#unfortunately flora still looks too light but if fans actually notice and make noise about it we Can make a change | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

floralovebot · 9 months

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on flora's whitewashing: is it possible that flora has been whitewashed in the show/movies with her artwork (illustrations) being fairly consistent with her skin tone, even prior to the reboots/nick era? like in season 1 and the movies iirc

examples: s1e3, and the movies like secret of the lost kingdom? i remember thinking she looked lighter in several scenes of lost kingdom and in that episode of season 1

i wonder if this is something that happened with flora in s1, with it not being or less a problem in s2 and 3, with the movie having a similar skintone to the reboot pictures. i swear that this has happened but i dont really see any discussions on rainbow lighting her skin other than in newer media (where it is more prevalent and more obvious) so if you have any thoughts? maybe also slightly on the merchandise/doll side of things if youre interested?

Rainbow whitewashing characters like Flora and Aisha has absolutely been an issue for a very long time. Unfortunately, a lot of white fans don't notice unless it's more of an extreme example (like Flora being stark white or Aisha looking like Bloom).

In the first three seasons, it's really not seen as a big issue because it's genuinely innocent on their part. Those seasons were hand drawn so every now and then you get a scene where the skin is too light or too dark and doesn't actually make sense with the lighting. Usually, it's an innocent mistake due to multiple artists, not understanding lighting, and things just slipping past them because they're looking at these scenes for hours and they get used to it.

Here are some examples from the first four seasons where their skin is too light even with the lighting happening around them.

And for reference, this is what their normal skin tone is (and what they look like in most scenes).

Again, people don't usually talk about these because it (most likely) wasn't racist or malicious intent from Rainbow. They just didn't understand lighting ajdhglad This actually happens with all of the winx! Just go through some episodes and you'll notice that even the white characters get lightened in ways that don't make sense.

As for the movies, Flora was 100% whitewashed in the first movie.

Flora got the brunt of it in sotlk - she's whitewashed for the entire movie, while Aisha is only whitewashed in certain scenes. There are scenes where both of them look normal and aren't whitewashed so maybe some fans just didn't realize, but if you watch the movie, you'll notice that Flora is whitewashed completely and only looks right when they're in super dark places which,, yikes ahdgalhg

The dolls were also a problem! The whitewashing in the doll lines heavily depended on the manufacturer though so it's very hit or miss.

A lot of the early dolls are perfect or almost perfect but some of them are whitewashed like in these examples. It's the later dolls that have the most whitewashing though so they tend to get more criticism (plus the early dolls are no longer being made).

Most of the other early (s1-s3) merchandising (like the magazines, bags, stickers, etc) didn't whitewash either of them.

I'd say almost all of the promotional art for the first three seasons was consistent and didn't whitewash any of the characters. It's hard to believe now of course but Iginio was initially really excited to make winx diverse (like he intentionally changed Flora to latina instead of white to make it more diverse). Rainbow intentionally whitewashing them really started with the first movie and then snowballed into what we have now. Unfortunately, I think so many white fans are so used to the whitewashing, that they've started to no longer even notice it unless it's super extreme. Like with the recent s9 promo art, most people weren't noticing Flora at all (and not ignoring her, specifically not noticing), and in a lot of fanart, they do not notice unless they're literally white.

Whitewashing has been a big issue in winx for years but I think there are a lot of fans who look at the early seasons with so much love and nostalgia that they don't want to admit it, or they don't understand how lighting affects skin, or their favorite character isn't Flora or Aisha so they just never pay attention to them (blorbo hyperbeam is very real). I'd still say that a lot of the early whitewashing was due to innocent mistakes regarding lighting and manufacturing, but the first movie was extremely on purpose (and so is everything after that).

#fans are naturally going to bring up the later things more since its happening Right Now #like the s9 promo art. the entirety of fate. s8. etcetc are all more relevant than a random doll thats not being made anymore yknow?#its still important of course but we can't change what happened unfortunately #but we can influence them now!#s9 is actually a really good example of how fans have pressured them to stop whitewashing! just look at aisha!!#she looks absolutely gorgeous and they even took the time to give her a real black hairstyle #(obviously not saying that her og hair isnt natural but you get what i mean. her having vaguely curly hair is not the same thing)#especially since they often give her Super Straight hair like in the movies #unfortunately flora still looks too light but if fans actually notice and make noise about it we Can make a change #even if that change is s10 instead ajdhgal #also holy shit s10... god its been so long i feel old now what the fuck #adhgladhglj #age crisis aside the whitewashing has been around for a while now #i didnt even touch on world of winx adhglhadg #answered #long post

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