New...And Hating Anita.

[watersheerie.livejournal.com]

Yes, another newbie posts....but I am estatic to be able to speak my mind about these bloody books. 

At any rate, my sister and I were having a conversation the other day about Anita and her so called 'mixed heritage.'

I have a few problems with this. Not with Anita being mixed, but the way that LKH presented it, and the reason for it in the first place. 

For one thing, I don't get how Anita's black hair and pale skin are the only things that indicate she's mixed. Black hair and pale skin are actually common traits among the Irish, and you don't get much whiter then that (no offense, I'm part Irish myself.) Yet in Anitaverse, Anita's ultra-pale skin and black hair are what define her as being mixed, especially the black hair. I don't understand why any other physical features are shown as being signs of her background. She's half Mexican, and the only thing she's seemed to gain from that side of the family was hair color, unless her mom was big chested as well. Genetics do include facial features and structure, and there are certain different facial features that are specific to different races. Since only her hair and skin color are mentioned as being 'the marks of mixed blood', I get the feeling that there really wasn't much thought put into the idea in the first place.

I probably should add at this point that I am mixed myself, and would consider myself more knowledgable on the subject then LKH. 

Throughout the books, there really isn't anything to show what it's like to grow up being mixed. All we get is a mention about how Anita's step-mom didn't claim her as a child. Her fiance dumped her for being mixed. And a few racist cops scream out the necessary racial slurs to ensure that we all get it. Anita is mixed, so there is angst in her life. But there is nothing else to it. All we see are basically stereotypes, and that's it.

Growing up mixed is like being in the crossroads. You can claim all these different races in your background, yet you really don't belong to any one of them. You're in the crossroads. Anita never shows the crossroads, all she shows is a few half-hearted attempts to prove that yes, she is mixed, and woe is her. But she never acts like it, in fact, she acts white. Nothing wrong with that (again, no offense,) but for someone who is supposedly mixed and has suffered for it, it doesn't fit. Anita is white, and I'm not talking about the glow-in-the-dark skin I fail to see what is so mixed about her, besides the hair. And with black hair she could also be Irish, or emo.

The only thing that really sets Anita apart from others, is her necromancy. That was the big 'difference' growing up. That was what kept her separate from others. Her interracial heritage is kept in the background, and brought up at various points so that the reader never forgets. I can give LKH a little bit of leeway, and admit that the necromancy is the focus of the story. However, I get the feeling that the 'mixed' part was only added to give Anita some trauma in her life, and I find that a bit offensive.  

LKH: "Hmmmmmm. Let's see, I want my avatar to have a really traumatic childhood and life, so that people will sympathize with her. I know!  I'll make her mixed, that way, there will be angst galore. After all, being mixed is all about trauma and misery, plus it's pretty cool these days to be mixed."

I'll admit, I find my heritage to be cool, and am very proud of it. But I don't like LKH using it as some sort of fad, just so her Mary Sue insert would have everything and be everything. I don't like the way it was added to give Anita angst. But, why should I be surprised to see LKH doing shit like this. After all, this is the woman that thinks rape and pedophilia is 'erotic.'

Sorry for the rant, I'm still seething about it, and I'm a bit low on chocolate right now.

Comments

[manekikoneko.livejournal.com]

Part of what I don't get is the skin thing; I've never heard that Mexicans are known for being pale, and most of the ones I've met have quite lovely olive complexions. One of my best friends for years (sadly, she's passed away) was half-Mexican, and she had a daughter who's father is six-foot, blonde and Irish, and both mother and child had dark brown hair and olive skin. Then again, I've also known people of Native American and European descent (with tribal membership, not just some great-great aunt somewhere) who were pale and blond.

And if she's saying that Anita's hair is Mexican but her skin is European (I haven't read the books in years, mercifully), I've known a lot of olive skinned actual Europeans as well, and some fairly pallid Latinos. I think LKH needs to get out of St. Louis more.

[kethryvis.livejournal.com]

In a (slight) defense of the pale-haired/skinned Mexicans... there are a few. I have a good friend who comes from a Latino family, and is as blond haired and blue eyed (more so even) than I am, European ancestry that I have. Every now and again there's a throwback to the European blood that hit Mexico All Those Years Ago... but it's incredibly rare, and you'd never mistake one for being 'mixed' or whatever. In fact, I had no idea until she mentioned that her maiden name had been Hernandez.

But yes, LKH needs to get out more. At least outside her house. Does she actually *go* anywhere?

[watersheerie.livejournal.com]

I could almost understand the pale skin/black hair combo, if LKH had added more. The pale skin and black hair are the only things that make Anita mixed, that's it. Plus a few 'traumatic racist' experiences. Nothing else is given, nothing. Anita is mixed because she has black hair and pale skin, plus she had a fiance who dumped her for being mixed.

Maybe I should tell LKH about how the mother of my sister's friend thought my sister and I were planning to seduce white men, in order to give them black babies. It wasn't traumatic so much as amusing. Then LKH could write the same story for Anita, only Anita would be hurt by the incident and force herself to never love again. Until she has sex with at least 20 guys, as sex fixes everything.

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

LKH: "Hmmmmmm. Let's see, I want my avatar to have a really traumatic childhood and life,

"....because losing her mother young and growing up the unwanted stepchild with a tendency to animate roadkill certainly wouldn't generate nearly enough trauma..."

I always wondered why LKH bothered to give Anita a past; she certainly doesn't do anything with it. How many relatives and love connections must die in passing before LKH is convinced we get it, Anita is One Tough Bitch who doesn't let anything so trivial as dead family break her stride?

[estllechauvelin.livejournal.com]

you don't get much whiter then that (no offense, I'm part Irish myself.)

I don't think you have to worry much about offending people: any largely-Irish person who has gotten sunburned on a cloudy day will agree that you don't get much whiter than us.

[wellowned.livejournal.com]

speaking from mixed ancestry, i can honestly say that i completely forgot that anita was mixed. i mean, TLC(?) was the only book that even tried to delve into her heritage, right? unless i'm sorely mistaken, which is possible since i haven't reread any of the books or anything like that in years.

but. yeah. i know that it's possible to act in one way or another to 'blend in' with the race that has the most control over you. i mean, the one with the most influence over how you act. so i'm willing to discount anita's "whiteness" as trying to be what she couldn't really be for her stepmom or whatever.

but more importantly, the gamut of mixed blood and how it shows is weird. i'm paler than my english dad, but have dark 'kinky' hair and features like my black mother. whereas my brother has the coloring of my mother, and straighter hair and features like my dad.

[wellowned.livejournal.com]

that is traumatically hilarious.

[longtail.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Not to mention Richard of the Perma-Tan...and his tan somehow suggests somewhere in his heritage someone wasn't quite "white bread." How you come up with THAT summation simply from being tan, I'd really like to know.

It's all the edginess of minorities without having to give up being white for it. So far the only person of minority I can think of that turned out to be something other than a villain, victim, or a one-shot bit part is Rapheal. Bernardo DID have most of a book to appear in and wasn't too bad, but other than that, I can't really think of any other people of minority that show up regularly or is in Anita's personal circle.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

IIRC, Anita claims her pale skin from her Germanic background, and it's the dark hair and eyes get gets from her Mexican bits.

And to all that I say piffle, because there are plenty of Europeans with pale skin, dark hair, and dark eyes.

I know it's been brought up in here before, but there was a discussion about how LKH got the whole Mexican part wrong, as they're...not exactly huge on the voodoo stuff. There's witchcraft, yes, but not voodoo as it's presented, you know?

[mitrian.livejournal.com]

any largely-Irish person who has gotten sunburned on a cloudy day

Yep. Sunburnt on a cloudy day, with SPF50. Applied twice. And I'm mostly a German/Irish mix.

[graylor.livejournal.com]

You know who else has long, curly black hair and pale skin? Jean Claude. So, what, is he a half-Mexican French vampire?

There's never any suggestion that he has mixed ancestry despite looking like Anita. Does LKH think France is now and has historically been "white bread"? Oh, wait--Europeans are totally homogenous, blond or brown-haired, and never, ever have black hair, amirite? They also don't move around, have wars, conduct commerce...

While I'm glow-in-the-dark pale, many people on Mom's side of the family inherited that shameful all-over-tan... from our Greek/Dutch ancestors.

[sharkbytes.livejournal.com]

However, I get the feeling that the 'mixed' part was only added to give Anita some trauma in her life, and I find that a bit offensive.

I agree with you there; Obsidian Butterfly was where LKH really proved to have no understanding of race, when Anita and Bernardo had that discussion about "passing." IIRC, Anita claimed that Bernardo (the Native American) was jealous of her because she was able to pass as a white person, and he was not. There was so much *headdesk* for me, I thought it was a rather cheap way of making Anita into someone "different" when in reality most people these days are biracial. And she had the gall to do it in New Mexico, the state with the HIGHEST population of people who are of Hispanic descent. It made absolutely no sense for Anita to claim that Bernardo would be jealous of her for passing as white in NEW MEXICO, since white people make up the smallest part of the population. I mean, it's possible, as racism unfortunately knows no bounds, but still it just seemed like an afterthought to me. Another way of separating Anita from "other" people.

I particularly hate her depiction of blonde-haired, light-eyed, and slender people. She has a very, very strong bias against anyone who fits this description, and it's veiled in a way that makes it seem acceptable. As someone of Nordic descent, it really pisses me off! She doesn't need to make Anita seem more special by tearing down the looks/backgrounds of other women.

momentary pimping :)

[polymexina.livejournal.com]

http://thehathorlegacy.info/books/obsidian-butterfly-lkh/

http://thehathorlegacy.info/books/the-laughing-corpse-laurell-k-hamilton/

those are the two hathor posts i have on anita's mixed race identity.

[manekikoneko.livejournal.com]

It's like she picked possibly the two most inconsequential possible physical representations of Anita's particular heritage and made them OMG SO TRAUMATIC. The OP is dead-on when she points out that Anita could be Irish with that description (I've personally met several Irish gals who fit Anita's description exactly), or even Indian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzie_Costello#Suzie_Costello) (or Welsh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwen_Cooper) for that matter, if I'm going to cite Torchwood).

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

But yes, LKH needs to get out more. At least outside her house. Does she actually *go* anywhere?

From what I've read of her blog - not nearly enough. When she goes out on tour, it's a whole, big procedure as that she hates to fly and all that. (Not to mention, she has to bring her Bodyguards w/ her, because she's that frelling paranoid. :-p)

[karmyn75.livejournal.com]

If a Mexican is of more Spanish blood than Indian, then they would probably be paler. The few people I've met from Spain ranged from light hair and blue eyes to dark hair, dark eyes, olive complexion. One of my high school spanish teachers was light complected, but had dark hair. She said her sister and brother were more Indian in appearance and darker complected.
My brother-in-law is 3/8 Cherrokee with the rest being a mix of Scots-Irish. He is pale complected, has medium brown hair and light eyes. He doesn't really burn easy, but doesn't take the sun well. His mother is very pale. I've only seen photos of his father, but he had darker hair and darker complexion. I was actually suprised to find out how much Cherrokee blood my brother-in-law acctually has. My nephew is pretty much the image of his father, but takes the sun better. He has on occassion develped a 'farmer's tan', but his face gets red quickly in the hot weather.

[kethryvis.livejournal.com]

Oh trust me, I'm not saying the OP is wrong in the slightest! There are so many other combos that can produce the light-skinned-dark-haired Anita, that it seems silly to claim that she gets all racially stereotyped off of that particular combo... especially when if you're just citing that, it seems highly unlikely anyone would poke at her for it. Unless Anita really is like LKH, and she goes around saying "YOU JUST HATE ME BECAUSE I'M HALF MEXICAN!"

Which, well, wouldn't surprise me.

[manekikoneko.livejournal.com]

I'm didn't mean to imply you said that, no.:) I think of people like Alfred Molina (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0000547/), who's played just about every nationality under the sun at some point, and it just completely dispels any idea that certain physical traits absolutely must be representative of certain peoples, especially when you're only citing two (I mentioned the OP's example specifically because it reminded me of a pair of Irish girls I used to work with).

Is LKH of mixed heritage herself, or did she just throw that in there to give Anita extra angst when she wants?

[mranon-y-mous.livejournal.com]

Have you ever been mistaken for Latino, Arabic, or even Albianin? I have. I can't go to my hair dresser without people talking to me in Sapanish.

[manekikoneko.livejournal.com]

Has "passing" really been an issue for anyone in the last 40 or 50 years? I'll admit, I surround myself with well-balanced, open-minded liberals, so I might be a little out of touch. :S

[sharkbytes.livejournal.com]

LOL, my thoughts exactly. I'm a New Yorker, and the last, oh 9000 people I've met who were half-Mexican couldn't care less about "passing." I might be out of touch as well, but the concept just seemed very old fashioned to me.

[polymexina.livejournal.com]

she just threw that in there. :p

[polymexina.livejournal.com]

it's in part what *the human stain* is about, which is based on the life of anatole broyard. his daughter recently published a book on her dad's experiences.

toi derricote recently came out w the black notebooks, her reflections on life as a light skinned black woman who sometimes passed, and the impact that had on her life.

[easol.livejournal.com]

Well, there are some. I have the same pale skin/black hair combo, and I regularly have Mexican shopkeepers and such rattling off very fast Spanish at me. I usually have to tell them that I don't understand a word.

[easol.livejournal.com]

Oh, there are plenty, like my second fave female character Meng Die. They just don't get any distinguishing characteristics -- they just get a mention of their appearance, skin tone or eyes or something. But no background, memories, references to their homeland, accents... nada, unless they are French or English.