Avatar Race, Gender, and Stereotypes - 1417 Words

Avatar: Race, Gender, and Stereotypes Avatar uses a variety of film genres and styles. One of the styles is the Cowboys versus Indians theme. It is clear that Avatar is a product of post-colonialism: it shows the Navi as the relatively harmless yet environmentally respectful and spiritually in tuned indigenous population, while the humans are a corporate military whose only goal is mine the resources of Pandora. The film presents an anti-military narrative. The soldiers are portrayed as cruel, violent, and brainless brutes, with only mercenary intentions. They are the stereotype of the ultimate warrior. They perpetuate the â€Å"might is right† myth. All of them are males, except for a female helicopter pilot, who ultimately defects to the†¦show more content†¦Just as John Smith came to the New World to better his life with the riches so follows Jake Sully in search of a way to make enough money to pay for the incredibly expensive surgery needed to allow Jake to walk again. And like John Smith, Jake foll ows the white-man-assimilates-into-Native-American-Indian-culture narrative. Not only is Jake and his avatar initiated into the tribe, but he quickly becomes the most capable of them. The same parallels could be made with Kevin Costner’s 1990 film Dances with Wolves. And like Costner in Dances with Wolves, Jake chooses to stand with the indigenous population against his own race. This could be described as the white savior theme, where a member of the dominant race, often rejected by his own kind, proves to be the best. At one point Colonel Miles Quaritch asks Jake Sully (who are both white men): How does it feel to betray your own race? In the end, Jake chooses to permanently change species. Avatar is still a white-man-saves-the-day film and it is occasionally guilty of some same style of stereotyping that it tries to rally against. It depicts the Na’vi as noble savages and portrays the military as ruthless and single-minded group hell bent on genocide. Much like the Navi are ever-noble, almost all of the ex-military guns-for-hire are depicted as wholly evil. It hurts the film that the good/bad is so black-and-white. Gender in Avatar is a topic that isn’t as blatant as race but it is a strong topic, worthy ofShow MoreRelatedThe Social Construction Of Race1743 Words   |  7 PagesIn The Social Construction of Race, Ian F. Haney Lopez defines race as a social construct that is constantly changing its meaning due to the fickle nature of society. Lopez believes that this fickleness stems from a social climate formed by a variety of factors such as human economic interest, current events, and ideology. 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