Racebending

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AVATAR the last airbender

Contents

Web hubs

Info vids

  • Chaobunny
  • "Not for beginners"
    • Who is the audience for such a vid?

Saving the world with postage

Teaming up with Asian American activists

  • MANAA
    • media action network for asian-am
  • Paramount responds
    • Desired "diversity" which "includes White" people.

Who are they?

  • Three unnamed people running the racebending website

Primary actions

  • In-person actions
  • Letter-writing campaigns
  • Ticket boycott

Ticket boycott

  • Vid testimonials on YT
    • Search "airbender boycott"

Politics, aesthetics

  • Do they want aesthetic consistency?
  • Do they have a broader political agenda?
  • Is there a distinction?

Integrity of the fantasy

  • Adult fans of children's show
  • White fans exoticising Asian fantasy?
    • Evidenced by fan production, fic, vid
  • Importance of familiarity with the fans other activity

Prior fan activity

  • Do active fans become activists?
  • Or do the activists come from a different section of fandom?
  • On-going fancritics, acafans?
    • Involved w LJ race conversations

Cosplay

In-group controversy

  • From where does the pushback emerge?
  • What is the conversation like inside of the LJ?
  • Airbender fans highly invested in certain notions of authentic representation
    • Followed by investment in authenticity in representation of the represented
  • Is this a conservative approach?
    • Racebending !~ Genderbending
    • Racial play is not on the table for these fans
  • Emergent social norms regarding race play, ethnic fandom
    • Paramount adaptation violates these norms
    • But Nickelodeon may not even know about the norms
    • Exclusive to the adult fans participating in LJ
  • Is this group unusually attuned to the racial/ethnic/national dynamic?

Compared with other racial transgression in filmic adaptation

  • Little noise about white women cast as Chun Li in Street Fighter
    • Is this bc ethnicity+race are not essential components of SF fandom?
  • Hypothesis: Fans are called to action when the primary dimensions of their fandom are violated.
    • Airbender mythology focuses on ethnicity, fans are invested in the ethnic dimension, Paramount violated this ethnic component
  • Alba/Storm "whiteface" discourse

Generalizable?

Fandom as infrastructure

  • Livejournal, etc.
  • Fans of many racial and ethnic identities are already invested in Airbender
  • Are conventional political activist actions ill fitting for fan-activists?
    • Carrying signs
    • Picketing
    • Confrontation
  • Are there certain types of actions that are better fit?
    • Boycott / Buycotts

Lingering Questions

  • When the "movement" is coordinated w/ other orgs, how is that put together?
  • Distinction between political and aesthetic prference?
  • Will the racebending crew connect with other casting situations?
Retrieved from "http://www.kevindriscoll.org/wiki/Racebending"
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