Winx Was Already Whitewashed;Â The True Origins Of The Netflix Casting Catastrophy
People have argued since the Afro incident that Winx Club, and RAI in particular, are racist.Â
To sum that “incident’ up, a girl enters a beauty contest and, when cursed, ends up with an afro. Everyone laughs, and she runs away crying. Of course, this scene has been removed from most copies since it aired in the US and sparked the first of many “Is Winx Racist” debates, but it was just the tip of an unfortunately very big iceberg - one that Netflix simply added onto, but absolutely did not create.
Many of those who review the Netflix casting are caught up on nostalgia, referencing images of the cast that came out almost 15 years ago. They do this without realizing that perhaps Netflix was simply casting on the current, and very much whitewashed versions of our animated childhood besties.
First Up is Aisha / Layla
You might notice the double names. Aisha was her original name in the Italian show, but the 4kids North American dub used Layla. This isn’t actually a race issue, but a copyright one due to an existing similar Western character at the time, which was solved by the time Netflix gained dubbing rights Some claim this was actually an attempt at Americanising her, however, both names are of Middle Eastern origin, and not common in the US at the time, so that  seems unlikely.
First introduced in season 2, Aisha / Layla was distinctively Black-coded. With dark skin, deep brown/black curly hair, dark eyes, and a sassy attitude, many fans were excited about the additional diversity she added to the cast.
In season 4, her look is updated, with now much lighter eyes, paler skinned and, weirdly, more orange-toned.
By the 8th season, her skin tone is nearly identical to Bloom’s, and her hair is a deep red instead of the original dark brown. She is entirely unrecognizable from her original depiction.
In season 1 of Winx Club, we meet the shy, awkward, plant-loving Flora. She wears a strawberry skirt, off-the-shoulder yellow top, and platform heels that today’s teens would liken to Cottagecore.Â
But, most notably, she’s dark skinned with dark green eyes and dark brown, albeit streaked, hair. Though her actual race is never stated within the show, it has been implied by various team members that she was intended to be of Latina decent.
By season 4, her skin and hair are both lighter, now a more orange-tinted tan colour.. Her hair is wavy, loosing the end curly. This caused some to complain, but was largely put down to the new animation aesthetic, as well as trying to make her visibly different to Layla/Aisha.
By season 7, although some images appear similar to season 4, her skin tone noticeably fluctuates across the season, tending towards a lighter tone than is shown below, though ranging to more orange and pink tones as well. This has generated some complaints, especially when people are accused of altering screenshots that show just how much her skin tone fluctuates. Her hair at least is once again darker, almost to the original shade, but is now straighter than ever before.
And while season 7 is noticeably lighter and whiter looking than her season 1 counterpart, none of these changes could have prepared us for season 8.
Flora, once praised for being a softly feminine, and entirely visible representation in a genre where few of either existed in Western media, is unmistakably pasty.
Her skin tone is barely half a shade darker than Bloom, her always-pasty rehead friend. Her hair has been straightened even more. She’s neutral or mixed at best, and a brunette white girl at worst. She’s barely even Flora at all.
RAI’s excuses ranged from technology limits - which make no sense given side character and Aisha/Layla both have darker skin and hair - to making her look “better” - which obviously implies a lot.
In season 1, Musa is a blue-haired, pale girl with very narrow, wide-set dark eyes. Her Mom is also introduced with even more East-Asian coded features, while her Dad is a little ambiguous and has been argued as either White or Asian or mixed. Her outfits for the first 3 seasons are also very clearly inspired by a combintation of East Asian street fashion of the time.
By season 4, she’s dressing in a very clearly American style, and has been made much more feminine and soft, and her eyes have been made larger. By season 9, her eyes are standard for the series, her hair is significantly lighter, and many of her East-Asian traits have been effectively erased.
Now What About The White Girls?
Many people are surprised to realize that the white characters were also made, well, whiter, and neurodivergent traits, traumas, - even just unique personalities - were wiped out.
Stella, the tanned blonde, is no longer tan. And while this may seem minor, it shows that RAI’s priorities clearly lie with making literally everyone as white as possible.
Bloom is also paler, and her hair, once a fiery orange, spent a brief time being pink-toned before becoming orange-tinted brown. She’s less fiery, and seems to have lost all the trauma from being the heir of a ruined planet.
 Techna, once very androgynous and read as autistic by many, now looks and act like a clone of bland Bloom.
Clearly, RAI has been a champion of making things more white since the moment the third series aired, so for those in the know, the Netflix casting - though disappointing - is hardly surprising.
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