I have made my stance on the Wendigo very clear: it is not your stock fantasy monsters to use. It can be used accurately if you ask the tribe in question how to use it, but if you’re looking for some “Native magic” to throw into the story, look elsewhere.

It is not a hybrid. Your character can’t be half-Wendigo or part-Wendigo or whatever. You are either possessed by the spirit, have become the whole spirit, or not involved with the Wendigo.

No, they can’t be “good” or anti-heros— they’re many cultures’ definition of evil.

No, they can’t be outside of their original Algonquin/Great Lakes peoples contexts. 

This also means they don’t belong interacting with witches, especially Christian witches.

If you want to be respectful to Native cultures, put the Wendigo in its full context (including the fact it is evil in our societies) with multiple Native characters involved in the plot, or don’t use it at all.

The obsession with having Native characters be tied to the Wendigo is honestly disturbing. As mentioned, the Wendigo is often a definition of evil. It is an insatiable hunger; it is pure greed. It’s wild and untamed. It’s every negative stereotype of Native Americans— cannibals, demonic, rabid, indiscriminate hunters, a threat to civilized society— wrapped up into one.

Racism against Native Americans founded in these principles is still alive and well. Trace your logic for why you want a greedy cannibal hunter to be tied to your Native character. 

We are not your monsters.

~ Mod Lesya

I have been working on a fantasy series and my world has 9 nations of people, each with somewhat loose real-world influences. Each nation has its own kind of… guardian animal I guess (I formerly called them totem animals but have recently thought I should avoid that word since it specifically originated from Ojibwe culture) and while most of them are animals I have made up, a few of them are taken from real world mythologies and legends. One is the Wyvern, which doesn’t have any significant purpose in its origin so I think should be fine to use, but the others are the wakinyan (Lakota - thunderbird) and the amarok (Inuit) which were significantly more important to their originating cultures. 

The wakinyan is the guardian animal of the nation influenced by some Native American cultures, where the Amarok is similarly the guardian of the nation influenced by Inuit cultures. I hoped this would give representation to those cultures and their mythologies but have worried that in reality it might just be disrespectful. I was hoping you could give me some feedback on whether this use is problematic or appropriative. Thank you! (PS I love this blog, it has taught me a lot, so thank you!) 

I’d caution you to make sure that the “Native American” cultures you’re pulling from all use the Thunderbird, because it is specific to a few tribes. It would feel very off to have a culture that didn’t have the Thunderbird at all suddenly have it be incorporated. I’d prefer it if it was one specific tribe, but if you’re pulling from closely-knit nations who have a common history as allies then you’ll run into a lot less raised eyebrows for mixing a few together. I should note that a shared language family does not indicate a shared ally history; the Huron and Iroquois both shared a language family, but they’re traditionally enemies. They had periods of allyship, but that wasn’t the norm.

Other than that, this doesn’t look appropriative to me because you’re pulling from the entirety of the culture when selecting those animal protectors. The key to at least beginning to respect a culture’s religion (another caution is calling Native American religions “mythologies"— we’re still alive and practicing our traditions!) is to take the whole of it, not just the “cool” or pretty parts.

Of course, the usual cautions of sensitivity readers and making sure you’re not relying on the white versions of our beliefs apply. But as a general rule, if there’s the culture to go along with the creature, you have solid representation.

~ Mod Lesya

Hi! I have two questions to ask.

I’m writing a book in which two teenage girls live in a small fictional town in Alabama.  The main character is a white protestant queer girl. Her best friend is a conservative jewish girl (still figuring out her sexuality) named Dalia. Dalia and her parents are the only jewish people in the town, and they commute to their synagogue (its mentioned that they have more family in Birmingham). 

The book establishes that Dalia is essentially the best person in the whole town, meaning she is more patient, kind, less corrupt than anyone else.  She does have flaws of course, she fears being a burden and tends to be a little impulsive. Anyway, Dalia’s dad is Ashkenazi and i was thinking her mom is Sephardi from Turkey, and immigrated to America earlier in her life.  

Dalia does get pregnant at 17, and hides the pregnancy for a little while. She does know exactly who the father is (a teenage boy who isn’t in the story) and when it is revealed that she is pregnant her parents are very angry, and kick her out of the house (i also planned for one of her parents to hit her in the face, but i dont have to write that). Dalia does intend to go live with her relatives in Birmingham, who are aware of her pregnancy and are fine with it, but ends up not going because of plot events. 

There is also an Angel who takes a male form, but really has no concept of gender.  I know i dont want him to be white because of the white=pure=holy connotation of that. The problem is he’d be completely separate from any culture of the race he’d be presenting, because he’s an angel and is simply using a random corporeal form.  

So, is Dalia’s situation with her parents in anyway coming off as anti semitic/painting immigrants as being backwards and inherently sexist/abusive?

And, is someone adopting a form with an ethnicity but being totally disconnected from any connecting culture racist? 

Wait, you’re writing a story where a Jewish mom and dad kick out their teenage daughter for being pregnant? That strikes me as a little… “look over here at this marginalized culture! don’t they treat their young girls badly?” I mean, I’m sure getting kicked out for a teen pregnancy has happened to someone Jewish somewhere but I haven’t seen it, personally. 

Could they maybe be overprotective instead? Stop letting her go out with her friends, refuse to give her any freedom? That would do away with the “where did this author even GET this” in my head, although it would still paint us as More Backward. 

If you’re not Jewish yourself this becomes even more awkward.

–Shira

>> is someone adopting a form with an ethnicity but being totally disconnected from any connecting culture racist? 

Well, these are non-human beings that just look like humans, right? I’d assume angels have their own culture of sorts and it’s not necessarily erasure when it’s a being that isn’t even from earth. We’ve talked extensively on disconnecting PoC from their cultures and the erasure that is, but having a non-human being that simply appears as a Person of Color so doesn’t have the associated culture(s) is alright with me personally and is not the same. 

Now, if they switched between races at leisure that would feel like dress-up and is a whole different story. Also, please assure they’re not being a certain race because they just think it’s cool or interesting (see: Androids, Black Culture & Appropriation).

But if pale and white angels don’t need a reason for existing, why do Black and brown angels need one? It helps to also have human PoC of the same coded race in Angels who do have (human) cultures, though.

Here’s a discussion Shira and I also happened to write on how to differentiate species from similar-looking human ones. See: Differentiating Black-skinned Species from Black people.

–Mod Colette

the-hungry-hungry-fannibal asked:

Part 1) I want to write a fantasy story about people who can turn into dragons. In my fantasy world the dragon people came from the East (fantasy lands inspired by China and Japan etc.) where they’re nobles into the west (fantasy Europe) hundreds of years ago. The Western people hunt them down because they think their dangerous. So the ones in the west go into hiding. When they are human the Eastern dragons have Asian features but with small clusters of scales around their eyes and are slightly taller etc. there are human people living in the East as well. Could this race be unintentionally offensive towards the Asian community?

Part 2) The appearance of the dragon people who traveled into the West evolved over time to help them adapt to their new surroundings. Their skin became paler as they live in caves and thick forests. Their eyes change to improve night vision and their human appearances are more dragon like than their Eastern counterparts so they can transform faster when they’re in danger. Their dragon bodies change too like the difference between European and East Asian dragons. Does this unintentionally make the Western dragons fall into ‘Beastly POC’ trope because of their heritage?

Part 3) By lightening their skin for biological reasons am I accidentally white washing my characters? Even though they’ll be different from the other dragons they’ll still be proud of their heritage 

1) I don’t think the inclusion of this race would be offensive toward East Asians on its face, but it all really depends on execution. You’ve mentioned there are East Asian humans, which is good, but at the same time, their treatment in the story, along with the dragon shapeshifters, is going to be a factor as to whether or not it’s offensive.

2) I think this trope could be averted with the inclusion of dragon people from the East, although I think you’re also running into a bit of a problem because technically the Western dragon people would be diaspora, and from my perspective as a diaspora Asian, you need to be careful not to perpetuate the dynamic of the Western transplant dragons being less “authentic” than the Eastern ones, or even disparaged because of their differences from the Eastern dragons because of adapting to their new environment.

3) Bear in mind that East Asians don’t necessarily have the same skin tone. There are pale-skinned East Asians (like myself) and dark-skinned East Asians. In any case, a lightening of skin tone doesn’t illustrate an immediate loss of culture.

–mod Jess

reyourspleen asked:

So I’m writing a contemporary fantasy story. In this world, there’s a parallel plane where most of the fae/magical people live. We’re running with the idea that the US was never colonised by Britain, and therefore the Native American fae/spirits still run the area that would be considered the US on Earth. As I’m a white writer, I’m kind of worried (…petrified) about potentially doing something wrong. 

Would it be a good guideline to use a map like this as a basic outline of where to draw the areas of what fae control what areas?

Other than reading through the appropriate tags on this blog, and doing research, research, research - are there any potential issues I’m going to run into by doing this?

It might also be worth noting that this won’t be a large part of the story, it’s largely background information, but I like to have solid worldbuilding before moving ahead with making any references (and therefore having to retcon at a later point).

I can’t speak to the Native American aspect of the story, but I can comment on the worldbuilding. I don’t see why having a map would a bad idea. Many books, especially fantasy, tend to have maps in them so I don’t see why this wouldn’t be a good idea. Though, I don’t necessarily understand how that ties into your issue of using Native American fae/spirits in your story.

I think the main issue would be your world building and having a map doesn’t really solve the issue. I don’t think you can have Native American spirits and fae and not have Native American people in your story, so keep that in mind. You don’t want to fall into the Magical Indian trope by having all your Native American characters be the only ones with magic. You would need to research the different nations and their locations, their mythologies and legends, and then really do some deep thinking about what the United States would be like if it was never colonized by Britain. Was it never colonized at all or was it colonized by another group of people?  If you change a major part of history, you need to think of all the implications it could have on your current story. It might not be a huge part of your story, but it has to make logical sense in terms of your world. You might need to answer these questions first or just write some drafts as you go along and discover more of your world. Here’s the world building tag if you want more info. 

~Mod Najela

As Najela pointed out, Native Americans don’t have “fae”. There are spirits, yes, but they take on a much different form than what the Europeans think of as “fae”. If you want to respectfully do this, you should start by learning about Native American spirituality in specific detail and erase the Eurocentric ideals of what fae are.

The map doesn’t solve your issue for another reason. Native American spirituality cannot be broken down into strokes that broad. If you look at the creation myths of neighbouring tribes in one area you’ve selected— Ojibway and Huron, around the Great Lakes region— both call North America “turtle island” but have very different ways of how it got there. In the Ojibway, Muskrat is the animal that brought the earth up to create the world. In the Huron, Toad is the animal that brought up that earth. Both of these tribes would be in the “Eastern Woodlands” part of the map, but they would have different revered animals because of their creation story. Therefore you can’t say either spirit is the dominant spirit in the area. Turtle might be a possible “overreaching spirit”, but still, that’s dicey considering the star of the story (as I understand it) is the animal that brought up the earth.

Another thing that bothers me is how you’re equating modern borders where they don’t exist; many tribes were actually split up as colonialism happened (the Huron come to mind, seeing as there is a major US branch and a major Canadian branch, but there are dozens if not hundreds of others). Instead of thinking about “this is a US tribe”, think of the general geographic region and determine how it was pre-contact.

On the “changing parts of history” thing, Native populations aren’t static— the pre-contact regions could be much different. Now, this is not an excuse to go and merge everything together, but you should probably think at least a little for how borders and alliances have shifted. For example, the Huron and Iroquois alternated between being enemies and trading allies, just like alliances in Europe changed over history. Just because something used to be that way doesn’t mean it always will be.

Overall, this seems like there’s potential there, but you need to learn enough about specific indigenous peoples to get out of the Western approach to how the world works. You’re looking to apply certain concepts that don’t fit, and you need to treat Native spirituality on its own terms instead of finding the parallels to Europe in order to do this respectfully.

When in doubt, ask Natives.

~Mod Lesya

Anonymous asked: 

Okay so i am working on several stories with POC characters. I feel like a few of them may be tropes but i’ve checked and they don’t seem to match any? 

Magical Muslim and Monster Tropes

in one story there’s a trio of magical girls. one of them is a Muslim girl who was cursed into a spider creature. she is ashamed of this and views it negatively. would this relate to any monster Muslim stereotypes? she doesn’t drink blood. she rarely uses her magic, only if she absolutely has to.

Sassy Black Stereotypes in Children

in the second story there’s a trio of sisters. they are all Black and the daughters of the personification of heaven. the first sister is very young, only 7 or 8. she is very loud and sort of bold, i don’t want her to come across as a “sassy Black girl” stereotype, because later on she reveals she is only that way because her oldest sister doesn’t care for her as much as she should. the middle sister is a teenager, like 16, and spends a lot of time on her phone. she cares very much for her little sister. she doesn’t get along too well with the oldest sister either because she didn’t take care of their younger sister. she kind of fits the white girl starbucks stereotype but is shown to be caring and gentle on a regular basis. their oldest sister is disconnected and not really sure how to be a good sister after their mother left, but she tries her hardest. i think the second 2 characters are okay but im not sure about the first one.

Greedy Latina Stereotypes

in the last story (its fantasy) the entire main cast are POC. first off theres the main heroine. she is indigenous Guatemalan of Mayan descent. she lives in a village in England. She wears English style clothes and armor and speaks English, even though Spanish is her first language. she wants to fit in so people with see her as a hero, because being a hero is her goal in life. throughout the story she slowly starts reconnecting with her Guatemalan roots, like speaking Spanish more and wearing her mother’s huipils on occasions. at the very end of the story she has learned to preserve her parent’s culture while living in England. i don’t want her to come across a negative latina stereotype of liking money and being sort of greedy. (she is strong and kinda punk as well)

Romani Elf 

one of her friends is an elf and Romani with albinism. she isn’t an elf because shes albino or albino because she’s an elf, she’s just an albino elf. she can’t use magic as well as her brother can so i think that avoids “magical albino” but is there any issue with her being Romani? i couldnt find much in your tags on Romani in fantasy. what could i do to show her living a traditional Romani life without using stereotypes? (i know it may not make much sense for an elf to be Romani, but she is because of the way elves work in this world. i wont go into detail but basically elves are sort of seen as higher beings and since her parents chose to live with a group of Romani people, their children were born Romani.)

Saudi Arabian Djinn

2 of the side characters are a Tahitian mermaid (cookiecutter shark) who mostly acts a guide. at one point she tricks the first girl mentioned by leading her off and taking her valuables. im pretty sure that’s not a stereotype however. the other side character is a Saudi Arabian djinn who is not Muslim. she’s a traditional djinn, is there something wrong with her being Saudi and not Muslim? 

Motherly Black Queen and Angry Black Woman

And finally the 2 characters that i think are sort of problematic but i cant pinpoint why. The queen is a Black woman, she is very motherly towards her subjects but this is because she is the queen and she’s sort of the sad about it, like the subjects dont know how much empathy she has for them. she is very mysterious and magical. her counterpart is the villain, another Black woman who is connected to fire. she is the sun, basically, and shown to be abusive to the elf’s brother who had the stone her spirit was trapped in for a long time. she uses a lot of big, fancy words. she is so angry because she was trapped in the stone for so long, i dont want to play her as an angry Black woman stereotype though.

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