Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2012-01-30 07:31 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2012-01-30 07:31 pm
[ SECRET POST #1854 ]
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 06 pages, 139 secrets from Secret Submission Post #265.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeats ]
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments and concerns should go here.
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Thanks for the reminder!
And, uh... Maybe? They still worded it *really* badly, though... |D
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(Anonymous) 2012-01-31 05:13 am (UTC)(link)I agree. The secret is worded very poorly.
I also agree with what you said above, about people arguing at length about everything in A:TLA being rooted in Asian cultural history, which isn't true. The show does have its Western flair, which often sees dismissal. A shame, because it's the blend of East and West (with clear emphasis on the East) that gives the show such a wide appeal.
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(Anonymous) 2012-01-31 06:09 am (UTC)(link)Yeah, as you can imagine, pointing out the Western influences of the show usually doesn't end well. Why must everything be just one thing in order to be good? Avatar takes the best of the East and West, in varying amounts, and we should celebrate that! Annoys me, too, to see it ignored. I'm glad I'm not the only one.
I think this fandom would be a friendlier place if we could all just focus on what we love about the show and not downplay things because they aren't a certain way.
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Very true. I mean, I love all the Asian imagery in the show- ngl- it's what I grew up with (sort of). But that's not all there is to it, and that's why it's so brilliant! Because it is a pinch of this and a dash of that. Granted, if we were making a cake, the Asian influence that exists would probably be like, the flour
or the cake mixor something (the main "base" of everything), but that doesn't mean it's the only thing in the cake.I do to, but really, when has any fandom ever done that? -_-;
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(Anonymous) 2012-01-31 07:18 am (UTC)(link)There's one last thing, and this is just to demonstrate to anyone still skeptical about the pervasive Deliverance stereotypes, and how they've transcended horror-movie fare to permeate just about every aspect of our pop-culture.
Readers, I bring you Avatar: the Last Airbender.
That's right. The series that brought us strong female characters! The series that brought us an entire leading cast of people of color! The series that elevated and respected a complex world of diverse Asian-derived cultures! ...and it also brought us a Deliverance reboot, right there in the middle.
Season two, the episode titled "The Swamp", and we meet a group of waterbenders. See if any of this sounds familiar, because to my eyes it's a freaking checklist. Predominantly male, check. Apparently shiftless, check. Drawling slow talkers, check. Dressed in primitive (bark and leaves) garb, check. Note on this one: nearly all other in-story cultures met are shown to be civilized to some degree, with complex and stylized clothing, advanced architecture and engineering, but not the swamp waterbenders, who are barely dressed at all. Ah, and buck-teeth, check. Shortened cognominic names with no surname, check.
Oh, and the icing on the goddamned freaking cake? The swamp waterbenders kidnap the two lovable animal sidekicks and are going to eat them, if not for Aang et al rescuing the critters in time. The only thing missing is incest, but we've got the eating-of-taboo-animals right there.
And this in a series lauded for its sensitivity to cultural issues?
I'd say that's a pervasive -- and perceived-as-safe -- stereotype, when it can even show up in a children's cartoon and no one says a word.
Then again, why bother? Most of the people I've met who say such things really do believe it. Not that it's really any better to tell someone that, actually, your mother has two grad degrees and your father has four, and your sister attended one of the most prestigious schools on the eastern seaboard. It's just like the comment about having all your teeth, if a variation: "oh, well, see," you'll be told, "I was talking about all those other Southerners, not like you, you're obviously different."
Yeah, well, fuck you and your goddamn Deliverance-for-Georgia map.
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(Anonymous) 2012-01-31 08:49 am (UTC)(link)"Shortened cognominic names"
Mmm pretty sure they were Vietnamese. (Anglicized pronunciations, as with all the other names in the show, but there you are..)
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(Anonymous) 2012-01-31 05:54 pm (UTC)(link)Um...I lived in Marietta for over a decade before I moved out of that hellhole just last year. Yes, I would say you're an anomaly. No, people weren't necessarily Deliverance-bad, but they are by and large uneducated, devoutly religious, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, have poor hygiene, and and resistant to change of any sort. So I can't exactly hate that the stereotype exists when there are so many people who embrace it as a "culture."
no subject
(Anonymous) 2012-01-31 06:54 pm (UTC)(link)