in the midst of all the arguments about whitewashing, I just wanted to talk about the cast of carry on and spread some general positivity.
our wonderful cast of characters includes:
Simon, a sexually fluid boy who probably has a speech impediment
Baz, who is half Egyptian, gay, and also a football player and a violinist. also he’s depressed, suicidal and extremely repulsed by himself and his vampirism.
Penny, a chubby feminist half Indian girl who rocks multicolored hair
Agatha, an aromantic (don’t fight me on this) girl who refuses to be anyone’s prize
Rhys, a boy who happens to be in a wheelchair and is in no way defined as a character by his disability
Fiona, POC, badass single female, also probably suffers from depression.
and probs a lot more I haven’t mentioned
that is so fucking awesome. I know you all know it’s fucking awesome because we talk about it a lot. but it’s just. so. fucking. awesome.
this book represents so many different kinds of people, so many different ways of being a person, so many broken stereotypes. these characters are more than one label. they experience so many things. they represent so many minorities, so many people that rarely get to see themselves in books.
obviously there’s always room for improvement. and ideally, this wouldn’t be a rare circumstance. books, movies, tv shows- whatever- should have better representation.
but rainbow created this amazing world for all of us where we can see ourselves. we can identify with the canon characters. and I think that’s really beautiful.
the point a lot of people are trying to make is that the world does not need more whitewashing. we were given this incredible book with this fantastically diverse cast of characters. representing them as they are is about respecting them, as well as respecting real people who lack representation. that’s all.