My thoughts on Korra from episodes 3-6

[stjet]

Here-in be my thoughts on the rest of the episodes of the Legend of Korra. Needless to say spoilers abound. There will probably be more commentary on episodes 4-6 since I remember more from them

Comments

[whisperingwasp]

I pretty much agree with everything you said so far. I've become a shameless multi shipper in this fandom because while Makorra has potential to be something really interesting, Borra is also really great because they have a lot in common. At this point, I don't care who Korra ends up with as long as it's done well.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who ground their teeth when Ikki made that "you smell like a lady" comment. So far I think Korra is better than ATLA on the feminist front of things but stuff like that makes me wish I could directly confront Bryke about why those kinds of jokes are not okay. It's okay for guys to be feminine and for girls to be masculine.

[stjet]

Definitely. I think it's moments like this where it becomes obvious that even with the best of intentions, sometimes it's really easy for prejudice/ignorance/blah is able to slip through, particularly when it goes unnoticed. This is why whilst I do applaud attempts to challenge overt cases of sexism (girls can't play football! I think implicit cases are often overlooked. It does go both ways.

[whisperingwasp]

I agree that while ATLA is excellent at challenging overt forms of sexism, it sucks at debunking implicit sexism because it doesn't seem to realise how subtle forms of sexism can be just as harmful as overt forms of sexism. The Ember Island Players episode is a key example of how the writers of that show seem to value masculinity over femininity because while Toph is pleased to have a man play her, Aang completely loses it when he finds out he's been played by a girl.

And I would not mind this so much if the writers showed it was wrong in a similar fashion to how the Game of Thrones author does in his books because although he's writing in a context where women are treated like second class citizens, he's still able to critique the subtle and overt forms of sexism the characters face within his novel.