Thread by @mynasaurus

How to avoid antisemitism in your fantasy novels: a thread! (1/21)

I've noticed that many popular fantasy novels tend to be filled with antisemitic stereotypes. This is ESPECIALLY true for European-inspired fantasy. (2/21)

I think most of those writers genuinely have no clue they are being antisemitic, so here's a thread on some basic advice. (3/21)

1. LORE
When people go wrong, it is usually because they are uncritically basing their European-inspired fantasy worlds on antisemitic myths, legends, and fairytales. Therefore, their villains are always Jew-coded, because that is how Christian Euros have seen us. (4/21)

How to avoid problems here: Ask yourself questions. The biggest one is: what lore are you using? What legends, myths, and folklore have inspired your world? What cultures are you drawing from, and from what time periods? What was going on with Jewish communities back then? (5/21)

Ask yourself: who are the villains? Why?

Who are the heroes? Why?

Why are the villains evil? Who might they be meant to represent?

What is the legend trying to say? (6/21)

Doing research on your source inspiration can help you cut antisemitism out of the text from the beginning, while still retaining cultural and worldbuilding elements you like.

P.S.: this is also helpful for avoiding anti-Romani/antiziganist stereotypes too. (7/21)

2. BLOOD LIBEL
Blood libel is the (wrong) belief that Jewish people drink the blood of Christian children for Passover. Massive amounts of violence was perpetrated against Jews in Europe because of this, and people STILL believe it. (8/21)

How to avoid: If your evil characters use blood magic, that's okay, but don't Jew-code them. Avoid features like curly hair, "hooked" noses, and olive skin, and especially avoid Jewish names. It also helps to give one of your "good guy" characters Jewish traits. (9/21)

3. SECRET CABALS
Many antisemitic conspiracy theories are based on the myth that Jews are all in cahoots and running the world secretly, usually via banks and entertainment media. Nowadays people won't often say "Jews" outright, but the subtext is there. (10/21)

How to avoid: If you have some secret evil order running your world, don't Jew-code them. It also might be helpful to have them control the world via means other than finance/media/blood magic. (11/21)

3. GOBLINS, DWARVES, ETC
Many fantasy novels have used creatures like goblins and dwarves as stand-ins for Jews. This can be weird and othering if the human characters are all Christian-coded white Euros. Why are the Jews inhuman? (12/21)

How to avoid: In general, it is uncreative at best and othering at worst to give your non-human fantasy races characteristics of REAL world ethnic groups. Be more creative than that! Give them unique customs, unique backgrounds, unique experiences! (13/21)

4. VAMPIRES
Many "classic" vampire traits like dark hair, "swarthy" appearances, hooked noses, etc are meant to represent Jews. This also ties into blood libel, i.e. the "Jewish" vampire drinking the blood of Christians. (14/21)

How to avoid: if your vampires are evil, don't Jew-code them (and definitely don't make them part of a secret world order).

If you have "good" vamps, it's okay to make one Jewish, but I'd still proceed with caution and maybe make one of your human good guys Jewish too. (15/21)

Jewish vampires, period, are a tricky thing. I would encourage you to get a sensitivity reader here. (16/21)

5. NAMES
Think about the names you're giving to your villains and your good guys. Do your good guys all have English or French names? That's cool. But if your villains all have names like Bathsheba or Mordecai... Oh dear. (17/21)

How to avoid: While picking villain names, think about which cultures you are picking them from and why. If a name "sounds" villainous to you, I strongly encourage you to explore why that is. (18/21)

IN SUMMARY...
A lot of this comes down to Jew-coding: giving characters specific traits like dark curly hair, "foreign" religious customs, specific names, and other characteristics that make them read as Jewish to your real-world audience. (19/21)

People are going to reply to this and say, "So now I can't write VAMPIRES?" Of course you can. Write all the vampires, dwarves, and goblins you want. But words have power. If the pen is mightier than the sword, don't use your words as an antisemitic weapon. (20/21)

Note: this is NOT about Rebecca Mix's book, which I have not read. But this is about many, many other Euro-inspired fantasy novels, which have frankly made European-inspired fantasy unappealing and alienating to me. (21/21)