Masculinity in Avatar: The Last Airbender - What Makes a Man?

this video is sponsored by Avatar Generations Avatar Generations is a free-to-play mobile RPG by Navigator games where you can relive the gang's beloved adventure and build your own team Avatar by collecting iconic characters from the vast Avatar Universe you can choose from some of Avatar's greatest men and women like Aang iro Toff and many many more as you venture through a dynamic map of the four nations Avatar Generations has just received new content under its latest update the hegemon's Folly that adds a new campaign Canon to the Avatar franchise featuring pirate Captain Jiang from the graphic novel Katara and the pirate silver and a new villain commander mamushi and adds Captain Masaru as a collectible character at the beginning of June join Captain Jiang as she races against the clock to solve an ancient puzzle before the Fire Nation catches onto her scheme Additionally the broken Bonds event Banner allows players to collect kyoshi's sages kelsang and jianzu from the rise of Kyoshi available for a limited time Avatar Generations in the hegemon's Folly update are available now for free for IOS and Android devices you can download it today from the app store or the Google Play store or download it directly from my link in the description thank you Avatar has a vast spectrum of men and many of them present themselves in different ways and they all carry different temperaments but in each of Avatar's greatest men there is a common trait amongst them all these are all loving kind empathetic men Professor Judith lorber wrote that gender is so pervasive that in our society we assume it is bred into our genes most people find it hard to believe that gender is constantly created and recreated out of human interaction out of social life and it's the texture and Order of that social life yet gender like culture is a human production that depends on everyone constantly doing gender performing gender the men of this series perform masculinity based on the way they've been taught and the two I want to begin with are Saka and Zuko seeing the men of the Southern water tribe go off to fight in the war and being without his father or mother for some of the most important formative years of his life left Saka as the only man left in the tribe hardly a man at 14 years old when his father left but Saka has learned what it is to be a man through what he has seen and he has only ever seen his father in one very distinct very traditionally masculine role he's only ever seen hokota be a protector a chief and a warrior because as long as he's been alive they've been at War He's only seen the men of his tribe go on to fight so Saka now has to fill in the gaps about gender and about manhood based on the new role he has earned and what he has seen from Joseph Plex the myth of masculinity he states that a boy in his attempt to gain an elusive masculine identification often comes to Define his masculinity largely in negative terms as that which is not feminine or involved with women sociologist Nancy chodaro pointed out being a boy means not being weak not feeling not needing not being a girl men are taught to actively despise these human qualities to return to pleck he continues on by saying the boy often does this by repressing whatever it takes to be feminine inside himself and by denigrating whatever he considers to be feminine in the outside world boys develop hostility towards girl-like activities and develop hostility towards all females as representatives of this disliked rule in order to become like the men before him like the man before him Saka represses everything that he actually is in order to become what he believes he should be women to him become useless weak and in need of protection when Katara is sewing a hole in his pants he immediately shows contempt towards him stating that sewing is for girls as they are better at fixing pants and stuff like that that it's just the nature of things in the very first episode he blames his shortcomings on Katara stating that girls just screw things up Saka at his core is an emotional man we see it in the second and third Seasons or with the group when he feels inadequate the various ways he shows Suki that he loves her in these later Seasons it's not a problem for him to be interested in shopping and matching his belt with his bag but at the beginning of the series he struggled with accepting that it is okay to be a man and to enjoy these things and even after he does accept this part of himself he still continues to struggle but before all of this Osaka has this tremendous pressure placed on his shoulders asking a then 14 year old kid to be a protector of an entire tribe tasked by not only his father and by his tribe but by grand grand also so he believes that his worth that his masculinity its tied to his strength as a protector as a warrior and a leader and constantly he gets humbled by Men by women by the situations that he encounters Suki takes him down with ease in the kiyoshi Warrior Episode he's jealous of Jed who proves himself to be a better leader and fighter than him Toff and Qatar develop as two of the most powerful Benders in the world they get hunted down by Azula Mei and Ty Lee who embarrass him they're all stronger than him he loses time and time again and when he gets the one chance to actually Flex his protector muscles UA decides to give her life away to become the Moon he fails over the course of this series suddenly he becomes the protected this pressure to be a very specific type of man is a pressure placed Often by society and those who create this pressure more often than not are other men this idea that if you are not a public leader a boss someone with power or wealth or status then suddenly you are not a man not a real man but you can gain that power in the realm of violence and you can gain power over other men and assert your dominance over women that'll temporarily quell your feelings of inadequacy leave it to a girl to screw things up right an easy scapegoat to feel manly when Saka walks into the water tribe camp and the guru to greet his father he squares off with the other men of the tribe trying to show off that he has grown taller that he is strong that he is now a man to be clear this is not to criticize the men of the Southern water tribe as hakoda Bato and others have shown us that they perform a healthy version of masculinity but instead this reflects on the type of man Saka believes he needs to be he needs to be taller and stronger and he wants to show off to the men that he has achieved that status and while he grows a ton throughout the series in this regard still by the time we reach saka's master in the third season the crushing weight of being a man still deflates him from his perspective the men in his life perform masculinity better than he does his father is a stocky Warrior a battle-harden chief when he speaks people listen he is a great leader Aang is the Avatar the most powerful person alive the ideal protector the ideal Warrior and so he asks himself in the realm of traditional masculinity he is not dominating he is not strong he is not a protector and he is not a great leader so who is soccer can he even call himself a real man and how can I get through to you by Terence Rio he writes the way we turn boys into madness through injured we sever them from their mothers research tells us far too early we pull them from their own expressiveness from their feelings and from sensitivity to others the very phrase be a man means to suck it up and to keep going disconnection is not Fallout from traditional masculinity disconnection is masculinity that line we sever them from their mothers far too early every time I read it I think of Zuko of course she wasn't pulled away through traditional means but I think the general Point still applies when we compare the child that Zuko was when Ursa was around he was a sensitive kid an emotionally intelligent and expressive child he was very much his mother's child compassion to Ira when Lieutenant died recognizing his uncle's sadness having just lost his only son but when he was pulled away from Ursa and left with his father and then left without his honor he became a mirror image of the ideal Fire Nation man being burnt by his own father in front of what felt like the entire country was in a sense emasculating for the Fire Nation Prince if engaging in agony Kai is to settle grievances as being a man then Zuko in front of the entire Fire Nation Army and Royals then their view had renounced his masculinity he had become a coward even if it was his father a real man would have stood up to the challenge and fought for his honor in the first agnikai of the series against Zhao Zuko wins and Spares the general Zhao callsuko a coward again in this culture honor is tied to one's manhood because finishing somebody off burning them hurting them or even killing them being ruthless that is the mark of a true man the Fire Nation is ruled by men who employ this patriarchal masculinity as Bell hooks describes it a performance of masculinity that more so reflects our reality than most other nations [Music] ozai even iro they've all been taught the same things that power is Paramount in this world and as men it is their Duty no it's their right to conquer Dominate and control everything you can say that the fire nation's desire to dominate and Conquer and colonize stems from this very brand of masculinity that they practice its rage its Fury and its violence it's imposing one's will onto others hooks notes that there is only one emotion that is recognized or respected by men that is anger it is the only valid emotion that a man can express real men get mad and no matter how violent and how violating it is recognized as a positive expression of masculinity anger prevents love and isolates the one who is angry it is an attempt often successful to push away what is most longed for companionship and understanding anger is the agony of believing that you are not capable of being understood and that you are not worthy of being understood zuku was led to believe that in order to regain his status his honor his masculinity he needed to become like the man before him Zuko believed like many men that it was better to be feared than to be loved that anger was the mark of a real man and so he cut off all of his other emotions what Zuko needed to do after having lost his mother and having been abandoned by his father was grief to mourn these losses to cry but in a world where anger is the only emotion that is accepted and recognized and where grief is seen as feminine rather than human there was no space for it but there is a space for Fury and his father and Zhao and so many of the Fire Nation men are proof of that the desperation for his masculinity for his honor back turns him into someone unrecognizable if you compare him to his younger self a kid who was once so kind and sweet is now willing to destroy Villages and tribes in order to regain entry into the land of manhood in order to escape the pain and the isolation that he feels every day and in the second season he even breaks away from Ira believing that he needs to be alone on his journey that he shouldn't have to rely on another man and that too stems from these harmful ideas that he has been taught again masculinity is disconnection a man does not need to ask for help nor should he seek it only in isolation will he prove to himself who he actually is but again like Saka it begs the question with the Avatar quote unquote dead his father has given him his honor and his masculinity back but is this the kind of man that Zuko wants to be there is a line from Moonlight that I think back to so often when I think about what it means to be a man Juan a drug dealer who serves as a father figure to a young exploring child tells him that at some point in time you've got to decide for yourself who you want to be and you can't let anyone make that decision for you when you decide for yourself who you are and you are confident in that identity there is not a single person on this planet who can tell you otherwise no one can tell you how to be a man but remember that no one comes into this world already strong and not needing intimacy or love we all long to be understood to be vulnerable these are not gender traits these are human needs that we as men rip out of ourselves to try and fit and live up to a standard that will ultimately end up killing us physically or mentally Avatar's best men have decided to embrace these qualities they've decided what kind of men they will be and often times they help others do that as well hokota and pyondao teach Saka what it is to truly be a man through their words and through examples hakota tells a young Saka that being a man is knowing where you're needed the most for Saka that was learning to be a yielding vulnerable individual to Simply Be himself to accept that rarely in a team with the strongest Benders in the world would he be a protector on the battlefield Saka was needed most as a tactician hakoda gives Saka space and he gives him the confidence to lead and to take command when necessary hakota is vulnerable enough to let Saka not only take the Reigns but let him plan out an entire invasion of the Fire Nation and even when things don't go as planned he still has the utmost trust and confidence in his son calling him a genius even after he fails uplifting him okota teaches his son that it is okay to retreat and avoid battle to live to fight another day to concede doesn't make you less of a man most of all hakota assures Saka that he is very much a man and a good one because of the type of person that he is because of his heart his kindness his perspective his warmth not because of what he can do piendao's training and mainly his validation helped Saka gain some much needed confidence in himself and his abilities and showed him just another respectful worldly man that he should aspire to be like I do however want to credit Saka himself that much of his growth was individually done he had to take his losses and his embarrassments on the chin and over time through the lessons that he learned and through the new and healthy examples of men in his life and he's grown so much into a respectful gentle kind man who will always be protective of those he loves the most now with healthy ways to express who he is and who he wants to be learning truly that being a man is knowing where you're needed the most for Zuko much of that work has been done through the careful guidance of iro in iro Zuko sees the example firsthand of positive healthy masculinity and what makes iro the perfect figure for Zuko to look towards is that iro is cut from the same clot that he was he was not the same things as brother tatsuko he was a man driven by the fury of the Fire Nation he too was once obsessed with the machismo of their country domination power and strength were things that iro desired and that manifested in him leading his army Into The 500-day Siege Zuko was sending his uncle letters throughout that time so he watched his uncle rise Through Fire to the greatest ranks of the Fire Nation and he saw his uncle do what no man in Fire Nation history could in getting to the outer wall of basing say but he also washed his uncle fail and most of all he saw his uncle change iro in this series is given a role that not many men are given in media the role of the Healer it's not his experience as a master Firebender as Dragon of the West that helps Zuko it's all of the other qualities that are traditionally non-masculine that help Zuko first off it's his grace iro gives Zuko plenty of room to make his own decisions and guides him onto the correct path when necessary winsuko joins the gang on some nights he offers them all tea it's probably something he saw iro do for the crew it's iro's kindness and his love that rubs off on Zuko bringing him back closer to the man that he was before he lost his mother and his honor Ira's vulnerability with his nephew has him constantly reassuring Zuko that even though he lost his mother and his pride and his family that he is still loved and that he is still deserving of love Zuko standing up to his father standing up against everything he's ever known reclaiming his masculinity in front of his father choosing iro's performance of masculinity over his father's choosing peace and love over anger and domination that moment made Zuko a man Messner writes that men often feel empty isolated and alienated because the socially learned means through which they seek validation and identity do not deliver what is actually craved and needed intimate connection and unity with others this is what Zuko desperately craved underneath all that anger to feel understood and loved when he joins the gang and gets to spend quality time with them all he feels the incredible warmth of a community he feels understood by Saka who's had a similar Journey as he has orang who radiates the very same brand of kindness that his uncle does together they're able to allow Zuko to not only grow tremendously but they also just allow him to be a fun-loving kid for a moment and all of that brings him closer to iro is a man who cries who buys flowers who loves helping people a man who avoids Conflict at all costs Ira once helped a man who tried to mug him by offering him tea and advice and most of all iro is a man who is empathetic but at the same time he is one of the most powerful Benders in the world and when it's time for him to be the dragon of the West to be Stern and tough he is not afraid of being so like when threatening Zhao in the northern water tribe or when confronting Zuko about letting Apple go and looking inwards even after everything he's been through even after being deserted by his own nephew iro is quick to forgive and quick to love again showing Zuko a tremendous amount of Grace no matter what insults are thrown to him by Azula by Zhao by ozai iro's masculinity is unwavered he doesn't even question it his sense of self is so persistent he knows exactly what it is to be a man and for me it's that courage and the strength to be kind choose kindness it's easy to cut yourself off from your emotions and to respond to every challenge with fire like iro very well could it's incredibly difficult to forgive those you love after you've been robbed to him that is what being a man is listen to the words that have been said describing iro empathetic loving gentle kind forgiving a good man and finally I want to end with Aang the air Nomad Culture by Nature has already denied many of the negative poisonous traits that traditional masculinity preaches and Aang was fortunate to have gyato play a large role in his life Jetta was a man who understood that while Aang was the Avatar he was still just a kid and gyato made sure to cultivate time and space for Aang to have fun to goof around and to not feel the immense pressure that comes with being the avatar and that idea resonates so strongly with the young Airbender that kindness that tenderness that overall love of life that Ang carries is spread throughout everyone he comes into contact with whether it's goofing off with Saka letting Saka and Zuko know that it's okay to be a kid going on adventures with them or asking Toff to take her life into her own hands Aang is incredibly confident in who he is and in the values that he's been taught while angsta had to become more assertive and confrontational he still remained a fundamentally gentle and kind soul and at the same time Ang in a sense is the Pinnacle of masculinity of the traditional masculinity he is the strongest man on the planet he can destroy Dominate and he is brave but there's something about making the most powerful Bender in this series a very gentle and tender and kind-hearted kid no one would dare say Aang isn't a man in the realm of power and violence the places where quote real men are made Aang stands at the top at the summit this kid the pacifist a monk I set it for iro but it's true for Angus wow how easy it would be for him to submit to his rage and his anger like his opponent he is the most powerful bender on the planet and his entire family his culture has been erased yet he chooses kindness he chooses peace he likes to wear flower crowns and sing songs with Travelers and he's incredibly emotional and empathetic the kid who will uphold his values of peace to the best he can even if people will shame him for it and there's nothing that anybody can do because he is the strongest man in the world while being the kindest but all of these characters all these kind-hearted characters they let us know that maleness or manhood is not inherently a bad thing or something that needs to be ended masculinity instead is something that needs to be redefined re-examined reclaimed as hooks writes instead of strength and aggression and insensitivity it needs to become kindness and love and dependence safety and nurturing it needs to be simply being a good person the men who practice this patriarchal masculinity the ones who've cut themselves off from feeling they lose or they're incredibly unhappy many of these characters are once in their shoes iro lost his son because of it Saka was lost having trouble finding his place and his identity Zuko felt like a failure and felt like he would never become a worthy honorable man again paku turned out to be a lonely man when he decided to uphold the sexist cultures of the northern water tribe Zhao died in the pursuit of domination ozai will rot in jail its form of masculinity any way you spin it is lost whether it's the loss of self or of the spirit Not all men will have the same personalities or will be built the same not everyone can be as bubbly and fun-loving as Ang and not everyone will be as edgy or mysterious as Zuko one thing's for sure is that we can't all be the strongest we can't all be the leader we can't all dominate so these arbitrary rules on what a man is truly supposed to be they don't mean anything they don't make sense but everyone can be kind everyone can have empathy the Zuko Saka hakoda piendao boomi iro and dang they are all radically different people but the one common trait that they all carry and I've said this so much I know but at their core they are simply good kind loving people loving men they know when it is time to be strong and tough and they are not afraid of being so but at all times they are understanding and empathetic they know where they are needed most they've all chosen this path to me that is what being a man truly is just to be a good person

Channel: Sage's Rain

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Keywords: anime, film, tv, avatar the last airbender, atla

Id: gi992jWsYTo

Length: 25min 27sec (1527 seconds)

Published: Tue May 23 2023