(TW: Rape, Racism) I feel like people don't know how Vikings worked...
I know they make a nice Heavy Metal “mascot” but man, some light reading on the subject would be nice. A condensed response to some of the images I’ve seen lately:
-Vikings raped MEN AND WOMEN. It was not “Sweet, let’s bone all the ladies we’ve just conquered.” It was not just violence against women, it was violence against everyone. It was “I just conquered you and I will have ALL of you submit to the worst form of humiliation and depowerment.” Rape was rightly considered a horrible offense, punishable by death within the Viking Culture. It is terrible and psychologically horrendous, hence why it was used against their enemies. I felt this important to point out because Vikings have a reputation for “raping the women and killing the men,” this is false, and serves as an attempt to “correct” Viking’s views on sex. History is shitty most of the time and Viking rape practices are not something to glorify, just know that it was not done in the name of heterosexuality. And to further shatter your hetero world, Vikings had male prostitutes, consensual sex with anyone was awesome and great as long as you married and produced children. Though a male being in the submissive position was fiercely looked down upon, hence vikings raping men after battle. However, once men reached a certain age and had produced their heirs, they earned the right to be submissive in sex without being judged.
-Santa Claus was based off Odin. The Beard, the pointed hat, the general appearance is based off Vegtam the wanderer. The eight Reindeer is the eight-legged Horse Sleipnir. The 12 days of Christmas? The Midwinter Feast. Your Christmas ham is the annual boar sacrifice to Frey. Your tree, stockings, wreath, mistletoe, yule log and carolers are all based off Viking Traditions.
-No horns. The majority of people know this already, but they don’t really why the myth of the horned helmet still persists. Well firstly, there may be some truth to this, as decorated headpieces were often used in ritual practices (in many cultures), but never in battle. It’s been said that archaeologists when uncovering viking burial sites, saw the drinking horns placed in close proximity to the helmets and assumed they fell off. They may have felt secure in this assumption because of Celtic discoveries like the “Thames Helmet.” Greek & Roman historians wrote of the headpieces of the Vikings and Celts and made all sorts of claims, but this is always taken with a grain of salt as they were not clear on the usage of such headpieces. And of course you can blame artists, who started depicting Vikings based off these writings. They added Greco-Roman influence to “lift” the status of Vikings and the Norse Pantheon into Classical Antiquity.
-Vikings did “convert” to Christianity. I know this seems like basic history, but people really don’t seem to understand this fact. The majority of Vikings converted to Christianity by the mid-1100’s, they were among the last of the pagans to convert. However, the Sami people held out a whole lot longer, not converting until the 1700’s. This is “convert” in the on paper sense of the term, they most likely continued their beliefs in the Norse pantheon, but each Scandinavian realm had their own Archbishop by then, and the sieges and raiding were replaced with Christian Crusades, which were basically the same fucking thing. And of course, the belief and worship of the Norse Pantheon is still alive and well today.
-Vikings were not filthy. I’ve wrote on this subject before, Vikings washed their faces and brushed their hair every morning. Every Saturday, or Laurdag, literally meaning “washing day” was reserved for bathing of the entire body (for reference, the Anglo-Saxons bathed annually). Some of the most common items found at Viking sites were combs. Also found were razors, tweezers, ear spoons and a type of soap that doubled as hair bleach. So don’t feel bad if you bleach your hair to get that Viking blonde, cause they did it too! They took great pride in their hygiene and appearance and this myth persists because of Christian, Muslim and Roman historians who had a particularly biased view on the matter. Fun fact: when one was baptized into Christianity in the Medieval period, you received a set of white garments, Vikings would often get baptized, slightly alter their appearance, and get baptized again, just for the free duds.
-To be a Viking does not mean White Pride. And if you think it does, then fuck your stupid face. Be proud of your heritage (and everyone else’s!) not your skin tone. Why Vikings have become the mascot for White Nationalists is beyond me. They had many peaceful and profitable trading relationships with most Europeans, as well as Native Americans, Africans, Mediterraneans, Arabic and Slavic cultures. Not all their relations were peaceful, there were definitely conflicts, but these arrose because of actions not appearance. And of course, mating and breeding with these various peoples was frequent. Vikings were tolerant of other people living on their land and respectful when settling (not raiding) on other’s land, often trading sea-fairing knowledge for agricultural. They valued these relationships highly and were known to be buried with the gifts given to them by other cultures. Yes, the Vikings kept slaves, but they kept slaves from their own culture as well, and these “thralls” we able to purchase their own freedom. Once the slave purchased their freedom they were often adopted into the Master’s family, regardless of origin, and granted citizenship. So, the idea of the “Pure Norse” is pretty farfuckingfetched, and I get increasingly pissed at the claims of Asatru being a “white religion,” and the douches that insist people of color have no claim to it.
Done. Come at me bros.
wow i just realized how racist stephenie meyer is. here’s her description of Kim, a Native American woman in Eclipse
She had a wide face, mostly cheekbones, with eyes too small to balance them out. Her nose and mouth were too broad for traditional beauty. Her flat black hair was thin and wispy in the wind that never seemed to let up atop the cliff.
Teen Wolf, Sterek, Scott McCall, & Racism
Generalizations suck, we know this, but I think we as Sterek fans need to take a breath. And then a few more.
We are getting defensive. That’s natural. I’ve done it too. I went round after round with someone about how Sterek/Teen Wolf fandom was *different*. It wasn’t LIKE other slash fandoms. It didn’t have the same yucky issues. Mostly because I was so hung up on my happy, positive Teen Wolf experience, I didn’t want to acknowledge that I might be complicit in a problematic thing.
But here’s the thing: pretending like Teen Wolf or Teen Wolf fandom lives in a vacuum in which it is exempt from race issues (or other -isms) isn’t doing Teen Wolf and Sterek or its fandom any favors. It is alienating people who experience racism in their daily lives, it is making fandom an unsafe place for them. It is taking away from their joy.
Here are some things to think about: Sterek fans are, by far, the most active part of this fandom. We produce the most fanfic, fanart, meta, graphics, etc. You name it, there are Sterek fans churning it out. We are not underrepresented. We get a lot of positive reinforcement and love.
I know it feels like the people talking about this fandom’s racism (or other -isms) are taking away from our enjoyment, but I’m here to say that that is a horribly privileged POV. Voices of people who have noticed uncool patterns in Teen Wolf fandom shouldn’t be silenced because they make you feel uncomfortable or defensive.
We do not exist in a world where race doesn’t factor in. Even if your reasons for not liking Scott have absolutely, 100% *nothing* to do with his race (and hey, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt on this one and say that’s probably the case), his race still matters.
“But!” I hear you say. “I find him boring and he makes stupid choices and I just want to read about Derek and Stiles and it’s not like I hate Scott. I just don’t care! Why do I have to care??”
And to answer, let me repeat myself: Scott’s race still matters.
It’s always going to matter. Scott is Latino. Scott is the lead character on a fairly popular teen show. Positive race representation on that kind of show (or really, any kind of show) is extraordinarily important. And dismissing his race is undermining that importance. His race doesn’t stop counting just because you have other reasons for not liking him. He’s always going to be Latino. That doesn’t stop. And “not seeing race” *is* racist. Period.
Same principle applies to Danny, especially as not only a PoC, but a *queer* PoC. He is an actual facts unicorn on TV in terms of how rare queer PoC representation is right now.
Race matters. Positive representation matters.
And the people who are SO MAD at the Sterek fans right now? I’d guess they’re mad because as a whole, Sterek fans are refusing to acknowledge this and/or call out the people who are contributing to the problem. We haven’t been collecting our people (and I’m including myself in this), and that’s got to stop.
You are allowed to not like Scott. You are allowed to OTP/ship Stiles/Derek. There is nothing inherently bad about either of those things.
However, here are some things we as a fandom, collectively, need to agree on:
Calling Scott the r-word/slow/a potato/a derp-face/derpy is not okay. All of those things are ableist. Yes, they are. No, I’m not arguing w/ you about it. I’ve used those words in the past too. I know it sucks to be called out for using them and it’s embarrassing. Take a breath, read about why they’re hurtful, and stop using them. That’s it.
Talking about how terrible Scott is, how you wish he’d die, how useless he is, etc, etc, etc, isn’t cool. Yes, I said you’re allowed to not like Scott, but remember how I said our fandom doesn’t exist in a vacuum? Here’s where that comes in to play. SCOTT. IS. A. CHARACTER. OF. COLOR. When we throw that much hate on him, it’s simply not the same as hating on a white character. It’s just not. It’s never going to be, and trying to ignore/erase that he is of color won’t ever make it the same. It only makes it worse.
You can’t make Scott white, no matter how you’ve read him in the past, no matter what you thought when you started watching. You also can’t make racism not exist. He’s not white. Racism exists. THOSE TWO FACTS ARE NEVER GOING TO CHANGE. (Well the first one will never change, the second might, but probably not in our lifetimes because we’ve got a long way to go.) Which means we have to give more thought to the way we talk about Scott.
I am not saying you’re a bad person if you’ve done any of these things. I am saying if you’ve done these things, take a breath, think it over, and stop doing them. That’s it. That’s how you fix this. And also by not telling people, fans of color in particular, that they are WRONG WRONG WRONG when they speak up about these issues. They’re not wrong. Even if you’ve never done any of the things they’re talking about personally, even if you’ve never even SEEN THEM, that doesn’t mean you have a right to derail or silence them.
You want to be a good ally and a responsible fan of a privileged pairing? Then listen. Keep listening. Listen until you think you get it, and then listen some more to everything they’re saying. You don’t have to stop loving the thing you love in order to correct the problem. You don’t need to feel guilty for loving Sterek (I don’t). You just have to think about the ways in which you love it that might be damaging to other people.
And also? They don’t have to tell you that you’re not the people they’re talking about. You know how you make them stop generalizing? By not being the thing they’re talking about, by collecting the people who ARE doing that thing. Build your own fandom experience. You don’t like that Sterek fans are being called racist and ableist? Then go do your best to make sure Sterek fans aren’t being racist and ableist. Don’t silence the people calling out the problem.
BREAKING NEWS: ROMNEY OPENS MOUTH AND INSERTS FOOT (AGAIN)
During a private fundraiser earlier this year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a small group of wealthy contributors what he truly thinks of all the voters who support President Barack Obama. He dismissed these Americans as freeloaders who pay no taxes, who don’t assume responsibility for their lives, and who think government should take care of them.
Romney went on: “[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
At the dinner, Romney often stuck to familiar talking points. But there were moments when he went beyond the familiar campaign lines. Describing his family background, he quipped about his father, “Had he been born of Mexican parents, I’d have a better shot of winning this.”
When one donor said he was disappointed that Romney wasn’t attacking Obama with sufficient intellectual firepower, Romney groused that the campaign trail was no place for high-minded and detail-oriented arguments.
At the dinner, Romney also said that the campaign purposefully was using Ann Romney “sparingly… so that people don’t get tired of her.” And he noted that he had turned down an invitation from Saturday Night Live because such an appearance “has the potential of looking slapstick and not presidential.”
Here was Romney raw and unplugged—sort of unscripted. With this crowd of fellow millionaires, he apparently felt free to utter what he really believes and would never dare say out in the open. He displayed a high degree of disgust for nearly half of his fellow citizens, lumping all Obama voters into a mass of shiftless moochers who don’t contribute much, if anything, to society, and he indicated that he viewed the election as a battle between strivers (such as himself and the donors before him) and parasitic free-riders who lack character, fortitude, and initiative. Yet Romney explained to his patrons that he could not speak such harsh words about Obama in public, lest he insult those independent voters who sided with Obama in 2008 and whom he desperately needs in this election. These were sentiments not to be shared with the voters; it was inside information, available only to the select few who had paid for the privilege of experiencing the real Romney.
Hey, Freeman stans who think the haters are just pissed because they don’t understand sarcasm, let’s try a little thought experiment.
First, here’s a transcript of what he actually said (minus various um’s and ah’s):
Interviewer: Have you seen Elementary? The, uh -
Martin Freeman: I’ve seen bits of it. I met Lucy Liu at the Emmys, who was charming, but very ugly, and -
[interviewer laughs]
MF: She’s a dog, come on! She’s a very unattractive woman. But she was really really charming, and I wish them all the best.
Interviewer: So your take is [?], you’re the prettier Watson.
MF: Yes, of course, of course I am. I’m the original glamour of Watson. And then they get Lucy Liu, of all people, to try and bring some [censored] glamour in. Scraping the barrel.
Interviewer: Scraping the barrel.
Now, let’s translate his remarks from Sarcasm into English. See if you can spot why they’re still offensive.
Interviewer: Have you seen Elementary? The, uh -
Martin Freeman: I’ve seen bits of it. I met Lucy Liu at the Emmys, who was charming, and really hot -
Interviewer: Right?
MF: She’s a looker, isn’t she? She’s a very attractive woman. And she was really really charming, and I wish them all the best.
Interviewer: So your take is [?], you’re not the prettier Watson.
MF: Haha, no, not me. I’m definitely not a glamorous Watson. But they’ve gone and gotten Lucy Liu to try and bring some glamour in. No settling, there - they definitely hired the most attractive person they could get.
Interviewer: Definitely.
If you guessed that his comments are gross because the main thing he had to say about Elementary was a joke about the lead actress’ looks, you are correct! If you guessed that they are double-gross because this objectification is being done to a Chinese-American* woman, a member of a group routinely exotified, objectified, and sexualised in racist ways by white society, you are also correct! If you guessed that they are triple-gross because he also managed to insinuate that Lucy Liu was in fact hired for her looks, YOU ARE ALSO CORRECT.
P.S. if you are white, don’t compare POC to animals. Just - sshh - no. Not even if you’re joking. Just… don’t. We don’t get to do that.
*I don’t know whether Lucy Liu considers herself Chinese-American or Taiwanese-American (or both, or neither). If you’re aware of her ID-ing as something other than Chinese-American, let me know and I’ll edit.
An anon sent in messages about the 1D fandom
apologies beforehand, this is going to be a 9-parter! there’s so much stuff you don’t know about how bad this fandom is, you only touched the tip of the iceberg. one of these days i’ll spam you with it. but basically this fandom is overwhelmingly made up of ignorant privileged teenage white girls or white-washed pocs who excuse everything.
when you call them out on it, they say they’re ‘only joking’ or they’re tumblr famous because so many people are in their ask boxes complaining while other assholes compliment them on for being “legends” or assume the people complaining are oversensitive pocs. one girl called him a “negropaki” once…a bunch of people say he’s their fav but the shit they talk about him it’s like wtf? but they actually refuse to acknowledge the racism and it’s mindboggling.
i never ever go through his tag anymore, it’s sickening. also, he has definitely dealt with racism before. the place he’s from has some of the highest rates of violence because of muslim and asian vs. white issues not to mention some of the uk’s homegrown terrorists were from there so you can imagine. you weren’t around during their year of x factor but people were openly racist to and about him back then and still are just not so openly. his name is similar to someone on the no fly list so when they first came to america, he was questioned for a long time and there was racial profiling (i think he mentions this in their book).
he is one of the most westernized muslims out there and probably isn’t observant (like you know, most christians and their religion) but because of him, some rightwing american blogger said the band was pimping islam to american girls. he even used to tweet some muslim stuff but all that stopped when they got big in america. a family member died in february and some people were tweeting that it was to make up for what his family did in 9/11. then they were sad it was someone from his mother’s (the white) side of the family
it was eid the day before he deleted his twitter so he tweeted something about it (first time in a long ass time something so ‘obviously muslim’) and a cousin posted a pic of him and his gf with their family and all hell broke loose.
some people looked at his twitter mentions and the stuff he was getting sent was disgusting, including he was converting the pure innocent blonde girl but you can imagine the rest of the shit he was sent. he mentioned after that he only deleted because he doesn’t care what people say about him but his mother and perrie saw and got upset by what people were saying and that was what annoyed him. he gets sent racist and islamophobic shit every single fucking day.
i can’t imagine what that must be like and how you can internalize things like that and be okay. his dad’s side of the family is absolutely beautiful but there’s a reason he almost never mentions his dad or his dad is seen, some people even thought his parents were divorced at one point because he would only mention his mother and sisters.
and i know you don’t like louis but he has been the only one who has reportedly defended zayn (that we know of) against the racism/islamophobia and he has called him brave, mostly i think because he himself deals with a lot of criticism and homophobia, so i can’t discount him completely. liam complained once that he has to dig zayn to say what’s actually going on because he’ll just say he’s fine. the constant attacks must be draining and zayn’s an introvert on top of it.
liam’s relationship itself with his half-guyanese gf broke up partly because people were absolutely disgusting to her so i’m sure he has some idea too. i dislike harry most because i feel he is the most privileged one of the five and has more influence over the fandom and in media than any of them but he always stays silent and that annoys me. i still like one direction but zayn’s the only reason i’m still in the fandom tbh. i’m white and it’s fucking tiring and makes me so mad dealing with this shit over and over again, i can’t even imagine what you and other pocs must feel. this is long but i’m not sorry. this is what you’re getting into. i love him and everything he is (aka he ruined my life lol) but he’s the most famous western muslim in the world and i don’t want to be him or have his life because i’m not as strong as he must be to constantly deal with this type of shit as well as he seems to be. i just hope he’s ok
This is absolutely…
Horrible
1D fandom and/or people condoning this type of shit, I have nothing to say to you right now
And thank you for saying “i can’t imagine” when referring to struggles of poc. That means a lot.
*edit* try not to use the phrase “white-washed pocs” though. it’s pretty hurtful
People are coming at Pixie full force tonight trying to shut down the fact that changing Zayn’s eye colour to blue is racist. These people are giving me a headache and this got too long for an ask, so I hope you are okay with me throwing in my two cents, Pix.
Okay. Everyone stop and go Google “white supremacy”. Or I’ll just give you the cliff notes, if you’d like. White supremacy is a system of belief that declares whiteness as superior to all other races. This includes white beauty ideals. Through white supremacist beauty ideals, we are told that lighter features are more attractive and that we should conform to them as much as humanly possible in order to be considered socially acceptable.
In South Asia, this is ESPECIALLY a problem. Have you ever heard of Fair & Lovely? Fair & Lovely is a cream that bleaches your skin so you become more beautiful. It is super, super popular. I used it many a time before when I was too young to know better. I know good friends who still get pushed by their mothers to use it.
In North America, we are bombarded by white supremacist beauty ideals in the media and in pop culture. As POC, we don’t get the absolute assurance of turning on the TV and seeing someone who looks like us being portrayed in a positive light. We just don’t get that. That’s why it’s important for us to not fuck with the few representations of US by altering their features to more stereotypically white ones.
Historically and until today, brown and black folk are told they are “dirty” because of their skin colour, their dark features, their thick facial hair. They are told that they are unkempt, less pure and more likely to be bad.
Zayn is not white. Zayn is not even white-passing, considering the fact that his mother is white. If you see Zayn on the street without knowing a thing about him, the chances are that you will immediately read him as South Asian. When you hear his name, you will automatically assume he is Muslim. This means that Zayn doesn’t benefit from the white privilege that his white counterparts in the industry do. For example, Zayn was stopped in the airport the first time the boys went into America and interrogated for an hour and was only let through because of his connections within the music industry. That is fucked. That is racist. That is because of Zayn’s skin, because of Zayn’s eyes, because of Zayn’s name, because of Zayn’s ancestry and heritage and the blood that flows through him. That is because of systemic and structural inequities that are ingrained in the things you claim are “SO SILLY” and “CAN’T BE RACIST!”
Please know that this is done on purpose. We are socialized to ignore racism and to treat it as a normal part of everyday life. That is why it’s so hard to eradicate it. It’s supposed to operate in a way that makes it hard to call it out, or else white supremacy wouldn’t be so damn successful and white privilege would be a thing of the past and we just can’t have that, can we?
Please don’t be insulting. I am a POC with dark features. I am a POC who has experienced racism and microaggressions based on the fact that I have dark features.
Don’t erase Zayn’s identity. Don’t erase his experiences. Don’t change his eyes to fit into a white supremacist idea of what is attractive. Racism is not just “Zayn is a terrorist OMG!!!” Racism is in the subtle things. Racism is a system that works in deliberately invisible and normalized ways so that we (POC) look ridiculous and untrustworthy when we point it out.
Bottom line. Racism hurts and people denying it hurts. So please. Learn a lesson with some fucking grace and stop spouting bullshit in support of oppression.
okay, so between the reddit serial rapist thing (really????) and the save the pearls thing (REALLY????), my faith-in-humanity meter is hovering dangerously close to empty
so, uh, reblog if you’re not going to rape anybody or be a racist sack of shit, i guess
cause i don’t know about you guys, but i could use the goddamn reassurance
i am so fucking tired of white people thinking we live in a post-racial society
because we don’t live in a post-racial society
teaching your child to be colorblind is wrong
being colorblind yourself is wrong because it implies that here is something wrong and undesirable about color, that it makes you uncomfortable and that people of color are somehow obligated to pretend that they are racially the same as white people when in fact nothing could be more untrue.
i am a young adult and for victoria foyt to attest that she hopes my generation views race in a unique manner—that is, a manner according to her and an extension of her which is her bullshit book and yet again the color fucking blind manner which is nothing unique and nothing new—is frankly insulting. it is insulting to my experience as a woman of color and the racism, scrutiny and otherization i have had to withstand my whole life long.
her book is nothing revolutionary, it is nothing new. it once again has a white heroine like any other book in mainstream fiction. it employs vile stereotypes about black people and particularly black men, establishing the white woman as the victim and the black man as her sexualized oppressor. she uses once again the narrative that led to black men dying, being abused and dehumanized for perceived offenses against white women. once again the white woman victim complex that i cannot fucking stand.
and yet this woman still has the gall to insist that she’s not racist, she’s colorblind
3 Reasons Why "Man's Best Friend With Benefits" Was So Racist
I have received several asks/replies telling me that I was wrong for finding last night’s episode of Supernatural so profoundly racist. I’ve addressed three of the most common counterpoints I encountered below, as well as two bonus points.
Please understand that, as a white person, my words here aren’t meant to drown out or overpower actual PoC perspectives on the episode. As more meta is published on 8x15, I will be sure to reblog PoC perspectives so their voices can be heard too.
