Well, first, I can tick off most if not every box on the white privilege checklist, which is why I do not want to tell people who see this story as a narrative stemming from or playing into such privilege that they are wrong. I can see the applicability of many of the complaints: yes, the main character is a played by a white, male actor; all the CGI Navi (who are physically gifted people of color who live in close harmony with their natural setting) are played by non-pale actors like Zoe Saldana and Wes Studi; yes, the culture of the Navi is based on a mish-mash of native American traditions; yes, the white hero is reluctantly taught their warrior-ways, and rises to unite all the Navi tribes in a war against his own kind; yes, he winds up bagging the chief’s daughter. Altogether, it means that Avatar can have a strong appeal to pale people who want to appropriate positive qualities of other ‘races’ while still maintaining the social power and status (i.e. privilege) that Whiteness affords them.
I just don’t think it’s the only reason to like this movie. I don’t think it’s why I liked this movie. Getting to be the big hero, the leader, the guy with the hottest girl friend is not without appeal to me, but the root of it (for me) is the physical transfer into a better body, and the literal communion with the world around me. One might label this a racist fantasy, especially since the Navi explain this phenomenon with concepts taken from various animist traditions. However, I contend that one need not be a racist, sexist, capitalist, patriarchal colonialist to understand the appeal of literally plugging one’s central nervous system into a vast consciousness composed of all the plants and animals of the world on which one lives. And while for us this is a metaphor, for the characters in the film this is a literal, scientifically documented state of affairs.
As a more-or-less atheist, I find that appealing.
Or, to put it more viscerally, I liked the idea of going from someone with an ill-fitting, awkward flesh-mantle and a desire to fit into a social world (yet uninterested, if not repelled, by the one in which I find myself), to a, basically, a jock who fits right in.
Millari suggested to me that maybe your point is simply that the act of disregarding the racial metaphors and enjoying what I like about the story is, itself, an act of white privilege. If so, I must emphatically disagree. Everyone has their own unique impression of the art they read, watch, hear, etc. Choosing to enjoy something for one’s own reasons is, therefore, something that anyone and everyone can and should do. Such true democracy is the antithesis of privilege.
The privilege comes in when one insists that one’s personal experience is better than others, or that someone else’s objections don’t matter. I don’t mean to make that claim. I wrote this post to talk about what I like about this movie, not to deny what other people didn’t. I might not have bothered, but the commentary on the film that I have seen has been either lauding it for amazing visuals and cool action or deriding for racism (or, in a couple of cases, hating America.) So, I thought I’d chime in, too. That’s my right, and my privilege as a person with a livejournal, but that’s all.
"That's a case of what's called white privilege though, isn't it?"
In more than a word: yes, but…
Well, first, I can tick off most if not every box on the white privilege checklist, which is why I do not want to tell people who see this story as a narrative stemming from or playing into such privilege that they are wrong. I can see the applicability of many of the complaints: yes, the main character is a played by a white, male actor; all the CGI Navi (who are physically gifted people of color who live in close harmony with their natural setting) are played by non-pale actors like Zoe Saldana and Wes Studi; yes, the culture of the Navi is based on a mish-mash of native American traditions; yes, the white hero is reluctantly taught their warrior-ways, and rises to unite all the Navi tribes in a war against his own kind; yes, he winds up bagging the chief’s daughter. Altogether, it means that Avatar can have a strong appeal to pale people who want to appropriate positive qualities of other ‘races’ while still maintaining the social power and status (i.e. privilege) that Whiteness affords them.
I just don’t think it’s the only reason to like this movie. I don’t think it’s why I liked this movie. Getting to be the big hero, the leader, the guy with the hottest girl friend is not without appeal to me, but the root of it (for me) is the physical transfer into a better body, and the literal communion with the world around me. One might label this a racist fantasy, especially since the Navi explain this phenomenon with concepts taken from various animist traditions.
However, I contend that one need not be a racist, sexist, capitalist, patriarchal colonialist to understand the appeal of literally plugging one’s central nervous system into a vast consciousness composed of all the plants and animals of the world on which one lives. And while for us this is a metaphor, for the characters in the film this is a literal, scientifically documented state of affairs.
As a more-or-less atheist, I find that appealing.
Or, to put it more viscerally, I liked the idea of going from someone with an ill-fitting, awkward flesh-mantle and a desire to fit into a social world (yet uninterested, if not repelled, by the one in which I find myself), to a, basically, a jock who fits right in.
Millari suggested to me that maybe your point is simply that the act of disregarding the racial metaphors and enjoying what I like about the story is, itself, an act of white privilege. If so, I must emphatically disagree. Everyone has their own unique impression of the art they read, watch, hear, etc. Choosing to enjoy something for one’s own reasons is, therefore, something that anyone and everyone can and should do. Such true democracy is the antithesis of privilege.
The privilege comes in when one insists that one’s personal experience is better than others, or that someone else’s objections don’t matter. I don’t mean to make that claim. I wrote this post to talk about what I like about this movie, not to deny what other people didn’t. I might not have bothered, but the commentary on the film that I have seen has been either lauding it for amazing visuals and cool action or deriding for racism (or, in a couple of cases, hating America.) So, I thought I’d chime in, too. That’s my right, and my privilege as a person with a livejournal, but that’s all.