Sunday, December 29, 2019
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Saturday, December 21, 2019
Thursday, December 19, 2019
Saturday, December 14, 2019
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Monday, December 9, 2019
Friday, December 6, 2019
Thursday, December 5, 2019
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
Monday, December 2, 2019
Sunday, November 24, 2019
Friday, November 15, 2019
Sunday, November 10, 2019
Saturday, November 9, 2019
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Friday, November 1, 2019
Thursday, October 31, 2019
My Daughter vs Halloween
Last week my wife asked my three oldest kids what they wanted to be for Halloween. Usually this entails them being princesses, dinosaurs or dressing up MLP costumes or as Nyan Cats, sometimes bought from the store and other times frantically thrown together by my wife when she has enough time. The middle two had answers that were pretty predictable: Ezri wanted to be a unicorn, and Oliver wanted to be a shark.
Perfect. Easy. We can do that, no problem.
Then came my oldest, Ava. If you remember from my post back in May, I started letting her play the game Left 4 Dead 2, which might get me some hate already seeing as she's only 10. I would kindly direct you to that little opinion piece if you want to chew me out about that. But, if you haven't read it yet (and you should so you can get more of an idea of where I'm coming from) I'll let you know that it has actually helped her cope better than before with a couple of different issues.
So when she gave her answer to my wife's costume question, it wasn't really that much of a shock: she wanted to be the L4D2 character Rochelle for Halloween... preferably wielding a chainsaw.
Now, I can totally see the reasons she wanted to be Rochelle.
On the one hand it's very simple: whenever the two of us would play L4D2 together, she'd play as Rochelle because that was the only girl she could play as. I'm sure she would still play the game with me even if Rochelle wasn't an option, though I think she might have had a harder time getting into the game seeing as there wasn't anyone she could really related to.
But if you told me that were the only reason she wanted to play as Rochelle, you'd be mistaken. There's much more too the character than just being the token female: she's cool and she's strong. She fights hordes of zombies and special infected and doesn't even flinch. She has no problem keeping up with the men in her little band of zombie-apocalypse survivors. This is like the total embodiment of girl-power.
Ava looks up the character, which is great on a few levels. But unfortunately, we had to tell her that she couldn't be that particular character and she'd have to pick something else.
Why?
Because Rochelle is African-American, and Ava is about as white as a slice of Wonder bread.
Now, I know you already know what the problem that we have here is. It's pretty much stating the obvious at this point, but I'll go ahead and say it: here in American society (and world-wide, really), there is this taboo when it comes to having white people portray people of any other ethnicity, especially black people.
For the most part I don't have a problem with the reasons as to why this is such a huge cultural no-no, but I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time dwelling on the history of white people portraying black people. If you really want to read up on the history of racist caricatures and blackface you're more than welcome to Google it because I don't want to spend six or seven paragraphs slicing open wounds. Suffice to say that allowing my daughter dress up a fictional African-American would probably get me shunned and, if things keep going the way they are, probably destroy her future even though she's just a kid.
But why does it have to be this way? My daughter didn't want to be Rochelle for Halloween in order to portray African-Americans in a negative light. She didn't want to make fun of them. She wasn't going out of her way to find an African-American character so she could wear blackface and offend people.
She likes Rochelle. To her, Rochelle is a total badass. Rochelle's race may be front and center when you look at her, but she's more than that.
Ava wanted to be Rochelle for Halloween because she admired this character in such a harmless, innocent way. She wanted to be Rochelle because there are qualities to Rochelle that she wants as a person, and not because of the color of her skin. She wants to be Rochelle because she fights friggin' zombies, not because she wants to make fun of another race. She wants to be Rochelle because she's a strong female figure that isn't a Disney princess or horse-riding tween, because she respected her.
It wasn't that she didn't notice that Rochelle was black, either. Sure, it's a part of her character, but it wasn't her identity. It was a small portion of the whole Rochelle, the ass-kicking woman and zombie-slayer.
Does this sound like my 10-year-old daughter is trying to be racist? The problem is, to anyone else who saw her, it wouldn't matter. If she did go as Rochelle for Halloween, anyone who saw her would more than likely be offended. My kid's feelings on the matter or her love of the character don't matter.
What's worse, is even if I dressed her up as Rochelle in that pink Depeche Mode shirt and jeans and didn't put on make up in order to give her darker skin (and if someone so happened to recognize who she was trying to be) that would be a whole other ball of wax with people accusing her (and me) of 'whitewashing.'
Basically, any way I can come up with to allow my white, 10-year-old girl to dress up for Halloween as the character she wants to be like is going to get me (and her) into trouble for being racist, even though racism has absolutely nothing to do with the reasons why she wants to be her.
Of course, if you looked at fans and cosplayers today, you would see all sorts of people with different skin colors dressing up as characters that are normally white. I've seen a black Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, a black Sailor Moon, a black Ursula, a black Harry Potter... Heck, I've even seen Al Roker dress up as Doc Brown from Back to the Future, and it was awesome. And I'm not even counting the gender-swapped stuff. But literally NO one complains about this. Or at least, almost no one. But I dare you to find a white person dressing up as a black character and not have them ripped a new one for being racist.
I guess it's that there's so much of a double standard within this whole situation that I don't know what to do about it other give up. I mean, obviously my daughter had to pick a second, more skin-color appropriate yet still badass option (she's going as Zoey from the original L4D) but having to tell your kid that she can't be who she wants to be because of perceived racism on other people's part isn't exactly fun.
In fact, it's a little disheartening. I, for one, think it's great that she thinks so highly of a character with dark skin so much that she would pick to be her at Halloween. But because of the assumptions of others I had to tell her that she can't.
Perfect. Easy. We can do that, no problem.
Then came my oldest, Ava. If you remember from my post back in May, I started letting her play the game Left 4 Dead 2, which might get me some hate already seeing as she's only 10. I would kindly direct you to that little opinion piece if you want to chew me out about that. But, if you haven't read it yet (and you should so you can get more of an idea of where I'm coming from) I'll let you know that it has actually helped her cope better than before with a couple of different issues.
So when she gave her answer to my wife's costume question, it wasn't really that much of a shock: she wanted to be the L4D2 character Rochelle for Halloween... preferably wielding a chainsaw.
Now, I can totally see the reasons she wanted to be Rochelle.
On the one hand it's very simple: whenever the two of us would play L4D2 together, she'd play as Rochelle because that was the only girl she could play as. I'm sure she would still play the game with me even if Rochelle wasn't an option, though I think she might have had a harder time getting into the game seeing as there wasn't anyone she could really related to.
 |
| This is Rochelle, ready to slay zombies and chew bubblegum. And she's all out of bubblegum. |
Ava looks up the character, which is great on a few levels. But unfortunately, we had to tell her that she couldn't be that particular character and she'd have to pick something else.
Why?
Because Rochelle is African-American, and Ava is about as white as a slice of Wonder bread.
Now, I know you already know what the problem that we have here is. It's pretty much stating the obvious at this point, but I'll go ahead and say it: here in American society (and world-wide, really), there is this taboo when it comes to having white people portray people of any other ethnicity, especially black people.
For the most part I don't have a problem with the reasons as to why this is such a huge cultural no-no, but I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time dwelling on the history of white people portraying black people. If you really want to read up on the history of racist caricatures and blackface you're more than welcome to Google it because I don't want to spend six or seven paragraphs slicing open wounds. Suffice to say that allowing my daughter dress up a fictional African-American would probably get me shunned and, if things keep going the way they are, probably destroy her future even though she's just a kid.
But why does it have to be this way? My daughter didn't want to be Rochelle for Halloween in order to portray African-Americans in a negative light. She didn't want to make fun of them. She wasn't going out of her way to find an African-American character so she could wear blackface and offend people.
She likes Rochelle. To her, Rochelle is a total badass. Rochelle's race may be front and center when you look at her, but she's more than that.
Ava wanted to be Rochelle for Halloween because she admired this character in such a harmless, innocent way. She wanted to be Rochelle because there are qualities to Rochelle that she wants as a person, and not because of the color of her skin. She wants to be Rochelle because she fights friggin' zombies, not because she wants to make fun of another race. She wants to be Rochelle because she's a strong female figure that isn't a Disney princess or horse-riding tween, because she respected her.
It wasn't that she didn't notice that Rochelle was black, either. Sure, it's a part of her character, but it wasn't her identity. It was a small portion of the whole Rochelle, the ass-kicking woman and zombie-slayer.
Does this sound like my 10-year-old daughter is trying to be racist? The problem is, to anyone else who saw her, it wouldn't matter. If she did go as Rochelle for Halloween, anyone who saw her would more than likely be offended. My kid's feelings on the matter or her love of the character don't matter.
What's worse, is even if I dressed her up as Rochelle in that pink Depeche Mode shirt and jeans and didn't put on make up in order to give her darker skin (and if someone so happened to recognize who she was trying to be) that would be a whole other ball of wax with people accusing her (and me) of 'whitewashing.'
Basically, any way I can come up with to allow my white, 10-year-old girl to dress up for Halloween as the character she wants to be like is going to get me (and her) into trouble for being racist, even though racism has absolutely nothing to do with the reasons why she wants to be her.
Of course, if you looked at fans and cosplayers today, you would see all sorts of people with different skin colors dressing up as characters that are normally white. I've seen a black Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, a black Sailor Moon, a black Ursula, a black Harry Potter... Heck, I've even seen Al Roker dress up as Doc Brown from Back to the Future, and it was awesome. And I'm not even counting the gender-swapped stuff. But literally NO one complains about this. Or at least, almost no one. But I dare you to find a white person dressing up as a black character and not have them ripped a new one for being racist.
I guess it's that there's so much of a double standard within this whole situation that I don't know what to do about it other give up. I mean, obviously my daughter had to pick a second, more skin-color appropriate yet still badass option (she's going as Zoey from the original L4D) but having to tell your kid that she can't be who she wants to be because of perceived racism on other people's part isn't exactly fun.
In fact, it's a little disheartening. I, for one, think it's great that she thinks so highly of a character with dark skin so much that she would pick to be her at Halloween. But because of the assumptions of others I had to tell her that she can't.
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Inktober 2019 - Day 26: Dark/Poltergeist
Alan Wake is one of my all-time favorite games. I knew poltergeist was on the list, and Alan Wake had those. Well, not in the traditional sense of a poltergeist, but they were annoying and threw themselves at you. Seems pretty poltergeist-ish to me.
Monday, October 28, 2019
Inktober 2019 - Day 25: Tasty/Incubus
I fell behind again, but then again I had a bit of a crazy weekend.
Sunday, October 27, 2019
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Inktober 2019 - Day 22: Ghost/Medusa
I think it would be much harder to deal with a maze of dots if there was a threat of being turned to stone, don't you?
Monday, October 21, 2019
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Inktober 2019 - Day 14: Overgrown/Tengu
I tried experimenting with colors. I only had one color. I failed at color.
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Inktober 2019 - Day 5: Build/Demon
One of these posts is going to have to end up as background art somewhere on here. Well, if I were any good that is.
Sunday, October 6, 2019
Saturday, October 5, 2019
Friday, October 4, 2019
Inktober 2019 - Day 1: Ring/Witch
So there's this thing that happens in October every year called Inktober. The basic premise is that you draw a single picture every day for the entire month, each based on a series of daily prompts. Some people go off the official main list, while others go off of alternate lists based on their interests.
I was vaguely aware of the event as my sister in law did a few over the years, and this year I decided to give it a go... only I used two different lists for my prompts: The official Inktober list, and the Obscure Creatures (read: monsters and spirits) list. That combination has made for some interesting challenges, but I think I've made pretty good use of them, especially considering I haven't drawn anything in over a decade.
If you're interested in seeing all of my "art" you can check out my Instagram. But you can see all of my crappy, gaming-related doodles here. I'll post them on the days I post on my Instagram, so you'll get them here with everyone else.
I was vaguely aware of the event as my sister in law did a few over the years, and this year I decided to give it a go... only I used two different lists for my prompts: The official Inktober list, and the Obscure Creatures (read: monsters and spirits) list. That combination has made for some interesting challenges, but I think I've made pretty good use of them, especially considering I haven't drawn anything in over a decade.
If you're interested in seeing all of my "art" you can check out my Instagram. But you can see all of my crappy, gaming-related doodles here. I'll post them on the days I post on my Instagram, so you'll get them here with everyone else.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)