I’m about to start oppressing and invalidating light eyed people because of this. are you happy? are you happy?
[Transcript: I saw one artist that redid Kanan/Caleb and got rid of his green eyes, replacing them with brown. When confronted about it, they [sic] said it was a bad design choice for him to have green eyes because POC shouldn’t have them and it’s whitewashing. That statement alone made me so angry. There are many POC that have blue/green/light colored eyes and saying that they don’t exist is just wrong and invalidating.]
I see posts like this and I get a little exhausted because the downside to being in such a large and old fandom is these discussions keep on having to be talked about again and again.
POC do have light colored eyes in real life, yes. However, as I keep having to restate, you need to consider the creators and their intent on having preferential design choices and how they pick certain features over others.
I think we would be giving these creators too much credit to say that when they design them in this way that they have these POC with light features in mind to represent.
They aren’t doing it for the representation.
These (white) creators are doing it for a specific exotic or otherworldly aesthetic.
Steela Gerrera. Saw Gerrera. Kanan Jarrus.
They are all fictional characters of color designed by white people in which they specifically gave them light colored eyes which – and we need to admit this despite people wanting to play devil’s advocate – are predominantly eurocentric features. And a lot of “light” features have often been lauded as “desirable” beauty features historically, and also currently with society.
And we haven’t even touched on how a lot of those characters are white washed not just in their skin but within their facial features, hair, etc.
Comparatively, I think about how a white man, Arthur Golden, chose to write a book about a geisha with blue eyes and spear headed the intrigue and interest into that world with personal creative flourishes that were later scorned by the geisha he interviewed for research.
The blue grey eyes of Sayuri had been a completely fictional addition and not based on anyone in particular, and within the book it is used to as a form of attraction and intrigue for Sayuri’s life. It makes her special even if she is scorned by her own parents for it to the point where she is essentially sold. Still, it is those features that also bring her to great heights within her life and career because they are seen as an unusual exotic feature to her, and somehow makes her all the more desirable.
Blue grey eyes that are usually normally seen within a white populace. Features that were written into the story by a white man on an asian character, based on no one in particular. In a way, it feels like a reflection on how he wrote his story despite having someone in real life to reference from. He chose to diverge from paths and create something fantastical that wasn’t even there for his own creative liberties.
Regardless of whatever I can surmise of his intentions, it makes me always have to question white creators and their fascination with giving characters of color features such as light colored eyes because it usually never really seems to come from a place of wanting to make good representation.
We’re just paper dolls to mix and match features for an aesthetic.
gracieabrams
turnnoffyourmind
areudirty
kianamaiart
gummygunk
vaporwave
