That is not a hair color term, nor a way you should use it

[sashocirrione]

"Raven" is kind of iffy as a hair color term. It's not wrong, it's just sort of in the realm of purple prose.

Calling a person "the raven" in the same way you'd call a person "the blonde" or "the brunette" makes me want to scream.

Calling a male person "the ravenette" makes me want to stab my eyes out.

Unfortunately, I think that calling a male "the

Comments

[cinematicstars]

I've always fucking hated "the raven" or "the raven [wo]man" but for some reason I think "ravenette" is a really cute sounding word... feel free to cringe.

;hides;

[amarra_jade]

WTF? I've never seen the word "ravenette" in my life. It doesn't even sound like a word.

[sashocirrione]

I could imagine it as being cute in a made-up-word kind of way, if applied to a female, especially if the fic itself was a piece of sugary fluff.

But applied to a male? Do not want. Applied to a male in a serious, dark, and/or sexy fic? Do not want, times a thousand.

[cheryl_bites]

The whole problem is caused by the fact that "brunette" means dark-haired woman and, technically, "brunet" means dark-haired man. Then someone noticed that to describe a blue-haired woman, you could use "bluenette", which is amusing if nothing else, and after that the Suethors' imaginations exploded and we got such atrocities as "silveret" (silver-haired man). Presumably we will now have to face "words" such as "magentaette", "scarletet", "pucet" and "kind of off-white bluey colourette". *Skulks away to weep*

[ran_mouri82]

There should be an icon dedicated to that cringe-worthy list.

[maelyng]

I've never actually seen this one. I once saw something along the same equally stupid lines though. But apparently my brain has purged that memory for its safety and I can't remember what it is. But I'm certain it gave me the same feeling of rage that "ravenette" does.
Why don't authors just use "raven haired"? It's only like 3 more keystrokes and much less WTF...

[loveheartsalone]

Bluenette is kind of cute in a cracky way, but I would never use it in fanfiction if I was describing someone, let alone ravenette. I shy away from describing characters by their hair colors anyway, especially male characters.

It sounds more like a male version of Nabokov's "nymphet", to be honest O.o

[schizophrenic0]

Ravenette makes me think of cheerleaders/dancers for some sports team known as The Ravens or something.