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Two thoughts on Purple People
This should be a polished essay, but I'm so tired my eyes keep unfocusing, so rather than never writing this down while waiting for the right moment, I've jotted this pair of linked thoughts.
One of the many things I noticed about this trio of splendid cosplayers is that the Princess Bubblegum has not tinted herself the same skin color as the character she's complying, but the others have: PB is pink, and while she's a pretty unnatural pink, still, many real people are various shades of pink. I found myself thinking about the recurring discussion of cosplay and skin color, and that it makes sense to only change one's skin color to one that's not seen among actual people. Painting oneself purple is an obvious costume but painting oneself brown skirts too close to the historical awfulnesses of brown face; presumably, in the Star Trek universe, one might not paint oneself purple anymore and probably won't paint oneself green, since purple and green people are real in that ficton.
There's probably a bunch of sensible essays out there about this -- I've only just begun exploring the world of cosplay. I was just thinking this and thought I'd make a note.
Speaking of sensible essays, I found this essay on "Invoking strangely colored people". Oh, if I had a nickel for every time I've seen someone say something that boils down to "It doesn't matter if you're White or Brown or Purple, if we all stop Talking ABout Race and Ignore It all racism will Go Away..." I could probably make bail if the next time I heard such a statement I went ahead and smacked the person making it. I don't know what I hate more, the idea that POC cause racism by refusing to forget who we are, or the blithe manner in whcih someone who doesn't have to deal with racism declares that because they don't none of us do or should.
[People do this about other forms of bigotry too, but that's another post.]
Ah, purple people. Where's the Purple People Eater?
One of the many things I noticed about this trio of splendid cosplayers is that the Princess Bubblegum has not tinted herself the same skin color as the character she's complying, but the others have: PB is pink, and while she's a pretty unnatural pink, still, many real people are various shades of pink. I found myself thinking about the recurring discussion of cosplay and skin color, and that it makes sense to only change one's skin color to one that's not seen among actual people. Painting oneself purple is an obvious costume but painting oneself brown skirts too close to the historical awfulnesses of brown face; presumably, in the Star Trek universe, one might not paint oneself purple anymore and probably won't paint oneself green, since purple and green people are real in that ficton.
There's probably a bunch of sensible essays out there about this -- I've only just begun exploring the world of cosplay. I was just thinking this and thought I'd make a note.
Speaking of sensible essays, I found this essay on "Invoking strangely colored people". Oh, if I had a nickel for every time I've seen someone say something that boils down to "It doesn't matter if you're White or Brown or Purple, if we all stop Talking ABout Race and Ignore It all racism will Go Away..." I could probably make bail if the next time I heard such a statement I went ahead and smacked the person making it. I don't know what I hate more, the idea that POC cause racism by refusing to forget who we are, or the blithe manner in whcih someone who doesn't have to deal with racism declares that because they don't none of us do or should.
[People do this about other forms of bigotry too, but that's another post.]
Ah, purple people. Where's the Purple People Eater?
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And that was the turning point for him, as he recalled it, and I really got that. Probably because if I had my brain, and had someone tell me that, not maliciously, but because he *cared* about me, and didn't want me to pursue a useless dream, I could just *see* how that would fuck me up.
The other thing that really hit home was his talking about "conking" one's hair. One line... he discussed how they all did it, they never considered stopping, they told all the new folks to do it and taught them how... and no one *ever* told them their hair looked good. That was like, *wow*. That was like, holy *fuck*. (It helped that I read Pam Spaulding writing about black people's hair in the past, though.)
(And now I'm ever so torn, when I notice a nice afro, or some other styling that works with natural hair, I feel like saying "hey, nice hair!" if I'm sure it'll be sincere. I'm torn, because I don't tend to say things like that to random people, and is it condescending to want to provide validation?)
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*gets off soapbox, trying not to trip*
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ED: for some reason, that last line I wrote bothers me - I was trying to say "wow, I can get a pretty vivid picture about how much that sucks" and engaging in understatement, because I do that a lot.
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If it helps, that's how I read it.
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