Marginalisation, Racism and Exclusion - The politicisation of Beauty

Well that did not take long.  A mere few hours after I posted the link yesterday about this Tumblr with a nice diversity of women on it, this asshat from FB posted this reaction to the picture of this girl.

that chick not look like the woman or people of the Tolkien universe, because she is like black people, her nose and mouth and hair are of black people, this is not a matter of racism, maybe some people thing like this but is not, everyone that read any thing of tolkien universe will realise that is a white people saga, and that is the truth, in Japan there are samurai saga´s and are extraordinary, in China also like the tales of Monkey King and the ancient Emperors and many sagas that are extraordinary also, in Africa there are a lot of heroes and tales about black people like Shaka Zulu and other and are very good, so why white people not have their own extraordinary saga? this is not a matter of racism, I hope that understand the point

Yes dude I understand your point and yes your point IS a matter of racism.

And every single time someone says 'this is not YOUR story, your Elves, YOUR Princesses'...you are marginalising people and that is racist.

Here is a Fairytale for you.

Once upon a time, there was a young black girl living with relatives in a quiet little suburb where nothing much happened.  But once in a while, a marching band came by, the band was very colourful, with their silver Uniforms and their big tasselled hats, but what stood out to the girl was the amazing Majorette who led the band and her awe inspiring twirls of the baton.  "Auntie, Auntie, can 'I be a Majorette?  Please?????"   She asked her Aunt, with all the hope of youth and innocence about what it actually entailed.
"No, they don't let black people do that"  Said her Aunt, with all the authority one would expect from an adult who grew up in a different time.

Was this the American South under Jim Crow?  No, it was London in the 80's and I have no doubt  there was no colour bar with the marching band, it was just black people simply did not do it, not that they were not ALLOWED to but of course, I believed her.

Sadly my aunt who said that has passed away and with her passing goes any opportunity to discuss that issue with her and the effect it might have had on my confidence to feel that I could do anything I wanted to do.  But that is just what the expectations were for them, you just couldn't do everything you wanted to because "they" would not "let" you in. It killed that dream.  How many other girls have dreams crushed like that?  How many well meaning adults are still crushing dreams?

Exclusion, it is a subtle form of racism but so insidious, how many little girls thought they couldn't be Princesses because of it?  How many didn't look like Cinderella or Rapunzel so thought they looked stupid in the dress because they had the wrong skin colour?  Of course we now have Tiana, Tiana is ours.  So WHY would we EVER want to dress like Cinderella EVER!!!!  Don't you know we were kind enough to make Tiana for you???

So here I am Elficising myself (Yes I just made it up) and of course overjoyed for anything that I can be inspired by, that page was heavensent and then someone had to go and diss it, because they woman was not white.  Also devaluing her by not even referring to her as a girl or a woman but a 'chick' and pointing out her black features to other her even more.

I am just so grossed out by people sometimes.

But maybe there is hope for the future?

Updates: Ethnic Elves and dietary changes

So, someone posted this tumblr page on the Elves FB group.  What I like about it is that it is very diverse,

which is SO rare in pictures of Tolkien inspired Elves.  I mean, I understand, I am not unreasonable.  He wrote those books at a different time and Middle Earth as a Europe Expy.  (Am I not merciful?)  So, you know, I don't bust a blood vessel every time someone does fan art of cosplay of a grey elf with white blonde hair (any more than I would moan about (yet another) hot pale vampire with long jet black hair (Oh noes, there is a really sexually attractive vampire..gosh darn it!).  Galadriel (as played by Cate Blanchett is pretty, I get that, Lee Pace's Thranduil is attractive)  the blonde Elves look good, but that doesn't mean that we can't look beautiful, otherwordly and mystical also.

So, my daughter is on a vegan and soya free diet all of November and because I have not managed to wean her entirely (I know, I know, I am a total hypocrite 2.5 years IS waaaaay too long) I have to be vegan and soya free also.  Though I don't believe she has a true allergy to either of these things I think it best to do it and take it seriously, I don't want to be using steroid creams on her for years, it will seriously damage her skin, so it is best to check and see if a difference.  So this will be a good time to kick start my diet, seeing as I am going to be Vegan anyway.  Though to be fair a lot of my snack foods ARE vegan (lots of vegan biscuits out there and I love pretzels, popcorn etc).  I think as long as I increase the vegetable matter and decrease the bread, it will do me a lot of good.  In general my skin is pretty good and my hair looks lovely, it is soft and the braid outs are looking very pretty now that my hair  has grown a bit.  I don't think it will be long enough by June to wear it as is, but I am happy to say the determination to keep my hair natural and NOT heat treat it is paying off in spades!

Arrgh..... Stalling!!!!!

So, my mother visited, I got ill and then my sister went into the hospital all within quick succession (my sister is fine, it was just routine) and I fell off my path. So hard to gain some control when everything is just a bit crazy at the moment. 

I had to do some deep thinking about it this afternoon and then I realised that I was being too hard on myself, I have been so busy trying to be a good daughter, sister, mother, aunt, friend and try and take a wee bit of time for myself in amongst all this (and when I mean wee, let's just say that my 'me' time was three to six am this morning....)

It is only 20 minutes to seven right now and I am wilting, I feel ready for bed but have dishes and a children's bath time to do,  no, I won't get to bed for nearly two hours and I will probably fall asleep again early, when am I do start my face treatments, do my hair or exercise if I don't get to stop all blinkin day?

Arrrgh...perhaps it is not the best idea to write all of this when I am so tired, maybe I should write this in the day when I have more energy, just now I am DEFINITELY suffering from 'doingtoomuchitis'.