How do paintings of legendary figures from the past in distant lands prove anything about Bohemia's demographics? That's like saying Jesus was in Milan in the 15th century (or in any other place anywhere) because everybody was painting pictures of him.
Riddle me this, Batman.
How can I âproveâ ANYTHING when you chose not to even read the words of the original post I made, much less the about 50 pagesâ worth of material I RECOMMENDED for further reading IN the post I made about 15th Century Bohemia??
And, riddle me that: I use pictures, textbooks, and write my own original words with links and recommendations to demonstrate my points here, but you can just say ânoâ and somehow itâs ME who still owes proof of something?
Thatâs without even getting into the fact that Medieval artists made images that were anachronisticâŚdo you think the paintings I post that claim to be of biblical figures are wearing apparel from 10th Century B.C. E. Ethiopia???? No, the Queen of Sheba I posted is wearing a late 14th-early 15th century Bohemian gown. And the Saint Maurice I posted is wearing a pure white 15th-Century Bohemian belted surcoat with a lace overlay and white hose.
Not to mention:
[image reads:
flatluigi asked medievalpoc:
for what itâs worth, I asked them why they couldnât just allow the option to play the main character as female without changing anything else about them, and got this response: âIn Kingdom Come: Deliverance you can play only as the male lead character. His name, background, story and setting is tailored around this character. We canât just change. It is the same as asking the author of a book to change the main protagonist completely.â That seems to be what theyâre telling everyone who asks that.]
Why donât they prove to me how saying âwe canât change itâ justifies having already written yet another story about a Medieval White Guy in which you canât even provide a female player character unless you hit 600,000 GBP, much less even having a single NPC be a person of color?
Why donât the writers of this game prove to the audience theyâre ostensibly writing to and for how saying âwell, we canât just change itâ absolves them of having created the game the way they did in the first place, with the only playable option being a heterosexual white man who âseduces local womenâ, and people of color being completely absent, at the same time touting how âextremely historically accurateâ their game is as a promotional device?
I guess the answer to the âriddlesâ I just posed is just the fact that we live in a world where people will complain about casting a mixed-race actor in a fictional role because whiteness is assumed to be âhistorically accurateâ without any proof needed, despite the fact that the book the production is based on was written by the mixed-race descendent of a person of color from the time period being written about.
The bottom line is, no one will ever ask âWHYâ they just keep churning out the same stories in modern media with only white men in major roles, despite the fact that people who are NOT white men spend money on their products, play the games, watch the movies, and read the books.
After all, thereâs nothing stopping game developers from writing about 7th century China, Mughal India, Medieval Mali, 4th century North America, 13th Century Nunavut, or just making something up, but instead they choose to fund, produce, and greenlight media that takes place in times and areas that are assumed to be entirely populated with white people, and âonlyâ men had rights or accomplishments, so you donât have to write about even white womenâs stories, either.
Both of those assumptions are false, but hey, itâs a lie thatâs been passed off as âjust how it was back thenâ for so long in our popular consciousness, mythmaking and media that we just accept it. To the point where any variation from that formula is seen as needing to be âprovenâ. Needing justification of some kind.
And this belief is so strong, the sense of entitlement towards white men so thick and pervasive, that no matter how massive the bibliography of Medievalpoc becomes, it still canât even light a candle to the sun. The buck just keeps getting passed, itâs never anyoneâs fault for making conscious choices on who is included and who is excluded, and the constant refrain of âwe canât just CHANGE it!â becomes the only âproofâ necessary to keep the flooding the market with white guys with swords.
Makes about as much sense as âyou canât ask for an inclusive game because Saint Maurice never had any childrenâ.
