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the entire history of whitewashing in the winx club franchise: a thread
with the release of fate the winx saga, many people have started to speak out about the whitewashing of flora and musa. however, what a lot of people don’t know is that our girls have been whitewashed since 2007 and they have gotten away with it every time…
the whitewashing began in 2007 with the first winx club movie: the secret of the lost kingdom. flora was made to look white in the majority of the movie. just look at her 3d model in comparison with the other girls. she has the same skin tone as her white friends.
the only time flora’s skin tone was as close to the cartoon was whenever she was in the dark (see first pic). otherwise, in normal lighting, she’s completely whitewashed. her complexion is literally the same as the other white characters.
3 years later, the second winx club movie was released: magical adventure. you’d think by now they would’ve gotten better with cgi animation, but nope it just gets worse. this time, not only is flora whitewashed again but aisha is too. yikes.
this actually hurts to look at. they lightened flora and aisha’s skin way too much. flora passes as white now and aisha just looks slightly tanned. even nabu was whitewashed. honestly who approved this??
in 2012, winx club s5 was released, and the whitewashing continues. whilst aisha’s skin tone looks much better in 3d now, flora sadly still suffers. she has the EXACT same complexion as the others. they didn’t even try at all. they just used the same model as the white girls.
in 2014, they continued to use the same cgi animation in s6. although in some scenes flora appears white, she was now given a slight tan to differentiate from the white girls. this was an improvement from her s5 model, but her skin is still much lighter than her cartoon version.
also for some reason, in season 6 piff’s design was changed completely and her skin was lightened. this change was also seen in the poppixie spin-off series. why is this show so obsessed with lightening poc characters?
the 3rd movie, the mystery of the abyss, is truly abysmal. flora is whitewashed once again and her slight tan from her s6 model is gone in some parts of the movie. this is the 5th time in a row where flora has been whitewashed in cgi animation.
during the nickelodeon era, the series developed a new art style called fairy couture. this art style was first used in many promo artworks for the new seasons. this style had the effect of lightening all the characters’ skin colours, including aisha and flora.
many winx club magazines also adopted this art style. i honestly find it disgusting how they thought this was okay to begin with. i can’t believe they actually sold these in stores. aisha is literally white in the first pic wtf???
in 2016, the fairy couture art style was used in the spin-off series, world of winx. aisha’s and flora’s skin tones have been lightened. aisha just looks tanned now and flora can easily be passed for white. the girls have been whitewashed once again.
many whitewashing apologists have defended the world of winx art style, stating that their skin tones were lightened because it “was a lighter/pastel colour palette”. however, some magazines actually have their old skin tones with this art style. so this excuse is invalid.
in 2019, winx club adopted another new art style for its 8th season because they wanted to aim for a younger audience. aisha and flora have once again been whitewashed completely. this is totally unacceptable and i find it disgusting how they think there is no problem with this.
this year, the live-action adaptation titled fate the winx saga was released. as we all know, both flora and musa have been whitewashed. flora was replaced from the group by a white character named terra, and musa is no longer fully east asian. she is white-passing.
since 2007, flora has been whitewashed constantly. in ALL cgi animations, in promo artwork, in world of winx, in season 8 AND in fate. aisha has been whitewashed 3 times and musa once. it has happened way too many times. at this point, i truly think the animators are racist.
whitewashing poc characters is a huge issue. having to lighten their skin tones or casting white actresses to appeal to more “broader audiences” is totally unacceptable and is literally racist. whether they intended to do that or not, the damage is what matters.
if you haven’t already, please check out my thread on the issues with fate the winx saga and the lack of representation: https://twitter.com/fairyform/status/1353295904405659648?s=20
