This was my response: Usually, Im in agreement with these things, but if youre dressed as a personal hero of yours who happens to not be the same colour as you, altering your skin tone to coincide with reality is not racist. Dressing as a STEREOTYPE is rude. Dressing as a particular person is not given that a person is not a representation of their entire culture. If the costume is a genuine homage to a person and not done as a caricature, then it is not racist. If I chose to dress as Dr. Martin Luther King, Ghandi, or Toranaga while I honour the dead, Im quite sure it would be horribly offensive to fail to portray them accurately. In fact, Im quite sure that A: nobody would know who I was, and B: I might be guilty of whitewashing. Im reminded of a nice young lady I met through a cosplaying forum who was heartbroken to be told that she should stick to her range and thus could not dress as Wonder Woman or her favourite anime characters because of her dark skin tone. Thats unfair. Similarly unfair was another girl who was told she couldnt dress up as her favourite Tru Blood character, Tara because her skin tone was too light to be suitable for it. I recognize that there are power dynamics at play with Privilege but we cant have it both ways. We cant be hypocritical about this. No one accuses someone dressed as Bill of being representative of the whole of white culture. Accusing someone dressed as Lafayette of being representative of the whole of black culture is just as ridiculous. While acting in the interests of protecting vulnerable minorities, its important that we also dont over react. In addition, Im pretty sure you can see my avatar beside my post. In actuality, Im Caucasian. Im sure the Dark Elves of the Forgotten Realms are horribly offended. Sorry. I didnt want to leave you without anything humours to lighten the mood. Now, can we talk about mis-appropriated Pagan holidays?
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 19:58:23 +0000
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