By darkening your skin you are marginalizing person saying they are defined by their race first and foremost, and that all your race are the same. If I was white and I wanted to be Lebron, know what I would do? Wear a Heat uniform and a ratty headband while carrying a basketball. No blackface, cause it is not needed cause I am playing Lebron basketball player for the Miami Heat, not Black Lebron the Black Man. And it is just lazy and stupid. Because balckface or not 97% of people will still ask her who she was.
Julianne Hough (Actress/Singer/Dancer) Blackface Halloween costume
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Jest Chillin
Member
All kinds of people are offended by all kinds of things. Complaining about someone being offended is silly and a waste of time. The primary issue I find in cases like this (where racism isn't the intent) is the ignorance of the portrayal in the sense that skin color is not a defining characteristic of the character. Crazy Eyes is iconic for her actions and recognizable by her jumpsuit, hairstyle, and the way her hands are often tucked in her sleeves. Skin color isn't necessary at all and is just plain stupid to do on top of possibly being offensive. People really just need to stop doing it entirely.
She didn't, the haircut and clothing were changed too, skin color is part of a person appearance.
But being a prisoner isn't about the haircut or wearing prisoner cloth, it's about being in a prison, so her costum should be a fake cage around her !
I wonder if Professor Charles Francis Xavier cosplayer have the right to use a wheelchair whithout having a uproar about how they should define his charater by the fact he is paraplegic.
I'm genuinely one who would agree with such statements but she is being 'escorted' by a man in a cop uniform.
That is a LOT of subtext out of the darkening of skin that I think just doesn't exist. Some people have darker skin, some people have lighter skin - if you want to imitate them as closely as possible physically, you would address this. I don't think darkening your skin in and of itself is offensive.
GhettoGamer
Member
Funny you said that our plant manager came dressed as Lebron last year at our Halloween party you know what he wore? A headband, lebrons jersey and shoes and he had tattoo sleeves on. No blackface and he pulled it off
Even though I don't agree 100% I definitely can see what you mean, and thanks for being respectful with the reply and not going Nuclear with your response. It's appreciated.
karasu
Member
I think so too. There's a big difference between this and the exaggerated shit from the old days.
Though to be honest, I'm black and If I were dressing up as Superman for Halloween I wouldn't paint my face white. So whatever.
The cop is also in character, just like the other 2 women who were wearing orange clothes, all 4 characters of the series they wanted to use a costume from
You mean the person dressed as George "Pornstache" Mendez, a character from the same series?
Jest Chillin
Member
Professor X's Wheelchair is visually iconic. A character have a certain skin color isn't visually iconic unless it's a situation where they're an unnatural skin color, like Martian Manhunter for example.
No, because even a cat in a blue suit and a red cape could be Superman. A white guy behind a piano with sunglasses and braids could be Stevie Wonder. Though if you wanted to be George W. Bush you probably would need more than a few simple props - like a mask or some heavy makeup.
Blackface has nothing to do with dressing up as specific fictional characters. Grouping the two doesn't really help educate people that blackface is bad, because a ton of people not well versed in the history of it will look at these pictures and think it's just some harmless makeup.
The wheelchair si iconic to Xavier, except for the last few eyars where he been walking. Crazy eyes being black isn't iconic, nor a defining trait.
You not experiencing or seeing does mean it doesn't exist. People play characters all the time that are suppose to be Asian, but they ain't out getting eye surgery.
I am not sure how I feel about this specific case, but the above is too black and white. Context is hugely important in anything race, gender, etc. related. Sometimes there are little things that seem like double standards that only make sense when you look at the bigger picture.
What about the hairline?
EscoBlades
Ubisoft Marketing
Didn't take long either. What a surprise.
What do you mean by "defined?" She used other methods to describe the character: her outfit and her hairdo, for example.
But that's the whole point. Why the need to paint your face black when portraying a famous black character everyone knows is black anyway? Especially knowing the racist history behind it.
Typo I meant she was defined by her character. Which is batshit crazy, but also smarter than she lets on. Not just incarcerated black female 14432.
DonasaurusRex
Online Ho Champ
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Trojita
Rapid Response Threadmaker
Superman is a bit different. His clothing is so damn iconic it would be impossible for someone to think your not dressing as him, no matter what race you are.
grandjedi6
Master of the Google Search
I'm sure she wasn't trying to be insulting or racist. But she is pretty stupid not to realize the backlash it would cause. The US is hyper sensitive to the issue.
She's an 8!
oh fuck ....
Did she got skin surgery for its cosplay?
She didn't define a character by her skin, she dressed, make her hair style in order to be like the character she liked from the series she likes, she just went the extra mile and painted her body becuse the character is black. She didn't have to do it, you are right but she doing it is by no means offensive because there isn't a racist factor in her intentions. There is a photo in this thread that is just offensive and clearly racist wich has nothing to do with the one in the OP
Well if someone is trying to go as an asian person for halloween - it's not quite as 'low cost' to get eye surgery. Darkening your skin is really easy - especially with tanning sprays and face paint. If someone lightened their skin to be a white person for halloween (which I'm sure has happened) I don't think it would be offensive either.
I say that only because in instances like this, it has basically nothing to do with black face.
Alligatorjandro
Banned
But why did she need the skin paint?
Your trying to put a limit to what a costum/cosplay is. It's not only to show what it represent, it can simply be about trying to look like someone ( fictionnal or not ), it can stop at the costume, sure, but also go as far as using lens for the eyes color -even if that color isn't unnatural/iconic-.
Out of someone who change multiple things about himself/herself, one of which is the skin color; and people who react as if it's the only part they changed to portray the character, i'm pretty sure it's not the cosplayer who actually put too much weight to skin color.
GhettoGamer
Member
They didnt need whiteface to pull it off, but we all know what charcters they are dressed ass
Step it up senpai
Jest Chillin
Member
Again.. the fact that different people have different levels of tolerance for these things and thus different thresholds of being offended needs to be taken into account. You can not simply say "It's not offensive" and have that hold true to everyone because it plainly doesn't. It's not necessary and thus, shouldn't be done. That's it.
As a black man, if I want to portray Bruce Lee, I just need the yellow jumpsuit from Game of Death. I COULD paint my skin to look lighter and use eye makeup to make my eyes appear more slanted to "go the extra mile" but that's completely unnecessary and quite likely to offend someone, so I shouldn't do it.
karasu
Member
Neo from the Matrix then. Jack Bauer, The guys from Supernatural.
Truth
Bucket Mouse
Member
If you are white and have the urge to paint yourself black for a costume, just..think. Without fail, a good proportion of people are not going to find it offensive, and a good proportion of people are. Weigh up the pros and cons of doing it- engage your brain and ask yourself if this is going to have enough good consequences to justify it. If you still find you're just bursting at the seams to show how funny and daring you are by doing this thing that has never been done before, then by all means go crazy with the paint.
Saying that, it does indeed seem that "orange is the new black" in this case. Bit of a piss poor effort with your subconscious racism there, Julianne! Step it up!
Saying that, it does indeed seem that "orange is the new black" in this case. Bit of a piss poor effort with your subconscious racism there, Julianne! Step it up!
A lot of people get offended by a lot of different things, and their levels of tolerance to such things varies depending on the person. Where is the limit to which one person can or can't do any thing because of the chances it could offend someone?
They didnt need whiteface to pull it off, but we all know what charcters they are dressed ass
Step it up senpai
Not true to the characters imo. They gotta paint their faces white, it really helps define who they are.
Serpentine
Banned
oh shit
GhettoGamer
Member
You can dress up as black people without the need for blackface. Why is that hard for you to understand?
Bobby Roberts
Banned
I remember one of the very first threads I ever started on NeoGAF was about something VERY similar to this.
Basically, a white dude showed up to a comic-con with brown makeup because he wanted to be Geordi LaForge.
I called it Outer-Space Blackface.
A pretty interesting discussion spun out of that, I thought. Hopefully this one goes that same direction.
But yeah - there's no reason she couldn't have gone as Crazy Eyes without painting her face brown. It's not like people wouldn't have got it if she was quoting lines and mimicking the actresses performance, and it's not like anyone would have denigrated her BECAUSE she didn't paint her face in the name of costume accuracy.
edit: and yeah, in most cases, allowing for ethnic/gender differences between the character you're dressing as and your own genetic makeup makes the costume COOLER. Black Batman. Male Chun-Li. Female Beetlejuice.
It's a question of whether your one-night only portrayal of a completely fictional character needs to be so accurate that you risk the possibility of people wondering why you decided to paint your face brown to play dress up as a black person for Halloween.
Basically, a white dude showed up to a comic-con with brown makeup because he wanted to be Geordi LaForge.
I called it Outer-Space Blackface.
A pretty interesting discussion spun out of that, I thought. Hopefully this one goes that same direction.
But yeah - there's no reason she couldn't have gone as Crazy Eyes without painting her face brown. It's not like people wouldn't have got it if she was quoting lines and mimicking the actresses performance, and it's not like anyone would have denigrated her BECAUSE she didn't paint her face in the name of costume accuracy.
edit: and yeah, in most cases, allowing for ethnic/gender differences between the character you're dressing as and your own genetic makeup makes the costume COOLER. Black Batman. Male Chun-Li. Female Beetlejuice.
It's a question of whether your one-night only portrayal of a completely fictional character needs to be so accurate that you risk the possibility of people wondering why you decided to paint your face brown to play dress up as a black person for Halloween.
So many joke about men/women, religions, fat people, old people, ( let's not even go in the really dark humour ) etc... should never be made if we go that way. :/
grandjedi6
Master of the Google Search
It's an interesting question, isn't it? Who's to blame?
The actress for thinking being black was a defining characteristic?
Society for thinking the same?
Or Hollywood, who still casts characters based on a define race and always portrays it as a defining characteristic?
or if you do....don't darken your skin. Why? Because we like you.
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