Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-98.247.168.42-20181122042639/@comment-32987979-20190427162957

190.61.38.145 wrote: @Applebaby12

Alright, I understand your logic that the elves need to reproduce and that is why their arent any gay couples, but the thing you said about them being oppressed- isn't the elvin society supposed to be perfect? I know they still have issues with bad matches and talent divisions, but there is no mention of lgbtq+ issues. Which means it is simply nonexistent. Even in a society with oppressed ideals, that doesnt mean those things just won't happen - just look at our society.

And describing a character as dark or tan does not equal latino. At all.

Finally, you said, "However, I don't know Messenger personally, and I doubt anyone here does as well. We don't know her intentions, and it's unfair to label her or her books as racist or homophobic."

Just because a book's intentions are not meant to be rude, things can still come out that way and it is completely fine to discuss it. I don't think her series is especially racist and homophobic, but it could use some edits.

And saying that creating a character who is diverse is just a waste is kind of rude.- "But honestly, what would that have added to the plot?"

A lot. Differentiality. Diversity. History. More range of readers. Acceptance. Proof that Shannon Messenger is not racist. (though I know she isnt trying to be)

You also said, "There are so many sideplots and stories going on at this point that I don't think it's beneficial to waste precious chapter space describing one type of character."

Just take a sentence for Sophie to say, 'she looked latino.' It's not that hard.

Note: Does anyone at all want to address the sexism issue? It's really bothering me! The part about the Latino is true, but not what I meant. There are already main characters established, and though it'd be nice for some of them to be more diverse, the deed has been done. I just don't think that Messenger really has the time anymore to keep describing characters in detail. With just two books left and a lot of unanswered questions, she really needs to bust a move with getting to the conclusion. (Of course, having Sophie in a hospital bed for half of a book is extremely counterproductive, but I'll just chalk that up to bad writing.) I would've liked for her to have made the main characters more obviously diverse, but at this point I feel it wouldn't be a good idea to add more main characters. There are too many of them if you ask me. And going too much into detail about one character like they do with the Song twins would be redundant as well. (I agree that saying "They had Latino features" would've been easy to do, but Messenger had a bad habit of either going into too much or not enough detail. Again, something she should really work on.)

And elves are already prejudiced in their own ways- discriminatory towards bad matches, Talentless elves, Pyrokinetics, etc. Because they're considered "inferior" or "dangerous." Maybe if an elf were to come out as LGBTQ+, they would be judged for being different and not being able to reproduce. (Being different is also something frowned upon by elves.) We haven't seen any LGBTQ+ elves, and so far we have no clue how they'd react. If I were writing the series, I would've made same-sex couples a common thing that no one even bats an eye at, but again, it's kind of too late now.

@Tsunami, I've already explained what I meant. I was playing devil's advocate, not actually saying LGBTQ+ people are inferior, only that the elves may see them that way. Again, I'm sorry if I've confused you, but I didn't have homophobic intentions.

Lastly, what sexism issue? I haven't noticed much sexism is the books other than "Female elves like to wear dresses," Which I don't find sexist since it's not like they CAN'T wear anything else, most just choose to. The elves don't face gender roles or things like that.