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Sexism, Racism, Damara Megido

Hussie has a blatant racial stereotype in the comic and her name is Damara Megido.

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Before we get to that, let’s start with the stereotype itself. In American media (the very same sort hosting Homestuck in the first place), this image is a familiar one. It has been coined the Lotus Flower, but can also be called the China Doll, the Geisha Girl, and the Servant.

As a stereotype, it is oddly variant and, like many other racial stereotypes, highly oxymoronic. It consists of innocence and submission, presented with insistent, eager servitude—often boxed in a smile. This stereotype also can feature sexual prowess, despite the childlike desire to please one’s superior. As if to ham up the “childlike” nature of the stereotype, portrayers are often pegged with a terribly acute accent.

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The most famous of this stereotype is perhaps the example seen in FullMetal Jacket, when a Vietnamese sex worker tells an American soldier phrases such as “me so horny” and “me love you long time.” The clip can be seen here.

Another example that’s much more recent is one from Family Guy (yes, I know.) It can be seen here; it’s honestly indescribable.

Damara features a lot of this stereotype, even if she is a supposed subversion of these tropes. A translation of her text proves her to be unnecessarily sexual. 

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Women of color all have stereotypes concerning sexual prowess and overall submissiveness (positive) or expendability. They range from the Jezebel to the spicy Latina, but they all serve the same purpose: to illustrate people of color as less than human. They limit people to annoying ideas, lacking importance, relevance, or virtue. People become objects.

Stereotypes become statistics.

One in four men surveyed for a United Nations study in Asia and the Pacific admitted raping at least one woman.

The UN Multi-country Study on Men and Violence in Asia and the Pacific surveyed over 10,000 men at nine sites in six countries: Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka. At the survey site in China, 23 percent of men admitted to at least one rape. In Papua New Guinea, that figure was 61 percent.

The subjugation of women of color has been a huge concern since the days of early colonialism, and nothing has changed yet to keep them safe. They were and are still considered subhuman, and these stereotypes prove it.

Hussie’s actions—putting a glaring stereotype to be played for laughs in his comic—does nothing to stop this cycle, merely encourages it. Because Damara, regardless of irony intended, is still a stereotype. She barely has a personality to overshadow the gag.

She still functions to alienate Asians in the comic, and to serve as a gag and simply a gag. Despite his intentions to subvert the stereotype, he still utilized it in the comic. The little screen time Damara received did little to nothing to negate that. The entire gag is that she is a horny Asian schoolgirl stereotype, and adding bits of a backstory and people that hate her to her character does not make her LESS of that stereotype.

No. You cannot unlock some secret double-not-racist achievement by just being regular racist. Otherwise Bill O’Reilly would be president of the NAACP.

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So, no, I, as someone who is socialized to be percieved as a woman and a person of color, do not find her funny or endearing. She’s just another example as to why Andrew Hussie is such a disgusting racist white boy.

Many other women* (of color) are also uncomfortable with Damara, and there are many, many reasons why that is valid.

 

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191 notes

  1. black-umbrellas reblogged this from revretch and added:
    Wasn’t there also some discussion around the same time about, uh… Mituna? About how he was ableist? And how Kankri is a...