Visual/Detailed Proof of Misrepresentation (or Cultural Appropriation) on Episode

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#1
First piece of wordy evidence

Everyone makes mistakes. Some are more severe than others—there are mistakes that can offend others. Where am I going with this, you ask? Well, I was reading a featured story on Episode, and in the background of a casino, I saw a default character wearing a hijab with an above-elbow dress, and I’m thinking to myself like, I thought hijabs were supposed to be worn with long sleeve shirts! I wish I took a picture of this to show you proof, but it is what it is.

Second piece of wordy evidence

But that’s not all, oh no; I was reading this other (old) story on Episode, and in Episode 3 [during a party scene], I looked at one of the background characters (keep in mind that this was in INK) and saw a black muslim SMOKING. Yes, you heard that right: smoking. As far as I’m concerned, the practice of Islam FORBIDS smoking, so Idk what this author was thinking when scripting this scene, but since she included a character of religion in the mix, she should’ve done a little research on creating muslim characters, even if she wasn’t important to the storyline. Also, she was wearing heels, which is also forbidden, so there’s that. Again, I don’t have visual proof of this misrepresented character again, so sorry!

So, what about you guys? Have you seen a misrepresented character or a character showing off cultural appropriation? In what story (you can name it but make sure to blur it and the author’s name and don’t be rude about them)? Do you have pictures for proof or a wordy explanation? How can you tell if it was cultural appropriation/misrepresentation or just a simple mistake?

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#2

I saw in Loco Amor by Ora they used POC hair as a joke. And the girl with the twists was white. There was another scene where Alexis and Jules wore cultural Chinese clothes. So far, Ora has never apologized, at least to my knowledge.

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#3

Oh my god, I saw pictures of those misrepresentations in this thread and got so angry at the POC hair joke. 🤦🏽 That was not funny in any way and I hope the revamped version of Amor Loco removed those racist scenes.

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#4

Bump! :fist:t4:

#5

I never heard about Muslims not being allowed to wear heels, but the more you know.

Like a year ago, there was this thread on this Featured story Falling For the Enemy by Emma and Heather, which originally had the MC wear the Star of David necklace, even though the story never indicates her or her family’s religious status. Luckily, Episode removed it around a few months after the thread appeared.

I like that this thread is up, but If I were to make a suggestion, the examples OP and I posted are more examples of cultural/religious insensitivity. Not saying you don’t include but edit the topic title or beginning as such, including cultural insensitivity along with appropriation.

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From Love at First Bite by Blessings

I want to give the benefit of the doubt and say that the character is default Black in the original and featured, but for some reason Episode wanted to make all of MC’s siblings blood related, and slapped on the rainbow fade even when he’s White as snow.

Surprisingly there are just a lot of examples of non-Black characters with Black protective hairstyles in a couple of Episode stories. One of them being:

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The last one is from a featured story Billionaire Bachelors by Nightshifter. I’m kinda not sure on the last one. The lady with the bindi is an Indian woman, but I don’t think she mentioned that she’s married. In the original story, the lady had a bindi throughout the story to the best of my knowledge, but Episode removed that bindi although somehow they have her wear it in the last two chapters in the featured. In a way, I kinda believe it’s cultural appropriation since the bindi is treated like a mere accessory.
Then again, I do not know a lot about the history and culture behind the bindi, since I read online that it isn’t just for married South Asian women but also children and young women.
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#6

Wow. My anger is intensifying just looking at those white Episode characters wearing protective hairstyles. :triumph: How dare they offend me like that.

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#7

The purple haired girl makes me so mad. Like they have the Straight Medium Side Shave (forgive me if i said the name wrong i don’t know episode hair names), why did they need to use the box braids? :expressionless:

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#8

I’ve done research on Hindu culture before and I found online that the bindi can be worn by unmarried women too. However now that you mention it, it’s best to make sure if it’s true or not. Maybe @DesiLadki can help us here sorry, I saw your thread this morning and I remembered hehe

Also omg this is just :skull:
Why. Just when in hell did they ever see a white non-mixed person with 4C hair lmao-

Btw, “Stranger Love” has a lovely Italian LI who–guess what :clown_face:–is a mafia dude. My good people, Italians are. not. gangsters ??? Do I need proof of this? Cause there’s plenty of trashy mafia stories out there :sweat_smile:

Anyways, mafia aside, the characters don’t even look Italian. They’re literally tan clowns (no offense to tan people, but that ain’t Italian). I mean, we do have our tan friends in Italy, buuuut most of us are white? Like, the rest of Europe is? :joy:

I’m sorry, I’m laughing because otherwise I’d cry :’)

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#9

@Malannee Haha, that’s alright! Thanks for asking! The bindi is worn by some unmarried and married women who typically practice Hinduism. Over time, it has somewhat become more of an accessory for cultural events. I believe some religious men (like Hindu priests) wear a bindi too or a form of the bindi.

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#10

Thank you for the explanation :pray:t2:

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#11

No problem!

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#12

You can just provide screenshots or a wordy explanation if you want. We’re just trying to call out and help (educate) people how to correctly represent certain characters.

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#13

Oof, I’ll try to collect proof then :skull:

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#14

I see muslim girls with hijab and revealing clothes anytime, I feel like they just add hijabs to background character to show diversity
I’m not even muslim and it annoys me so I imagine how annoying could it be to muslim people

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#15

I’d go crazy reading these stories

Especially when the character’s name is Marcello lol

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#16

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This is from the most recent featured story Beating the Bad Boy. This is a one-off character in the story, but I have no idea why they would be wearing this hairstyle. If it were just to show the scope of ombré hair … well, Episode has many more ombré hair to choose from other than this.

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#17

Ugh, I hate this too. I used to be guilty of adding a short sleeve shirt to my muslim character, but now I know how hijabs work. And other authors should know too.

So you’re telling me this character is not black at all? And yet Episode (or Sandra, whoever it was) has the absolute nerve to use a protective hairstyle themselves?! :rage: I oughta sue them (her)!

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#18

Again, the character’s one-off so it’s not like they would announce their race out loud. I give a slight benefit of the doubt that they are Black but with albinism and dyed hair. Then again, as such we can only judge on face value - and it’s a White character with the protective style.

On a slightly unrelated note, this story is like there wasn’t a lot of careful thought to this.. This is one of the story’s careless oversights.

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#19

I just wanted to say that Muslims do wear above elbow dresses (also, do you remember the dress name?) However, it’s recommended to be long sleeves, but people do wear them, it just depends on how strongly you follow the religion :))

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#20

I understand, but I just wanted to point that out. She was wearing the button down black polyester dress.

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