Mei Ling (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} wonderwomanhero) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} scans_daily,@ 2009-03-05 16:39:00 |
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This is one of my rather unusual posts. I bring you Jynx, who is undoubtably one of my FAVORITE pokemon ever! Let's start with the controversy she evokes.
The black skin. The long, blonde hair. The big red lips. The wiggly hips. Is it any wonder that people have found a racist black stereotype in Pokemon #124, Rougela (Jynx)? Here's an article reprinted from the "Black World Today" website. After a brief introduction, the accusations begin.
| Politically Incorrect Pokémon 1-5-00 The fun merely begins with the game, however. Pokémon trading cards capitalize on the game's popularity. Despite my son's begging, I initially resisted investing in Pokémon cards, having bought Pogs and Beanie Babies when those fads were at their peak. So, without spending a dime, my son assembled a 60-some-card collection using duplicates donated by friends. I eventually relented and allowed him to buy a starter set, theme deck and several booster packs of Pokemon cards at prices ranging from $4 to $17. Like I said, I have submitted to Pokémania. And I would have paid a premium for the video game Pokémon Snap if only I could have found it on store shelves or e-commerce sites during the holiday shopping season. Unfortunately, Nintendo underestimated demand, and the most popular Pokémon toys were snatched up around Thanksgiving. Committed to resume my search for Pokémon Snap after the Christmas rush, I saw a character on the Pokémon TV cartoon that not only stripped the phenomenon of its innocence but stopped me cold. The character Jynx, Pokémon #124, has decidedly human features: jet-black skin, huge pink lips, gaping eyes, a straight blonde mane and a full figure, complete with cleavage and wiggly hips. Put another way, Jynx resembles an overweight drag queen incarnation of Little Black Sambo, a racist stereotype from a children's book long ago purged from libraries. While my 10- and 12-year olds do not find Jynx offensive, their parents and grandparents do. We call a spade a spade. And we have seen enough racist stereotypes to know one when we see it. There was room to debate whether "Star Wars: Episode One's" Jar Jar Binks was West Indian, but there is no question about this Pokémon character. Jynx clearly denigrates African Americans, particularly black women. At the close of the 20th century, how could Japanese computer animators unleash such a culturally insensitive menace on the global marketplace? In Asia the racist stereotypes popular before World War II apparently die hard. In 1985 when Colgate-Palmolive bought Darkie Toothpaste from Hong Kong's Hazel & Hawley Chemical Co., the new owner inherited not only a leading brand but also a racist name and logo featuring a grinning caricature in blackface and a top hat. Rival Procter & Gamble leaked news of the offensive logo to the American market, sparking protests by civil rights groups. Though Colgate eventually scrapped the Al Jolson-inspired logo and changed the brandname to Darlie, the Cantonese name-Haak Yahn Nga Gou-remains "Black Man Toothpaste." Every few years, the Japanese sense of superiority seems to resurface. For example, the Japanese fought to keep U.S. military bases in Okinawa from relocating to the mainland. And about a decade ago, a high-ranking Japanese official attributed Japan's low crime rate to the country's lack of ethnic diversity, blaming African Americans for the high crime rate in the U.S. These are strange days. Sisters in Harlem toss long tresses-courtesy of hair extensions shorn from women in Shanghai-to the beat of misogynistic raps produced by Japanese media giant Sony. So I am not surprised, though I am appalled, that a computer animator at a Japanese corporation would conceive of Jynx and that corporate executives would deem the character appropriate for multiracial markets. Even Jynx's name-a variation on the term "jinx," which means a bearer of bad luck-has negative connotations. In addition, the name Jynx suggests a link with witch doctors and voodoo, practices rooted in African religion but often ridiculed by Western culture. Pokémon is unquestionably the year's hottest toy. Since Pokémon's arrival in the U.S. in 1998, more than 7 million of the games have been sold, representing more than half of all U.S. video game revenues. Will African-American parents continue to cough up hard-earned dollars for games and trading cards featuring a monstrously racist image? Will Jynx deal Pokémon's last hand in the black community? Or will the blonde-haired, black-faced, monster evolve into an ebony princess? Stay "tooned." Carole Boston Weatherford, a High Point, N.C. poet and children's book author, wrote Sink or Swim: African-American Lifesavers of the Outer Banks |
- Around the time Pokemon Gold/Silver came out, the official artwork for the video games was changed so that Jynx's skin was purple instead of black.
- Smoochum, the pre-evolved form of Jynx, was given purple skin right off the bat. It also doesn't share the same human features that Jynx has been criticized over.
- The tape with "Holiday Hi-Jynx" was never given to Cartoon Network when they picked up the rights to air the series, so the network has never been unable to air it.
- Jynx is the only pokemon whose figure that was not available for sale at the now-defunct Pokemon Center New York.
- An episode in the Jouto seasons, "The Cave of Ice!" was banned because Jynx was a prominent character in the episode (not because of some SARS connection or any other excuse fans would have you believe). The episode's omission, though unfortunate, doesn't really affect the story at all.
- A scene featuring the black-skinned Jynx in the Pokemon Advance episode "All Things Bright and Beautifly!" is cut from the English version.
- The anime episodes dealing with the Kinagi Town Pokemon Contest features a Coordinator who uses a Rougela. However, unlike all the Rougela before it, the Rougela in this episode has purple skin. Every other Rougela who has appeared in the series since then has been the purple version.
- When Viz released their "Best of Pokemon Adventure" compilation, they altered the panels with Jynx in it ("The Jynx Jinx") to alter the character's skin color. The original version is on the left while the "Best Of" version is on the right.
Yes, I've actually read someone post that on a message board once.
Aside from the fact that it doesn't look like either of those things, the pokemon is listed in the PokéDex as a "HumanShape Pokemon," both in the English and Japanese versions.
Well, what about Mr. Mime? Isn't it a stereotype of white people?
No. Unlike Rougela, Barriered (Mr. Mime) is clearly based on a mime. The clown hair, the way it performs its attacks like a mime, the pointy shoes, the rosy cheeks, the fact that it was in a circus in the anime before becoming Hanako's errand boy, etc...all give away its origin.
So the whole "Mr. Mime is based on white people" argument would only work if Caucasians were stereotyped as being mimes. Last time I checked, they weren't.
Aren't Lombre and Ludicolo stereotypes of Mexicans?
You could argue that. The characters' names and sombrero-shaped leaves on their heads are suspicious, but the episodes featuring people who are obviously based on Mexicans ("Take the Lombre Home" and "Go Go Ludicolo") leave little to the imagination. However, the major difference between these two pokemon and Jynx is the fact that nobody's complained about Lombre and Ludicolo. If somebody had, then the characters would be banned, you can bet on that. But, as of this writing, nobody's really raised a funk about the characters.
So yeah, the characters are stereotypes, but they're not really harsh stereotypes. Lombre and Ludicolo aren't always napping, they aren't filthy, and they aren't problem drinkers. You've never seen a bunch of Lombre crammed into a car, nor have you seen Ludicolo doing all sorts of yardwork. You know, the sort of features that the really nasty stereotypes of Mexicans all have. On the contrary, Lombre and Ludicolo are quite energetic and happy-go-lucky, and they don't share anything in common with Mexican stereotypes other than the sombrero.
However, Jynx has a number of the same attributes that black stereotypes are known for having, which is probably why people have been so harsh to Jynx while practically ignoring Lombre and Ludicolo.
Umm...no. Shellder is a clam, and Gastly is a ghost.
Besides that, Rougela's black skin is only one of the features that makes it a negative stereotype. It's the whole package that makes her a negative stereotype, not just the skin.
The problem with these "but ___ is a negative stereotype, so why haven't they been banned!?" statements is that nobody has acted on any of these. Ms. Weatherford saw a character whom she believed was a negative stereotype, and she DID something about it. She wrote a well-researched article and got it printed on a respectable news website (instead of, say, some random Pokemon fansite). Nobody's done that with, say, Lombre, which is why the character is still around today.
Jynx's doesn't have black skin; if you look at Pokemon Stadium, you can see that its face is more like a void with eyes and lips.
That's just in Pokemon Stadium, which, at the most, can be considerd a non-canon source. To my knowledge, this "void with eyes and lips" idea isn't present in the anime, any of the manga, the trading card games, or any other form of media. The thing is, it still has the wiggly hips, the huge lips, the black hands and feet, the blonde hair, the breasts, etc.
About five years ago, there was a fad among Japanese girls called ganguro. The ganguro, which is often translated as "black face," was a fad in which girls would dye their hair blonde or white and tan their skin as dark as they could get it in an attempt to be "trendy." There are many people out there who are absolutely convinced that the pokemon is based on the fad, and they will argue with you all day to argue their point. There are several problems with this argument. Why would the Japanese producers pick that one particular fad to turn into a pokemon when there are plenty of other things going around Japan that could have just as easily been turned into a pokemon? That's like basing a pokemon on POGs or Beanie Babies; sure, it'll get some laughs at the time, but it won't be too long before the joke begins to show its age.
Besides that, the date of the pokemon's conception would predate the fad by a few years. If we are to believe the Time Magazine article that states that Pokemon Red and Green took six years to complete, and the game came out in 1996, then that means that the pokemon was created some time between 1990 and 1996. The ganguro fad was at its height in 1995, so if Tajiri Satoshi was going to base a pokemon on the fad, then he would have only had a year to do so. Character concepts / creation would have been one of the first steps completed in the creation of the game, so in 1995 the character would have already been long past completed. Tajiri Satoshi wouldn't have been creating characters in 1995; he was most likely busy trying to program the game and finding a way to keep his company from going bankrupt month after month.
Then there are other features that link Jynx to a racist stereotype rather than the ganguro girls; for one thing, the ganguro girls didn't have oversized lips, and they wore white or pink lipstick--not red. Their skin was tanned or dark brown, but they were never jet black the way Rougela's was. The bottoms of their feet weren't a different color, while Jynx's feet (as seen in "Stage Fight") are a lighter color than the rest of her.
Jynx is based on a Nordic Ice Princess!
This is the most logical argument.
People argue that the pokemon is supposed to be based on a Viking ice princess. The argument is that the character's dress and gloves denote the pokemon's princess origins, and its long blonde hair scream "royalty" more than it does "black stereotype." In addition, it would explain why the pokemon is an Ice / Psychic type, since the princess in the myths uses ice as her main element. Finally, it is believed that Rougela's black skin comes from a part in the story that describes how the princess' skin is black due to blistering cold in which she's surrounded.
While the argument makes sense, I have been unable to locate anything regarding the tale. I've Googled over a dozen different word combinations, but I'm unable to come up with anything about any ice princesses. The people who argue this haven't provided any links either, so at the moment the argument is pretty much based on people's memory of a tale they heard a long time ago.
I just downloaded the episode "Holiday Hi-Jynx" to my ipod. JYNX IS SO COOL!
And here is a larger version of the image.
