& that post articulates something that i hadn’t previously successfully put to words which is that the world of arda is based on a bioessentialist hierarchy in a way that is inextricable from the plot & which furthermore, even if it were possible to create a bioessentialist hierarchy that wasn’t explicitly racialized, well tolkien does not do that & didn’t make any efforts to. the Nature of the dwarf vs. the elf vs. the man vs. the hobbit is Fundamentally Different & that reflects in & informs the culture of each Race of People. imo there are certain settings where the bioessentialist hierarchy emphasizes a more predominantly ableist facet of eugenics (“your lives are short & ours are long & that impacts worth in our fantasy society”) but tolkein’s world encompasses that aspect under the umbrella of the racialized differences. this is just me restating parts of prev post in a worse more stupid way btw sorry i am talking things through for myself
