(Untitled)

[glockgal]

AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER

There's a discussion going on at the TWOP forums about the movie, to which the lovely jedifreac and others are trying valiantly to debunk comment gems like:

Katara herself ACTS like modern white teenager albeit with some distinct differences.

and

I mean Zuko's character is practically a cliche (incensed arrogant honor obsessed

Comments

[tammylee]

Katara herself ACTS like modern white teenager albeit with some distinct differences.
Ouch! The distinct differences being... she doesn't live in N.America and she isn't, actually, white? wtf? How are behaviours dependent on race?
Nevermind, the stupid hurts.

[glockgal]

Well, you know, Katara would act like an Inuit if she...ate fish eyes, like, constantly! Oh and if she only cared about....uh...whales! And um...talked about snow! Owned a dog sled? OBVIOUS INUIT GIRL PERSONALITY, RIGHT THERE.

Personality traits like loyalty, romantic ideals and hope? HELLO, THAT'S WHAT WHITE PEOPLE FEEL. NOT ANYONE ELSE.

*pulls out hair*

[cathybites]

Katara herself ACTS like modern white teenager albeit with some distinct differences.

WHAT? WHAT THE FUCKING WHAT?!?!?!

I just. Please, o brilliant TWOP poster, explain to me exactly how a modern white teenager acts and how that is different from how modern Asian teenagers act, or black teenagers, or latino teenagers, or teenagers of any other race/culture/ethnicity. I AWAIT YOUR INTELLIGENT RESPONSE.

[glockgal]

Cathy, modern white girls are loyal, brave, clever, romantic, righteous, optimistic, hopeful, idealistic and caring.

No other modern PoC girls are like this! That's crazy-talk!!

[cathybites]

ahahaha, that is right! How foolish of me to wonder otherwise! That's what I get for stepping out of my place and getting uppity.

sigh.

[ashlan]

[ex_kidkoala]

Kind of annoying how they had to punctuate the article with a quote from the opposing viewpoint to "balance things out," but what a quote! "one of the most accomplished pieces of cinema in history," huh? I almost think SciFi used that one on purpose to make this guy look like a douche. His quote is ridiculous several times over. Yay?

[glockgal]

Hah! That's a pretty damn good point, bebe. Hopefully the three other quotes will effectively nullify his idiocy? Maybe Ian Spelling is hoping his readership to have as subtle a sense of humour as he does?

[nopejr]

Personally, I'd cast Jaden Smith as Aang.

[glockgal]

LOLS.

[drakemobius]

You know, I'm gonna comment again. Hah

[glockgal]

*MWAH* I tell you what --

I have gone through my day-to-day life trying to remember that 'white is not the default' because really? It's a mentality that is systemic and pervasive in today's modern culture. It's getting easier to remember (and subsequently point it out to people IRL ahahah) but man. I'm PoC and even for me, growing up in a white world made whitewashing and white-default seem normal - it's just what people did. Anything that had majority-PoC was automatically political or racially-subgenre'd.

So it's taken a while for me; and personally I am REALLY happy to know it's taken you just the span of three seasons of Avatar to realize that there's more to being Asian than just 'looking' a certain way. That in itself is a beautiful thing.

<3 Thanks for sharing.

[tallycola]

I want to echo glockgal, and I don't think you'll be in any way flamed here for saying that. Seeing white (also, straight male) as default in basically everything is incredibly deep-set and systematic in our culture. It's so super hard to see past it and start undoing the, for lack of a better word, brainwashing.

The fact that Avatar shows characters of colour with so much humanity and depth that people might actually mistake them for white - so mostly society only views white character as fully human - is one of the reasons I love it. I also love that it has apparently helped people overcome their own prejudices*.

*I'm not saying you have prejudices to be nasty, just in the way that people assume things and don't even know it, until one moment you realize. And that is a beautiful moment.

[tallycola]

so mostly society

should read 'since mostly society'.