Watching the reactions to my TBH post about the Team ICO thing come rolling in last week was kind of surreal. The only rational reaction to Ueda’s comments is dismissal, eyerolling, facepalm, etc. The only way you can possibly defend the comments is if you think all young girls are helpless porcelain dolls. And yet people defended the comments–so many people defended the comments. So many people really do think that girls are inherently weaker than boys, at eight fucking years old, even.
It got to the point where I couldn’t help but laugh. This is what our world is. People deny reality (damn near everyone has at some point seen girls playing on a fucking playground) in order to fit their biases about how boys and girls should be. People deny the existence of pants, shorts, bloomers, skorts, leggings in order to fit their biases of who should be the hero. People deny fucking reality. The absurdity hit me like an anvil, thank fuck I was alone because my cackling must have been scary.
It hit me so hard because for the past three weeks or so I have been vacationing in a glorious land of feminist escapism: the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I have watched all three seasons, some episodes multiple times, and most of the DVD commentary for season 3. It’s safe to say I’m a little bit obsessed. But with good reason. As I said on Twitter:
While !Finished 