Concerning the Racebent Disney Series
(( Hey guys, there have been some posts recently that have caught my attention, and I’d like to address them here, since it would take a while to respond directly to those individuals.
I truly apologize if my Disney edits have offended anyone, that was not my intent. My only intent in creating these images was to have fun and work with character design that incorporated cultures other than my own. I would love to see more diversity in Disney, however I have had no political agenda in the creation of these images.
While altering these images, I spoke with several of my friends, WOC, in order to have their insight. I based the images off of their critiques.
After posting the images, I received a bit of feedback from people online and in person. Some people were upset that I stereotyped characters. When it comes to creating a character that you want people to immediately be able to identify with a specific culture, the point is to use easily recognizable imagery. However, the clothing, jewelry and makeup I used were not simply stereotypical, they were accurate to the cultures I was drawing from. I researched and used images of actual attire, and although they are more traditional and well known outfits associated with the cultures being represented, they still belong to and are part of those cultures. If they were taken as offensive, I apologize. Perhaps I could have gone about it in a different way, but I simply loved the clothing and images I drew inspiration from and wanted to create a similar look.
Others were upset that I only altered the images into women of color, causing “reverse racism” towards white individuals. I’d like to quickly address the term “reverse racism”. Reverse racism would literally mean a lack of racism and viewing everyone as equal… racism is racism, there is no “reverse racism” unless someone chooses to alter the definition of the term. As far as my personal preference of altering the images into POC and not into white… my intent was not to cause “reverse racism”. it was simply because I enjoy working with other features, styles of clothing, and cultures separate from my own. White individuals are dominant in most media. We don’t see a lot of POC and other cultures, and I just wanted to explore that for the sake of character design.
Others have brought up the fact that I altered women of color into other women of color. My goal has been to work with all of the major Disney women, since I love their designs and simply wanted to add a twist to each character. I have not focused solely on any specific category or race of character, I simply want to work with all of my favorite Disney women. I am not trying to erase the originals, I love the originals, and altering a few lines and colors on an image will not change their stories and the fact that they exist. It’s simply fan art.
As for altering characters that have a place in actual history, once again, it’s simply for fun. Historical figures have been altered for films and stories throughout history… their examples and stories switched up and used in works of fiction over and over again. The same goes for fairy tales and their origins. Most fairy tales have been told and retold in a number of different countries with their own twists and their own cultures added into the story. Aladdin was originally a Chinese tale. The Frog Prince was Latin, and was altered over and over again in several countries. The stories can… and have been altered in many ways. My intent was not to be disrespectful, but simply to work with the animated design of the characters Disney presented and alter them.
One comment that was brought up, in several instances, was the concept that racebending’s sole purpose is to create more diversity for POC. However, racebending, by definition, is simply placing someone in the role of someone of a different ethnicity. I brought this point up with a friend of mine (an African American woman.) and with her permission, I’ll post her quote from the conversation: “Racebending was never used for representing under represented races in the past. The first example of racebending in America was Black Face and white people dressing as Asians. In actuality, racebending was meant to tell a story from a different cultural aspect, not to represent anything… racebending is neither good nor bad, it’s all up to the artist’s intent and interpretation.”
People are people, women are women, every race is beautiful and every culture is diverse, and my goal was to simply explore a bit of that diversity through character design. People will have different opinions and interpretations, and that is what art is for, to create and express. I have received a bit of flack from the images, however the vast majority of the response has been wonderfully positive. I do plan on completing the series, simply because I enjoy it and love working with Disney images.
I appreciate the politeness that has been shown in regards to people’s concerns, and I simply wanted to share my thoughts with you all since unfortunately my posts are what started some of the current threads and arguments. Thank you all so much for your time, and for the continued support of my followers, you guys have been amazing.
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