Avoiding creating token characters

TSasha Smith

timmins.william said:

A lot of things aren't real but are real. Race is one of them. ;)

(Just went through explaining this to my questioning son for the first time, at age 8, re: Santa)

 

You mean Santa is not real????

j cade

timmins.william said:

A lot of things aren't real but are real. Race is one of them. ;)

(Just went through explaining this to my questioning son for the first time, at age 8, re: Santa)

 

 

Money is a collective delusion. Also the stock market is pretty much *feelings* (actually it's more how do enough people feel or think other people might feel about this thing and just... about things in general)

 

And no, I don't think we should go back to the gold standard either. Beyond some value for making useful stuff (which is a relatively recent development actually)"ooh it's shiny" is not exactly a marker of intrinsic value either. And that's not even getting into things like artificially creating scarcity to increase prices. (I could do a whole artificial scarcity rant too, but I'm feeling generous)

 

Uhhh... maybe wait to tell your son on this stuff. I find it pairs well with cost of college tuition and credit card minimum payments (don't if at all possible). And really it does set up a good college attitude ;)

fastbike1

@j cade  "Uhhh... maybe wait to tell your son on this stuff."

I'm not so sure. When my oldest son was 6 he asked me what "interest" was becuase he had heard that banks would give you free money if you kept your money in their bank.

I started by telling him that "the bank is not your friend" and then explained interest both from the deposit and loan side. That information stuck with him and has served him well to present (he's 33).

nicstt

fastbike1 said:

@j cade  "Uhhh... maybe wait to tell your son on this stuff."

I'm not so sure. When my oldest son was 6 he asked me what "interest" was becuase he had heard that banks would give you free money if you kept your money in their bank.

I started by telling him that "the bank is not your friend" and then explained interest both from the deposit and loan side. That information stuck with him and has served him well to present (he's 33).

Generally, old enough to ask the question (and probably understand the question at some level) then old enough to hear some of the answer, at least.

Oso3D

Race being a political and social thing is most obvious when you look at who qualifies as 'white'

Oso3D

For that matter, how often do we see different Semitic characters?

murgatroyd314

j cade said:

timmins.william said:

A lot of things aren't real but are real. Race is one of them. ;)

(Just went through explaining this to my questioning son for the first time, at age 8, re: Santa)

 

 

Money is a collective delusion. Also the stock market is pretty much *feelings* (actually it's more how do enough people feel or think other people might feel about this thing and just... about things in general)

Money is a thing that we pretend has value in order to make it easier to exchange things that really do have value ("goods and services").

And no, I don't think we should go back to the gold standard either. Beyond some value for making useful stuff (which is a relatively recent development actually)"ooh it's shiny" is not exactly a marker of intrinsic value either. And that's not even getting into things like artificially creating scarcity to increase prices. (I could do a whole artificial scarcity rant too, but I'm feeling generous)

The "precious metals" became commonly used as money because they were relatively rare but not too rare, and because they were of little practical use besides looking pretty - so money wouldn't get pulled out of circulation to be used for other things.

sandmanmax

Llynara said:

Miss Bad Wolf said:

I want diversity in my stories and art but I do not want to make token characters. I do not want to have a character just to represent a group but also I do not want all the characters to be the same.

I saw something mentioned in the Monique 7 thread about minor characters and minorities.  I am trying to make a balance but not to take it too extreme.

This is totally achievable by building your characters from the inside out and making sure they are well-rounded. Give them plenty of goals, motivations and conflicts. Give them hopes, dreams, quirks, strengths, weaknesses. Then they can be any race, ethnicity, etc because each started off as a whole person, not a token.

I'm really enjoying doing this in my superhero series, which is very diverse. I wanted my "Supers" to be for everyone, and I also wanted to turn race and stereotypes upside down. They come from all backgrounds and what makes them "super" has nothing to do with what color their skin is. They don't know why they are the way they are at first, only that they're not entirely human. It's actually the human race in general that gives them the most trouble. There are plenty of interracial couples among them, because they're actually all interracial to some degree.

Ooh! Cool - you're on Kindle Unlimited. A new series to read... 

sandmanmax

timmins.william said:

Re: fat guy

yeah, I was thrilled at the release of George, but had to steel myself for the inevitable range of fat humor and constant background radiation of 'fat people are gross'

 

 

Oh, no... My first thought was evil kings and crime lords, that are deceptively kind looking. Somebody you should be very, very afraid of. Because he has lots of mean people under his control and if he doesn't get what wants, You...Will...Pay... 

ZamuelNow

Meant to reply to all of this sooner.

wolf359 said:

Im curious as to why "diversity" matters in ones personal Fictional stories

Every one has a natural built in tribal bias towards their own cultural and even social economic demographic.

My "African American" Friend became a little incensed at the absence of "our people" in the Lead Character roles.

Pulled these out for a few reasons. In some cases it is realism. People may be trying to match things to what they see (which often doesn't look like an episode of Friends). Sometimes the popular perception is fairly incorrect (the countless times the media tries to pretend Ancient Egypt is part of Europe). The "our people" reaction often comes from wanting to produce something but not feeling like it's possible or constantly people claim it doesn't sell. There's been numerous studies showing that people are affected by the imagery and conceptions of their ethnicity.

Now in fairness, you're doing preexisting superheroes and your friend comes off like a hypocrite since he actually isn't giving black characters a chance when presented. That also tends to be an issue since it gives mixed signals.

Mattymanx said:

I say this in a positive light.  I am not trying to chew anyone out or shoot someone down.  But I dont see why people complain that they dont have this character type or that character type when genesis characters can mix morphs to your hearts content.  Grab some morphs and skins and mix away.

I find it interesting that you mention Genesis because of how it affects your last sentence. There's tons of morphs available and they can be used to great affect. It's skins that are much more limited in availability. Genesis 1 had the benefit of being backwards compatible with V4/M4 right out of the box so there's plenty of options by virtue of how long Generation 4 was around. I think more importantly, more (though still few) freebies involving non-white characters exist you you can get started right off the bat. While there have been efforts with Genesis 2 and 3, there's still gaps and freebies are few. Those skins are often not there for the morphs to matter.

Direwrath said:

Funny because I have heard the same thing being said about "caucasian" people, ie you cannot tell them apart. If I rememember correctly there was a big huff about some beauty pagent where the blonde girl won, caused an uproar because she wasn't of color, and that she looked very similar to the other blonde contestants. Ya know, it happens in all countries, and to all people. 

It's often a different source and end result from that comment. The times I've heard the "can't tell them apart" for minorities often feels blatantly racist and gets used against people with very obvious differences. The times I've heard it used for causasians tends to reveal standards of beauty problems where several women are intentionally going for the same look. One of which is usually dyed blondes.