Cosmicadventure - Void Of Words

Sokka may not be a misogynist, but the Netflix live action ATLA is:

There really is no cartoon/anime for female empowerment like the OG ATLA and LOK cartoons.

The creators of ATLA wrote the manifesto on how to create a masterful series on female empowerment and equality that is not cheesy or hocky.

In this show, women and girls are not a monolith but immensely diverse. There's no correct way to be a powerful, talented and bold woman or girl within the avatar universe.

You can be hyper-feminine like Ty Lee and Asami.

You can embody more traditionally masculine qualities like Korra and Toph.

Or you could just be a typical woman or girl falling more in between like Azula, Mai, or Suki.

You see the exact same thing for the male characters. There's no right way to be a man. There's many ways to be a man, and this idea flies in the face of patriarchy.

I say that the Netflix version is misogynist, because it's not enough to be a powerful woman. One must be allowed to be unapologetically, unabashedly and boldy powerful.

Which is what happens in the OG ATLA. Sokka's misogyny was actually a part of his character arc, because every time he was misogynist his misogyny was met with the answer that women and girls are phenomenal, that women and girls are living their lives and largely unconcerned with the opinions of men.

If you read the Kiyoshi novels, you learn that surprisingly enough, the least patriarchal amd misogynist nation in all of Avatar is the fire nation, and the misogynistic nation in all of Avatar is the northern water tribe.

The reason I say that the women in these shows are unabashedly powerful is because aside from Sokka and the master from the Northern Water tribe, no one ever questions why or how they are powerful. They expect it.

Zuko is Ozai's first born son, yet Azula is his pride. When Ozai imagines the future, he imagines it with Azula as the fire lord. He names her after his father. He trusts her to go find the avatar once he knows the avatar has returned.

Sokka and Katara effectively lost both of their parents, but Katara the youngest steps up as the mother and becomes the glue of the group. She's the one who becomes both an immensely powerful bender and healer.

Suki loves Sokka, but when we are introduced to her. She is unconcerned with him. Her and the other Kiyoshi warriors are the protectors of the village who go out into the world to do good into the world.

We see the revseral of all of these tenants in the Netflix show.

Ozai has hope for Zuko at the expense of Azula who he sees as a nuisance. She is no longer am obvious prodigy.

Katara is seen as a child who will not grow up by her brother who is now behaving as a father figure.

Suki is infatuated with Sokka and she follows him around Kiyoshi island when he arrives.

These woman are powerful but restrained and undermined in this power. Suki becomes concerned with the opinions of a man, and a random man at that.

What the OG ATLA taught to all women, girls, boys and men is that you never have to apologize for being powerful, intelligent, kind empathetic.

This is a very critical point that cuts to the heart of the OG ATLA that Netflix has missed.

save for yourself and for future generations

I first got into journaling through youtube. I stumbled across one of those "journal with me" videos and suddenly, for a few days, all I could watch were people decorating their journals. And I'd thought "I wish I could do that, but my life is not interesting like that", you know? Most days I just stay home and do some chores and play with the cats, and that's not worth documenting, is it?

But still I couldn't get the idea off my mind. So I made a notebook from scratch, and decided it was gonna be my journal. I didn't have anything to write on it, but I could decorate the pages anyway. And then I discovered art journal and junk journal, and for a while I did that and I was happy.

After a while, I found a pretty notebook and bought it without realizing it had lined paper. Now I had to write on it, right? So I did. Instead of writing about my day, I write about the animes I watch, the music I listen, the things that make me happy... I don't write every day, but I write about things I love and that I think are gonna be worth to remember in the future.

So, if someone out there reads this, and is thinking about journaling but doesn't know what to write, well, write about what makes you happy. It's the best advice I could give you.

Did you know? Tumblr DOES have a post length limit. Strangely, though, it's based on how many blocks of text you have. Supposedly this implies that you can have any length post so long as it's one block of text? Very strange, will have to investigate further.