It's kind of hard not to internalize the stereotypical "ethnic markers" I got so used to growing up watching cartoons in America. And it's only now that seeing comments like, "But they don't LOOK [insert non-white ethnicity here]!" has occurred to me as kind of a dumb concept.
It's like you said--bizarre stylization which, in effect, results in a whole array of facial features. And yet somehow, given the Anglo status quo of the western world, those faces are just assumed to depict white faces. So depictions of NON-white faces basically get a very racially specific set of "icons" that are just shorthand for whatever Other the artist needs to depict. So restrictive -_-
"Normal" characters get to have angular faces, curvy faces, pointed noses, snub noses, flared noses, round noses, wide eyes, narrow eyes, droopy eyes, wavy hair, curly hair, straight hair, spiky hair.. But like, Other characters? ONLY get to have lips a certain thickness, or eyes a specific shape, and we're conditioned to register this as acceptable! As reasonable D: And I can't believe it's taken me this long (being an "Other" in a predominantly white country) to realize this -_-
It's like you said--bizarre stylization which, in effect, results in a whole array of facial features. And yet somehow, given the Anglo status quo of the western world, those faces are just assumed to depict white faces. So depictions of NON-white faces basically get a very racially specific set of "icons" that are just shorthand for whatever Other the artist needs to depict. So restrictive -_-
"Normal" characters get to have angular faces, curvy faces, pointed noses, snub noses, flared noses, round noses, wide eyes, narrow eyes, droopy eyes, wavy hair, curly hair, straight hair, spiky hair.. But like, Other characters? ONLY get to have lips a certain thickness, or eyes a specific shape, and we're conditioned to register this as acceptable! As reasonable D: And I can't believe it's taken me this long (being an "Other" in a predominantly white country) to realize this -_-
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