Gender Balance in Avatar: The Last Airbender, or, Why I Like The Great Divide

[ambyr]

[written for month_of_meta]

Avatar: The Last Airbender is, quite possibly, my favorite show of all time. I love its magic, I love its worldbuilding, and I love its characters, each of whom come across as a real human being, with distinct flaws, strengths, and motivations. I love, most of all, the variety of its female characters. This is not a show where one Strong Female Character has to stand in for her entire gender. Over the course of three seasons, we see many women--some good, some misguided, some indifferent, some evil--showing many different ways to have and use agency.

And yes, I'm saying a lot of nice things about it because I'm about to rip one aspect to shreds.

I'm far from the first person to praise the show's female leads. There's even a "Women of Avatar" DVD extra where a bunch of fans talk about how much they mean to them. Katara, Toph, Azula, Suki, Mai, Ty Lee, Yue--there's someone for everyone, regardless of preference. The problem is, what happens when you look beyond the leads?

(The world of Avatar is, to all appearances, one dominated entirely by men.)