"POC Coded"

[itsnotmymind]

I've complained in the past about fans stating a male character is "like a woman" or "female coded". Here's a great article about the race-based version, where white male woobies are "coded" of color:

How White Fandom is Colonizing “Character-Coding”

Getting back to my comparison to "female coding", there is a notable difference between these two problems. In my experience, fans who claim male characters are female-coded are themselves female, while those claiming that white characters are coded of color seem to be mainly white. I don't have any further speculation or analysis of that, just an observation.

Comments

[kikimay]

I really don't understand this "coding" thing. It seems to me something very American-logic and post-modernism, where you associate certain characteristics (For example: kindness, tenderness, passiveness ...) to being female. But how isn't that stereotyping a whole gender? And if a man is kind, tender and nurturing is "less manly"? What?

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

Yeah, most of the time I see "coding" used it's offensive crap. The link I posted argues that it can be used validly in some situations — for example when a fantasy race is based off of a real human culture — but in my experience it's usually not. It's usually used to stereotype.

[thenewbuzwuzz.livejournal.com]

Oh boy. Thanks for the link! :)

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

You are welcome!