Torn between this and that

As I said before, characters like Lady Shiva and Storm were written by white people for such a long time that the stench won’t go away immediately. They’re pretty much white people’s ideas of what exotic, nonwestern women are like as they’re often contrasted with Westerners. Works like Turning Red and American Born Chinese give a better idea of what it’s like to be torn between East and West, in part because they’re written by those in the Chinese diaspora so conflict with Western culture feels more organic.

In the sense of being caught between two traditions as well as common expectations of them, in American Born Chinese Jin Wang is contrasted with Chin-Kee who’s deliberately stereotypical. Now that’s something you won’t see in well most works written by white people, since it’s something they don’t wrestle with that much. To the same extent Asian Americans do, not to mention being haunted by stereotypes that it’s something American Born Chinese addresses very well.

Likewise with Turning Red, the heroine Meiling Lee wants to do what she wants even if it’s something her mother doesn’t approve of. DC Comics has attempted something similar between Cassandra Cain and her mother Lady Shiva, but it feels so manufactured compared to what Meiling Lee goes through. Again, that’s what happens if a white person tries to write a nonwhite character well in most cases to be generous.

It doesn’t have the sting of what it’s like to be truly torn between two competing cultural influences, perhaps made more ironic by that Cassandra Cain is the daughter of a white man and an Asian woman. So there really ought to be a story where she does feel torn between two worlds, which should make the most sense given her familial background. Maybe not yet, but I feel that’s something both Turning Red and American Born Chinese have accomplished.

I personally think even if you have white Americans who believe they are part of a persecuted cultural minority, it doesn’t have the sting of hypervisibility the way nonwhite people are subjected to in the West. Well as far as I know about it as I don’t live in a Western country myself, but some of my relatives do. While Cassandra Cain is a fine character in her own right, if one wants a more realistic portrayal of what’s like to be torn between two cultures we have Turning Red and American Born Chinese for now.

Written by a white person

(This was originally posted on and edited from Medium.com)

When it comes to what it means to be written a white person, it is to adhere to white people’s ideas of what nonwhite people are like. It becomes really off to some people of colour, especially if the character acts and behaves in ways they can’t relate to or find rather stereotypical and hollow. My go-for DC example is Lady Shiva, an expert martial artist. In the 1970s comics, she proclaims that she named herself after Shiva, the goddess of destruction despite being male in actual Hinduism.

The actual Hindu goddess of destruction would be Kali, which shows you how little they know about actual Asian cultures and belief systems. Okay, I’m a Christian and I won’t have full knowledge of Hinduism either but even then it reeks of somebody who isn’t so familiar with the various Asian cultures. One wonders why she never called herself Lady Mólìzhītiān, an actual warrior deity in Buddhism (the one South Asian religion that’s more commonly practised in East Asia).

Perhaps made even more relevant now that she’s outed as coming from China, this should be important when it comes to creating more believable Asian characters as well as portrayals of their cultures. From what I read (based on excerpts), she rarely if ever indulges in actual Chinese customs and practices. She may drink tea, but we don’t see her write using Chinese characters (simplified for contemporary mainland China, traditional elsewhere) and eat baozi.

What makes her Asian is that she practises martial arts, as if it were the sum and whole of her culture. This is also what plagued her own daughter, Cassandra Cain, since we rarely if ever seen her engaging in the deeper aspects of Chinese culture. Well any Asian culture. But they’re not the only ones who reek of being written by a white person.

Storm might be a good Marvel example, as what Cheryl Lynn Eaton pointed out, she was written by white people for a long time that she’s bound to be a white person’s idea of an ‘exotic’ black woman. To go further with her perspective, she’s a white man’s idea of an African woman but has no deeper connection to Kenya.

She doesn’t use Kenyan colloquialisms, she doesn’t speak Swahili to any degree, she doesn’t even listen to country music (which’s really popular in Africa and I have the pleasure of listening to it on a Kenyan radio station online every Monday) and she doesn’t celebrate Boxing Day. It’s the day after Christmas Day and it’s celebrated in places like Kenya due to British colonisation.

Her first appearance in Giant Sized X-Men reeked of Western colonialism, in the sense of portraying Africa as steeped in paganism even though ironically due to colonisation Africa is no longer like this. Considering how big the fear of witchcraft is there as well as the importance and popularisation of Christianity there, she’d be more feared and hated there too.

Again, this goes to show you how ignorant they are of African cultures. Let alone a real African country like Kenya, which makes me wonder why hasn’t a Kenyan ever written her? Or to put it generously, whether if they’re really intimated with Kenyan culture in any way. Wakanda is one thing, Kenya is another. There could be more examples of this.

Dick Grayson has been outed as Romani by Devin Grayson, but so far writers have yet to explore the deeper aspects of his ethnicity. Perhaps never, since we never see him running away from frogs in fear, find cats dirty, eat hedgehogs and the like. I’m basing this after a study called ‘The Traveller G****”, the word used for Romani would be considered offensive and outdated these days.

Even if not all Romani do this, I feel Dick Grayson’s tie to Romani culture is so superficial it could easily be written out. He’s functionally white because of this, he’s Schrodinger’s Romani. His ethnicity’s very much an afterthought and remains so, since writers barely indulge in the deeper aspects of his culture. If Storm and Lady Shiva are white people’s ideas of African and Asian women, Dick is only exotic when it’s convenient.

It gets worse when they’re not written by people of their ethnicities, to the point where you don’t just question their writers’ intimacies with nonwhite and non-Western cultures but also what would happen if they were written by people of their ethnicities. They barely ever indulge in the deeper aspects of their cultures, to the point where one could make them white and it wouldn’t change them much.

That is what it means to be written by a white person.

Written by a white person

There are some black people who feel certain black characters give off a strong air of suspicion in the sense of being written by white people, Cheryl Lynn Eaton felt that way around X-Men’s Storm and another felt the same way around Lucas Sinclair of Stranger Things. To take it further, Storm is what happens if white Americans wrote about an African woman. Not that it can’t be entirely not-racist but there’s the risk of not only cultural inauthenticity but also falling into stereotypes and expectations about what African women (ought to) be.

I think the problem with the way Storm is written is that she’s both othered in relation to other X-Men and also in some regards detached from actual Kenyan culture, since she’s from Kenya herself. We don’t get to see her celebrate Boxing Day (26 December, courtesy of the British as Kenya was a British colony) nor hear her speak Kikuyu and Swahili from time to time. She may not always be that bilingual, but even then she’s detached from her ties to Kenya.

Since she doesn’t use colloquialisms unique to Kenyan English, she could easily be a white American woman. I pretty much brought that up about DC’s Lady Shiva where she may have Asian ties but they’re so tenuous that one could make her Swedish and it wouldn’t change her that much, since we don’t see her write Chinese characters and eat baozi. Assuming she’s Chinese but even then she’s further apart from the country or culture she’s supposed to be a part of.

As for X-Men, when it comes to exploring Japanese culture it’s usually through a white character be it Wolverine, Kate Pryde or Betsy Braddock (until recently) as far as I recall. I don’t think there’s ever a story that explores Japanese culture through a Japanese character like Sunfire or Surge, even though they were born and raised in Japan and lived there far longer than Wolverine has. So it’s a form of narrative cultural appropriation where such a country is only explored in depth in relation to a white character.

Never or at best, hardly about a character who was born and raised in that place. I detailed a sort of racism where on one hand, the character is one’s impression of what a POC is but never that closely tied to the culture/country they’re supposed to belong to and on the other hand you have a foreign culture explored through a white character’s lens and life. It still has vibes of being written by a white person either way, to put it generously it’s all that they know and identify with.

But one with damning ramifications when it comes to who the readers are made to identify with and follow, as well as (unconsciously or accidentally) playing into their expectations of certain ethnicities. In the case with Lady Shiva, what makes her Asian is her ability to do martial arts but we never see her eat spring rolls, celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival and as I said before write Chinese characters.

What makes Storm African is her vague connection to a goddess, but we never see her celebrate Boxing Day the way Anglophone Africans do. One wonders why nobody bothered making her listen to country music, since it’s popular with Africans and there are African radio stations that play country music from my online experience. These characters really don’t have a deep connection to the cultures they’re supposed to hail from.

This strongly reeks of white writers creating characters of colour that unless if they actively unlearn it and go against racism, they will always reek of being culturally inauthentic. Then you have the Wolverines, Kates and Betsies of the world where a nonwhite culture is explored through them, while we don’t get that from Jubilee, Sunfire and Surge well not to the same extent the former three get. While some characters of colour receive only a superficial tie, it’s the white characters who are used as conduits to explore a foreign culture.

As if a foreign culture’s palatable if it were tied to a white character in some way or another, especially if that white character’s the protagonist of the storyline that it’s troubling why a similar treatment was barely if ever given to Sunfire. I don’t think these writers were careful with the kinds of tales they conjure, the characters they come up with and why there’s always the risk of falling into stereotypes and cultural appropriation when they do this.

They may be getting better at this point, though a Kikuyu-speaking Storm or a Cantonese-speaking Lady Shiva has yet to see the light of the day.

Harley Quinn, why did it have to be you?

There was somebody who said that she can’t name any iconic superhero comic book female, the only ones she could name are Catwoman, Mary Jane, Lois Lane and Wonder Woman. Okay, she’s not that familiar with comics but when it comes to Harley Quinn, she’s one of those DC characters that successfully made it to other media perhaps far more extensively than Felicity Smoak has and by her logic, would be the more iconic of the two.

She hasn’t just appeared in two Batman animations (The Batman and Batman: The Animated Series), but also three Suicide Squad films (two live action and the other an animation), regularly appears in the official DC universe in addition to other story universes (something Felicity Smoak barely got to) and even has her own telly programme. What’s more, she’s even one of DC’s better known queer characters alongside her friend and lover Poison Ivy.

Now that’s a status Felicity Smoak doesn’t have, well not to the same extent Harley Quinn enjoys. I even suspect there must be something about Felicity Smoak that keeps her from being as iconic and popular as Harley Quinn is and it’s not always what you think it is. Let me count the ways, whether if some are aware of it or not I get a nagging feeling that part of Felicity Smoak’s appeal is that she’s a romance novel heroine. Now this may not be true for all but consider this.

The elephant in the room is that she marries and dates Oliver Queen, who follows a good number of romance novel hero cliches (damaged hero, bad boy, billionaire). There’s even one person at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books who said that she can’t stand the more action-forward heroines but didn’t mind hot ones so it seems that’s the same reasoning with Felicity’s popularity relative to Black Canary. Well for some people that is.

If Felicity Smoak is a romance novel heroine, Harley Quinn is somebody in real life. Harley Quinn could be that bullied or hazed kid who turns to a friend for comfort, she could also be anybody who’s in a bad marital or romantic relationship then divorcing them in favour of somebody who’d treat her better or is more compatible with her. That’s pretty much one of the reasons why her relationship with Poison Ivy took off in a big way.

Perhaps another reason, which might be Felicity Smoak’s downfall, is that a good number of female characters in fiction tend to be too strongly tied to male characters to successfully stand out on their own. They could be lovers, wives and girlfriends (Black Canary to Oliver Queen in the comics, Lois Lane, Mary Jane, Catwoman to Batman, Stephanie Brown to Tim Drake, Daisy and Minnie to Donald and Mickey).

They could also be relatives (Supergirl, Aunt May, Batgirl to James Gordon, She-Hulk, Light Lass to Lightning Lad). While Harley Quinn’s not unique when it comes to being tied to another female character, it seems some female characters still fail in some way. Illyana and Rachel are Kitty Pryde’s friends but they’re also relatives of existing male characters (Colossus and Cyclops), Kitty herself has been romantically linked to men before.

This leaves Poison Ivy as one of the best known female characters who’s not strongly tied to a male character, which makes her relationship with Harley Quinn all the more noticeable as we don’t see a lot of female friendships and respectful lesbian romances, let alone as well known as Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are. Shrinking Violet’s relationship with Light Lass predates these two, but as I said before Light Lass’s fault is that she’s both Lightning Lad’s sister and derivative of him as well.

You could argue that Harley Quinn herself’s tied to the Joker but her relationship with him has lessened over time, especially if she had broken up with him at any point then her relationship with Poison Ivy would be inevitable. Felicity Smoak’s fault is that she’s very strongly tied to male characters, perhaps since her inception as Ronnie Raymond’s mum. The fact that she became Oliver Queen’s lover’s why Harley Quinn may not go back to being Joker’s mole again.

Harley Quinn may not always be loved by everybody, but the fact that she headlined her own movie and programme in addition to starring in at least three films to my knowledge and having recurring comics appearances says a lot about her tremendous popularity and staying power. Add to that she formed a strong bond with Poison Ivy makes you wonder why there aren’t more of those in superhero stories, let alone be as well known.

Felicity Smoak might have a female friend, but when Arrow’s best known for its relationship between Oliver and Felicity it makes the relationship between Harley and Pamela (Poison Ivy’s real name) all the more noticeable.

Aquaman and conservation

Somebody said that Aquaman, if he ever existed in the real world, would actually be an aspirational figure in that he can not only rescue people whenever they drown but also undo environmental damages such as oil spills in the sea. Here’s what he has to say about him:

DC needs to own Aquaman. He is a tough bastard. He rules 80% of the freaking planet. If there’s an oil spill somewhere or trouble on an oil rig, who are you calling? When that oil drill burst off the coast of Louisiana, leaking millions of barrels of oil, wouldn’t you have liked to see a goddam Aquaman swim down there and plug it up in about five minutes?

Submarine disasters. Sinking ships. Sea embargoes. For crying out loud, Aquaman has the trademark on sea rescue. It’s not his fault if he’s been saddled with creators who can’t think of anything to do with him (he actually has had, on occasion, some decent writers working on him)

If Aquaman were a real, actual, living being, he would be regarded as one of the most amazing people on the planet. I bet you that he would be one of the most — if not the most — popular superheroes, if for no other reason than our ever-present worries about climate change. Aquaman would be a fetish figure all over the world.

In light of dogs preying on sea turtles and dogs being something of an invasive species themselves, how much more important it is to have a superhero actually stand up for endangered species and animals like them for instance. That’s not to say dogs are entirely bad for conservation, but like fire dogs are capable of both good and bad. With fire is when everything’s left unattended and unless if other factors like rain were taken into consideration, it will be very destructive.

To put it this way, fire has beneficial uses like keeping buildings warm, cook food and light one’s way in the dark. But it’s also bad if left to its own devices like burning somebody real badly, even killing them if given the chance and opportunity. The same can be said with dogs and their interactions with other animals, they can help conserve endangered species but only with human intervention, technology and training.

If left on their own, they’ll surely kill them through predation and pathogenesis. Fire has been humanity’s oldest and earliest source of light and heat, but it’s also very destructive and unlike water where some wet things can be salvaged and dried fire can and will destroy what’s left of it. Especially if it’s not caught in time or beforehand. Since Aquaman lives underwater and water puts out fire, it’s a befitting analogy.

It doesn’t help that from my experience, whenever somebody thinks of an invasive mammalian predator attacking animals it’s going to be a cat (at least in the WEIRD* world) so stories about Aquaman saving sea animals from being eaten by dogs, though it does have a basis in reality when it comes to news reports and studies like these, is a path never taken.

Even if it’s taken seriously or considered in other places, it seems whatever damages dogs do to the environment through predation is hardly ever thought of much by other people. Even when there’s growing evidence that they do, it’s not taken into consideration. Let alone publicised and dramatised in a way that’s accessible to outsiders, which could’ve been done with Aquaman when one thinks about it.

Aquaman could easily be DC’s biggest environmentalist champion, after Poison Ivy, but one who would hit where it hurts especially if you’re a dog owner when it comes to dog predation and that might be partly why we won’t be seeing stories about Aquaman rescuing seals from dogs anytime soon.

Even if Aquaman might be a better fit, because unlike Poison Ivy, he’s a hero longer stories about him saving endangered wildlife from dogs is something that may never come to fruition because most people either don’t take dog predation on wildlife seriously or sadly ignore it. That’s why it’s a path never taken by Aquaman writers.

*Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic; it’s a case where a disproportionate amount of studies in some cases come from the Western world. Not that academic studies are nonexistent in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries and anywhere outside of the West, but it can be problematic if anything taking place in the Western world is more easily found than its African counterpart for instance.

A Kink of One’s Own?

When it comes to things like guro yaoi, violent macabre erotica and the like in light of that some women do have a fetish for sexual sadism if such stories are used to explore their sexuality one might wonder if they may use it to understand what really turns them on? There are cases where women do get arrested for sexually abusing somebody when they are sexually sadistic, though it may not be that as rare as others make it out to be.

It could be complicated by socialisation in which some men may act out their sexual desires, though I think the case for something like guro yaoi may make one wonder if there are more female sexual sadists than one realises. Even if not every person who reads gory or violent erotica are necessarily sexually sadistic, there’s a good possibility that some of them are. But this is a tricky can of worms where if it were applied to women writing erotic fanfiction involving younger characters, could there be more women sexualising minors than one realises?

Okay, not all of them writing those stories are legal age themselves and there are kids who actually watch South Park. But when it comes to older people sexualising such characters, whether by ageing them up or keeping them as they are it can be a slippery slope. According to writer Stitch, there were older people in the Voltron fandom who did this and the teenaged fans who identified with the characters were disgusted with this.

Honestly, I don’t know much about Voltron but the possibility of women sexualising minors should not be underestimated and overlooked. While not all South Park characters are this young, many of the better-known and more popular ones are. Supposing if Tim Drake’s aged 17, he might be legal age in other countries like Ireland and past legal age in Britain and Canada. But Kyle and gang are only preteens, which makes it worse.

While not all fans who age these characters up in their works necessarily sexualise them, it can be a slippery slope especially to those who may even identify with them at all. Then we get to other kinds of paraphilia, where it doesn’t just end with sexual sadism but also something like diaper fetishes (there’s a case study of a woman who has a thing for men in diapers) and I’ve read one essay by a woman with a self-proclaimed fat man fetish.

If I were to peruse something like Archive of Our Own, you have tags for things like anal sex and fingering. If fanfiction, erotica and the like are used to explore one’s sexuality, one would wonder if they may use it to explore their real sexual desires in a way they wouldn’t in real life. But this is a can of worms when it comes to the possibility of things like sexual sadism among women.

One big advantage

I’ve just read The Oracle Code by Marieke Nijkamp and they got hired by DC Comics to provide authentic disability representation (they’re disabled themselves) in addition to being a talented writer, on one hand they don’t seem to be a big DC fan and admitted that writing for comics is a struggle at first. On the other hand, as she doesn’t seem to be big into DC Comics they’re not too beholden to decades of prior lore and knowledge which makes it easier to tell a simple Barbara Gordon story.

By simple, they got the basics and essentials of the character right. That’s missing from what’s generally regarded as DC canon, which involves a lot of recalling prior lore but amidst a new continuity which makes it really convoluted. It seems like with what became of DC and Marvel, until recently, is that there’s a big obsession with continuity and lore among writers (especially if they were DC/Marvel fans beforehand). You get multiple in-jokes about Dick Grayson being a sex symbol due to his butt.

Stuff that only makes sense if you’re romantically attracted to him in any way, which’s why this kind of fan pandering is off-putting to anybody else who aren’t into that even if it’s not always the case. If you pander real hard to a certain audience, you could risk losing everybody else which’s what happened to Arrow when the showrunners began pandering a lot to a certain community. There goes the problem with these in-jokes.

They’re things only fans will get, only certain people will care about. Anybody who’s not beholden to these kinds of things will not get it, though it could be a matter of personal preference but still. Anybody who’s not into this kind of lore or pandering will get left out, which’s how I feel about Arrow or Dick Grayson. But that’s also because I actually don’t read comics that often, the most I’ve read were in 2011-2012 and 2020. So it’s something that’s appealing to frequent, diehard audiences.

For instance, what Marvel has been doing is to tease the Stucky relationship (that’s Captain America and Bucky). While it’s not committing to making such a relationship official, it does reek of fan in-joke pandering if you’re into pairing Captain America with Bucky. Some even make it into a statement about LGBT rights, but I can’t tell whether if they want to stand up for LGBT rights or want their pairing validated to be honest and blunt. Sorry, if I came off this way.

(To be fair, there are some who write M/M romances saying that they want pure female pleasure plain and simple.)

I still think somebody like Marieke Nijkamp, they have the combination of being an outsider to DC lore (though I’m wrong about this) and an insider’s look at being physically disabled that makes their take on Barbara Gordon all the more believable. All the better for DC for choosing them to write such a story at all, though I still think hiring people who aren’t big comics fans but are good at other things (or are other people themselves) has a bigger advantage.

Not just in providing an outsider’s take on things, but also how and what a certain person’s life’s actually like. Not that intersectionality doesn’t exist in fandom, but I think being an outsider with interesting and desirable traits can colour the story in a way an insider wouldn’t. That’s just my two cents.

Why people racebend

When it comes to seeking representation, the fact that for most of the time POC representation is either minimal or stereotypical or both says a lot about why some people racebend existing white characters. Personally I see Valentina Vostok as Yakut, if because it’s the Yakut themselves are interesting as they’re an ethnic minority in Russia. Similar to her usual presentation, she works as a pilot but is now a member of a longstanding ethnic minority.

Likewise I see Felicity Smoak as an Anglo-Indian seamstress, admittedly that’s because I listen to Indian music myself and I sew. This would anger some of her fans, especially if they’re into the Arrow version of her, where I could imagine them saying that Jews in the garment industry also exist and that Judaism is essential to her nature. But then again I think an Indian who works in the fashion industry might be less stereotypical than a Jew working in STEM.

Perhaps other than Bollywood and the general Indian media industries, we don’t see these kinds of characters that often. It could be argued that Jews who don’t fit stereotypes are also underrepresented, but I feel an Anglo-Indian seamstress Felicity Smoak would break stereotypes better than a Jewish hacker Felicity Smoak has ever done. Not to mention, it’s even said that the Felicity Smoak who appears in Arrow is a retread of Smallville’s Chloe Sullivan.

An Anglo-Indian Felicity Smoak would be less derivative of that, especially when you realise how unprecedented this portrayal is within the wider DC media. There’s no shortage of blonde white hackers, scientists and martial artists but honestly I can’t name any prominent Indian DC character other than Solstice, Jinx and Celsius. Even then, these two haven’t appeared outside of comics well to my knowledge and that’s still pretty telling when it comes to representation.

Jinx might be the most prominent Indian DC character, but due to her appearance in the Teen Titans animation she’s been whitewashed. Making Felicity Smoak Anglo-Indian might actually make her DC’s most prominent Indian character to date, since she was already well-known in Arrow and yes this would be controversial as she’s portrayed as Jewish in the Arrow programme. But even then, there are people who do see her as anything other than white.

Hence some even racebend her as black, so making her Anglo-Indian wouldn’t be much of a stretch in this regard. I even know one Native American woman who racebends Poison Ivy to be indigenous, especially when it comes to some indigenous communities having a strong closeness to nature that Poison Ivy weaponising this association wouldn’t be much of a stretch either.

Since Poison Ivy herself is a scientist, there are indigenous scientists and especially indigenous conservationists who feel similarly about the environment despite not indulging in the same ruthless tactics as she does. I also think indigenous people involved in STEM as well as geeky indigenous people are pretty underrepresented in the media, in fact they’re more underrepresented in the media than blacks are.

We have Urkel, Baxter Stockman from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Shuri, Riri Willliams and Lunella LaFayette and most of them are involved in STEM in one way or another. There’s only one indigenous character involved in STEM and that’s Marvel’s Forge, so making Poison Ivy indigenous might alleviate this problem. Likewise, I could say similar things about South Asian representation in the media.

When they do show up at all, they often fall into stereotypes. This may not always be the case for all portrayals, but it does get telling when there’s a repetitive portrayal of them that change must occur to minimise this. I also think some people racebend isn’t just that the idea of making a white character nonwhite interesting but also because they can’t see themselves at times.

Actually they’re unable to find anything that can break the stereotype so they racebend existing characters instead, perhaps outside of Russian media there’s really not a single portrayal of Evenki and Yakut people in fiction. They get a mention in Farley Mowat’s book and some nonfiction, but your best chance of finding more of that’s in Russian language media and I know this from experience. I still think making Valentina Vostok Yakut would inject actual diversity in non-Russian portrayals of Russia.

Okay Russian media might not be any better, whether if it’s the underrepresentation of Yakut and Evenki people or stereotypes of them. But Valentina Vostok being Yakut would actually be the best thing to ever happen to her, in that we get to see more nonwhite Russians. Bonus points if she’s also not a stereotype. When it comes to making Felicity Smoak either Indian or black, it serves a similar purpose in that it creates representation when there’s none.

It’s also no different from making Poison Ivy indigenous because it also addresses the historic lack of representation by racebending or reimagining an existing character, maybe DC and Marvel are already doing this to some characters. I still think a Yakut Negative Woman or a Desi Felicity Smoak would open doors for something, especially if these are characters you often don’t see in the media. Let alone outside of Russian and Indian media, where in Felicity’s case she’s a seamstress or in Valentina’s case she’s a pilot.

I think racebending existing white characters has an advantage here in the sense that while this isn’t always the case, it can help break stereotypes about ethnic minorities. In Felicity’s and Valentina’s cases, this can open up to unheard of communities, well unheard of outside of Russia and India. (Actually even then, they might be either underrepresented or stereotyped in those countries.)

If some people racebend Poison Ivy as Native American (well one does), I am justified in racebending Valentina Vostok as Yakut and Felicity Smoak as Indian. Racebending can help undo racist stereotypes, especially if used properly and to the fullest. Surely, people will get mad if Felicity’s portrayed as Anglo-Indian or Valentina Vostok as Yakut. But I also think it creates representation for certain demographics, in fact some will defend these.

As for a Native American Poison Ivy, they are very underrepresented in television. As I said before, Native Americans in STEM (in the media) are even more underrepresented so while an indigenous Poison Ivy would be controversial it would also provide representation in a way a white Poison Ivy wouldn’t. According to the same study, white characters get 88% screen time even though white people currently appear at 60% of the American population.

A cursory glance at the Arrow cast shows that perhaps other than cameos, there’s not a single Asian character and Asian actor among them. A Desi seamstress Felicity Smoak would be rather interesting to portray and explore, even if it’s going to be a controversial decision. A Yakut Valentina Vostok would be just as controversial, though her existence is proof that nonwhite people exist in Russia.

There’s a reason why people racebend, I racebend Valentina Vostok because I find Yakut people interesting and that Yakut people are practically unheard of in non-Western, fictional portrayals. They racebend to create the representation they don’t get while consuming such media, so it’s only fair that they get the representation they needed and wanted.

You may not like it, but people will racebend characters to create the representation they wanted.

Which character is relatable again?

When it comes to what constitutes a relatable character, as people’s experiences vary, so should the characters. But when it comes to common interests and experiences, this is where it gets tricky. Batman’s commonly held as a relatable hero, but when there are comics readers who relate more to either Superman (one did because he was brought up in a farming family) or Batman’s villains (like this person), this throws the character into sharp relief. It also brings up a possibility that a character like Kitty Pryde might not be relatable to other people.

Consider this: many people own dogs, there aren’t a lot of people who own reptiles (if dragons count as reptiles). Even in comic books, this gets played out. Obelix, Superman, Charlie Brown, Dilbert and Batman all have dogs, Kitty Pryde has a dragon. Though you might say that Kitty is Jewish, but real life Jews like Michelle Hanson and Jon Bernthal also own dogs themselves so the argument is moot. Not to mention somebody brought up that as time went, Kitty went from being a merely intelligent lass to somebody who’s a ninja and a hacker that’s when she stopped being relatable for them.

Kalinara pointed out that Kitty panders a lot to a specific readership, which’s why she’s only relatable to them and not to anybody else. If it’s true, then one would have to wonder if Wolverine (considering that he even got a comic book series and movie of his own) might actually be the more relatable of the two, especially when it comes to movies having a wider audience than comics ever would. Not that Kitty hasn’t starred in a movie, but when Wolverine stars in a movie of his own that’s when red flags appear.

While it’s possible to indulge in your own interests, the key here is balance this with things many people can relate to. Not to mention, there are always certain characters certain people relate to more, as well as characters people can commonly relate to. These two people I mentioned before related to characters other than Batman, in the case of the latter she related more to his villains. I could go on adding and arguing there are people who can’t relate to Kitty Pryde as well.

Statistically speaking, this should be obvious and while pet ownership rates do vary between ethnicities, nationalities and communities generally speaking more people own dogs than they do with reptiles. More people own mammals than they do with reptiles, to speak more generally and this should be obvious to anybody. If Batman’s not relatable to other people, this proves my point right. I could say the same thing about Kitty Pryde, which would be just as correct.

Not every character is going to be relatable to other people, especially if they have different interests and experiences. If this is true, then there’s a chance not everybody can relate to either Batman or Kitty Pryde. Characters like Wolverine, Superman and Poison Ivy might be and are more relatable to other people in this regard, if it were taken more seriously here. If people might not have the same experiences, then there’s bound to be those they’d relate to more. This extends to fictional characters in this regard.

As I said, if not everybody can relate to Batman and Kitty Pryde then their experiences aren’t what others experience. Not everybody are rich nor good at computers and hacking. Or anything else. Though many people do have common and shared interests and experiences, they also have interests and experiences with their own (though that’s something they can share with some people). This extends to the characters they like and identify with.

Attraction

When it comes to whoever becomes a sex symbol, especially among geeky cishet women, there are the more obvious choices then comes the more unexpected ones. There are some women who’re (sexually) attracted to the actor Christian Bale, but it’s Adam Driver who’s become an unexpected geek sex symbol mostly because he’s so unlike most actors we’ve come and known. I could say many of the same things about Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston, two men whose roles have made them into Tumblr sex symbols.

When it comes to fictional characters, there are also unexpected cases where in the case with the video game Undertale while many of the characters also got sexualised by fans it’s Sans who’s become a major male fandom sex symbol in a way that Mettaton hasn’t. When it comes to what some women are into, they’re not always beholden to what’s expected of them to be into. Some women aren’t into muscular or fat men, some women aren’t into tall men either.

Then there are men het women aren’t supposed to be attracted to in any way, which probably accounts for why Tumblr sexymen become the way they do. Some of these characters aren’t buff, some of them tend to be thirsted after whenever they tend to be skinny and appear in a suit. Dick Grayson is sexy, but he’s not a sexyman the same way Riddler and Venom have become. That doesn’t stop Grayson and his ilk from being the subject of many slash fanfics, but when it comes to sexymen they’re a class of their own.

They’re pretty much major geek sex symbols in a way the more conventionally attractive men aren’t, not that they aren’t unattractive but they don’t garner a big, defensive fanbase the way these characters do.