Wazzup Pilipinas!?
Meet Ari Agbayani. Her full name is Arielle per creator.
Marvel's new Filipino-American shield-bearer created by @crashwong, @Astrolimes & @AlannaWrites will debut in The United States of Captain America #4.
Like we get it, her full first name is "Arielle" but really?
"Ari" means genitals in Filipino and also the Philippines and us mainlanders have been affected by American imperialism for forever so badly that it isn't even funny. so what i'm saying is thanks! This fucking sucks!
The costume is so uninspired too. I see no real reason a Filipino would take up Cap's shield. Falcon made sense but her? Nah.
What doesn't sit well for many is the fact FilAms won't understand what kind of representation matters to Filipinos born in the PH. Great we have another Filipino character but not like this. The smallest details do matter.
In regards to the poorly decided name, it's almost like if you made a gay character and named them "Rain Bowe" for the sake of it being symbolic.
Are there people named Ari? Absolutely. It's pronounced differently. However, the name goes as a sort of brand for this character---a character that was created in an attempt to represent. The direct Filipino translation is pretty cringe.
Overall I honestly don't really resonate with this character at all. I appreciate Filipino characters but at this point I don't think it's selfish to ask for cultural sensitivity. I'm not upset at it, just disappointed that the concerns over her name are being downplayed.
Or the concerns of real Filipinos over a character wearing the stars and stripes. It's a sensitive topic. It's hard to see America as open to our kind to begin with as even securing a tourist visa can be difficult for most Filipinos. I can only imagine immigrating.
Let me make it clear that I respectfully acknowledge that this is a Fil-Am character and the purpose is to encourage the idea that an American can be any race but she being a Filipino, natives have the freedom to criticize it based on our history and experience.
People can love and resonate with this character for different reasons but I, like many other natives, can also dislike it for other reasons. What's important is we respect we have different perspectives on the subject.
This is not fucking revolutionary or cool in any way. you could've made any superhero filipino, or even made a new one to accommodate cultural differences and whatnot, and you chose it to be CAPTAIN AMERICA???
Also myself am a pale as shit Filipino but at least make her some level of tan because goddamn Filipino colorism is already hell in itself and this could kind of help reinforce it to be honest
Look i'm just tired of what i assume are Filipino-Americans telling stories that they have no idea just contradict with everything we have in the mainland. like please step back and look at what has happened and IS going on in the country and realize how bad a lot of ur ideas are.
Also stop saying "Filipinx" and "Pinxy" it's fucking stupid just say filipino and pinoy like a normal filipino person IT'S A GENDER NEUTRAL LANGUAGE ASSHOLES.
Okay that's all i'm gonna say sorry if you had to witness me be mad and sorry for the random tangent at the end i just saw the term "Filipinx" thrown around with some of ari's (lol) art and. stop!! ok that's all thank you mwah mwah
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
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