I’m putting it out there that using round wide eyes to implicitly state innocence and purity in a character; and small “slanty” eyes to convey dishonesty and deceit in your antagonist is actually racist lmfao.
I see some of you bring out this concept in you character designs over and over and yeah it’s not a conscious thought process but thinking “this is the evil character who is morally decrepit – how should I really bring that out in their image?” And then linking that immediately to drawing smaller eyes is racist yellow peril derived stereotyping.
I’m sure most of us have been guilty of this at some stage including myself so can we all just grow up and leave this bullshit behind in this year? 谢谢
Other “evil” looks based in bigotry:
– dark/heavy/thick eyebrows (racism/antisemitism)
– hooked noses vs “cute”/button/patrician (ditto)
– faces described as angular (as opposed to like strong-boned or whatever)
– “swarthy” complexion (thanks tolkien)
– blonde hair/blue eyes = hero/ine
– accents.
– “shifty eyes” iirc, I remember learning they just indicate a lot of thinking, which could be lying, yes, orrr dealing with a second language/unfamiliar dialect, or dealing with NTs as someone who’s not, or trying to figure out if the authority figure is trying to get you to agree to something they can use against you, or…
Bigotry around disability that often intersects with racism includes making villains or “shifty” characters dramatically scarred and/or having acne/acne scars, missing eyes or limbs/digits, walking with a limp and/or cane, missing and/or crooked teeth (this one can also be pretty classist, and “buck teeth” and a gap between the front teeth have a history of anti-Asian and anti-Black caricature behind them, respectively), overweight in a way that’s portrayed as “disgusting” proof of their “greed” or like moral decay or whatever, etc!
These visual markers often get layered on top of the above racist stereotypes to make a character’s design seem more “untrustworthy” or “creepy” or “unsettling,” hypersexualized/fetishized/desexualized, “aggressive” or “passive”, “mean and “scary” or “cowardly and despicable”, and so on and so on – always ask yourself and your subconscious WHY they do these things! And ABSOLUTELY hold yourself accountable for this, (my fellow white artists especially!!!)! Fighting the racist messages we’ve taken in our entire lives takes work, and it takes time, and it’s always worth doing.
Also on this list:
- Gender non-conforming = evil
- ‘Bright’ light-colored eyes = smart (white is better bullshit)
- wide noses (racism)
And really any sort of body-morphing as part of becoming evil, including the less realistic things like voldemort without a nose, comes from the ‘physical differences from the norms are scary’ thing.
Also be weary of many of these tropes when describing a ‘comical’ character, especially if the character is simultaneously defined by some very unpleasant characteristics (greediness, selfishness, etc) or presented as fundamentally undesirable on a sexual/romantic level.
QueerAnarchism 