"Atla fandom is soooo feminist" y'all cant even acknowledge katara's gendered labor (these tags you screenshoted... *sigh*)
This post turned out to be a lot longer than intended so for anyone who wants context, here’s the original post anon is referring to.
Yeah the problem is a lot of the atla fandom isn’t feminist and many actively and proudly deny being feminist. One of the ways anti Zutarians will make fun of Zutarians is by calling it a “feminist ship” derogatorily.
They’ll be all like “oh you think your ship is so much better just because it’s feminist”. Which like.. if that’s how you’re phrasing it, then yeah, it is better. I’ve never said one ship is better than the other but if you’re actively saying/implying that what you ship doesn’t support women’s autonomy then I’m going to believe point blank that your ship isn’t good lol.
And I hate to say it but so many kat@angers clearly don’t support women’s autonomy because they repeatedly excuse Aang’s actions towards Katara during EIP. That’s not very hashtag-feminist. In fact, some might even say it’s very hashtag-misogynist.
Because how can you see a woman- sorry, girl very clearly state that she is confused, not ready to be in a relationship, get kissed by a boy and instead of aknowledge that what the boy did was wrong, immediately jump to defend him, completely disregarding the girls feelings in the process- much like what the boy did.
And as feminist as atla the show is at its surface, it does a lot of telling not showing feminism. And a lot more showing not telling misogyny.
What am I talking about, you ask? Well the most obvious example of this is clearly Katara. Because yes, they tell us that Katara wants to fight- that she wants to go against her gendered norms of being a woman and work on the battlefield. But atla shows us her following the maternal role in her friendgroup. She spends more time being a maternal figure than fighting. She spends more time cooking and cleaning and mending clothes and babysitting than actually fighting. Which like, fine, yeah, they spend more time on the road than fighting, of course she’s probably going to spend more time doing this, but none of the boys help.
They tell us that the boys might sometimes help, but they only ever show us Katara doing the work.
The narrative literally shows us that women are incomplete without a love interest, especially in LoK. It’s actually stupid how much of LoK is about the girls getting a boyfriend because god forbid both of them are happily single.
And if you take a closer look at atla and lok, there isn’t a single happy widow in the stories. Every time a widow is brought up, they’re always depressed and sad and honestly look like they want to die. But oh, a widower will do just fine! He’s actually better than ever because he doesn’t have a woman nagging him all the time and demanding things of him and always talking and being a pain in the ass. Woah who said that?
But you know what, at the end of the day, atla was created by two men. Why should I be surprised?
The feminism displayed in atla is warped, and it’s what makes the fandom so tiring to deal with. Because you’ll have these “feminist men” who only know the feminism that atla and lok shows them. And the main message of those is just “y’know, sometimes, and hear me out on this, I know it’s crazy, girls can fight *cue applause* I know, I know, groundbreaking stuff here. And another thing, actually. Girls… can sometimes, if properly justified, get mad *cue louder applause*. And last thing- last thing- girls… can do all that while still being a proper lady and doing your laundry, making you food, sewing your clothes etc wait what? *cue loudest applause*.
And I know some people might find this post and be all like “oh but Toph yadda yadda yadda” Toph literally becomes a wife in LoK, bears children, and dips. They literally make her “fulfill her role as a woman” before throwing her in a swamp where no one can see the mess of a woman she is.
And in atla, they turn her romantic interest in Sokka into a joke. Because a girl having a crush on a guy who’s taken is just so funny and embarrassing for her. And her trying to bond with Zuko is also turned into a joke. She isn’t a “proper lady” so they don’t give her the time of day to get relationships with the male characters that “proper lady’s” get. And this is especially seen in LoK because we don’t even know who the father of her children is. She doesn’t get to have a substantial relationship because she can’t provide for a man.
Anyways that’s my rant. Thanks for coming to my ted talk or whatever.
