This Need To Be Said Again

That’s why it’s important to be reasonable and be attentive to what people tell you. That’s why research is important. If someone decided to be offended over a ridiculous thing, that’s their issue. but when it comes to things such as cultural appropriation, it’s very important to listen. Because in most cases, you really are being offensive.

if featured stories can use those on princes so can I and nothing will stop me

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how come its always people who aren’t in the culture who complain about cultural appropriation of said culture,

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Well, first of all, are you comparing your work to Episode officials? Too bad.
Secondly, if you see that they’re using this for a prince’s attire and the prince isn’t Asian (please correct me if I’m wrong and this isn’t Asian clothing), please let the community know. You’re not doing this to compete with Episode, cultural appropriation should be an act of respect to your readers. If you don’t respect your Asian readers enough, this has nothing to do with Episode. It has everything to do with you.

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I’m a Jewish Atheist. And even if I weren’t, I complain because I know it matters to others and I have respect for them. I know this is wrong. I don’t have to be LGBT in order to point out homophobia, do I?

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It’s not about what you can or cannot do. Yes, no one can stop you. It’s about recognizing that decisions we all choose to make impact other people and communities. You can choose not to care about if your impact harms others, but others will choose to continue pointing out why it’s harmful and offering criticism around it.

At the end of the day, it takes zero effort to just not use culturally diverse assets outside of their intended purpose. In fact, it takes more effort to go out of your way to use them just because you think other people are :air_quotes: too sensitive :air_quotes:

I would also advise against trying to emulate Episode featured stories, since they are notoriously low quality lol.

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Well said!

Straight up facts.
What’s your opinion of people giving their “bad boy” characters a tribal tattoo? Episode has two sorts of tribal tattoos. For example, they released not so long ago a full-body tattoo for male characters, but it includes tribal tattoos.

Depends on what the people who are from the culture the tattoos are from think. I wouldn’t be offended if anyone used them incorrectly because I’m not from this culture and I don’t know what their meaning is. But it could matter to the people who belong to the culture, and then it’s a problem.

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@TalGordin

I dont copy episode featured stories, I am just saying episode made this stuff, if they can use it the way they want I won’t be told I can’t.

also why do episode give regligios stuff meant for one gender, to both

i do my research, for characters, especially when its culture I dont know about

I share my opinions, same way you share yours, I can understand your opinions in this. I have myself struggle with people who portray autism wrong. that dosent mean people should stop makeing autistic characters, not a good comparison since, those are objects, and this a brain function,

I do think people should think and do research, but I also think its their story and people should be allowed to do what they want for their story,

also, I like to note the one I said I used a hijab is not called a hijab I didn’t remember what it where called I just remembered I got a complaint over using it, its a scarf

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I agree with you.
Not so long ago, I saw some authors rant about it on Instagram. That’s why I bring it up.
I think Episode needs to release some new tattoos without any cultural meanings behind them.

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I think Episode should just add an actual star necklace so that we can avoid appropriation of a religious symbol. I hate seeing the Star of David being used in fantasy stories as some sort of cute necklace, especially since some of my friends are very much Jewish and don’t appreciate it.

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yeah that I do supprot, more jewlery in genereal just. I feel like we have so little

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Agreed!

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This headscarf is a cultural item, this is why people told you not to use it. I believe it’s a Polish/Russian Christian scarf? Could definitely be wrong, though. Doesn’t matter that it’s not a hijab, it’s something else from a different culture.

I already said it and others added too, but I’ll say it again. You can do whatever you want. But don’t get surprised when people get upset over your story if you don’t bother considering their feelings. It’s not up to you to decide what people care about or not. And despite being an atheist, the Star of David I talked about in my post is a symbol of my culture. And I care about it. So if anyone decided to wear this necklace “just because” I will get upset. And no one has the right to tell me whether my feeling are “right” or “wrong”.

This claim is ridiculous and I already answered you about this here:

what’s the point in doing your research if you’re gonna toss it all aside and do whatever you want?

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But the issue isn’t no one can use these cultural assets ever under any circumstance; it’s use these cultural assets correctly, particularly ones that belong to marginalized cultures that have suffered under various forms of colonialism and white supremacy. If your character isn’t Jewish, they don’t need to wear the Star of David necklace or any other Jewish cultural assets. And just adding the necklace doesn’t make them Jewish. Any writing of character using these assets as part of their background should be developed with nuance.

As for the hijab - unfortunately, Episode has marked different bodies as Male and Female, but you can have characters of any gender in any body type, making those cultural assets important to be accessible to different body types. Most of the headscarves are named pretty generically in the portal because there are many different religous coverings. In a different world, it probably wouldn’t matter, but in our world the context matters. The headscarves are often used inappropriately or incorrectly and the larger context is one in which people who wear religious coverings suffer because of the assumptions people make about them after seeing them wear the headscarves. There’s a lot of nuance around why people wear them, but that’s neither here nor there. If people tell you something is offensive, it’s up to you whether you say “I hear you, let me fix it” or “it’s more important to me to write this as I see fit regardless of how it affects other people.”

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Preach!
I was given a blank cross necklace for my 14th birthday and as a christian it’s really special to me! I’ve been wearing it everyday since then and while I don’t mind people wearing crosses and things ( As long as they don’t look like the ones that we often wear as our religious symbols) please don’t wear religious style necklaces and items if you don’t believe in it!

It’s rude to appropriate my religion and assume things based on stereotypes.

(Btw a blank cross is different to just a cross shaped ornament in case anybody is wondering :sweat_smile:)

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I think episode need to label or add something that states this because a lot of people me included wouldn’t know that an item has a culture or religious meaning without research and obviously unless I’m writing a story based on it I’m not going to research it.
I’ve personally never used either item but I’m sure most people use them without being aware of what represent so don’t mean harm.

Thank you for educating a lot of us x

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I agree with you for the most part.—

Yeah, the crucifix has nothing to do with Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. Yup, nothing to do with one of the most significant events throughout the bible.

But ey, wear it if you want.

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It’s cultural appropriation. It’s zisgusting. It’s unacceptable. Episode needs to provide more fantasy-related necklaces to stop this from happening.

Imagine doing blackface and calling it art. I don’t even have to be the one to bash you for that—physically and or non-physically.

We should. That’s like saying: Yeah, I mean, I know we should like, create awareness of things like murder and like rape but don’t like even force it on like people.

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