If it’s not discrimination, what is it then?

When it comes to ethnic stereotyping, it may not always lead to outright discrimination but there is an element of dehumanisation to it. In the sense that those who are stereotyped as seen as not quite one of us, not normal in some regards. So it really is dehumanising, whenever it gets applied to somebody who isn’t part of the majority ethnicity. In the case with Italian men, they’re often stereotyped as sexually promiscuous and seductive. They aren’t discriminated outrightly, but they certainly do get dehumanised when they’re portrayed as such. It becomes evident in some romance novels, as noted in this study, that they’re often portrayed as something other. Not quite like us, but in a way that sexualises them.

But it still dehumanises them because they’re seen as something else, they’re not people to relate to in any way. They’re more like playthings and toys in this regard, that’s what dehumanisation does. It doesn’t always involve outright disdain, but there’s an air of disposability and interchangeability to it. Especially if they’re characterised in one particular way, to the point where they could easily all be the same character. I was guilty of something similar before and I’ve outgrown this, so when it comes to such portrayals as these even if these are well-intentioned these are rooted in othering. As if these people aren’t quite one of us in whatever way, even if that sets up problems should anybody pursue a relationship with someone you desire.

When it comes to what constitutes as racism, it’s one thing to not say any slurs and be always advocating for their rights. But it’s another to actually feel for them as actual people and be truly aware of the problems they face, as in things you don’t understand immediately such as the tendency towards colourism and misogynoir in the black community. Some black men from my experience have a habit of bashing black women, so much so they even date interracially out of spite. Interracial dating isn’t always as idealistic as some people make it out to be, since sometimes it’s used to reinforce racism.

As it is with the black community, such a relationship can be used to shame and spite black women. So racism isn’t always what we make it out to be.

Whites writing nonwhites and the like

There are websites and media dedicated to men writing female characters and these run into stereotypes and cliches like a never-ending focus on their breasts (I even read a story where a woman’s breasts bounce like jelly when hit by something), not so much about their hobbies and the like if there’s any at all. They’re also highly unrelatable to actual women, like why on earth would a female detective bother posing as a nude model to catch a criminal? Couldn’t she just have done it with her clothes on all the time? Not to mention some of the women who do willingly pose in the nude for art are artists themselves.

There’s no way a woman involved in law enforcement would bother posing in the nude in the name of art to catch a criminal, it’s so implausible and impossible that it’s unrealistic to begin with. Things like those compounded with the tendency to portray female characters in demeaning situations and roles does show a sexist portrait, they don’t come off as characters people will identify with and relate to. I guess in order to come up with something like whites writing nonwhites and the like, it would be more extensive and more damning when it comes to nonwhite women. I think I said this before.

Characters like Storm and Cheshire are nonwhite women evidently written by white people and play into white people’s ideas of what nonwhite, nonwestern women are like. In the case with Storm, as initially presented in Giant Sized X-Men, she was shown nude and worshipped as a goddess in Kenya which plays into colonialist ideas about Africa. Ironically due to colonialism, at this point Kenya has a majority Christian population and suspicious of paganism (and immodesty) so Storm as presented wouldn’t fare well there. Likewise Cheshire is Vietnamese and shown to have a habit of seducing people.

But the fact that there were Vietnamese women being prostituted during the Vietnam War and Cheshire was created not too long after has tainted and coloured the way she’s portrayed, even today some Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines and Thailand attract sex tourists a lot and where American soldiers father children with poor Asian women. So she’s going to be more sexualised than the other DC female Asian characters are, let’s not also forget that she has a child with the white Roy Harper out of wedlock. It does humanise her, but in light of her being a temptress and that there are mixed race children who are born out of wedlock between Southeast Asian women and American men has tainted this.

It does seem romantic and cute, but it’s not as rosy and romantic when bringing up the reality of American soldiers fathering children to Southeast Asian prostitutes. When you factor in colonialism, these take on a different, perhaps more uncomfortable tone. It’s not a nice association, especially when you have sex tourists around hanging out in the Global South in search of exotic sex. It’s not just the women that get this, female sex tourists would go to Indonesia and Jamaica for the same reason. Historically, it was Italy and Greece for northern European women so romance novels featuring Italian and Greek heroes take on a fetishistic tone this way.

These characters can be divorced from such an association, but they were initially created by an unconciously colonialist mindset. They’re exotic others who look and act the way they do because they’re conceived by white minds when coming up with a global south woman at all, it may not be true for all global south female characters. For every Lady Shiva and Shuri, there’s a Cheshire and a Storm playing up colonialist ideas of global south women. Especially when it comes to sexual objectification and exploitation in light of prostitution and colonialism.

White Sexyman Privilege

I think if John Boyega admits he isn’t that well-endowed, possibly much less than that even, he might have a better claim to turning beauty standards on their heads far better than Adam Driver does. If because black men are often expected to be well-endowed, even though there are studies that point out not all black men are like this and some are even contrary to it.

If one provocatively says that beauty standards for men are narrow, I’d say that beauty standards for black and Asian men are narrower still especially in the Western world where they’re othered. A glance at photographs of black men by white gay men often adhere to a stereotype: muscular, masculine, tops and well-endowed. Even if not all of them are well-endowed, they still adhere to the stereotype.

Not a single skinny or effeminate black man there outside of the works of gay black photographers like Ajamu X, conversely speaking Asian men are expected to be undersexed, not at all well-endowed, bottoms and effeminate. But this runs counter to cases where Asian men do get regular sex or work in prostitution, have sexual and romantic relationships with non-Asian women to the point of siring out of wedlock children.

Or even be butch, top and well-endowed. This is where the ugliness of the white sexyman stereotype is revealed: while John Boyega being not that well-endowed would have a better claim at turning racial stereotypes on their head, he wouldn’t get much credit for it the way Adam Driver does because Driver has white privilege.

This means he can easily live outside of the stereotype the way black and Asian men aren’t allowed to, one could be white and have unconventional features and still be attractive. A black man with a small penis, despite being an actual character in real life, would be met with disbelief due to how prevalent and deeply entrenched these stereotypes are.

If John Boyega turns out to be not that well-endowed, it would be shocking but it wouldn’t turn beauty standards on their heads because he doesn’t have white privilege. It’s rather unfair that the possibility of a well-endowed Indonesian man isn’t going to entirely change people’s minds about Asian men and beauty standards the same way an awkward looking white man would.

White privilege strikes when Benedict Cumberbatch and Adam Driver get more credit for violating beauty standards than a black man with a small penis would, to the point where due to stereotypes the latter may not exist at all.

Turning the stereotype on its head

When it comes to stereotypes, there’s the cliche that black men are well-endowed and get objectified for this. However there’s some evidence that’s contrary to this, there are at least two studies in East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) where there’s evidence of less-endowed black men. Likewise, two of the world’s most well-endowed men aren’t black themselves. Jonah Falcon is so well-endowed he makes some black bodybuilders look puny, if you don’t believe me I’m giving you photographs of this man and the other three (Melvin Wells and George Paine by Lon of New York and an unknown bodybuilder by Dianora Niccolini).

Perhaps evidence is proof that not all black men are necessarily this well-endowed, with evidence of less endowed black men out there in Kenya and Uganda. Nonetheless, despite whatever evidence that points to the contrary, black men are still stereotyped as well-endowed and get objectified for this. So much so this goes hand in hand with expecting them to be tops, that’s the person who penetrates the other, even if there are gay black men who say they are bottoms or don’t do penetrative sex at all.

If not all black men are well-endowed, then it’s a stereotype that not only gets refuted by some scientific evidence but also by anecdotes where you have some black people who say that they’re not that well-endowed. Conversely speaking, some of the world’s most well-endowed men aren’t black at all. Jonah Falcon, though not naked in this photograph, is evidently more well-endowed than the latter three black men I showed you. It’s evident in the tight trousers he wears.

If the big black penis is a stereotype that not many or even most black men fulfill, then it’s a form of sexual racism that others black men a lot. As if they can’t be average or less endowed than that. This essay should put the stereotype to rest, though who knows how many people will react to this but hopefully it would change some minds.

Idealised women, idealised people

When it comes to the ideal woman, many cishet male artists say they love the female body but the female bodies they present are often idealised. Their women don’t have flabby thighs, extensive body hair, stretch marks, sagging breasts and moles. They have to look perfect to fulfill their ideals of what a woman should look like, regardless of the women who do deviate from these standards and norms. I also think this extends to the way white artists objectify those of colour: they have to fulfill ideals even if some of them don’t fulfill it (the existence of black men with smaller penises should throw stereotypes into relief).

I admit to having insecurities with my body: I look myself into the mirror and worry whether if my hips are wide, I feel like my waist’s too wide and my buttocks aren’t big and defined. The cartoon characters I see don’t have flabby thighs but I do, so there’s a lot of idealisation when it comes to depicting female characters at all. Idealising somebody is not the same as loving somebody for who they are, if because the latter involves accepting their faults as they are. Accepting them as they are is more mature than wishing they’d fit a certain ideal.

Judging from my own experience, I do admit some body dissatisfaction that I feel my waist isn’t narrow and my hips aren’t that wide. I’m told to shave my armpits, which I do and yes I’ve been objectified before. I do think expecting people to live up to ideals can be harmful, especially if they have serious insecurities around their own bodies that it’s not a good idea to exploit their vulnerability for art. That’s why I think saying the female body is beautiful is harmful in that it ignores women’s bodies who don’t fulfill standards.

The same goes for those with differing ethnicities, not every Asian woman is submissive and not every black man is well-endowed and thuggish.

Tyranny of the white sexyman

When it comes to being unconventionally attractive, it seems only white men are given the opportunity to be so whereas it doesn’t happen much to Asian and black men even if they’re better qualifiers for bucking beauty standards if they don’t fit racial stereotypes. It seems like a white privilege thing for white men to be considered sexually desirable despite being physically unattractive or rather not fitting the beauty stereotype, but it doesn’t happen much to black men.

Sadly, if the vlogger Kai Decadence is any indication, black men are only attractive if they fit stereotypes that’s if they’re thuggish, tops, hypermasculine and well-endowed even if not all black men fit the bill (the existence of black drag queens should throw this into sharp relief). Likewise the possibility of less-endowed black men should throw stereotypes into sharp relief, which’s proof not all black men fit stereotypes.

If some black men are nerdy and unathletic, then some black men aren’t that well-endowed and hypermasculine either. Sadly only white men are allowed to be this unconventionally sexy, this leaves little room for black men to violate stereotypes about themselves when the Tumblr Sexyman stereotype’s brought up at all. There’s not a lot of non-white, non-white passing or rather non-anime nonwhite Tumblr Sexyman characters out there.

If because sadly white geekdom centres a lot more on quirky white men, who are practically their Manic Pixie Dream Girls and there’s unfortunately not a lot of non-white Manic Pixie Dream Girls outside of black circles either. This also leads to an interesting side-question regarding Asian men. If there are athletic, masculine Asian men then there are also well-endowed Asian men (there’s one in Chinese history who posed as a eunuch of all things) and there are hairy Asian men as well.

I’ve seen those in vehicles, so if they exist they deserve to be. If Asian men can be tops, black men can be bottoms and sides (not into penetration) but it rarely if ever shows up in fanfiction (there are fanfictions where Sam Wilson’s the bottom though). There’s not much of an Asian or black equivalent to the men nerdy women find sexy like Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch and Adam Driver, well at least to the same extent.

It seems unfortunate that to them they only exist to fulfill stereotypes instead of breaking beauty standards the way their white counterparts do, which makes me think female geeks can be just as racist as their male counterparts are. Especially when it comes to preconceived stereotypes of what men of colour are like, regardless of how they really are whether in bed or outside of it.

Tumblr sexymen, rarely, if ever includes men of colour and as of late, there’s yet to be a black Tumblr sexyman. We already have one live Asian actor sexyman and one Latino Tumblr sexyman, but black sexymen have yet to be included if at all. If whiteness is considered part of what makes a sexyman tick, then it’s racist by nature because it excludes all other ethnicities except when they fulfill stereotypes whereas Tumblr sexymen violate them.

White privilege’s the name of the game, which’s why black characters have yet to break the Tumblr sexyman ceiling. This is also to an extent why Adam Driver’s widely considered to be a sex symbol but not John Boyega. John Boyega might be less endowed than is expected for his ethnicity and less endowed than Adam Driver but even if he’s unconventional he never became a sex symbol the way Driver is.

There’s hardly ever the black or Asian equivalent of say Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch, well as far as I know about it where again it seems Asian and black men are only good for fulfilling stereotypes instead of destroying them the way their white counterparts do. Racism is as it is, that’s why the double standard exists for nonwhite men.

Mukokuseki

The Japanese word for stateless but in the sense that when it comes to the way people of their own ethnicity portray themselves they see themselves as unmarked whereas they other those of different nationalities and ethnicities, which sometimes leads to facial profiling. Anime characters aren’t necessarily white just as The Simpsons aren’t necessarily Asian in that if they’re the default ethnicity, they can’t be stereotyped in any way. Those of other ethnicities tend to be marked, for instance a black person would be stereotyped as oversexed, well-endowed, thuggish or animalistic whereas white people aren’t (in white made media).

I suspect this extends to writing where it’s like how black people would be stereotyped and described as either Mandingos, sambos, mammies, Sapphires, Jezebels, animals (often simian or primate) and thugs. If it were written by a black person, because blackness would be the default here black characters wouldn’t be portrayed that stereotypically unless if that black person has internalised racism and projects it onto women (from my personal experience). If a Nigerian did Nigerian stories, their ethnicity and nationality would be the default and this extends to how ethnicities see each other where a Yoruba sees themselves as unmarked but the Igbo and Hausa are.

This also extends to gender where if men are the default, women are the marked other or for another matter sexuality where if homosexuality’s other, heterosexuality would be default. When it comes to mukokuseki for black people, that’s only when blackness’s made default that we get less stereotypical depictions of black people (though it’s possible to have non-stereotypical black characters in a white-majority or multicultural setting). But it becomes less stereotypical in the sense that if a Nigerian did a black character, that would be the default ethnicity (no special markers needed). It’s not so much of a matter of ethnic and racial differences but rather the perception where if your race’s default it wouldn’t be stereotyped in any way unless if self-hate issues are present (which do exist among some black people).

It’s actually telling with the Milestone comics that the characters are portrayed in a less stereotypical manner than they would be in most other superhero comics at the time, though if it were coming from let’s say a black person (or if that black person’s not that misogynistic and full of self-hate) we’d get a lot of non-stereotypical black characters. When it comes to African comics, this becomes more telling that on one hand they don’t stereotype blackness but on the other hand they’d stereotype African nationalities and ethnicities. Even without comics, this becomes telling in the way they perceive themselves and each other.

A white German wouldn’t see themselves as a stereotype, just the default ethnicity but they’re going to mark Italians, blacks, Turks and Moroccans as the other. It may not always be obvious in writing but it does play off that way, for instance Italians would be stereotyped as lusty, emotional and dark-haired. The more different the ethnicity is, the likelier they are to be othered. The more default the ethnicity is, the less likely they’ll be stereotyped. It does make sense this and why it does deconstruct racism to some extent when it comes to seeing whichever ethnicity’s default.

It may not always be the case but it does make sense that in anime if Japanese people are the default, they wouldn’t be stereotyped in any way but the Chinese and Americans usually get stereotyped and othered in ways they wouldn’t be in their own media and soils. It could apply to any ethnicity and still prove my point right about whichever ethnicity’s predominant.

Never trying out those

When it comes to racial represenatation in fandom, not only are black characters either left out or stereotyped and othered in ways they aren’t in canon but outside of racebending there aren’t a lot of transformative fans who’d bother making fanfiction and fanart out of something coming from say African countries. Supa Strikas is one and it does have fan fiction but numbers wise it pales in comparison to say Naruto and My Hero Academia. Though Supa Strikas may be lesser known than Naruto, the sad fact that transformative fans tend to revolve around anything Western and East Asian to the point of deliberately ignoring anything else can suggest a degree of racism on their part.

I highly suspect that when it comes to transformative fans stanning for people of colour, it’s only for certain people of colour that there emerges a theme of the model minority or honourary white motif among them in a way that’s not afforded to say anything starring and made by blacks and even other Asians. (There are fans of Bollywood but outside of India they don’t exist in big numbers the way there’s one for Japanese anime, I could say many of the same things about Nigeria and Nollywood.) For people who’re so into black representation that they don’t bother actively finding a lot of black representation outside of Western media for some reason.

Unfamiliarity is one thing, openness to African media is another matter where you actively pursue it and find it. It’s not easy but it’s worth finding it from my experience. Consider this, India has quantitatively more people (around 1 billion) so there’s bound to be a lot of fans of Bollywood movies both casual and hardcore but objectively speaking there are more Western fans of K-Pop and Japanese anime than those who’re into Indian cinema, music and clothing. So more Western people are sadly more likely to be fannish towards East Asian media than they do with South Asian and African media.

At any rate, there’s going to be way more fan art of Naruto and BTS than there is for say Motu Patlu and Adnan Sami or Bombay Vikings. For some reason, there seems to be more of a fannish attitude towards anything East Asian than anything South and Central American, African or South Asian which can risk being racist in that if East Asians are the only people of colour ever considered by white fandom at all. Black people can and do matter as well but when they get ignored, stereotyped, othered and objectified by whites in ways East Asians and whites aren’t subjected to, as well as white fans being too biased to find African media interesting and fannish then there’s the risk of being racist.

Othering the Native American

When it comes to Native Americans, there’s a tendency to other them whether by romanticisation (which’s something some Europeans and White Americans do) or through demeaning stereotypes like Tonto speak where Native Americans speak in broken English. Never mind that their own languages are in decline so it’s much more realistic and likelier for them to speak in broken Lakota, Navajo or Sioux and they’d be much more familiar with the English language due to the marginalisation of their own languages for generations.

Blue Corn Comics extensively documents the various Native American stereotypes that have appeared in over the years, where you go from sexualised Native Americans (not just the women, it’s also a staple in heterosexual romance novels where you have exotic, sexualised Native American men) to Native Americans and their casinos as well as criticisms about Pocahontas. The real Pocahontas was probably a pre-teen or early teenager, by modern standards she’d be too young to have consensual sex with and too young to drink either.

That makes the romanticisation of her relationship with John Smith more unsettling in that he’s older than her and he has power over her. Another thing’s that there’s the tendency to appropriate parts of Native American cultures without the full immersion in that culture, which necessitates much more experience with Native Americans in addition to having considerable knowledge of their cultures and languages. There’s also a tendency to stereotype Native Americans as lazy, close to nature, humourless or drunk (the Native Americans I know of are geeks and aren’t drunk).

Until recently with Marvel’s Indigenous Voices as well as Peace Party and other comics written and drawn by Native Americans, unless if they did their research or better yet have any real experience with those characters Native Americans will often be stereotyped and portrayed in a cliched manner. They will often be othered, made exotic or very different from their white counterparts even when Native Americans themselves don’t differ much in overall behaviour. (I can say the same things about Asians, Latinos and blacks.)

Not to mention the inability to understand foreign cultures can make it hard to do authentic portrayals of Native Americans, not just by doing research but also having any real experience with that makes it more authentic. The same can be said of any other culture really.

Racism in fandom

Something that I’ve been reading for some time now, where in a good number of fanworks black people are stereotyped as being taller, bulkier, more sexually dominant, masculine and more endowed than they really are in canon. (The reverse is true for Asian characters.) There are tall black people, but short black people like Gary Coleman exist. Likewise tall Asian people exist, most notably Yao Ming. Actually according to height statistics, most black people and especially black Africans aren’t that tall and at any rate, some East Asian and European people are taller than them. In fact, some Africans and Asians are the same height wise.

They’re also stereotyped as threatening, even though some black characters are practically cinnamon rolls without pretense. Possibly outside of African media (and their respective fandoms, if there’s any), some black people get portrayed as more threatening than they actually are or more endowed than they really are. This is also true for fandom where black characters are portrayed in a stereotypical manner, which I think’s unfortunate because there’s a tendency to other those kinds of characters in a way white characters aren’t especially in the West (that might not be the case in Africa).

With sexual racism (which’s something I did at some point or another when it came to black men), there’s a tendency to fetishise and other the person at the same time. It’s one thing to find black people attractive, it’s another to other them in ways that dehumanises them which’s something I tried countering at some point. (I also tried finding Asian men attractive at the time.) Those characters would be singled out for being taller, more muscular or having a bigger penis than men of ethnicities do, though the reverse can be said of Asian characters.

(When it comes to Asian men, this disregards reports where Chinese men have married black and white women as well as reports about Balinese gigolos which’s a big thing in Australia, Japan, Netherlands and Indonesia.)

While there are fans who do reimagine existing characters as people of colour, when it comes to existing characters of colour they get stereotyped and othered in ways they really aren’t in canon which makes you wonder about how racist some fans can get.