Esmeralda, my Favorite Character of Color: International Blog Against Racism Week.

[fickle]

ryda_wong suggested that for IBARW, people talk about their favorite Character of Color.

Instantly, that brought to mind a discussion that I'd been having with my friend Numa the other day about the character Alex from Totally Spies. There are three main chars in Totally Spies. Clover has blonde hair and blue eyes. Samantha has red hair and green eyes. Alex has brown skin, black hair, and brown eyes.

I always assumed that Alex was South Asian, but Numa pointed out that she could be black. I didn't think that black made much sense because Alex has very sleek hair with just a hint of wave at the ends, which looks South Asian to my eyes and her face is rounded.

Of course, according to Numa, all three characters are pretty much exactly the same.

I think of Sam as being the smart one, Clover as being the fashionista and Alex as the nerdy, slightly ditzy one. So different personalities! Sometimes.

The thing is, I think that Numa is right. Alex might be brown-skinned and dark-haired, but there's very little apart from that which makes her a Character of Color. We have no idea where she's from, what her background is, and it seems a bit like she got thrown in there just to make be the token splash of color.

So clearly, I need to find someone else to pimp out. But see, the problem is, my favorite chars who are chars of color, like Esmeralda or Mulan from the Disney movies, are my favorites for feminist reasons. Having to think about them in terms of race is a little new, but let's have at it.

So, why pick Esmeralda?

For one thing, she has dark skin, black hair and green eyes. That happens to be the particular combination that I've always wanted since I was a kid. And her skin is brown. Not pale-enough-to-pass-for-white but actual and definite brown. It's darker than what I'd think of as gypsies but you can see that the gypsies, those who live in the Court of Miracles, are definitely different to the Parisians.

...Actually, racial discrimination is one of the movie's themes. According to Wiki, it's one of the few movies to feature an interracial couple, and Frollo's hunting of the gypsies is one of the driving plot points.

Frollo loathes gypsies, and uses religion justify his dislike of them. And yet, he craves Esmeralda. He holds her against him and sniffs her hair, then says he was imagining a noose around her neck, only to have Esmeralda hiss that she knows what he was imagining.

Esmeralda has guts. She says gypsies don't do well within stone walls and calls for justice for her people. Her speech while untying Quasimodo is one of my favorites: "You mistreat this poor boy the same way you mistreat my people. You speak of justice, yet you are cruel to those most in need of your help. "

She wants justice for the gypsies. She's a social activist. She doesn't hesitate to call Frollo out; she reminds Quasimodo that she's a gypsy when he's trying to read her palm and call her good and kind and uses that to show that Frollo is wrong about both of them. He's not a monster, and neither is she wicked.

True, you could say that she's perpetuating stereotypes about gypsies always doing magic tricks, being cliquish and uncanny and gorgeous, but frankly, I love Esmeralda. She's brave, she's outspoken, she takes risks and she's compassionate.

She's a great feminist character, a great Character of Color and a great character, full stop.

Let's face it, people: Esmeralda rocks my socks right off.