So something I’ve noticed with almost all of the interracial couples I see in episode stories (if there’s interracial couples at all… which is… often pretty uncommon in and of itself), is that it’s almost always the guy that’s darker skinned than the female.
Even in NPCs, the girl is almost always fair skinned while the guy is either black or Racially Ambiguous ™. Have yall also noticed this, or am I wrong? Why is this??? Do you have any story recs that have a interracial couple with a beautiful black girl and a white/lighter skinned guy?
Personally I kinda think it’s because we still stigmatize darker skinned girls as uglier than lighter skinned girls while black men are see as edgy or desirable… Which is obviously problematic on both sides.
I’m not one to pay any mind to those types of things when reading, to me it seems like it’s usually the other way around (that is when it comes to non-customizable love interests and MCs). I really don’t think that it’s that deep.
Idk if you’d wanna read ‘Jokes on You’, I’m not sure if it will be up for long because of the guideline situation,not really a romance but the MC is a dark/medium brown-skinned black woman.
In my current story all the main couples are interracial, so some couples have darker skinned women some have darker skinned men, honestly it varies. For me I pretty much just paired the characters the fit each other best, no stigmatization behind it
To focus on your thoughts, this is possibly based on societal values and norms. In the media, it is very often portrayed that the man is darker and the female lighter, much lighter.
It is based on media(commercials, movies, shows, music, magazines, etc.)
When people see this on a daily basis, they think there’s no harm in doing it too. But when you see it time and time again, you’ve every right to wonder why this is.
I didn’t really notice this, I think I actually know less stories with white female MC and black male MC.
Here are some stories you may want to check out:
Bubble Gum by Sarah Dove
War Dogs by Kayla Sloans
Fine Line by Evil Ebonni
The Bad Boy Game by JC!
Equality by Amanda Michele
Magician’s Code by Isabella Costa
Pregnancy Curse by Dr Smile
Delinquent by Josca Denise
I understand that, but look at it from this POV, it’s still a form of entertainment and most writers are going to use what will generate readers. So, although this should be portrayed in your non-typical way, the writers (not all but the ones who do) will use what they think their readers want to see.
OH MY GODDDD! Read The Don! I can’t the author is incredibly sweet and the characters are unique and gorgeous! The directing is flawless! It’s in my top 3! I believe her name is Havinthana G. On Episode! The LI is pale and the MC is honestly so gorgeous ( BONUS: she’s dark skinned!) Here’s a photo.
The MC in my story is white but their first and main love interest is mixed (Caucasian/Ethiopian). They’re both guys though sooooo…does that still count or?
I mean obviously don’t change your story because of a thread, I was more just talking about the general trend than specific examples. Characters are shaped by their race and background so just changing their color won’t make their story more diverse lol
You’ve pretty much nailed it here. Tanned men (and in the case of Episode, apparently Neutral05 is tan) are seen as attractive because they are often white passing/or have Eurocentric features + the darker skin. Keeping the MC fair skinned is mostly because this is the character the readers are meant to resonate with the most. Having a non-cc main character who is white will get you far more reads than having a non-cc character who is a POC (not always true, but it is the case most of the time, unfortunately). It also feeds into the angel/demon, good girl/bad boy parallel.
Of course, I do not have anything against a white lead, but I do think this dynamic can be quite harmful when done carelessly. Especially in the fantasy/sci-fi genres, where we see creatures who are often associated with negative and unearthly attributes such as dragons, and aliens are portrayed by darker skinned males.
That being said, I love reading about interracial couples, and a good amount of my own ocs are in interracial relationships. When done right, they can be an incredible representation of how blended our society can be.
