z

Young Writers Society


[Post Deleted]



Random avatar


Gender: Male
Points: 0
Reviews: 56
Fri Sep 02, 2016 2:53 pm
Cole says...



[Post Deleted]
Last edited by Cole on Tue Apr 26, 2022 9:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
  





User avatar
745 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Male
Points: 1626
Reviews: 745
Fri Sep 02, 2016 3:44 pm
Lumi says...



Firstly, acknowledge that the dearth of PoC religious figures seen positively is tragic. The bottom line that you would put forward a positive representation of how eternal wisdom/peace unending and full of glory comes from a woman who is recognized properly as the virgin Mary, PoC or otherwise is uplifting. Essentially, you're putting good into the literary world. Good.

Second, I don't think you have matters to be concerned as long as you keep your sensitivities both in mind and in check. There's a sweet spot between the realms of objectification/appropriation and on-the-nose social justice where you masterfully subvert tropes and precedents.

I mean, I know you. I know you're capable of it. Just try to find that sweet spot and stay in it.

ETA: Also, take my advice with a grain of salt. You're the one I go to for considerations for religious writing--not the reverse. >.> PoC sensitivities, though, yee.
I am a forest fire and an ocean, and I will burn you just as much
as I will drown everything you have inside.
-Shinji Moon


I am the property of Rydia, please return me to her ship.
  





User avatar
1272 Reviews



Gender: Other
Points: 89625
Reviews: 1272
Sat Sep 03, 2016 6:25 pm
Rosendorn says...



Browse through Writing with Colour. Their ask box is currently closed, but there's tons and tons of information there about objectification of black women and how to avoid it.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
  





User avatar
1220 Reviews



Gender: None specified
Points: 72525
Reviews: 1220
Tue Sep 06, 2016 4:15 am
View Likes
Kale says...



There's also the matter of how Mary was not black, but a Jew. PoC representation is important, but racebending is pretty easily offensive, and often an unnoticed form of erasure of various ethnicities.

In the case of the various paintings of Black Madonnas, a lot of them are the result of soot discoloration from centuries of candles being burnt in the vicinity, and none of the ones I've seen have depicted features present in various African ethnic groups. They basically depict dark-skinned Caucasians (which in itself is a form of racebending).

In this case though, there's a simple justification for Mary appearing as an ethnically black woman that doesn't involve implicit erasure: by all accounts, Mary appears familiar and instantly recognizable, and it's not much of a stretch to extrapolate that it's because of how the ones receiving the visions idealize and perceive her. In other words, Mary appears black to those women because they see Mary as being black for various reasons (such as their idea of motherhood being tied to being a black woman).

It will really depend on how you execute things, but I don't think that Mary being depicted as explicitly black would be a form of objectification in and of itself.
Secretly a Kyllorac, sometimes a Murtle.
There are no chickens in Hyrule.
Princessence: A LMS Project
WRFF | KotGR
  





Random avatar


Gender: Male
Points: 0
Reviews: 56
Wed Sep 07, 2016 2:55 pm
Cole says...



Thanks for the input guys!
  








If writers wrote as carelessly as some people talk, then adhasdh asdglaseuyt[bn[ pasdlgkhasdfasdf.
— Lemony Snicket