AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER

[glockgal]

Comments

[la_fono]

I am well baffled by this. I've never seen the cartoon, yet I know it's set in asia/an equivalent version of, just from the visuals. *boggle*

You know what this reminds me of? That James Bond film (You only live twice, I think) where Bond is hiding out in a monastery? Temple? Dojo? And in order to disguise him they apply shoe polish and give him eyeliner. *FACE. PALM.*

[glockgal]

I know, right? Even as a casual person who's seen images from the cartoon, one would assume that, you know, if everything ELSE looks Asian...shouldn't it stand to reason that the characters be as well?

This concept is apparently EXTREMELY BAFFLING TO MANY. *shakes head*

And in order to disguise him they apply shoe polish and give him eyeliner

OMG AHAHAH YES. And I have to laugh or else I'd cry. OH GOD. LOL.

[gal_montag]

That's the one it was, I love that movie in spite of itself, but I almost hurt myself laughing at the notion that anyone would have been fooled into thinking Bond was Japanese without major major surgery. Possibly a complete facial transplant.

[tsubaki_ny]

I was always skeptical of that Alias epsiode where they hid Sydney Bristow among a group of maiko by painting her face completely white. Still, at least they thickly covered her whole face and gave her a very large wig! :-)

[bossymarmalade]

I'm so happy for all the people who aren't surprised. That's a real comfort to me when I see a complete lack of representation of my ethnicity; I cuddle their lack of surprise close to my heart and think, "oh, maggie, how foolish you are to be hurt when people do/say things that bash one of the elemental components of who you are! If you could only learn to Not Be Surprised by attacks on your existence, everything would be okay!"

Which is to say, GO YOU, WITH THIS EXCELLENT POST. I support it 100%.

[bossymarmalade]

Eh, I know there's reasons for everybody saying it, but it still bothers me. There's some things that may be true enough but aren't particularly helpful to keep repeating, y'know? I find that constantly reiterating lack of surprise over systemic racism falls in that category for me.

I have no idea what are the avenues for media coverage in the US (not being USian myself), but I think it's a great idea!

[glockgal]

YAY FINALLY IT'S BART'S TURN TO SHINE!

Ironically, I have no Bart icons. O.o

[chrismm]

This is awesome--thank you! Also, I kind of love this so much:

But that's just the movie-making business. Blame the execs. There's nothing we can do, whatev, meh, suck it up, I'm not surprised anymore, my name is Eeyore, etc

*g* I dunno, it just makes me all heart-eyed at you.

[glockgal]

LOL nawwww, thank you!! I just have to confess while I'm on my rant train - the Disney version of Winnie the Pooh? HATE IT. Every characters is compeltely passive-aggressive in unique! and different! ways. LOLZ OMG I'M GOING TO DISNEY HELL. XD XD

[heather]

But kids wanna see white actors!

WAT.

I do hope no one actually said that to you. *directs the idjits to Disney Channel, which has more diversity in its shows/sitcoms than almost any other network*

[glockgal]

Not to me - but yes man, YES. THIS WAS ACTUALLY SAID IN REPLY TO ANOTHER PERSON'S POST ABOUT THE ATLA CASTING.

I KNOW. LIKE WTF, EH?

Ahahahaah also - good call about pointing out Disney!!! For all its evil, it sure does its best to show diversity.

[lunarennui]

wait wait wait. you are SHITTING me. no? please tell me that nobody actually said that.

[glockgal]

I wish I was kidding, man I really was. It was one of the first arguments I encountered when I started reading the blogs about this.

Y'know the saddest part for me personally? Even being a PoC myself, after reading that 'argument', I initially had a defeated mentality of "That's so true...". Yep; I had momentarily forgotten that I was once a child, and I am PoC. I excluded myself from the norm.

God, talk about subversive culture in Canada/America. :/

[glockgal]

It's more in direct reaction to some of the responses I've been seeing. All of the questions I put up there have been actual comments made by non-trolls in a variety of different LJs and LJ communities. All of them. So if anything, it's my reply to those attitudes expressed that's directly specific to this ATLA situation, and not to passer-bys.

Noooo god no, I'm not saying or implying anyone is racist. *facepalms self* However yes, I have encountered people who are displaying racist tendencies, borne out of ignorance. That's srsly a discussion for another day, ahaha. I've had it too many times IRL.

Anyway, I'm not really sure how I can quantify this in my OP to ensure that passer-by people don't feel attacked. :/ That's not my intent, but I don't want to lessen my tone because I really AM quite mad at these supposed 'reasons'.

It has been disclaimer'd! Right at the top, so no one can miss it. Hopefully that'll lessen any offense and provides a good compromise between my feelings and other people's.

[bossymarmalade]

Wow, "the lass". Thanks for that.

The lass thinks that if you truly are interested in discussions of discrimination, you could probably benefit from reading How to Suppress Discussions of Racism or The Art of Defending Racism to understand this lass's frustration with derailing tactics.