diff --git a/zinnia/markups.py b/zinnia/markups.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/zinnia/markups.py
+++ b/zinnia/markups.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ def textile(value):
                       RuntimeWarning)
         return value
 
-    return textile.textile(force_bytes(value),
+    return textile.textile(force_text(value),
                            encoding='utf-8', output='utf-8')
Force text instead of bytes when generating textile content