Saturday, May 24, 2008

Now, what's all this crazy talk about "Whitewashing"?

Lately, there have been a few complaints in the comics blogosphere about the "whitewashing" of certain ethnic comic characters, particularly the female ones, to hide or downplay their true ethnicity, even in the case of long-standing characters who have been around since the 70's or 80's.

Why, one blogger even came up with her own term for it: "Vixenification."

To which I respond: What the hell are you TALKING about? There's NO SUCH THING.

Why, look at Misty Knight here.


Why, she doesn't look "whitewashed" at all! She looks like a strong, attractive, capable Hispanic woman.

Just as she's always been drawn.

Just as John Byrne drew her back in the 70's...

...oh, wait.

5 Comments:

At 9:37 AM , Blogger SallyP said...

Wait...BLUE eyes? Straight hair? on Misty? This is beginning to get a wee bit out of hand.

 
At 9:35 PM , Blogger notintheface said...

Actually, it passed up "out of hand" a few exits back and is now heading toward "fucking ridiculous".

 
At 5:33 AM , Blogger mordicai said...

i mean-- i want to say that misty's portrayal is an honest mistake...shit. shit, man, i like iron fist so much, & it bugs the hell out of me.

 
At 8:12 AM , Blogger Romanticide said...

Do the colorist actually gets reference of the characters he/she has to paint color on... ? O.o

 
At 6:06 PM , Blogger notintheface said...

Don't get me wrong, Mordecai. Even the greats can screw this up sometimes. So you can acknowledge the flaw and continue loving Iron Fist/David Aja anyway.

Example: I love Ethan Van Sciver's art on THE FLASH: IRON HEIGHTS, but his rendition of Linda Park, an Asian woman, might as well have been Donna Troy the way she was drawn.

Who knows? David or Ethan could skim thru a blog comment like this one and be more mindful in the future.

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home