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Korra doesn't 'swoon' and Lin is not a man: 3 Fangirls and a Rant| DW (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tanndell)
This was written - after a lot of feelings and asides about beer - in response to this post on Tumblr (which might be a little hard to read, given all the reblogs - but worth it, in my opinion).zorana has it up on Tumblr here, if you'd prefer to read it there. Very rarely do I respond to posts with this sort of a knee-jerk wrong on the internet feeling, but in this case? It had to be said. If showing weakness/failing makes you a useless girlie girl and throwing a punch makes you a man, then it seems there is no middle ground, no right way left to be a girl at all, and there is something seriously wrong with that assertion.
There's one element not really addressed here (it didn't fit, and we were exhausted by our feelings at that point), and that's the statement that Korra's apparent failures vs Aang's apparent successes is somehow 'racist' because Korra is 'darker' than Aang, and I don't even know, guys, just what. The OP sees a 'Western story of the pampered noble who has no real training ON TOP OF what should have been the grueling story of a youth filled with training, training, training', which makes very little sense to me, given how it is clear that Korra has had a youth filled with nothing but (combat) training. I don't think I'm over-reading when I say that the narrative of clueless privilege* parallels that of Siddhartha, and I'd be very disappointed indeed if you claimed that that too is a 'Western story'. AtLA/LoK does not exist outside the American culture industry and there are valid discussions to be had in this context**, I think, but the bid to co-opt everything into a 'Western = white = EVIL' frame - if only to criticize it - is rather unfortunate.
* Does brown skin somehow repel cluelessness and/or privilege somehow? And if that's the case, how come no one told me? Or is 'privilege = white privilege' in every discussion?
** For instance, how does jazz fit into Republic City's culture? How does AtLA-verse come up with a name like 'Republic City'? Etc.
tanndell) This was written - after a lot of feelings and asides about beer - in response to this post on Tumblr (which might be a little hard to read, given all the reblogs - but worth it, in my opinion).
zorana has it up on Tumblr here, if you'd prefer to read it there. Very rarely do I respond to posts with this sort of a knee-jerk wrong on the internet feeling, but in this case? It had to be said. If showing weakness/failing makes you a useless girlie girl and throwing a punch makes you a man, then it seems there is no middle ground, no right way left to be a girl at all, and there is something seriously wrong with that assertion. There's one element not really addressed here (it didn't fit, and we were exhausted by our feelings at that point), and that's the statement that Korra's apparent failures vs Aang's apparent successes is somehow 'racist' because Korra is 'darker' than Aang, and I don't even know, guys, just what. The OP sees a 'Western story of the pampered noble who has no real training ON TOP OF what should have been the grueling story of a youth filled with training, training, training', which makes very little sense to me, given how it is clear that Korra has had a youth filled with nothing but (combat) training. I don't think I'm over-reading when I say that the narrative of clueless privilege* parallels that of Siddhartha, and I'd be very disappointed indeed if you claimed that that too is a 'Western story'. AtLA/LoK does not exist outside the American culture industry and there are valid discussions to be had in this context**, I think, but the bid to co-opt everything into a 'Western = white = EVIL' frame - if only to criticize it - is rather unfortunate.
* Does brown skin somehow repel cluelessness and/or privilege somehow? And if that's the case, how come no one told me? Or is 'privilege = white privilege' in every discussion?
** For instance, how does jazz fit into Republic City's culture? How does AtLA-verse come up with a name like 'Republic City'? Etc.
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But the notes/comments thing left me baffled.
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2) What happens when Korra faces overwhelming emotional threat? She falls crying into the arms of the father-figure character… (note: post has sudden!music)
3) She’s an incredibly sheltered person with a big ego. Of course she’s going to experience some culture shock.
4) As in, WHY this story? Why tell the tale this way? Why a ‘HUMBLING’ story, as you put it?
5) But you know what does fit? Women fainting and getting rescued all the time fits with particular tropes of sexism in fiction. Darker characters being less capable and competent than lighter characters fits in with particular tropes of racism in fiction. (sudden!music)
6) Aforementioned rant
Some of the backgrounds might make it hard to read.
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Also is there a reason she or zorana and you didn't throw up a version on DW? You might also consider linking on white lotus.
(Clearly, I am the peanut gallery who has no opinion of note to offer, merely unhelpful suggestions.)
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Z wanted a reblog in order to respond to the original posters on Tumblr, but yeah, maybe a DW mirror, we didn't really think about that. I always crosspost from DW, it sort of escaped my notice that everyone doesn't! I'll ask T to put it up on DW since it doesn't make sense putting it on three different journals!
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I've been horrified by the way discussion on this matter has been framed in fandom, right from the first episode when someone dubbed Korra a white saviour. Are we incapable of having a discussion about privilege when it involves characters of colour, so much so that it has to be taken to odd conclusions (Korra is darker/Aang is lighter) in order to fit a certain model of privilege? Equally disturbing is the assertion that the traditionally 'unfeminine' Lin is coded a man and that Korra, by showing weakness and failing, is a damsel in distress. It's so convenient - no matter how you portray a female character, you can't win.
I don't think Bryke is above criticism and/or their creations are perfect, but I was hoping for more nuanced discussion than this.
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That statement about the Western story is not ignoring that Korra had a youth filled with combat training. The point being made in it is that someone who had that training should be acting like a cocky Western hero and should want to learn about the style being used against her, chiblocking. That martial artist stories have the learner being humbled because the teacher/teachers do incredible things, so at the end Korra should have been less cocky and more curious or hypercompetitive when it came to fighting skills, so would want to learn more about chiblocking. I'm not the OP, but that's what I read in the statement when reading the context here: http://bankuei.tumblr.com/post/25033490034/seekingwillow-thechocolatedandy.
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