Um, did you brownface for this cosplay? That's actually very racially offensive to the people who are actually of Aveline's ethnicity.
The costume work is lovely, but you're not the right person to be representing this character, and you shouldn't be using brownface to 'make up' for that.
The costume work is lovely, but you're not the right person to be representing this character, and you shouldn't be using brownface to 'make up' for that.
Good Sir, she is a cosplayer who went through the trouble to represent a biracial character as accurate as possible, down to the tiniest button on her character's costume to the scars on her skin. She may have put some make-up to have a closer skin tone to the character's, but so what? At least she made an extra effort for her cosplay to be as accurate as possible. And in the end, it's awesome, it has great quality, down to the last little detail.
Why are the scars and costume details not -enough- to recognise the character by?
In any case, white people painting themselves darker to portray a different ethnicity does not exactly have a pleasant history. In fact, it has an extremely offensive (and an extremely -recent-) history, and that's why it's much better to avoid it rather than perpetuate it.
In any case, white people painting themselves darker to portray a different ethnicity does not exactly have a pleasant history. In fact, it has an extremely offensive (and an extremely -recent-) history, and that's why it's much better to avoid it rather than perpetuate it.
Ok, allow me to say it in simpler terms so you can understand. This is COSPLAY, aka "COSTUME play", where you incarnate a character with a costume, a wig and MAKE-UP. It's a hobby, it's innocent, the main goal is not to offend, but to one enjoy himself or herself by dressing up as a fictional character they like.
So in the end, if you decide to dress up as a dude wearing a pink skirt and who has blue skin, you wear a pink skirt and paint your skin blue. If you decide to cosplay as a dudette wearing a jacket and who has a darker skin than yours, you wear a jacket and put make-up on to make your skin darker. It's as simple as that. I don't see how people make a fuss about it, especially with cosplayers who are just doing their own thing!
And also: since, according to you, white people can't cosplay characters with darker skin, are you also saying that who are considered "fat" can't cosplay characters who are skinnier than them?
PS: If you do decide to answer me, do it through PM so we can both spare this user's comment box.
So in the end, if you decide to dress up as a dude wearing a pink skirt and who has blue skin, you wear a pink skirt and paint your skin blue. If you decide to cosplay as a dudette wearing a jacket and who has a darker skin than yours, you wear a jacket and put make-up on to make your skin darker. It's as simple as that. I don't see how people make a fuss about it, especially with cosplayers who are just doing their own thing!
And also: since, according to you, white people can't cosplay characters with darker skin, are you also saying that who are considered "fat" can't cosplay characters who are skinnier than them?
PS: If you do decide to answer me, do it through PM so we can both spare this user's comment box.
With all due, respect, but before you accuse someone of "brownfacing": [link] . "Brownfacing" is portraying an offensive ethnic stereotype. This woman is doing no such thing: she is trying to accurately portray a character who happens to be biracial and is in no way a stereotype (and whom she clearly admires, else she wouldn't put all that work in this cosplay). Had this been a dark-skinned woman cosplaying a light-skinned character, you probably wouldn't have commented and called it "racially offensive".
I read it. It's an interesting cultureal article, but completely irrelevant to this subject or "brownface". If this is the reason it's "offensive" for a white person to cosplay a colored person, it would be exactly the same if I would say it's offensive that a white American cosplayer cosplays a Dutch character because he/she "isn't from the rich, Dutch cultural heritage that made the country what it is". But that would be stupid, wouldn't it?
With all due respect, but if you really want to do something about offensive racial stereotypes, actively go outside and volunteer in making the situation of ethnic minorities better or promote their culture in your own way. Don't sit behind a computer criticising white people who clearly admire ethnic characters and their culture, also promote them by cosplaying them and may even help endorse the creation of more of them in a medium that's still mostly dominated by Caucasian characters by showing they are interested in them and can relate to them.
With all due respect, but if you really want to do something about offensive racial stereotypes, actively go outside and volunteer in making the situation of ethnic minorities better or promote their culture in your own way. Don't sit behind a computer criticising white people who clearly admire ethnic characters and their culture, also promote them by cosplaying them and may even help endorse the creation of more of them in a medium that's still mostly dominated by Caucasian characters by showing they are interested in them and can relate to them.
Actually, the blog has -everything- to do with it and has covered the subject multiple times, amongst many others. The mods, being POC, would happen to be appropriate people to talk about this, and they have multiple followers who are also POC and eligible to talk about it too. If you don't find anything on there searching through tags, you can sent them a question specifying what you want to know, as they're currently accepting anonymous asks.
I am trying to say this politely, but so far, you haven't given a single good arguement for your case. If anything, you come across as anyone else who wields a double standard by saying "racism" and "brownface" when a white person cosplays a colored character, but stating "racial pride" whenever a colored person cosplays a white character. Those kind of people are collectively responsible for making the Assassin's Creed fandom a worse place. The case of the Dutch Rick Boer and his wife (of African descent) being boycotted off the net and receiving death threats for playing Connor and Aveline was bad and disgusting enough (and I hope you were not one of the people who did that, for they do not deserve one ounce of respect); we don't need any more morally righteous people standing on a soapbox for something I have yet to hear a colored person make a problem of.
![[link]](https://www.deviantart.com/users/outgoing?http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdmjioByLk1rbkac1o1_1280.png){kind=link}
And again, these people do not realize the difference between "brownface" and "cosplay" nor that they are often not the same thing (unless the character cosplay was, of course, already a bad stereotype). One is ridicule and offensive stereotypes, the other is about the art of accuracy and appreciation for a character. I'm going to end the discussion here, because there's clearly no point in arguing; you will stubbornly persist you are right and so will I. Good luck with promoting your cause (because compared to some of the "brownface" accusers, I must readily point out that you are a polite and agreeable person), but I hope you will one day find a more productive way to fight racism.
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