hi i just had comments about your most recent post.
i completely agree. it's absolutely bizarre to be that so many people in the jjk fandom headcanon asian characters, specifically toji, to speak in african american vernacular english--like its a fetish or something. he has never spoken like that in the anime/manga, since when was it a thing to just headcanon culture and language etc? i see it in emoji's too (especially in smau's lol) where they just all of a sudden have megumi or gojo using like a dark skinned thumbs up. odd.
i also am so glad to see someone talking about the whole playing an x oc off as an x reader thing. its SO annoying. yes, i understand that to some extent it is impossible to avoid passing some characteristics off on your characters, as they cannot feasibly do NOTHING, and their actions speak to their personality. but because of that i am much more tolerant with personality traits written into stories than physical traits. no, i don't believe that the mc having straight or curly hair, thin or thick lips, pale or dark skin, influences your 500 word fic about them going to an arcade. i mean they aren't exactly racial commentary-esque, allegorical, deep, thought provoking explorations of racism--in which case, i understand how race and associated traits would be relevant; they're super short feel good pieces of writing targeted largely to teenagers/people in their twenties. it's ridiculous to include arbitrary race indicating traits when they pose no relevance and you're choosing to mention them only to make them more similar to yourself. MAKE. AN. X. O. C. and then base it off yourself. who cares? but the entire point, challenge and beauty of an x reader is to write a work of fiction that is as least exclusionary as possible to include the widest breadth of people.
again, my biggest caveat to that is when an exclusive trait impacts the plot of the fic in a non trivial way. i know this is debatable, but to me, if the only impact something has on your x reader is to a.) shape one insignificant line mentioned by a character in your work, and b.) exclude like half your audience, then just take it out??? like i understand the appeal of having a fic that feels so applicable and specific to you, but i mean is one "he's sooo much taller than me as he reaches to grab a mug that will play no future significance off the top shelf" really that big a deal? but thats all just my opinion. past that, i think what we should all agree on is that if you want to write an x chubby reader, x poc reader, x black reader, x european reader, such that it IMPACTS THE PLOT, then go ahead--but then market it as such. that way people who don't want to read it, who don't fit the target demographic, don't read it.
and back on that smau emoji thing again, i hate seeing like a pale or dark or any non-yellow emoji used by the reader. i understand the yellow emoji has its flaws (i.e. it's ugly, can suggest the sender to be asian, based upon racist stereotypes, etc) but the fact is that the entire intent behind it's design was that it was a neutral (as in non-exclusionary) skin tone, and it's the closest emoji we have to that. it least suggests one race, complexion, over another.
why send the palest, darkest emoji for no reason? that doesn't impact your story, it serves only to exclude. you're writing an x reader--exclusion is exactly what you're trying to avoid.
anyway. sorry to be spamming your inbox, it's just been driving me INSANE for so long now and i saw your post and just couldn't help myself.
I love this, like you broke it down to a T. I've always wondered to myself why describing the readers features helps the story move along? It makes no sense to me unless it's absolutely detrimental. Like his height difference over a smaller frame, like do tall girlies not exist? The point of an x reader fic is to make the reader feel like they're part of the scenario, it allows us to put our imagination to use and describing the reader defeats that purpose. And the emoji thing pisses me off clean, it doesn't make sense. I have to emphasize the fact that an Asian girl or white girl in an au is using ebonics in text messages, and they don't even speak like that. They write off tik tok trending sounds that are heavily backed up by the black community on tik tok and then classify it as "using a meme". I just never feel represented here and when I feel like I am, it's a typical bratty, sassy, ghetto black girl and it's honestly disheartening. Writers need to be okay with writing for themselves instead of leading an audience on. Thanks for your ask, I'm glad you feel it as deeply as I do. <3