Whitewashing Non-white Countries

[ohmypizza]

I hope that this doesn't only bother me.  I'm not talking about Studio Deen whitewashing Seychelles, Egypt and Turkey, since someone already covered that.  I'm talking about the fans not doing their research and rendering a lot of non-white countries lily white.  I've seen too many examples of this.  People who make Greenland OCs tend to especially

Comments

[attashi]

Thank you!

I notice Pixiv is guilty of whitewashing. Seychelles is always drawn white even though it is OBVIOUS by Hidekaz' art that she is not. I would not be surprised if racism is involved.

[ohmypizza]

Hell, even Himaruya whitewashes her sometimes, but then again he really isn't consistent with coloring (pink eyed Iceland, anyone?). Remember mizu_takishima's whitewashing icon? The first picture is from the original game that he drew out a while ago. She has blue eyes in that one. Hell, even Studio DEEN is better than Himaruya on that, since she at least has brown eyes in the new game

I guess dark skin isnt kawaii?

[zetsu1]

omg this. i was so excited that there was a possibility of darker skinned characters so i could cosplay without felling awkward, but then all the characters became white in the anime because i guess darker skin isnt kawaii enough. so i kinda just forgot about it because this white washing even happens even in america ( like speed racer,dragon ball z,green lantern ) but when i saw fanarts that featured the lighter skinned variations i kinda lost hope. Honestly i can understand japanese fandom because darker skinned characters in anime(if they even show up) are usually potrayed as either rapist, loud jive-talking gangsters, or monkeys. Ive actually heard a character that literary made grunting noises once. If characters like this are in anime, then of course the are going to have negative connotations when comes to darker skin and as a result, characters are white washed. The japanese also naive when it comes to foreigners anyways

Re: I guess dark skin isnt kawaii?

[attashi]

Do not let all this whitewash make you feel awkward about cosplaying. Those with common sense and cultural appreciation will acknowledge your cosplay as good. Heck, I like it better when non whites (sorry, I could not find a better way to word that) cosplay seychelles, it reflects her country more.

As for Japan. yea, as I said in my post, they are guilty of this. I also have a feeling that her whitewash is also for cosplay reasons. I mean, if seychelles is dark no one would be able to cosplay seychelles (but when they end up cosplaying seychelles, she doesn't even look like an african nation oxo).

[pantsu]

This honestly doesn't bother me for the most part, ngl. Regarding original characters and OCs made by J-fen, I think W-fen needs to get accustomed to the fact that Japan has never really been a politically correct nation regarding race. That's really not cool or okay, but it's a cultural thing, and I'm not gonna bother treading on that shit. Y'all can do what you want but stuff like that has barely even been touched in Japan so good luck

[nodokaotonashi]

The complaining about character's designs are particulary annoying I must admit.

Yet, people don't seem to realise their headcanon doesn't match with Himaruya's. =T At least, Himaruya knows what he's doing and moreover, he's curious about culture of others. So fans should be lucky about that. I'm okay with variations of sorts such as Iceland's sliver hair or even Romania's tooth since nations-tans are distancing themselfes from a real person. That wouldn't be exciting, otherwise.

[juandalyn]

The last part. So, so much.

[ohmypizza]

Oh yeah, I remember the pink haired North Korea, though I really wish that I could forget it. When I showed my Hetalia-loving friends that, they went "WTF, seriously

[mizu_takishima]

Okay, this is going to sound extremely ignorant of me, (not to mention somewhat off-topic) so I apologize a million times over for this in advanced, but

[angstlich]

Oh, you are spot on, actually. The Japanese do not have the same negative history with other minorities like the western world has had. They had no years of African enslavement, they didn't pull a Romania and keep the Roma and Sinti Gypsies as slaves for nearly 600 years, and they did not commit genocides on the horrific scale that Germany and Russia did

[whittertwitter]

The Japanese do not have the same negative history with other minorities like the western world has had. They had no years of African enslavement, they didn't pull a Romania and keep the Roma and Sinti Gypsies as slaves for nearly 600 years, and they did not commit genocides on the horrific scale that Germany and Russia did.
They may not have negative history with the same minorities the West has, but they have had plenty of negative history with the Ainu, the Koreans, the Chinese, etc. And it might not have been the same in terms of scale, but what Unit 731 did was just as horrifying as the Nazi death camps and the gulags.

Since they did not have years of racism in that way, they would not have even thought of how offensive it would seem to Americans. A lot of the things they do that seem offensive probably mean no harm.They didn't have the history, and they probably didn't have anyone who would object to it. I think about 99% of Japan's population is ethnic Japanese, and there are very few blacks among the other 1%, so there

[mizu_takishima]

My palm just met my face.

I'm so sorry, I don't know as much about Japanese history as I do about European history. I know they've done some very sketchy things, but I meant that in the context of offending westerners.

I do know about the Ainu and kind-of-sort-of taking their land away a la the Native Americans, but I didn't think it was terribly relevant to the wank, so I didn't mention it. I know the Japanese were/are hardly saints, what with raping and murdering so many Chinese women and other atrocities, but I was just trying to stay relevant T_T Sorry if I came off as an ignorant lout.

[angstlich]

Fffffuuuuuu. I agree with you so very, very much. As a person of very mixed race (How many Black-Native-American-German-Roma-Gypsy-Jewish Irish gals do you know?) I like to see people do their research before makings OCs and white-washing canon characters in the anime.

I will actually give them Seychelles, but Egypt? No. No, no, no, no, no. I have never seen a native Egyptian that was that pale.

Like Zetzu said, things like this make it difficult for someone like me to cosplay. It's so hard to find a character that is brown enough for me to not look like an idiot. Pfft. Ideas like this always make me a little uncomfortable in the fandom because I feel that people hold whiteness as a standard of beauty, and it's quite hard to be a multi-ethnic fan when many people, inadvertently or not, imply that people like me are unattractive because we are not white or completely white.

Thank you for wanking on this.

[franceismyhomie]

Dude, you're so cool. I wish I was mixed - I'd love to be a part of so many cultures. But alas, I'm just a Tamil chick who lives in Canada >.>

But surprisingly enough, I know an Egyptian guy who is very, very pale and very, very white. So much to the fact that when he mentioned he was Egyptian everyone in my class was surprised. But all the other Egyptian people I know are a lot darker than that :/

And yeah, I've always wanted to cosplay but Hetalia's the only fandom I'm part of and having dark chocolate brown skin it's hard finding a character who I can cosplay without looking weird. I'm already self-concious of the fact that clothing stores' clothes typically cater to Caucasian people and hence the colour tones are to suit that skin colour and look awful on me, but knowing that there are people who find dark skin unattractive almost is so hurtful ._.

[angstlich]

It is hard, sometimes, to be oodles of different cultures, though. People always tell me to act more black, or more Roma, but no one ever tells me to act more Jewish or more German. I guess I just don't look the part :/

And I agree that it is so hard to find clothing/cosplay that complements a darker skin tone! Purple has become my friend. When all that mixing is said and done, I pretty much have a middle-eastern skin tone, so those are the stores I frequent. Too bad we don't have a female middle-eastern nation, then I could cosplay...

Anyway, I think you should cosplay as whoever you want to and tell anyone who says something to shove it.

[doctor_approved]

That's a really awesome mixed race you have there. ^__^ I'm Russian-Polish-Ukrainian-Hungarian-Austrian-Belarussian-Jewish girl, and I have tan skin, which makes me, for some reason, be mistaken for Mexican, Spanish, Indian, and the like.

I've never tried cosplay, but you can still cosplay, I'm sure. If you make a really awesome costume and work it well, I'll still be super impressed no matter what anyone looks like. And I've always found dark skin types attractive anyways (people find it unatrractive? Really?).