Well apparently that wasn't enough of a plan for the hospital staff, who reported her and claimed that she was unprepared to look after the child, and claimed that had no social supports, and that the baby was at risk if left with her. All because a brand new mother, 30 seconds after giving birth, didn't have a PowerPoint presentation ready to go that cited the timing cycle she would feed her kid on, and instead simply said that she would feed him when he was hungry.

Child Protection services showed up, took her kid, and she was told to show up to court the next day to contest custody if she wanted her baby back.

So a woman who had given birth less than 24 hours prior was forced to rally her family and show up to court to prove that she a) had a feeding plan for the child, and b) had enough social supports to justify reclaiming her baby.

It was one of the most appalling things I'd ever seen. I don't even know if she won her case. They didn't know at the time we saw them, and after that brief interaction on the stairs, i never saw them again. I sincerely hope she got her newborn baby back.

That was about 5 years ago. And the exact same kind of thing is still happening today.

News broke today from a South Australian whistle-blower of the appalling treatment new mothers frequently receive, including hospital staff taking the baby away from the mother "for medical tests," only for the mother to then be told, with absolutely no prior warning, that the baby was not going to be returned to her.

Here's the article, and here are some excerpts:

but spy x family is interesting -- and to be clear, not better -- because, unlike other animes that present whiteness as unquestioned default in a japanese setting, this show is set an alternate historical europe, specifically postwar germany. so on one level, for characters to appear european makes a level of "sense" because the setting is european-inspired. however: even in a european setting, it does not make sense for every character to be white, which is effectively what has happened in spy x family. and racism rears its ugly head because when you bring up this point, you can't win! people will argue either:

a) well, it's set in postwar germany, so it "makes sense" for there not to be nonwhite characters given germany's history. (guess what! nonwhite people still lived in germany in the 50s/60s!)

b) well, it's set in an alternate universe and therefore doesn't need to be "historically accurate," so the show doesn't have to portray nonwhite characters. (guess what! if your alternate historical universe only portrays white people, that's reinforcing the white supremacist hegemony that only white people are worthy of having stories told about them!)

as such, if you want to acknowledge that it is at best questionable for spy x family to lack characters of color, people will either argue for historicism or against historicism and won't hear a word otherwise. i don't have my hopes up by any means, but i do think spy x family should make a concerted investment in incorporating and developing characters of color, both as principal characters and simply as background characters!

and then there's the case of the shopkeeper: the only noticeably brown character among spy x family's main cast. (which, looking through reddit threads, what everyone loved to claim was that he was a white person with a tan he got from working in the garden...) i don't think i have to explain why it's not the best look to have your only major nonwhite character be the leader of a secret assassin organization -- and the emphasis here goes on "only," because characters of color don't have to be saints! they can and should be morally ambiguous, antagonists, etc.! but when your only (potential) nonwhite racial representation is the head of a militaristic murder group? what that does is uniformly associate characters of color with violence and rigid hierarchy. that's not good.

my final note is more of a personal observation, i.e. something spy x family fans don't necessarily need to majorly think about re the show's overarching issue of racial uniformity, but nonetheless it's an observation i do think is worth pointing out: franky's design somewhat resembles the history of anti-black caricatures in anime. specifically, his afro-like hair -- and that he's pretty much the only curly-haired character in the show -- that's given no real rendering/detail and that his eyes are simply circles with pupils, whereas the vast majority of other principal characters are given detailed eyes with colorful irises. franky noticeably does not have the exaggerated lips which are common in anti-black anime design (not to mention his skin tone appears to be pretty firmly white -- though slightly more tan than loid, interestingly enough), but the other points of resemblance are still there. i certainly don't mean to suggest the creator was intentionally inspired by anti-black caricatures when creating franky, but the partial similarities still feel worth acknowledging, if only because it illuminates how deep unconscious anti-blackness runs.

the short of it: spy x family's conspicuous lack of characters of color is the other side to the same coin of anime's overarching racism problem, which is presenting aesthetic whiteness as default. where it differs is its historical setting -- but that setting does not and should not excuse its exclusion of nonwhite characters!

so i was debating whether or not to address these tags, because they demonstrate a clear misreading of the post, and i was unsure whether they were plainly in bad faith or a genuine misunderstanding. im deciding to myself take these tags in good faith and correct some of the misunderstandings that are happening here!

"the overall arching problem with this meta is the idea that manga will be diverse is setting yourself to fail. japan is notorious for not having good race relations and views of other ethnicities. I would not expect any of their media to reflect the reality of their country opinions as people will create in a way they see the world. and this is how Japan sees the world"

my issue with this initial section of these tags is that this perspective is deeply fatalist. what is being said here is effectively that because japan is racist and ethnocentric, we just need to accept that that's how they see the world and not criticize it.

what.

i fundamentally disagree with this perspective. we must critique content steeped in ethnocentrism and white supremacy and anti-blackness, because if we do not, we are tacitly condoning it. if we just "accept" japan's nationalism, we are tacitly condoning nationalism. if we just "accept" that japanese media isn't going to have nonwhite characters because of nationalism, racism, and ethnocentrism, we are tacitly condoning the erasure of nonwhite characters and the perpetuation of nationalism, racism, and ethnocentrism. i am utterly baffled about why we should just "accept" racism from any place and people just because that's how "they see the world"?

japanese manga/anime is often racially monolithic (and is often white, for that matter). but it doesn't have to be. and critiquing this media's reliance on white supremacy and anti-blackness is an important step to seeing more diversity in anime and manga.

"FMA is a good example of diversity in manga but that is an exception not a norm"

so fmab is my favorite manga/anime of all time, and i also think it's one of the greatest pieces of media ever created, but it still has elements of anti-black character design. and it is because i love fmab that this reality should be critiqued! fmab is indeed a diverse piece of media, but it, too, is not without flaws -- as is all media. likewise, sxf is not immune from criticism regarding its flaws, including its hegemonic whiteness!

"also this meta is going from the idea that we the western audience default read the japanese characters as white not japanese that's an internal bias that people need to understand and work with"

it is abundantly clear that this comment was made without reading the first link i shared in the post. not reading provided resources will inevitably inhibit one's comprehension of a textual argument, so let me share a few relevant quotes from the previously linked article entitled "The Racialization of Beauty and Whitewashing in Anime" by Chun Park:

"How can we find proof – direct or circumstantial – that there is indeed frequent whitewashing of Northeast Asian/Japanese characters in anime? We’ve already gone over the comparison of traditional Japanese manga from the 1100s-1800s which depicted Japanese with true or realistic Northeast Asian physical features with Japanese manga and anime from the 1950s and onwards which shows Japanese people with specific, idealized or exaggerated European traits. In the latter case, the characters are further infused or polished with a sense of cuteness ( “kawaii” in Japanese) or sexiness, depending on the genre of the anime.... A third litmus test is the comparison of superior (or main) and inferior (or side) characters in certain Japanese anime or manga series, where there is a clear hierarchy based on physical appearance, with more Asian-looking characters being relegated to the inferior or side character roles and the more Caucasian-looking characters being centered as the superior or main character types." (emphasis added)

"Japanese anime characters are stylized specifically towards having white traits. It does not help that Japanese culture traditionally admired light skin and tall noses. Comprehensively or compositely speaking, the Japanese anime characters appear white – in terms of the nose shape (which goes beyond being just tall, since Asian nose is not aquiline and does not become a narrow and pointy triangle), the size of the eyes, the frequent featuring of the double eyelid, colored eyes, and colored hair, etc. etc." (emphasis added)

"As discussed by Shirley Anne Tate in Black Beauty (2009), beauty is racialized–meaning that beauty has become about race with white beauty is the center due to the legacy of Western colonialism and domination. The concept of the racialization of beauty is an apt description of the whitewashing in anime. Anime in its modern form was invented at a time when the West was (and still is) a dominant force for hundreds of years." (emphasis added)

"The solution to whitewashing in anime is perhaps for anime to change and abandon its use of white features. Or perhaps it’s to simply acknowledge that there is this problematic trend and to consume anime with the awareness. Or perhaps the cure is for everyone inside and outside of the anime fandom to discuss this issue further and come to a mutual understanding and consensus about a solution. The cure to the problem is not going to happen if people keep on denying the problems for various reasons." (emphasis added)

in case these quotes don't clarify what's wrong with the argument the tags present: anime characters are blatantly whitewashed in a manner that reinforces white supremacy and racist beauty standards. they are (often) japanese in name and in cultural practice, but they equally often white in appearance. the hegemony of white supremacy is a global issue to which japan is not immune. this is not "an internal bias that people need to understand and work with" -- this is a result of western imperialism (and japan's imbrication within such) bolstering white supremacy through cultural products (here, visual media). plain and simple.

"also to think about why does japan love using germany as their european country of choice"

at last, something i agree with! and also... something my original post was partially about. why on earth might sxf, this japanese media, center germany (but also europe more broadly)? might it have anything to do with global white supremacy and eurocentrism? and how does the centering of a white nation impact the representation of race in sxf? might that have any relation to the utter lack of nonwhite characters in sxf and its potential reliance on anti-black character design?

huh.

i wonder.

anyways. my irateness is clearly seeping through at the end, for which i apologize. but again: the screenshotted tags represent a clear misreading of my original post, which i hope i have clarified the various issues and misinterpretations within.

also, obligatory commentary from someone who now teaches literature: while im inclined to believe these tags were written in misunderstanding, not bad faith, it is crucial to exercise close reading skills in these types of discussions to prevent such misunderstandings. it is crucial to read the provided resources in these types of discussions to prevent such misunderstandings. i don't want anyone to dogpile or mock or go after the author of these tags, but i do want to remind all of us that when in doubt about a textual argument, reread. talk to a friend. reread again. and again. however many times until you understand the argument the text is making. the ability to read a text (even something as simple as a tumblr post) and walk away with an understanding of what the text is saying, how the text is saying it, and what effect(s) the text is producing is a vital skill in our world that thrives on sensational headlines and misinformation. it's totally okay to not understand something (especially on first read). it's less okay, in my opinion, to not understand something and try to respond anyway, because there is limited productive conversation that can be had between someone making an argument about a text and someone trying to posit a counterargument who doesn't understand the original textual argument in the first place.

"if Red Dwarf was made these days, you'd have two black main characters and a transgender AI!"

i fucking love this man.

^ picture of the main cast posing with their transgender AI. Craig Charles is the guy in the bottom left with the biker jacket.

if that episode came out now, you'd get a bunch of whiney incels and divorced men complaining that it's "woke feminist straight-white-male-bashing propaganda". you'd prolly have Peers Morgan pissing his pants and crying about it too. and definitely all those people that complain about the BBC being biased (i mean it is, but not in the way they think) would come out of the wood works. since the BBC is like a wet cabbage, they'd prolly buckle and make a grovelling apology that wouldn't appease anyone on either side.

A lot of the time, trans feminists are blamed for the actions of these people. Trans women and femmes get blamed. I and my sisters have nothing to do with cis women being transmisic.

I'm not saying trans feminism is all good. There are some horrible essays and people out there. I'm saying that not every bad take should be blamed on feminists. That you're promoting the idea that trans feminism is bad as a whole.

Imagine a cis man telling you that wearing your clothing is misogynistic. That according to feminist theory, wearing long sleeves and dresses is a sign that you agree with the patriarchy. Do you think that he's a true feminist, or just a bigot twisting progressive language for his purposes?

Examples include:

They ignore the fact that Julia Serano (coiner of transmisogyny) said that she doesn't like the tma/tme labels and regrets speaking over transmasc people.

They ignore the fact that Emi Koyama (coiner of transfeminism) said a part of transfeminism has to be nonbinary people and trans men refusing to let trans women speak over them or for them.

They ignore the fact that Kate Bornstein (author of the first transfeminist workbook) supports genderqueer gender fuck trans mascs and FTM lesbians.

They just blatantly ignore what are probably the three main transfeminist scholars of our time, in favor of malgendering and misgendering trans men. While also calling every trans woman and transfem person that doesn't agree with them a 'pick me' or straight up misgendering them by claiming they aren't "really transfem" or that "no trans woman would ever say this, so it's clearly a dude lying about being a trans woman online" (hmm, where have I heard that before 🤔).

Transfem people are not and never will be our enemy. I have always been very clear on that and it needs to be ingrained in everyone's head. Transfeminism is not the enemy and never will be our enemy.

Are some transfeminists actively transandrophobic? Yes. Are some transfems actively transandrophobic? Yes. Are they the majority? No!

A sad vocal group of them are loud and mean and exist in a cult like community with each other. Which creates an environment where unlearning anti-transmasculinity and transandrophobia is difficult and comes at the cost of loosing their community. Which is one of the reasons why I disavow callout posts against them, as it will only drive then further into those insular groups and that separatist mindset.

Choosing to group all transfems and transfeminists with that vocal minority is 100% transmisogyny, there is no excuse for it and it is not a valid form of "activism".

The majority of people who are actively transandrophobic or who are pushing anti-transmasculinity are cisgender people. That has always been the case and it has not changed, becouse cis people are the ones given the structural power to do the most amount of material oppression.

If a transfem person is being transandrophobic or participating in other forms of anti-transmasculinity, try talking to them and explaining why what they're saying is harmful. If they refuse to have a conversation or they double down then accept that you won't change their mind right now and either walk away from them or if you're online block or mute them. You don't need to screenshot them and you don't need to write a callout post. There are far more effective ways of combating anti-transmasculinity then harassment or public shaming rituals.