



Bone fairy and tooth fairy, posted by doctorslippery.









To many people, the portrayal of a character in fanart may not mean a lot. Whether the character is male, female, tall, short, black, brown or white—that does not always leave a lasting impact to some viewers.

For many, it’s as simple as seeing a portrayal of your favorite character or interest through the eyes of another person and that is as deep as it gets. However, for others, seeing choices that the artist makes while portraying certain character, figures, people, etc., may have a deeper impact and not a positive one.

Recently, on the depictions of the “Bone Fairy and Tooth Fairy” posted by docterslippery and various depictions of the Zelda character, Ganondorf—specially a depiction by artist s-kinnaly sparked discourse on both Twitter and tumblr. People of color, specifically black and indigenous people took to social media to voice their concerns about why these art depictions are seen as racist.

As usual, such concerns were met with backlash. So let’s break this down.

To many non-black fans, they were either in awe at the depiction of a brighter, pale skinned and smaller tooth fairy and an ominous, obviously more terrifying depiction of the dark skinned corn row wearing, and wide nosed bone fairy. Or they took quickly to shipping the two as “girl friends”. Many non-black bloggers did not actually see an issue of racism within the illustration, because when black bloggers called out the racism, they were met with backlash.

During this series, the term “brute caricature trope” has come up various times, and this is why indeed, the picture is racist. It’s a play on an old, timeless yet racist trope. The bone fairy is large, dark skinned sporting a style of braids unique to black people. The bone fairy is terrifying, as many people in the comments of the post express how she evokes fear. This is in stark contrast to the beautiful, pure and white coded tooth fairy.

This ties back to the brute caricature trope in various ways. The belief that black and brown people were bigger, scarier and less pure than white women because of skin color, hair style, and non-white features is something that has existed for centuries. Depictions of black people who are illustrated as looking big, large and terrifying as opposed to white women who are portrayed as sweet and tiny have truly crafted how those characters and figures are drawn today.

And while the bone fairy and tooth fairy might seem harmless, the depiction of illustrating a terrifying monster wearing black skin and a hair style, is offensive to say in the least.

Similarly, this is seen in the within new Zelda art, with the character of Ganondorf.









Art by s-kinnaly, portraying Ganandorf





This tweet specifically, by twitter user @lesbomancy brought up great point that again, resonate with the issue of the brute caricature trope in fandom.









tweet by lesbomancy.





There are many depictions of the character Ganandorf—who is brown--as large, scary and oversexualized in comparison to a small and pale Link and Zelda. There are even fandom comic jokes of the characters being sexually attracted to Ganondorf for his massive sizes. So why is this problematic? Ganandorf is not being portrayed as evil nor terrifying like the bone fairy was so , why would this be racist?





Art by s-kinnaly, portraying Ganandorf





To answer, the act of white people sexualizing and fetishsizing the black or brown body is again part of the brute caricature trope and something that has existed since slavery and colonization. White men and women, when buying or selling black or indigenous slaves would buy them based off of their features. Were they big, strong? Were they attractive to the point where their features could be fetishized? This led to many things like slaves forced to have affairs with their masters because white men and women sexualized bigger bodies that some black and indigenous slaves may have had.





In addition, having a brown character on display to be sexualized by not just the white characters in the drawing but also the artist and the fandom is extremely concerning. To see how easily a fandom sexualizes a brown character and how many fandom artists make a point to draw the character big, buff and sometimes scary (despite there being a minority of artists who draw the character slimmed down), shows how alive the racism is in the fandom.

The above are only two instances I’ve mentioned though they are not unique to their fandoms. In other fandoms, such as the Star Wars fandom , racism in fan art has been an issue for ages. Whether it be the negative portrayal of characters like Finn, to white washing and lightening the skin of characters of color such as Poe or even the clone troopers—racism is very alive and well.

White washing is also not something specific to the Star Wars fandom as character like

T’Challa, and Nessa from Pokemon have faced white washing in the past.

Now what can be done to fix fandom racism?

To answer this question, it’s important to realize that sometimes when artists portray racist tropes in their fan art—they don’t mean to. Racism isn’t always intentional meaning that when an artist draws harmful or racist themes in their art, they may not be doing it on purpose. So great, what can be done if that is the case? Listen to people of color who point it out is the first step. Don’t be angry, don’t be offended and most of all don’t deny that your art is racist. Interact with those calling your art racist and ask what can be done to fix it, how you can change your art so that it is not negatively portraying the body or features of a person of color.

This also does not stop at the artists. Fandom in addition, especially white fans, need to understand too that sometimes their favorite artists may have accidentally drawn a racist caricature or stereotype. Instead of defending said artist at every corner, listen to what the people of color—who are offended by that work—tell you. Support people who do not want their features being portrayed negatively by white fans.

And also, apologizing and acknowledging that you as an artist understand how harmful your work was, is always helpful.

Fan art is still one of the most popular ways artists and fans connect to their favorite media and that isn’t something that should go away. But all fans, regardless of what color, should feel free to enjoy and intake fan art without being pushed away due to racist portrayals.