Imagine this. (Long rant, woo)
(Take note that I'm Black African so there's no arguing or disagreeing on this topic. It won't be the first or the last time I see sexualization of my race). And this has been rotting in my drafts for a while.
Imagine a world where fantasy authors don't sexualize Black people, Arab people, Indigenous people, or any POC/ethnic group that they deemed as ✨exotic✨ or ✨wild✨ but actually see them as a human being.
Notice that I said imagine because that will never happen unfortunately.
I really don't understand what is so tantalizing about people of color to white authors. I'm going to assume it's the stereotypes. It's even worse when an author writes about a male love interest who is apparently "a person of color" when in reality, they're just tanned or Mediterranean.
Rebecca Yarros in that one interview about how Xaden won't be White in the TV show yet doesn't even say what he actually is. Mind you, the crowd clapped at that. The thing is if it's vague in a book, you can say or announce what the character is based on in real life. You can say that a character is a certain race IRL and boom, all done. This ideology of wanting to tame the vicious, angry, and violent man (Black or Brown) and reform him into being gentle and kind is disturbing. I know it's out there but I'm lucky not to stumble on it.
Because of this, the fans get so upset on fancasting. "Xaden isn't White but he isn't Black either!" What the fuck is he then? You can't say he's Mediterranean because where in the region is he from? You can't say he's Middle Eastern where in the region of the Middle East is he from? Skin colors can range from the lightest to the darkest. Unrelated (if you consider it unrelated) but authors need to let the Gaelic language go.
DON'T WRITE ABOUT A LANGUAGE OR A CULTURE YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! DO YOUR RESEARCH, LEARN PRONUICATION, OR MAKE IT UP! Take from old languages, not languages that are at risk of disappearing/dying. It's even worse to take a real life culture and base your made-up one on it if you're just going to be stereotypical about it. No, that culture is NOTHING like the one in your book (Cough, Illyria, cough). Ilyria had a queen regnant who's name is Teuta;
Queen Teuta of the Illyrians was a badass Classical Age warrior queen who oversaw a fleet of hardcore pirates, antagonized the Spartans in their own backyard, led armies and navies that conquered cities and islands along the Adriatic coast, told the Romans to go fuck themselves, and then went out in a blaze of glory by hurling herself off a mountain after reportedly burying 6,000 pounds of gold in a secret location at a place called Devil’s Island. (Queen Teuta of Illyria)
And the Illyrians written by SJM are misogynistic and practically despise women. Something that the creator said is "Sexual attraction, fetishization does not equal allyship. It's just another form of dehumanization." This is what I'm taking about. Do you actually care? Or do you only care about what gets you hot and bothered?
(Original video here: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8S9b2PY/)
Bonus points if there's a character who generalizes and hates their entire race/species.
TLDR: STOP FETISHIZING MEN OF COLOR!
This was rotting in my drafts for some time, gotta clear it up.