hi, hello! so before we start i'm going to just give... idk topics that are mentioned and then list what i will be talking about.
TOPICS SPOKEN ABOUT IN THIS CHAPTER:
- racism
- homophobia (i think it's only mentioned briefly)
- sexism
- internalised misogyny (i guess that leads to sexism?? but i'm trying to make my mind clear)
NOTE: i'm snarky. i like insulting shit when i'm on a rant. i appologise.
LIST OF THINGS I MENTION (hopefully, there might be a part two):
- east asian representation [oh what a falliure this was]
- hazel [girl meets world, and coincidentally adjusts way too easily]
- piper and her native american representation [or severe lack of]
CHAPTER ONE: east asian representation [oh what a failure this was]
SO, HELLO. ro is back bitches. and she's got a fuck-tonne of sass and pure rage for this shit that's about to be talked about. now, as a person of mixed race with some east asian (chinese to be specific) i feel like i can sort of talk about this. though, i will just state that really- i can only speak for myself and my thoughts on this. i am not a spokes person for all mixed race kids, or kids with chinese descent. and to mention for everything that i will be talking about, some of the things i do not thing i have the proper place to talk about with just my view, so i brought two of my lovely friends (-melaniiie and coolkiidz-) to help me with some things (though me and kath tend to go off more in the other parts but we all go off here dw you're seeing prime angry bitch squad moments.
so, back to my shit i was talking about. now, as i list off the top of my head i can think of maybe four east asian characters: frank zhang (we'll get back to his 'white' name later), ethan nakamura, drew tanaka (we'll be getting back to her too dw and frank's grandma (because i'm not sure if she was given a name). obviously there are others but these people get speaking roles... so yes. here we go.
now, i thought i'd start with drew because i'm in love with her. and also because there's a lot to unpack.
so. drew. literally 2-d personality. in brief words of canon, the only word that comes to mind (actually, several) is: bitchy, girly and a mean girl (maybe bitch and mean girl are the same thing but three's are catchy).
there is an east asian stereotype in media that speaks of them being as bitchy. whether accidental or intentional, i think it's terrible that rick put the this on drew. the fact that he pushed this stereotype which is so engrained within western media of east asians is terrible. and the fact that she didn't get a redemption arc as well ?? it seems sus.
but besides this, there's more with drew. whilst she still is a very two-dimensional character, she canonically is seen as 'desperate' in some sense. she is seen basically clinging onto jason the minute she sees him, being invasive and flirting with him when he clearly doesn't respond to her hints. whilst this is a flaw on her character, i want to remind you of the sexualisation and fetishisation of east asians. i want to remind you that western media has sexualised east asian women, made them into sex symbols and taken traditional clothing and made it 'sexy'. it's not a new thing. in 2019, little mix partnered with pretty little thing and their culturally appropriated chinese culture.
and that's not the worst thing. it really fucking isn't.
in march 2021, 8 were dead in an atlanta spa. the culprit shooting these people to stop his 'sexual addiction' to asian women and to stop the 'temptation'.
if you add onto all of this the whole 'man stealing' thing that happens with her and is just
things like the characterisation of drew tanaka can snowball. it's not just a thing you can blow off when there are harsh affects in real life.
now, moving on from drew (though if you want to comment here and add on to this i will definitely engage in a convo abt drew dw). let's move to ethan nakumara.
now, to be real with you. this is probably going to be brief as i don't actually have must to say off the top of my head. but if you have anything please do comment !!
to be honest, i just want to ask rick why one of the only few people of colour within the pjo books literally had to die. and to be honest, as a child of nemesis and his characterisation, he plays into the idea of 'cold east asian man'. but i want to know why you add in a person of colour, barely talk about them (for maybe two books) and then you kill them. his death was the turning point for the olympians, and maybe that's a good thing.
but why did you have to kill off a character? it seems pointless. you not only give him a flimsy storyline but you kill him off before he has a chance of redemption, before he has a shot at doing anything that might actually make him a recognisable east asian character.
now, to be real with you that's all i have to say as there is literally nothing left i think i can say. now as to move onto my final two, they'll be joined together.
but first, let's talk about the beta male syndrome rick pushed onto frank so badly. now, if you're wondering, hey, ro. what is a beta male?
in short, it is the desexualisation of east asian men (a very common stereotype that links to the sexualisation of east asian women) and making them less 'desireable' as a partner compared to others.
now it might not seem so obvious to you right now, but this is exactly what happens to frank. leo says he's worth at least 'three franks' (it might be two) and frank always seems to be the butt of jokes on dating, constantly feeling like leo is 'stealing' hazel away (this links to toxic masculinity as well dw i'll get back to that) and he generally is one of the most ignored characters out of the seven even though he is insanely powerful. he's characterised in canon as the 'nice guy' the one who's 'soft' and sort of is just there. it's the overall vibe we get from him.
but we forget that he literally could turn into a dragon, literally had his life tied to a piece of wood, literally killed all those poisonous dudes in venice (i forgot the name) and threatened a god when the god of farming was testing his patience.
frank zhang is always the 'nice guy' and that's because of beta male syndrome.
now the beta male syndrome stems as i said earlier from the sexualisation of east asian women. western men made men from east asia look less desirable, and often are used as comedic belief. such as in breakfast a mickey rooney who played mr yunoshi in breakfast at tiffany's (a literal white man, mind you) to further push the borderline propaganda for the desexualisation of east asian men. take with that what you will, but it's a reason i really don't like how rick wrote frank.
i'm not going to comment on it properly, but chinese canadian baby man. do not even mention his glow up to me, i will literally rant so fucking hard.
and remember his name is fai zhang ?
(just a brief hello from future ro I FORGOT ITS HIS LIKE CHINESE NICKNAME THING... as a literal person who has a nickname from my grandma because roisin wasn't chinese enough... yall i'm gonna wallow in embarrassment for a while)
yeah, literally nobody does.
because to assimilate into society, apparently frank needed a white name. hence, frank. i'm so annoyed by that. as somebody who when they were little felt a power struggle of maintaining balance, having to constantly be more of something to fit in- i hate this. i was born with an Irish name but was given a chinese as well by my mothers side, and i'm proud of said heritage. but for frank to constantly have to cover up his name, for only his grandmother to call him that now- no, i will simply not accept this.
and to make matters worse, frank's grandmother.
now as somebody who has a chinese grandmother. frank's grandmother (lao lao for sake of ease which means grandmother from mothers side in mandarin) is every stereotype in one go. lao lao is demanding, cold and she scolds her grandson. she calls him a stubborn ox which seems like rick looked at mulan, looked at like any stereotypical chinese character in western entertainment and went yes, let us just shove words together. so yeah, not happy.
the fact the only way culture is thrown into frank and his lao lao is through shit that seems so lazy. like, ghost month ?? for real. are you fucking with me. and leading back to the fact that frank is a son of mars, and the fact that china is often known as like... well fuck what do you want me to say ? a very military based country ? it just annoys me.
not everybody in china is like that. and it just fucking annoys me. all this talk lao lao has about ancestors and honour and all this BULLSHIT. it infuriates me because this is like rick picked to watch mulan with his family and then skimmed avatar: the last airbender and just fucking brought everything together and said 'how can i put every stereotype together and cause chaos?'. maybe it's not his intention, but it's a quick google search of 'how to write east asian characters'.
i'll leave my big what the fuck here and come back if i want to get angry more.
CHAPTER TWO: hazel [girl meets world, and coincidentally adjusts way too easily]
OH DEAR fucking god. let's just... take a moment. hazel levesque is like, what. 13? 14? and the fact he describes her as being 'mature' for her age or whatever... there's only a certain amount of times you can excuse rick for not knowing things. this is not the time. it's not that hard to realise there is sexualisation of black women. literally type into google 'black women stereotypes' and you see like at the top 'sexualisation' and 'objectification of black women'. it's not that fucking hard to research that (and it leads back to the age difference of frazel).
and if we are to continue, let's talk about her appearance. besides the fact he constantly uses food to describe poc's (try do it with your white characters, rick. what are you gonna say for jason's complexion: mayonnaise?), as a dark-skined women, rick thinks it's cool to just give her light eyes and light hair because in the words of kath who angrily wrote in a shared dock about this ("poc but not exotic enough so i'll give her light eyes and light hair as a DARK SKINNED WOMAN?")... yeah.
and her whole history? it's like a fucking mess. her mother for one is a fortune teller, who is based off a voodoo queen and her mother was villanised because of it. and it's fucking insensitive when you realise the fact that black women were accused of witchcraft way more than white women.
and just killing her ?? personally i don't actually see the reason for her death. it doesn't make sense. the idea of that only led to her love traingle with the only two poc guys in the seven which wasn't even related to the whole gaia is gonna kill all of us fuck we should stop her. and if we ignore the fact her death makes no sense and look at the fact she came from the 40s ??
oh my fucking god.
the fact is plainly that there was racial segregation in America around the time hazel was alive. there were places only white people go, there were toilets in homes only white people could go to. black people might have jobs but they sure as hell weren't treated right and they were not paid right. racism was not subtle and it was everywhere. it was disgusting to just see hazel act so... natural, i guess?
she comes from an era where it wasn't safe to walk outside and be black. she came from a time of literal misogyny, racism and hate directed to her everywhere. slurs left and right. and tricks only reference to this is 'st agnes academy for coloured children and indians'.
apologises if i've said the next part wrong: but would hazel not be shocked by the friendliness of people who were... y'know- white? would she not be surprised by this all? because back in the 40's they sure as fuck weren't being that nice.
she faced upfront racism every day and to be pulled out of that into a world where there is (generally) human decency and like no upfront racism... oh my fucking god.
and to be honest, as much as i love nico, kath made a really important point when we were talking. the fact that nico saved hazel sort of seems like a white saviour arc. and if you compare (which kath beautifully did, i'll show the picture below). they're both kids of hades/pluto yet have like... totally fucking different mindsets when they came back. and just to mention, ONE OF THEM DIED. THE OTHER WAS LITERALLY IN A HOTEL.
CHAPTER THREE: piper and her native american representation [or severe lack of]
PIPER, OH my love. i love the fanon version of you. truly, i do. when people try their hardest to write you and all that. but rick wrote piper so shit. like whenever he wrote her and whenever he even tried to talk and try describe it was like for piper let's make her have colour changes eyes. because being poc isn't exotic enough for you, is it rick?
and piper. to be honest piper's whole appearance is so stereotypical that it make me want to fucking scream. like what the fuck um sir. and the amount of lowk cultural appropriation onto piper. not only did you give her like an eagle feather (which by the way are the only worn by spiritual leaders and warriors and must be gifted by an elder or tribal leader [as of the info my friends and i have gathered]). and as to why rick decided to pair that with a hello kitty shirt.
why the fuck did he make her so- we'll get back to that.
and the fact that he spent so much time on actually fucking making reference to cherokee culture but then like never actually properly follows through with it. it's like the same way rick mentions references to chinese culture and then just like ignored that completely. and like the thing is that her dad is from tahlequah, oklahoma. and there are no cherokee reservations in oklahoma. it's a quick google search so i don't get that.
it's like he did no research.
and the fact she's paired with a white guy just hurts my heart. like why is the white guy that gets paired off with a person of colour. please it like just- why. and the fact that piper is so whitewashed as well ?? all the culture was sucked out of her and she was made into this like solely a love interest or like,,, i'm so annoyed.
and now, a word from dear ryn ryn (kath) coolkiidz-
i'm gonna ask for any of y'alls angry comments because i know we could go on for days.
ok, i was gonna write more. but i'm lazy and i can't do that and i have no attention span. so here you go i will be back for like... the other four parts.
so,,, (1/5)