Entry tags:

!admin, challenge: racebending revenge

Four weeks from today, on the 2nd of July, 2010, a live action movie will be opening that replaced the entirely chromatic cast of its animated TV version with all white main leads except for a brown villain. The show is Avatar: the Last Airbender, and racebending has been a fandom-motivated protest against it that has led to a wider organisation against whitewashing in Western media.

In support of the cause, we would like to announce a challenge ficathon:

Re-write one or more white characters in the fandom(s) of your choice as chromatic/non-white/PoC, in a story of at least 500 words, with some acknowledgment of how the racial difference would make a difference to the story being told.

ETA Gender-bending and Alternate Universe (AU) stories are permitted, though we ask that you focus on the racial implications of the difference between canonical character and the reenvisioned one.

For inspiration, you can turn to the chromatic re/casting posts masterlist, as well as collaborate with fanartists or vidders who might wish to participate.

Stories posted to the challenge collection at AO3 will be revealed on the 2nd of July, 2010; if you wish to post them elsewhere, we ask that you do so on the same date, and link to them at the dreamwidth community journal.

Some critics of the chromatic recasting meme pointed out that racial identity was integral to the characters because whiteness was not in fact a blank slate. We agree. We want to know how a man called Sherlock Holmes in Victorian England would function if his skin was the colour of soot, or what Latino Dean and Sam Winchester would do to convince people to trust them, and if Buffy the Vampire Slayer can be Asian and still save the world (a lot).

Please comment to this post in order to sign-up. You may mention the fandom(s) and/or character(s) you plan to racebend if you wish to let other people know that someone is doing them, but it is not necessary, and we welcome multiple takes on a character or fandom.

If anyone would like to help out with graphics for headers and icons for this comm here and over at A03, we would be delighted!

ETA: Our challenge is live, but we still welcome submissions! Our master list of fanworks is available at Racebending Revenge Challenge Fanworks & Resources, and links to fanworks for the challenge may be made there. We also welcome fanworks at Racebending Revenge Archive of Our Own Collection.