#yellowfacing

[smoovecosplaya]

Race-facing: JUST DON'T DO IT!!!

My thoughts on the too-often reoccurring incidences of race-facing/black-facing in #cosplay.

TLDW: - If the skin tone exists in real life, don't do it. If it doesn't, have at it. - When you choose to race/black-face, you are selfishly putting your own "fun" and "art" above the pain of several large groups of people. - Your "intentions" when race/black-facing do not outweigh the impact it has on others.

[fanof---life]

Why still Holywood didn't change

[brofligate]

Yellowfacing

I've recently seen a lot of confusion regarding yellowface. People saying "what? I'm not yellowfacing!" or "It's not racist, I really love X culture!" so I've decided to make this post on it.

"What is yellowface?"

Yellowfacing is any time a non-Asian person changes a physical aspect about themselves in order to try to look Asian*. It doesn't have to involve literally painting your face yellow. Most of the time that's not involved at all. It can be as simple as putting on a wig and colored contacts or doing full-blown "geisha makeup". It's literally anything done in an attempt to make yourself look Asian. There's also internet yellowface where people pretend to be Asian online.

*Specifically East, and sometimes Southeast Asian. Attempting to look Southeast, South, and West Asian is generally in the category of brownfacing, which I really don’t feel like it’s my place to talk about, since I am Japanese.

"Why is yellowfacing bad?"

I really wish I didn't have to be explaining this in 2015. Yellowfacing is racist as hell because it turns a real life group of people into a costume. It also reduces us to whatever key features someone decides is ~Asian~. If you've never had to face the hardships specific to the different groups of Asian people, and never will, why should you get to pretend to be us? You can take off the wig and wipe off the makeup. We can't.

Yellowface has also been used historically to exclude Asians from acting roles while still being able to cash in on "exoticness". Asian characters were more often than not played by white people in makeup and prosthetics. You can see this in Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Conquerer, The Teahouse of the August Moon, and countless other films and plays. Seriously, there are so fucking many. Yellowface is still being used to this day to give white people Asian roles, notable examples being Cloud Atlas, Ushi Must Marry (a ridiculously racist film to begin with), and a performance of The Mikado in Seattle (also ridiculously racist).

These are all examples of yellowfacing:

(This fucker got surgery look like that)

They are all trying to "look Asian" in one way or another. Some examples are more extreme than others, but it is all harmful and gross.

"But I really love [insert Asian country] and this is how I want to show my respect for it!"

No. There's nothing respectful about harming the people of the culture you supposedly love so much. 

"I'm just taking ~inspiration~ from the traditional makeup of X culture!"

Why do you have to try to make everything yours somehow? Is it really that difficult to appreciate something you're not part of from afar? Don't fuck around with aspects of a culture that isn't yours to fuck around with. You wouldn't copy from someone else's artwork without permission, would you?

"But my friend from [insert country] said it was okay and they don't mind!"

But do they really think it's okay or are they just trying to make you happy? Do they have issues with internalized racism? And when it comes to people who live and have grown up in countries where they are the ethnic majority they're not going to recognize racism the same way as those who are diasporic will. A Japanese person born, raised, and living in Japan isn't going to be as perceptive to racism as a Japanese-American, for example, because they don't face racism in their everyday life. Also is this person your friend or your excuse to be racist?

"Is it okay to cosplay as an Asian character?"

Yeah, that's totally fine to dress up as a fictional character as long as you aren't trying to make yourself "look Asian" while doing it. If you want to use makeup to give yourself big, anime-looking eyes though, go right on ahead. 

"What about gyaru and ulzzang?"

This one really depends. It's not bad in and of itself, in my opinion. I see people doing gyaru and ulzzang makeup without being problematic, but I also see a hell of a lot of people doing it as yellowface because their intention is to "look Asian". I'm usually pretty suspicious of non-Asians who do this kind of makeup because it's often indicative of them being weeaboos/koreaboos.

So in conclusion, don't fucking yellowface. Don't do it. If you're not Asian, you don't get to pretend to be. It upholds a long history of racism and makes a mockery of our struggles, cultures, and identities by turning us into a costume. If you're someone who has done this don't get all stubborn and defensive. Instead: stop, apologize, and learn from your mistake. It's not going to magically redeem you of your actions but you can still make yourself a better person.

[sugabaybee]

True true

brofligate reblogged your photo:Pretend I’m #hafu #japanese #jk #newwig #newhair…

Ethnicity is not a fashion you can put on and take off. There’s nothing okay about yellowfacing. Stop.

To clarfiy since there is no context to this, basically whenever I have dark-brown to black hair I am frequently asked if I’m half. Whether its my accent or I seem like I might be half, idk but sorry to offend anyone.

In this photo, I put on a dark haired wig, and with a bit of tongue and cheek humor ( since apparently just because my hair is dark and speak accent free japanese I can't possibly be 外人) I wrote the caption. no I wasn't seriously thinking , yes I'll pretend to be half, just hey I'll do brown hair today.

[asamstudiesintro]

"Oh hellll no. Racist video alert. This one doesn't come from dumbass frat dudes or a ditzy college gal. This one comes courtesy of the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works: City Of LA Department Of Public Works Under Fire For Producing Controversial Video Mocking Asians. The video, shot at the Japanese Garden at the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys, shows a guy in yellowface dressed as a geisha, doing the usual tired-ass Asian accent mockery. This is all somehow supposed to teach viewers about using recycled water -- and is paid for by taxpayer money. Yeah. Watch:"

[sersabio]

Let me be clear: yellowfacing is not a practice of racial passing, of a white model passing as Asian. Photographers, magazines, and designers know Asian models exist and know how to hire them. But they don’t hire them for these jobs because yellowfacing is not about tricking audiences into believing that the body in view is actually Asian. This question glosses over the actual operations of yellowfacing, blackfacing, etc. which is not about Asianness or Blackness but about Whiteness. It is about consuming Otherness, it’s about making racial difference commodifiable and palatable through whiteness, it’s about reproducing and securing white privilege.

~Minh-ha T. Pham 

You know when there is a concept that you know is off, but can't formulate the words to communicate why it is to others? Ding ding ding!!!

(Don't forget to read the comments)

[lucrezianoin]

Talking about Cloud Atlas

I would have loved Cloud Atlas much more without racism and reincarnation. Well, mostly without racism.

If they absolutely wanted to have the reincarnation story they could have just let the actors be themselves, without all that make up to change the colour of their skin. I understand what the movie is trying to tell me, that those people reincarnated indipendently from sex and colour of the skin, but it still should not have ignored the past of the make up that they used and that it is racist.

But this is not what I want to talk about now. I want to talk about how I thought that the sense of the movie was not reincarnation. While I watched it, I thought the movie was explaining how people fight for their freedom (Somni and Autua mostly) when they are enslaved by other people and how this very people manage to influence the world around them and the people around them (Ewing and what Ewing wrote influenced the  music of Robert). I thought it was about how art can move people and every written world more or less famous is passed from person to person, living through time, and can influence the life of someone's else (like Erwin's book, Robet's music, Somni's words, Cavendish's movie). And about how people are thirsty for truth and want to know the truth even if it hurts (the people who reacted to Somni's words, Liusa Rey's story and Zachry). Freedom, art and truth. I think the idea that all the character were reincarnated stole a bit from how the plot, in my opinion, could have been much more powerful.

[aworldwithroses]

Ugh this yellowfacing crap is getting old.

Tumblr seems to be riddled with this yellowfacing crap. Stop being so butthurt. I mean seriously. They have Asian actors playing Caucasian people. Don't believe me?

http://s3.amazonaws.com/img_goldderby/screen_shot_201_1343314760.png

That's Zhou Xun! They're not being racist people, just reflecting a common motif. They aren't insulting your intelligence either. The comet birthmark motif in the book was nifty, but it doesn't work in a film when you're working with so many characters. To focus on all of their "commonalities" with their past lives would make an ALREADY long movie even longer. It's MUCH easier (and much more entertaining and original) to have 6 actors play the different characters whom all share a soul. Seriously, people, chill the hell out. 

Also, Lana (previously Larry) endured a sex change. Why would they be blatantly racist and judge people in this day and age when in our extremely judgmental society, start trying to be "racist"? That's so counterproductive and ridiculous. Get over it.