Instead of Talking about Sexism, Let’s Just Make It Sexist!
Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Hypocrisy
24 October 2024
by Paul Haneke
Months before the release of Netflix’s adaptation of Nickelodeon’s much beloved cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans’ expectations were going through the roof. And how could they not? The teaser trailer looked incredible. The cast seemed promising. Were they actually going to pull it off? Especially when considering that more than ten years ago, M. Night Shyamalan’s attempt at adapting the iconic series had already failed miserably.
One of the major changes, according to the producers, was that they were going to get rid of Sokka’s machoism by removing his sexist viewpoints towards many women he engages with on their journey. Sounds great and progressive, right? Well… in theory.
To give some context: Sokka and his sister Katara are teenagers belonging to the Southern Water Tribe who one day find a boy sealed in ice. This boy happens to be Aang, the long-lost Avatar and only hope at peace in a world plagued by a century of oppressive war and ethnic cleansing. The siblings are not in any way sheltered from this brutal reality: Their entire village was raided multiple times and most fighters were killed. After these attacks, their father, who also acted as leader of the tribe, as well as most other men able to fight, leave to join the resistance army, tasking Sokka with protecting the tribe in their stead.
So, the lighthearted jokster with a more than fragile ego, we are introduced to in 2006, turns out to be a traumatized, overburdened teen, constantly outshadowed by his talented sister, Katara. Throughout their journeys the siblings encounter many more strong female characters, who further add to his insecurities and lead to him talking down to them right from the start, since “they’re only girls” and “he has to protect them”. Most importantly though, the show never fails to unravel the falsehood of Sokka’s prejudices. He is repeatedly outskilled and outsmarted by the very girls he looks down upon. Slowly but surely, he is being forced to face the reality that he is not the heroic protector he fancies himself to be, which in turn opens the door for some much-needed re-evaluation of his views. The overcoming of his inherent sexism plays a major part in his character development and allows him to accept himself as who he is and where his true talents lie — not in being a fierce warrior and protector, but instead being more of a skilled technician and a smart strategist. In crafting useful gadgets and devising witty plans, he ultimately helps his allies reach their goals. Stripping him of his toxic traits does not in any way benefit his character. Instead, it simply removes his ability to realize the error of his ways, leaving only the blank canvas of a character who oh-so-progressively subjects us to half-baked, politically correct jokes.
Tragically, it doesn't end there. The “strong female characters” are hardly recognizable as such. They visually resemble their cartoon originals, but in terms of personality, they could not stray further away from them. Suki, leader of an all-female warrior guild, serves as the most striking example.
In the original, Sokka tries to impress her by showcasing his (mostly imaginary) physical prowess, to which a rather unimpressed Suki replies by easily beating him in hand-to-hand combat, ridiculing him in front of all the others. This leads to him being properly humiliated for the first time and ends with him resignedly asking her to let him train under her guidance in order to really learn something from a stronger fighter, not even shying away from having to wear their traditional female fighting gowns, make-up included. Only after seeing him display this growth does she slowly start to reciprocate Sokka’s feelings of interest.
Live-action Suki, however, is barely recognizable. She falls in love with Sokka at first sight, sending flirtatious glances his way and desperately waiting for him to notice her. She is turned into the caricature of an emotional, insecure teenage girl, drawn to the first-best male character she encounters. Her original’s wit, fierceness, and independence are replaced with simplicity, insecurity, and male dependency — a truly tragic misinterpretation of a well-written character. Their romance is not initiated by her being impressed by Sokka’s development, since, as you might remember, he is denied the chance at any sort of development from the get-go. Instead, she shily approaches him in the woods, making for one of the hardest to watch scenes in the entire series (which is in no way suffering from a lack of hard-to-watch scenes).
The plain hypocrisy of removing sexist dialogue, even if through wrong assessment of its function, while simultaneously hyperfeminizing characters who are supposed to be anything but that is, in my humble opinion, mind-boggling. And, on another note, having to point out that negative character traits of fictitious characters do not necessarily represent the values of their creators and what they want to convey seems about as ridiculous as censoring something on a surface level, only to later engrain it into well-rounded characters when adapting them.
Thanks, Netflix.