Prose Without Thorns | Editing
Region: US
Friday 27 June 2025 17:53:13 GMT
189153
21041
711
192
Music
Download
Comments
Brent Johner 🇨🇦 Author :
I learned two things from this post. 1. Beyonce is blonde. I’ve probably seen her a thousand times. I never noticed that. 2. Readers may not realize your character is a POC unless you say so. 🙏
2025-06-27 19:53:10
4382
Oryx🦌🖤 :
Your videos have really helped me when writing People of colour in my book🥰
2025-07-27 18:26:42
1
Alicia :
completely OT: I ❤️your shirt!! 😁 now to rewatch cuz I was so distracted 🤣
2025-07-23 16:33:20
1
Vicki Barnette Adams 🇺🇸 :
White is not the default for singers for me. But saying blonde I would default to white.
2025-06-29 04:29:15
1070
Taylor Duncan :
It’s so crazy that as readers we assume white unless told otherwise. We have been trained to think that white is normal and POC’s are “other” even when we are the “they”.
2025-06-28 15:36:24
884
Rose The Harper :
High school conditioned me to NOT describe someone's race in conversation unless I believe it is relevant to the story. I will occasionally mention skin tone if I need to specifically identify a mutual acquaintance. This has led to a number of interesting scenarios and misunderstandings as an adult.
2025-07-24 17:54:56
0
Avi😘 :
How do y’all not know that her hair is blonde. It’s always been like a honey blonde with highlights
2025-06-28 08:22:47
465
Jane 💪🧋🫶📣 :
Ehhhhhh I feel like that’s a stretch. Blond characters/people are presumed to be White because that’s the race that most commonly has NATURAL blond hair. Just like describing a characters locks would make someone assume they’re black because that’s the race the most often has that hair. Yk?
2025-06-28 06:45:26
98
Saturn :
My dark chocolate child currently has their natural skin color but mine had blonde highlights in the summer as a child. And my child has had blonde, blue and all kinds of flavor hair. My ethnicity confuses everyone
2025-07-27 16:06:15
1
Abitas :
Girl, i would've guessed taylor Swift and gave up because i dont have any memory of any celebs hair. or really anyone other than who I watch lol
2025-06-28 13:58:22
232
sophaloaf :
I've read so many books where everyone else is "blonde" or "brunette" and the character of color is just "the black character." 😑
2025-07-24 20:15:18
1
drakkozw :
What I find very interesting is that nobody's y seems to even consider that the singer isn't a woman - despite the parameters of the question not mentioning gender at all
2025-07-25 20:07:58
0
rose ᖭི༏ᖫྀ 🌀⚢ :
i didn’t know beyoncé was blonde
2025-06-28 06:29:26
218
Jaxson Zuccala :
I always prefer books to say what skin tone ppl are bc it’s so annoying having to rewrite your mental image of ppl 2 books in bc you had nothing to go on in the first place
2025-07-23 15:22:23
10
art_beyond_category :
The example you used about a "Blonde haired singer" is pretty broad and with almost no context. You can write a POC character without having to point it out and the reader will still know writing about a POC. I guess it depends on your story. No right or wrong here
2025-06-29 20:17:05
1
KeenJane :
all of the guesses. I would have needed to guess every white female singer. and then I would have been stumped. "blonde" is one of the few descriptors that is almost exclusively used for white women. also Bey's hair isn't blonde on her current tour 😭 its honey brunette at lightest
2025-06-29 03:52:45
0
Adr :
I'd never list Beyoncé because in my mind she isn't blonde lmao
2025-06-28 08:53:02
462
M.E.S :
bc ppl think the default is whiteness, but I do have a question what are some of your go to descriptive words for the various shades of black/brown skins?
2025-06-29 22:06:56
0
logan :
i think a lot of writers neglect the skin tone mention for plausible deniability. it’s a sneaky way to be able to shoehorn “diversity” while being able to maintain your sensitive white readers
2025-06-29 04:35:38
259
(~￣³￣)~ :
and what about east asian characters? bc i think it would be a similar case, but east asian people have similar skin tones to white people
2025-06-27 23:45:00
246
Virden :
I wouldn't have guessed her because I don't keep up with her and didn't even know she had blonde hair 😭 but ur point is accurate and makes sense
2025-06-27 20:12:18
352
dan :
If someone described a blonde singer I would assume they’re white, because it’s only really white people that have naturally blonde hair
2025-06-28 14:57:33
93
jaejaebaesil :
it's bcuz in just about every aspect of society, whiteness is THE default. i have seen many times fans of visual media quickly assume a racially ambiguous character is white, and when you point out how thats not the case, they usually get mad
2025-06-28 15:49:32
18
allisonwoodin :
There’s a great article about writing race in fanfiction where the author talks about ff authors writing Black characters as if they are transparent to avoid mentioning skin tone. (Specifically Anthony Mackie)
2025-06-28 00:35:59
49
dndsbian :
Eh….. not a great metaphor. Beyoncé’s hair is not always blonde, I don’t picture her with blonde hair. Also, her hair is not her distinguishing feature. Normally you mention a distinguishing feature about someone when you’re describing them.
2025-06-28 06:24:34
48
To see more videos from user @prosewithoutthorns, please go to the Tikwm
homepage.
