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Today I will complain about COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SEXISM.
In the Girl Power Kills comments I was having a spoiler-ridden conversation with ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kaigou about the finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender and its treatment of Azula and Ozai. (You should read her whole first comment, because she makes some really interesting observations.) This is how it was going:
And my response was getting way too long! So I'm turning it into a post.
I agree that some of these choices were made because the ending was rushed. I mean, I absolutely don't believe that the writers of Avatar were consciously trying to create a storyline with the moral, "women should not wield political power." We can say with some confidence that this was not a group of people who would sit down at meetings and say, "So! How can we reinforce the patriarchy today?" And then they all brainstorm on the whiteboard. In the lower right-hand corner, someone has written, "maybe Vajazzle?"
I cannot rule this process out as a possible explanation for what goes on in Kubo Tite's studio - but the Avatar people probably weren't doing it. I think that there are very few big commercial kids' shows with better intentions than Avatar, and very, very few that carry them out so gracefully.
But the thing is that that's what stereotypes are - they're the things that people, even people with very good intentions, fall back on when they're in a hurry. And I think it shows in Avatar, because things did get iffier on the gender front in the final season. Like:
Also, on the racial front, the Water Tribe members aside from Sokka and Katara got less and less visible and important as the series went on.
And all these issues are caused by structural things within the narrative, and we justify them like this: "Well, the Water Tribe is geographically isolated, and Sokka and Katara had their plotlines early on, so now it's time to focus on the Fire Nation," or "Aang's the Avatar and Zuko's the Firelord's son, and Aang's going to fight the Firelord, so there's got to be a lot of focus on the manpain," or "Ursa's story is probably really awesome and they're planning on doing something with it later."
(There's no good reason the White Lotus Society's such a sausagefest - Kanna exists! So does Aunt Wu! - but you get the idea.)
We can come up with these justifications - but in the end, they're meaningless. Because the story's structure was not sent down from heaven set in stone and inviolable. Human beings wrote it, and every narrative reflects its writer's/writers' priorities and biases. I mean, if the writers had been more interested in the Water Tribe, they would've, say, set the final battle at the North Pole, because Ozai's evil plan is to melt the ice cap to destroy the Northern Water tribe and cause tsunamis to scare the coastal Earth Kingdom cities. Or, if they'd been more interested in Toph, they could have had her parents sell out to the Fire Nation on the condition that she be reprogrammed at Lake Laogai and sent home obedient, and she could have had her own big angsty family storyline in there. They could've scribbled a wig and boobs onto one of Roku's teachers.
There are a lot of things they could have done differently but didn't - because when you've got too many things on your plate, whether you mean to or not, sometimes your brain's going to default to the stereotypes. I don't want to pass judgment on the writers here - unlike (ahem cough) certain parties whom I may have been talking a lot about recently, I think that they were very sincere and trying their best, and that on the whole it shows.
But even in the rare cases like this - in which an artist not only had good intentions, was willing to do the work necessary to carry them out, and told a really, really good story while doing it - I think it's appropriate to be critical of the places where the story does mess up. I think that's appropriate anywhere but the writer's deathbed or birthday party. This is a principle I will defend until my dying day.
(So you people better not show up at my deathbed with that bullshit about how Mew and Mewtwo couldn't have a baby, because that goes AGAINST MY PRINCIPLES.)
kaigou about the finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender and its treatment of Azula and Ozai. (You should read her whole first comment, because she makes some really interesting observations.) This is how it was going:me: I think
In some ways, I think part of the difficulty with Azula is that the writers were so excited about having a female villain who is actually pretty freaking scary that they didn't really think through either the progression of bringing her down ("and then, uhm, Zuko will, uhm, DO something! right!") or realize just how compressed that come-down would end up being -- such that instead of seeming to be eaten up by paranoia, instead there's only like two episodes to go from capable and scary to complete nutcase.
But then, Avatar is one of those in which for all my other complaints, I'll still take it over just about anything else out there, because even with its flaws, it's one of the few that gets so much more right than say, oh, Bleach. *whistles nonchalantly*
And my response was getting way too long! So I'm turning it into a post.
I agree that some of these choices were made because the ending was rushed. I mean, I absolutely don't believe that the writers of Avatar were consciously trying to create a storyline with the moral, "women should not wield political power." We can say with some confidence that this was not a group of people who would sit down at meetings and say, "So! How can we reinforce the patriarchy today?" And then they all brainstorm on the whiteboard. In the lower right-hand corner, someone has written, "maybe Vajazzle?"
I cannot rule this process out as a possible explanation for what goes on in Kubo Tite's studio - but the Avatar people probably weren't doing it. I think that there are very few big commercial kids' shows with better intentions than Avatar, and very, very few that carry them out so gracefully.
But the thing is that that's what stereotypes are - they're the things that people, even people with very good intentions, fall back on when they're in a hurry. And I think it shows in Avatar, because things did get iffier on the gender front in the final season. Like:
- As previously discussed, Azula, upon finally becoming Firelord (I think we should call her Firelady), immediately loses her self-control and grip on reality. Her father Ozai, upon achieving his own goals, merely becomes more hardcore.
- "Where is Ursa?" This plotline never got resolved, which means we never found out what had happened to the single most important adult woman in the series. (Think how many important adult men there are in this show. Enough to - perhaps - form a secret club?) Because what we know about her comes from Zuko and Azula's flashbacks, we see Ursa entirely through the Woman in the Refrigerator lens; though we can guess from Zuko's memories that she made some sort of difficult choice the night she disappeared, we don't know what that choice was or why she made it. The only choice we think we can be sure of - because Zuko, in his more lucid moments, is sure of it - is Ozai's: that in one way or another, he decided to sacrifice his wife for power. This takes away Ursa's agency, making her the passive object of Ozai's manipulations, and Zuko and Azula's confused affections.
- None of the awesome secret society were women, because Men Wield Political Power.
- In the Roku flashback episode, none of Roku's teachers were women, because Martial Arts Masters Are Men.
- Toph, the protagonist who was neither 1) a guy, 2) stereotypically feminine, nor 3) involved in a romance, had very little character development at a time at which Aang, Katara, Zuko, and Sokka were all growing and changing.
- Edit: As pointed out by meganbmoore here: When Aang and Zuko get a Firebending power-up - the Dancing Dragon - they become better friends, learn more about their history, and are more in contact with nature. They learn it from a wise, kind old man.
When Sokka learns swordsmanship, it's good for his self-esteem and gains him entry into the Awesome Dude Secret Society. He learns from a wise, kind old man.
When Katara gets a Waterbending power-up, it's the deeply morally-ambiguous Blood-bending technique, which tempts her to abuse her power for revenge. She learns it from a deranged, genocidal old woman. She apparently eventually chooses to discard the technique as unethical.
(Toph's Metalbending was obviously excellent, but it was also a Season 2 development.)
Also, on the racial front, the Water Tribe members aside from Sokka and Katara got less and less visible and important as the series went on.
And all these issues are caused by structural things within the narrative, and we justify them like this: "Well, the Water Tribe is geographically isolated, and Sokka and Katara had their plotlines early on, so now it's time to focus on the Fire Nation," or "Aang's the Avatar and Zuko's the Firelord's son, and Aang's going to fight the Firelord, so there's got to be a lot of focus on the manpain," or "Ursa's story is probably really awesome and they're planning on doing something with it later."
(There's no good reason the White Lotus Society's such a sausagefest - Kanna exists! So does Aunt Wu! - but you get the idea.)
We can come up with these justifications - but in the end, they're meaningless. Because the story's structure was not sent down from heaven set in stone and inviolable. Human beings wrote it, and every narrative reflects its writer's/writers' priorities and biases. I mean, if the writers had been more interested in the Water Tribe, they would've, say, set the final battle at the North Pole, because Ozai's evil plan is to melt the ice cap to destroy the Northern Water tribe and cause tsunamis to scare the coastal Earth Kingdom cities. Or, if they'd been more interested in Toph, they could have had her parents sell out to the Fire Nation on the condition that she be reprogrammed at Lake Laogai and sent home obedient, and she could have had her own big angsty family storyline in there. They could've scribbled a wig and boobs onto one of Roku's teachers.
There are a lot of things they could have done differently but didn't - because when you've got too many things on your plate, whether you mean to or not, sometimes your brain's going to default to the stereotypes. I don't want to pass judgment on the writers here - unlike (ahem cough) certain parties whom I may have been talking a lot about recently, I think that they were very sincere and trying their best, and that on the whole it shows.
But even in the rare cases like this - in which an artist not only had good intentions, was willing to do the work necessary to carry them out, and told a really, really good story while doing it - I think it's appropriate to be critical of the places where the story does mess up. I think that's appropriate anywhere but the writer's deathbed or birthday party. This is a principle I will defend until my dying day.
no subject
Second reply (and if I keep thinking of things to reply, I may just have to do a post and we can hold a cross-journal dialogue or something) -- I can't recall now where I was reading someone's reviews/critiques of the series, but the reviewer made the observation that there's an interesting message in Aang's learning path versus Katara's. That is, that Aang is the Avatar, so has the potential to master all four form, while Katara will always be limited to water -- but her ability with water does eventually outstrip his (in the series), even though he's the avatar. That's because, the reviewer noted, Katara is shown working her ass off to gain her skills, while Aang is more likely to goof off. The underlying message there is that when it comes to someone who works hard and practices, that person can surpass even those who supposedly have an 'innate' skill.
(It also makes me wonder if the Aang/Katara skill contrast is in some way a finger-flip at Naruto, where if the story truly had a message of "hard work will get you to the top!" then the hero of the story would actually be Rock Lee, and not any of the supercharged chi-genius kids running around -- because Katara and Rock Lee are cut from very similar cloth, in some ways.)
I bring that up because it wasn't until I rewatched Avatar that I could set aside the "uh, what's happening now?" to actually watch as it happened. So didn't notice this until the second time around, that Sokka goes to find his master, talks himself into the student position... and then we see montage of calligraphy, some sword practice, painting landscapes, more sword practice, blah blah blah.
And then the master says, "that's pretty good for your first day."
Me: first WHAT? Like HELL!
Makes me wonder if any of the kids noticed, since analytical skills not the best for the average kid, especially when the story presents a pressing reason for the time-crunch, that the solar eclipse is in only three days, something like that. So, of course (I can see a kid's brain saying) naturally Sokka has to learn all this in three days, but he's good, he can! I mean it's a subtle thing, and I'm not sure the writers would even have realized, given how they're pretty workmanlike in most parts.
But the message under there is pretty clear: Katara has to practice, practice, practice, even go so far as to steal a text to learn more, has to argue with the Northern water tribe guy to be taught, and then lots more practice. Meanwhile, Sokka walks in, lies about who he is, and the entire education isn't just handed to him on a platter -- he's able to take it in and come damn close to mastering it within a two-day span. Wow, must be awfully nice, to be a boy.
The only place the writers get any credit in that segment is that Sokka still couldn't beat the master, so it's not like they turn him into 100% wonderboy... just 95% wonderboy. Not entirely certain that really makes it any better.
(For that matter, yes, he's given the coin for the Awesome Dude thing, but isn't told about it, and seems to pretty much dismiss the game piece as some kind of weird parting gift. Without Zuko's interaction with the same group, it would've been a major plothole if Sokka had somehow instinctively known to call on the group's help despite no instructions. But he didn't, and when he did meet the group, there wasn't any indication he had any clue of the connection between the game piece, his master, and the group.)
Also, again watching the first time, I registered the lack o' women in the ADSS, but wrote it off to me not catching everything. Only on rewatching did I realize that it wasn't me, there really weren't any women making an appearance... and then, yeah, I was gnashing my teeth, too. Would it really have been that hard to just draw an equal number of women, even if those ended up being NPCs?