in terms of getting an idea of the status quo, some basic government publications might be a good place to start… curious to see what there is academically though

yeah i definitely agree with that! it is an opening stance that puts people on the defence and i wouldn’t have phrased it as OP did. i’m glad to hear people have been discussing it elsewhere, i’m not in any discord servers!

i sympathized because it *can* feel alienating to find such patterns very apparent while other people seem unaware - i’ve only seen like 3 ppl discuss this on tumblr myself. i did pick this up from other posts OP made, as it wasn’t explained in that one post, so i see why there’s some confusion

oh yeah i don’t think it’s to that extent in reality either (& it’s been more noticeable to me in art although i’ve read a few fics where the descriptions made me pause and scratch my head lol) but i had the impression it was a case where OP was overgeneralizing out of frustration

no problem!! i wanted to make sure that perspective wasn’t lost

and yeah agreed, it is really ironic b/c of hans’ hunting hobby 😅 but stereotypes are powerful. i’m not even sure it’s completely applicable to henry either w/ the forge and all? lmao.

yeah, that tumblr made other posts/reblogged others aside from what i think OP is referring to (i have the link but don’t want to post it publicly) which made their stance on racism/colourism more clear - but i think OP didn’t see them if they blocked that person as quickly as it seems they did haha

exactly. i get why people felt attacked by that particular part but the op of that tumblr post being referenced is also a poc and speaking about a very real source of frustration in fandom lol. feels like the forest is being missed for the trees and all that

you hit on how i feel as a poc. like people are totally allowed to have their preferences for positions but could we not bring in this baggage with it? its already difficult dealing with this when the couple is interracial but to see the same stuff when they’re both pretty white in canon…. 😭

it’s not inherently wrong to draw henry darker, there are lots of depictions i’ve loved, but when you have a bigger and darker henry that’s paired with a hans who’s paler and daintier and those fixed top/bottom positions, well. some uncomfy connotations in that as its not really based in canon

obviously 98% is an exaggeration but i think it has been pretty noticeable when the difference between their skin colour in canon is very small

not gonna lie, i’m black and it’s been noticeable to me for months. its made me uncomfortable but not something i’ve wanted to discuss openly

“racism” is talking about the fact that there’s a trend of henry often being depicted several shades browner than hans with their canon size difference exaggerated. couple that with henry often being the top and yeah, it feeds into some unfortunate tropes. colourism might be a better word

oh my god you’re so very welcome, i should be the one saying thank you because what an incredible gift from an author!! the book just came in the mail so i’m very excited to read 😊