I’m not out of touch, I simply think that authors should be free to choose what their characters look like and that yes, it’s ridiculous to expect an author to worry ‘if my character has big lips, am I offending someone’? They’re just lips, they don’t have to mean anything unless you’re the one who’s trying to find some bad meaning when there’s none. I love to portrait my characters with the Full Pouty Lips, so what? I think they’re the best lips on Episode. It’s as simple as that. Like I said, maybe people just like big lips. You don’t have to be offended about some other people’s preferences. And if you choose to be, maybe that’s your problem.
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If authors are free to choose whatever features for their characters, then others are free to point out that the choices they make don’t exist in a vacuum and can contribute to harmful cultural narratives when not properly contextualized. Being free to do something doesn’t mean being free from potential critique or opinions, particularly from people who are actually affected by these issues.
I don’t think anyone is denying that people “just like” full lips or whatever other feature. The point is that the desire for those traits didn’t come from nowhere and that people who commonly have those traits are mocked for them while people who have them very rarely are admired for them, even though they often achieve those features artificially by trying to look more “exotic.” So context really does matter. But at the very least if you’re going to argue that authors can do whatever they want, you have to accept that people are free to be offended or to offer criticism.
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If you’re determined to take offense for something so small, sure, do whatever you want, but I’m determined to ignore any criticism about it because, like I said, I find it ridiculous and I already explained why.
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Yet you’re here. Doesn’t seem like you’re ignoring criticism when you’re responding to it. You even made a thread about it. If you don’t care so much, then why say anything? I encourage you to live quietly with the problematic choices you’re making if you really wanna make a stink when people don’t agree with you.
P.S, playing Devil’s advocate is not the move regarding POC issues and concerns. People’s lives and experiences are not yours to debate. Did you really wanna learn, or did you come to whine? Try listening to the people who are attempting to educate you.
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I’m not the one ‘whining’. I made the thread in response to people ‘whining’ as you called it. And really, who are you to educate me about anything? The arrogance. I already made my point in the first post, I think it’s pretty clear and it was made to protect authors for facing criticism for something that is completely exaggerated. Let authors write in peace, without criticizing every single small thing. It’s exhausting and very off-putting.
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You’re talking a lot, but are you listening?
If you’re free to do as you please, we’re free to say what we please. You do not get to exist free of criticisms when you create, and no author is exempt from that.
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I think you’re the one not listening and like you, a lot of others. I think you don’t realize that white people are not made all the same way (blonde hair, blue eyes, pale skin). There are tons of different types of white people. When people say that not many white people have curly hair, I say, what kind? Because Spanish people, people in southern Italy, there are a tons of them with curly hair. So why not represent them? It’s a personal choice who has nothing to do with you.
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I’m not sure what you mean here, because hair type 3 is not as diffused still. But I digress, the point I personally was trying to make earlier (and that you still like to ignore) is that different races wouldn’t look different if certain traits didn’t appear in different ratios.
Of course curly hair is not uncommon in the Mediterranean area, but most MCs and characters don’t come from here 
Of course white people can have full lips naturally, that deserves representation, but I’ve seen entire casts full of supposedly white non-mixed characters all displaying Full Round Pouty. Same thing with blue eyed POC. They exist in minority, yet since blue is historically the prettiest color in white societies, POC characters are assigned light eyes in abundance to appeal to a white reader base.
Do you get it now?
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Who says anything about all White people looking the same? The issue on the table is that there’s an abundance of White characters being made with features that BIPOC, specifically Black people, have a very long history of being bullied and harassed about.
When you give all your White characters these features, it’s not only really unrealistic, it’s using the features as accessories and celebrates them on just White women. Yes, some White women have big lips. It’s not common. Most often, they get to choose whether or not to get plump lips, they choose to get injections, they make the choice of having this feature. Not all White women do so, but they have the choice nonetheless, and there is not a 1:1 ratio.
The “meaning” you claim that big lips don’t have is that Black people spent their lives being bullied for it, and now that Black features are being used as a trend, they’re adored on everyone except Black people. It’s not just lips or just eyes, it’s something that people have a long and complicated journey of embracing because their whole lives they have been made to feel like their features are something to be changed or not loved. They didn’t have the choice of having or not having big lips. They’re born with it.
The issue is that BIPOC struggle with representation and diversity that doesn’t strip them of their features, stick them on White people, and replace theirs with Eurocentric ones to make them “interesting”. You may think what you are doing is innocent and shouldn’t be criticized, but you are proudly ignorant of the fact that you are being told that your actions further feed a certain harmful narrative.
Not everything is a person attack on you as a person. As I said, you are free to do as you want. Nobody is sending you to Cancelled Jail. But, you cannot exist as a creator without receiving criticism, and telling people not to do so, is silencing people who have a problem with the message it pushes and how it normalizes certain things.
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I really doubt there’s more than a few authors who did this, and really, all characters looking the same? Seems like an exaggeration to me and that’s my point. Anyway, I perfectly understand your point but I don’t agree because I really doubt it happens all that often in stories and, instead, it causes authors to feel insecure about creating characters in a certain way even though that’s how they see them in their minds and that’s what’s ridicolous here. I think you saw it once or twice and all of a sudden you think it happens anywhere or you saw one white character with curls and big lips and think they’re doing the same thing as those that make all the characters look a certain way when it’s not true. I think this ‘problem’, if it can be considered a problem, has been magnified beyond measure because the truth is that people like to complain about the smallest thing even if such a thing is done in a completely innocent way and with that I’m done discussing this.
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Curly hair was never only specific to certain identities. Just people willing offend themselves other literally anything for attention 
Source: Curly white. If I let it grow it’s turns into a bush of curls. Oh no, nature doing cultural appropriation? 
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Why do you think people want attention for offending themselves?
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Honestly no idea, many people point at innocent things and accuse if of “cultural appropriation” when in reality it absolutely is not. Especially when it was never intended to be offensive anyways…
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What makes you think they’re innocent things? And if things are intended to be innocent, do you think they can still be harmful?
Say for example I have an outfit inspired by african culture, say a print skirt by a white character, some people might falsely call it cultural appropriation.
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What do the people say about it? What are the reactions from things like that?
This is one of the outfits from an upcoming episode, I’m worried that it will receive backlash for “cultural appropriation” when in reality it’s supposed to be inspired by a fictional mythological character from the story’s universe. If I do get accusations, it will be really toxic with no chance to explain myself 
People here are really obsessed with the downfall of authors and “cancelling” each other.
For context the character is Jordanian but it’s never mentioned.
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Well, something like a sari is a cultural piece of Indian clothing. When you are putting it on the random character, and treating it just as another piece of clothing, you are removing the identity and importance it has to a lot of people. Especially when it’s worn by people who have had their culture erased and stripped from them for centuries. Yes, your intentions are harmless, but if people are letting you know that they don’t feel comfortable with you using a certain item because you’re ignoring the context of it, it’s best to just leave it be. People have the right to be upset about their culture and the culture of others being used by people who don’t care to even acknowledge it.
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Thanks, I’m actually lucky to know this before publishing this because I definitely wasn’t aware of the skirt’s type. I chose the skirt because it’s the best matching yellow skirt and didn’t know it had cultural connections. Here’s the updated version:
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Thank you, that’s exactly what I mean. Authors getting worried about the smallest thing in their stories because people get offended by the smallest, most innocent thing that was never meant to harm anyone. I, for example, never even thought about this ‘problem’ about white characters with big lips and/or curls until I saw all threads about it.
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