A GUIDE TO THE SLAVIC ETHNICITY : a small guide to encourage diversity and accuracy since people are writing more and more characters of this ethnicity and i am very happy to see slavic muses on my dash.
nationality. slavs are the largest indo - european ethno - linguistic group in europe. they reside in countries such as : bulgaria , bosnia , serbia , ukraine , croatia , belarus , poland etc. it’s not just russia. all countries have different cultures and yet all are somehow united by the similarities in the linguistics and cultural aspects.
religion. slavs used to be pagans until their christianization in the 12th century , some minorities still practice paganism in some sense or have at least kept the old traditions. the three major religions are catholic christianity , orthodox christianity and islam. western slavs are predominantly catholic , eastern and southern slavs are orthodox and groups such as the bosniaks , pomaks , gorani and torbeshi are muslim.
during world war two anti - slavism hit its peak , with people of that ethnicity ( mostly poles ) were considered subhuman. there still remains a anti - slavic sentiment all over europe , namely accusations of theft and other crime and slavic immigrants in the uk or germany still have to deal with it.
slavic people are still somewhat scarred from the recovery from communism and the soviet union which did more harm than good , and though there are like countless memes popping up all over the internet it’s still a sensitive topic to discuss so be cautious with writing a character making jokes abt that shit.
WE’RE NOT ALL CRIMINALS , we’re not just in your country to work the hard jobs you don’t want to do. we’re doctors , we’re teachers , we’re mothers and fathers and to boil us down to crime and cheap work is kind of fucking rude.
look - wise , slavs are all different. some have brown skin , some are pale as fuck , some have “western features” and some have beautiful big noses , brown eyes. some have “asian” features , because not all slavs are european. everyone looks different despite what the media might tell you
the traditional clothing differs from country to country obviously but all of them are colourful and plain amazing like look at all the colours and patterns. slavs don’t dress like that on the daily , it is reserved for more festive occasions u feel me. in the post - soviet / post - communist era all the kool kids wore fake imported adidas , kappa , etc. badly printed shirts , sweatpants , everything WESTERN and AMERICAN cuz they all wanted to be more like that. we wanted to be more modern , look more western and tried to assimilate with the trends happening over the pond. teenagers now dress just like everyone else obviously.
DON’T FETISHIZE. it’s fucking gross and as someone who went through multiple relationships based on my ethnicity and nothing else , i wanna tell you that it exists and its yikes. it probably happens less in america but in western and central europe ??? it’s a plague. basically don’t just play a slavic woman for her “”sexual characteristics”” because women aren’t just prostitutes or seductresses in tight dresses as hollywood might suggest in dumb ass movies and tv shows.
FACECLAIMS there are so many beautiful faceclaims that aren’t american and yall don’t use them. honestly just google slavic actors there are so many talented ones. watching their movies is also a great way to brush up on the language you wish to write.
NAMES AND LANGUAGES are hard , yes ! it’s either al szczžzż or ивстрот but it doesn’t hurt to look at some basic phrases in the language of your muse. there are also helpful guides all over the internet on HOW TO NAME YOUR SLAVIC CHARACTER. with patronymics and differences in surnames for men and women etc. google is your friend.
i just want to encourage people to look into the culture they’re about to portray. GOOGLE , ASK YOUR FRIEND. READ A BOOK. WATCH A MOVIE. i see people being lazy in their portrayal of cultures they are not really familiar with and i would love to see more people actually look into it before they start writing a half - assed muse with a russian surname. i have seen countless blogs slapping a russian name and some cyrillic letters on their blog and call it a day and it’s LAZY. if you have any questions regarding slavs , feel free to message me.
titsay
snowghoul
discoholicmusic
yousharknotpass
amandla
romaincrisis
