pendejx:

There seems to be this idea that poc wanting to create safe spaces for their own people is segregation. No honey, segregation is when you beat my grandfather nearly to death when he entered in a whites only entrance.

Seriously do people not realize what the word “safe” means? 

Safe means that you need a place where you don’t feel scared, not “I’m better than you so you go and use that crappy water fountain over there.”  

Furthermore, do people think we like the fact that we need to set up safe places when it’s almost 2016? Do they not get how tragic it is to hear stories from our parents and grandparents about how terrible the world was because they were around during actual, legalized segregation? Do they not get how heartbreaking it is to see their faces when they realize that my generation and younger generations are still facing that bullshit today, only now, people can disguise it with “we had the Civil Rights Movement, we’re fine, so stop making it about race.”

Honestly, do people think we want these safe places and black movements to be necessary? More than anyone else we want to be able to say “this stuff is unnecessary, we’re fine.” But guess what? We don’t have the luxury of wearing those blinders. 

We can’t afford to.

nature-nymph:

shasana:

sancophaleague:

Recently I was in the shopping mall  and I happened to hear a conversation between some people discussing their dislike for this black girl’s hairstyle who had just previously walked by. One of them called the girl’s  hairstyle “ghetto”, then followed up by saying  “I hate when black girls put all them colors in their hair”. It led me to ask this question, what is ghetto really?  Because I have seen similar hairstyles with Caucasian women never labeled as ghetto. The word “ghetto” has a negative stigma attached to it and it seems like ghetto has become synonymous for “Black People”.
What determines whether something is Ghetto or not? Why do some people consider one ghetto and not the other? Is being crafty with the supplies available to me ghetto?  Is being creative while black unacceptable? Does the price of something determine whether you should consider it ghetto or not? Or maybe I’m wrong…. Please do share your thoughts….

@hated_logic

You’re exactly right. Just like when Black people improvise, it’s ghetto, but let a middle-to-upper class white person do it, it’s a lifehack, or being thrifty, or economical, or thinking out of the box, or brilliant, or whatever.

THIS FOR ALL OF ETERNITY

O.K. wow can we talk about this?  Because this is totally true.  Back in high school there was a girl who would color her hair based on the shirt she wore, and so she was, obviously, “ghetto” right?  But even we believed it to be true because that’s pretty much what we’re told, that this is “ghetto.”  But then I went off to college and got older and I would see white girls with the same colors in their hair but for them it was “cool,” “hip,” “unique,” and it never really occurred to me that, wow, that’s the same thing this black girl was doing back in high school.  Hell, I’ve had colors in my hair and want more colors in my hair and as cute as I think it will be and as cute as my wifey thinks it’ll be I wonder how many people are going to be like, “Ghetto.”

And it’s crazy because it’s not just white people discriminating, in fact, I grew up in Chicago so all of the comments about color in hair = ghetto came from black girls, they were the ones giving that girl a hard time.  The only thing I ever got was when I had braids in college and the, “Wow can you actually wash your hair like that?”  

It’s crazy and I hate the hair standards (that’s what I call it), like I remember coming home from college one year after I got rid of the braids and just stopped caring about my hair because, who has time for that in between classes, and being told my hair was jacked because I didn’t have it “done,” and I was like, “I was busy at school, that’s kinda more important,” but no, still got the, “Well damn couldn’t you find SOMEONE to do your hair?”   

Not really a rant, more of an… observation?

A friend of mine is hoping to do a plus sized cosplay panel at Anime Detour this year and I’m happy to say that she has all sorts of panelists in mind, including a male voice too. I really do think in this plus sized cosplay supportive circle we should hear more from men. I’ve said before that there’s this assumption about men being, well… pricks towards women in the geek circle, or that the ones being bashed on are always women, but that’s not the case at all. Bullying doesn’t discriminate. 

Now I’m not saying the ladies don’t need love and support, because they do, and yeah there are jack ass men (i.e.: the one who continued to comment on my article this week), but I feel like all it takes is one jerk of a guy to say something for people to assume that every single guy you come across is going to be like that. They’re going to assume that “anime/cartoon characters are supposed to be skinny and beautiful,” or whatever the quote is that that guy said on my article I don’t even remember anymore. They’ll assume that all a man cares about with cosplay is if he can fantasize about the girl and that’s it. There’s no way he likes the cosplay because he likes the detail and construction and he likes the character, nope, he just wants to think about that girl in his bed. All because of that one random guy who makes a dumb ass comment. 

And I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but I’m guilty of this assumption, too! The first time I wore Tiana the first person who gave me a compliment was a guy and I thought, “… o.k. what parallel universe is this I’m not Catwoman I’m a Disney princess…” but honestly, I actually do have a lot of male fans! And I am deeply sorry, gentlemen, for the assumptions I made in the beginning. I’ve gotten much better about it, though :)

But I think we also assume that men don’t have issues with their body. We assume that a man can just walk around, being as plus sized as he wants, and he gets no crap for it. But that’s not true at all. There are men who are just as uncertain about this as we are, who won’t cosplay even if they want to, or they assume that they need to cosplay “the fat guy” because that’s their body type. There are men who get intimidated when they see that hard bodied shirtless Goku cosplayer and think, “Well nevermind I shouldn’t do it at all.” They see some guy pull off the skintight Venom cosplay and shake their heads because they don’t look like that, so they shouldn’t even attempt it. 

So all and all, I hope this panel comes to life for Anime Detour, and I think hearing a variety of voices would be great :) If it does become a thing I’ll post about it ^^

There’s this idea I want to discuss, this concept people have in regards to plus sized cosplay.  Some people say things like, “they need to be aware of their body.”  They say these things to be helpful, because “people can be mean,” and things like that.

I get what you’re saying, but honestly?  That’s not very helpful.

I get that you’re trying to give us warning, because you’re right, people CAN be mean.  They can say horrible things to plus sized cosplayers, tell them who they shouldn’t cosplay because of their weight.  This also goes for cosplayers of color, how they’re not the right race, or crossplay, or just… anything really.

However.

At this point, we as diverse cosplayers… already know that these people exist.  Not just because of the cosplay community, but because of society as a whole.  Honestly?  The people who give me the most crap for my weight, race, gender, and sexuality are people outside the cosplay/geek community.  Hell, election season showed a lot of men in suits telling me what rape really meant, or who I should marry, and things like that.  I’ve been told that I would be really cute “if I just lost some weight,” I’ve been told that I “sound white,” and have heard, “that’s gay,” on a daily basis thanks to retail.  All of this has been outside of cosplay.  

It’s INSIDE the community where I’ve felt the most confident, have gotten the most compliments in regards of my appearance (even outside of cosplay this last Sunday I was told I looked pretty in a pair of jeans and a shirt).

I mean, I get where people are coming from with their warnings, because yes, those negative people do exist.  But honestly, most of us coming into this community have already faced negativity for our looks, and we’re coming here to have fun and be ourselves.  If you want to be positive towards us, don’t tell us to “be conscious of your body,” because… we already are.  We can’t help BUT be conscious of our bodies, not because you tell us to be, but because society tells us to be.  I can’t get a cute hoodie without paying a hell of a lot of money because places charge more for a bigger size.  Good luck for me ever finding a bra under $60.  Weight loss commercials run like political ads during elections.  

And don’t talk to me about racism because even fucking Oprah was discriminated against recently.  Fucking.  Oprah.  And fuck, I’ve been with the same girl for 11 years and I JUST NOW have the option to marry her, in what is it now?  13 states or something?

If you really want to support us, offer compliments (real compliments don’t say them if you don’t mean them because WE WILL KNOW IF YOU ARE TALKING BULLSHIT because, trust me, we’ve heard it before).  We already know about the negative folks, the bashers, the “you’re too big to cosplay Sailor Moon” or “Sailor Venus isn’t black” and just… we get it.  We already know.  So don’t assume you’re doing us a favor by saying, “I am supportive of all cosplay I just want you to understand that there are some people who won’t support you because of your size,” or, “be careful if you weigh this much and want to cosplay this character not everyone will like it.”

The correct thing to say, if you really are supportive, is, “Do what you do and rock it.”