How do you feel about Xanthe now? I know you were originally hoping she would end up more like Olivia, but with only a few chapters left that doesn’t seem likely

My thoughts on Xanthe haven’t really changed. Why should they? “She has good potential as a character, if the writers actually give a shit about her” was always what I’ve maintained regarding Xanthe. And I was right. She did have potential, and the writers didn’t give a shit.

In the essay that you’re referring to, here’s exactly what I’d said for reference:

I was aware that these were possibilities one could explore with Xanthe’s character. But I was also aware of the treatment meted out to other black women in other stories of PB’s.

A black woman was made the victim of a vicious attack at a ball, had her concerns ignored, then was interrogated like a suspect - with an option to minimize her trauma sans consequences (Lady Kiara, TRR). Another black woman was introduced as an LI’s sister, made a plot twist and then cast aside - her entire future a question mark even though less relevant characters were talked about in the epilogue (Scarlett Emerson, VoS). At least two of their “nicer” female LIs who were introduced/given prominence late in their books then given barely much attention, were black women (Leah Myers of LH, Sloane Washington of PM). In a book that was supposed to deal with discrimination and sexual harassment in the film industry, the one woman of colour who had actually spoken of facing sexual harassment got barely any space in the book, and was vastly overshadowed by - you guessed it - a white male director (Victoria Fontaine, RCD). One of PB’s stories had an old white man point a rifle at a (potentially black) MC and I’m not even sure if any changes were ever made to this sequence, even though it has been requested (BSC).

Meanwhile Drake Walker’s ‘pink cake’ comment was changed as soon as there was an uproar from his fans, complete with an apology on Twitter.

In short - I was aware that Xanthe’s writers might see her as ‘lesser’ to the MC. Under such circumstances, I’m not so naïve that I would speak of Xanthe’s potential being met and simply believe it would happen. Not with that much certainty. Not when the ‘mean black woman/woman of colour’ is a trope PB seems to express such a fondness for nowadays.

(@massivelysilentchaos speaks of the usage of this trope in this wonderful essay, here. I highly recommend reading this)

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The observation that I “was hoping she would end up more like Olivia” is…interesting, but I’m afraid to say that it’s also inaccurate. The whole point of the essay wasn’t about Xanthe and Olivia, not really. The whole point of this essay was summed up in the title itself:

Not “why can PB not write Xanthe the way they write Olivia”. Not “why do the narrative/characters/writers not view Xanthe this way”. We. We, the Choices fandom.

White women - like Olivia and Becca and Felicity - are viewed negatively as and when they are portrayed negatively. But you’d be hard-pressed to find fandom members pushing themselves into posts and confessions that express a liking for these women, or repeatedly bring up their bad behaviour or problematic attitudes. It would be hard to find situations where people kept constantly judging readers for liking these women. Whichever way you look at it, you will find less censure and scrutiny there than you will for a Xanthe.

Otherwise how is it that Olivia, a white woman, doesn’t warrant similar scrutiny for shaming a foreigner - and a woman of colour - for something that wasn’t her fault? And continues to brand her as a loser to the same woman’s mother, even though they’ve reached a tentative truce and there is some awareness of Hana’s circumstances? Why was the fandom cooing in sympathy over Olivia’s unrequited love for Liam - to the extent that he was judged for not returning her feelings - even though she’d forced a kiss on the same man in Book 1?

On the other hand, how is it that the same fandom that condemns Xanthe - who is justifiably viewed as wrong and xenophobic for calling the MC a savage and invading her private space - for her behaviour…had absolutely no issues with the MC slut-shaming her and judging her for doing her damn job (at most, there would be a few half-baked jibes at Cassius - who was already facing criticism for a variety of reasons - but barely any blame at the MC for continuously backbiting her at that poetry reading). Not only her, but some of the men who adored this MC engaged in this sort of ugly behaviour too, and supposedly this was okay.

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Immediately after I posted that essay, an anon suggested a better comparison would be between Xanthe and Felicity, since both were “materialistic, arrogant, elitist, competitive and jealous” (never mind that Felicity didn’t exactly get this much vitriol). This is what I wrote at the end of my response to that ask:

Olivia and Xanthe are hardly even the only examples of this sort of double standard. Take Madeleine and Penelope for instance. Madeleine - the person who enjoyed abusing her power as a potential royal - didn’t get half the hate Kiara got for supporting her. Had she not been so horrible in her treatment of Hana, more people would have perhaps supported the pair (some were ready to embrace it even before Madeleine expressed genuine remorse. They were ready to ship a woman of colour with the white woman who enjoyed breaking her, and Hana was perhaps expected to be this pure forgiving woman who would become a ‘reward’ for her bully’s own sacrifices).

Penelope was deeply involved in the scandal the dragged the MC through the mud. She paid with her own credit card the photographer that took the MC’s almost-nude pictures in her bedroom, lied to the maid so she could convince Tariq to go to the MC’s room - all of this while congratulating the MC and complimenting her on her (potential) success in the social season. She only apologized and “helped” when caught, then promptly forgot what she had done by the time they all reached Shanghai. Penelope later assumes it’s okay to tell her father they are ‘best friends’ after what she put the MC through and shows hardly a whisper of remorse for her past actions in Book 3 - she is only interested in making demands on the group. So damn entitled.

I didn’t see her face this kind of hate - Penelope was viewed mostly by the fandom with sympathy, and even the people who did dislike her made it a point to acknowledge her condition (compare this to another person in another book, also struggling with mental health issues that could impact her social skills - Sloane Washington who suffered from anxiety - who was mocked for her awkward behaviour even though she did the exact opposite of what Penelope did, not only saving and apologizing for putting the MC and their friends in this danger, but also going out of her way to make amends and protect them. I can imagine having doubts about whether you can actively contribute in Penelope’s case, but the reality is that it never even crosses her mind to even want to help without them offering her something in return).

Kiara on the other hand was spoken of with hate in the fandom since the moment she dared to have feelings for Drake. This was shown in several posts and fanfic (in most of the fanfics where Kiara was shown, very few attempted to show her in a positive light. She would either be evil, or the ‘slut’ to the ‘pure, virtuous’ MC, or involved in some conspiracy, or in many ways lesser). I’d perceive this as just plain possessiveness of the popular LI, except that Penelope liked Maxwell too in Book 2 and somehow you didn’t see as much vitriol.

The same fandom that had such huge problems with Liam merely for the crime of not loving Olivia back, basically went ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ at Drake treating Kiara with derision and dismissiveness, and didn’t have a problem when he spoke to her rudely. The same fandom that were moaning about how Liam “doesn’t deserve Olivia”, would say “Kiara’s feelings are one-sided, so what”.

Also, why was it that Penelope’s mental health issues deserved to be properly addressed and acknowledged, while Kiara’s trauma was given the shoddiest treatment imaginable? (I speak about that in detail here). I’ll tell you why. Because fandom reactions to these two women made it clear that while the writers wouldn’t get away with shoddy treatment for Penelope, they sure as hell could get away with it for Kiara. And they did.

TRR isn’t unique in this either. Let’s take a look at, say, The Elementalists. Remember how many people suspected Zephyr of meddling with the wards? Remember the tone in which that was often said? “Zephyr shouldn’t be trusted, I’ve had doubts on him since day one”*. Zeph was essentially assumed guilty because he was too nice. Too friendly to a new person on campus. Too much of a decent human being (I also hear Griffin was also suspected of being ‘too good to be true’ - I seriously hope that’s nothing more than a compliment). How dare he!

Compare that to Beckett, who was actually guilty of this. Who actually meddled with the wards. As the evidence against him started mounting to a point where even his stans couldn’t ignore it anymore, this was the overall reaction: “Sure it was wrong BUT BUT BUT here’s why it’s okay that he did it!”* Look at the difference in response. When Beckett is suspected, the response is to scramble together elaborate convoluted justifications so that he would still appear sympathetic. Zephyr, on the other hand? They would focus only on what he did in the present. There was no interest in why. His own insecurities, his own fears - not important enough to explore, even if they’re clearly there in the text (I mean it’s why Zeph’s bucket list became so important to his story in the first place).

One could argue that Beckett being an LI and Zeph not being one could have contributed to this overall attitude…and I’d believe you, if I hadn’t seen a man of colour from another book be suspected of shady activity - and that man was an LI. Grant Emerson. Viewed with suspicion because he was ‘too nice and friendly’ and because he was barely around sometimes. People didn’t have a problem viewing an LI with suspicion then. Back when the scandal broke out at Liam’s Coronation in TRR, I’d seen posts suspecting Hana. Hana. Even though she was right beside Drake fighting for the MC. Because her parents for some reason were seen as shady, even though we’d never even seen them! Sounds like a section of the fandom will only adopt the “LIs cannot be viewed as suspicious” stance when it’s convenient to them.

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Funny enough, people of colour (and especially if they’re black) in the books also tend to be held to different standards from others. Either that or they’re brushed off as “too boring” or “too good to be true” or “too chirpy and comic” (somehow a Maxwell playing with his food at a UN meet doesn’t seem to warrant this level of scorn). Either way, they often cannot win.

I was a mere beginner in the Tumblr fandom when The Sophomore came out. People were more than aware of the kind of stress James Ashton was under, his feelings of hurt and betrayal at the way things went in Hollywood, the sexual harassment he had faced just two books ago from his former agent Yasmin. Not many would take this into account when he was acting snippy, while Chris’ moodiness and the amount of additional workload Arjun had to take in his stead wasn’t given nearly that much attention. Lily of Bloodbound has been labelled an ‘irrelevant LI’ recently, which is funny because without her we wouldn’t even have a story, and whatever story we would have would be dark and dreary. Imogen Wescott of It Lives Beneath was heavily criticized for her initial reaction when the MC told her the truth about her parents - never mind that this news was a complete shocker for her, and that this was Imogen’s family the MC was talking about. Hana - despite being brought up in a vastly different environment from Olivia, in ways that impacted her long after she’d left her parents - was constantly compared to Olivia, constantly dragged down and picked on in the fandom (especially post the end of TRR) to make Olivia look better. She was often viewed as weak and passive in comparison to Olivia, never mind that what Hana showed was a different kind of strength. In fanfic, too, I’ve seen Hana be written out of stories, or replaced by OCs, turned senselessly evil, or given hardly any time in stories that feature all the LIs (again, I’m not going to judge people for their fanfic, but where I see a pattern I am going to point it out).

Even when people of colour (specifically men of colour, in this case characters like Zig and Damien) become fan favourites, they run the risk of getting fetishized. Black men/men of colour who are good to the MC, are often brushed off as boring and ‘too nice’ in comparison to the edgy white LI, or worse still perceived as suspicious. In the off-chance that such a man is presented as grumpy or guarded, he is called ‘rude’ by some of the same stans that will enjoy breaking down Drake/Jake/Beckett’s ‘walls’ (Dallas).

Let’s not even get into how characters of colour are seen as not good enough on their own - so much so that people will use white faceclaims for them, or view their ethnicities as interchangeable (but that’s a subject for another essay).

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Let’s be honest: fandom racism does exist. People of colour were, are and will always be held to a different standard, scrutinized, and judged a lot more. Right now, at this very moment, we have seen at least three instances of women of colour being pitted against the MC - and not in ways that make those women look any better or any more nuanced (Xanthe in A Courtesan of Rome, Aurora Emery and Jackie Varma in Open Heart, and - from what I hear - now Ellen Thompson in Wishful Thinking is beginning to show signs of this too). Even if the narrative allows them to be good at what they do, they’re viewed with derision. In the narrative and in the fandom. In the meantime a Beckett can be super-competitive and speak derisively of your skills, and this magically transforms into a positive trait?

My essay on Olivia and Xanthe was always going to be a reaction to such an attitude, than about Xanthe or Olivia themselves. I wasn’t “hoping she’d become an Olivia”. I was prepared in case she stayed little more than a ‘lesser’ foil to the MC. I was prepared to see her being treated poorly, I just found it interesting that people lost no opportunity to condemn her from the very beginning where they would readily give an Olivia even half a chance. My intention was always to show a mirror to the way a white woman and a woman of colour - with similar sounding backstories - would be held up to vastly different standards. Here’s the closing paragraph of the same essay:

This is not to say that we do this to every single character of colour. Or that all these opinions individually, by themselves = racism. I mean, many factors contribute to why we like/dislike a certain character. But the problem is that these discrepancies in reactions have been building, and building, and building. You can’t deny that when put together like this, a lot of these things begin to add up. Add up into something unpleasant and, frankly, a little disturbing. At some point, you have to stop and think why that’s happening - over and over - and what’s behind it.

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* - bear in mind that these are not exact quotes. I was simply echoing what I was seeing in a number of posts and reblogs at the time