Avatar: The Last Airbender (Nickelodeon Animation Studios, 2005-2008)
Megan E. Jackson is a social media strategist for 360training.com and will be attending NYU in the fall to start coursework for an MPA. She also runs the YouTube channel College Uncomplicated. As an undergraduate she wrote her senior thesis on gender representation in the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, which was published in issue 4.2 of Film Matters in 2013. In the following interview, Megan discusses the beginnings of her article, gender representation, and works she has done outside the publication.
Rachel Wassil: How did you hear about Film Matters magazine? Why did you want to publish your work in it?
Megan E. Jackson: I had heard about Film Matters during my sophomore year of undergrad at the University of Texas at Austin. My instructor and mentor Anne Helen Petersen, who now does long-form articles for BuzzFeed, was teaching film history with a star studies twist. For one of our main papers, we had to do a case study of a celebrity who was in her/his prime before the 1980s. Naturally, I wrote my paper on the amazing Robert Redford, and after grading it, Annie suggested I submit it to Film Matters. That was the first time I had submitted a paper for possible publication, and I was excited to make it to the last round of reviews, but unfortunately it didn’t make the final cut. So when I started developing my senior thesis, which then became “(Gender)Bending in the Animated Series Avatar: The Last Airbender,” I knew I wanted to try to submit to the magazine again while I still had the chance!
RW: What inspired the idea to connect Avatar: The Last Airbender to third-wave feminism? Was it an idea that you came up with quickly (maybe a particular episode inspired the idea) or did it come about after extensive research of multiple topics?
MEJ: I already knew something was there. I had been a longtime fan of the show largely because of its feminist angle. I think I knew I loved the series just from the first episode when Katara flat out calls her brother Sokka sexist. How many kid’s shows do you know that discuss sexism and feminism at all, let alone from the very beginning?! Also I grew up doing martial arts, so to see a show that focused on martial arts with a majority of diverse, kick-butt women as its main recurring characters — it just made me feel so empowered and supported. Therefore tying the series to third-wave feminist theory was not a big leap at all.
RW: Are you a fan of Legend of Korra? Does it share Avatar: The Last Airbender’s characteristic of representing gender-bending characters? Is there anything it did better than The Last Airbender in this regard?
MEJ: I am certainly a fan of Korra. Unfortunately, though, I’ve only recently made it to the finale for season two, so I don’t want to make any judgments on the series as a whole. While it still has similar themes as the original Avatar series, it does certainly have its own style and feel that may affect how a viewer perceives the show’s depiction of gender. Actually what jumps out at me more about the series, or at least the first season, is how it introduces kids to the idea of oppression, specifically between benders and non-benders. Just as Avatar discussed sexism in its first episode, Korra brings up oppression in its first episode. Then the first season goes further by begging the question: how far can an oppressed class go to demand its rights? But back to your original question, I think in order to have a better understanding of Korra’s gender representation, I would have to do another quantitative analysis.
RW: Are there particular episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender that support your argument better than others? If so, which ones? Are there any episodes that contradict your argument?
MEJ: Of course there are going to be singular episodes that both support and contradict my argument, primarily because my analysis utilizes overall averages of seven episodes. But this is also a key concept of third-wave feminist theory and my personal views of feminism. In order to disprove the gender binary, there needs to be a plethora of diverse gender representations. Therefore just as one should not be relegated to her/his stereotypical gender traits, one should not relegate her/him to solely non-stereotypical gender traits. Basically there needs to be a range, which is what the entire series provides. But, off the top of my head, my favorite episodes that uphold my argument are “The Warriors of Kyoshi” and “The Waterbending Master” from season one. Both episodes explicitly address women’s capabilities in martial arts.
RW: In your article there are many different discussions touched on: anime, third-wave feminism, gender theory, etc. Was it difficult to connect all of these subjects together? How did you decide to organize the topics?
MEJ: Not really — my thesis supervisor, Professor Kathleen Tyner, helped me develop my literature review, which was actually much more extensive in my original thesis than the condensed version published in Film Matters. Understanding anime and its emphasis on extensive character arcs and serial narrative style helped inform which specific episodes to include in the analysis. Then in order to argue that the series had third-wave feminist characteristics and therefore could be labeled a feminist show, I had to define third-wave feminism and, by extension, basic gender theory.
RW: What other topics have you written about? What topics do you want to write about in the future?
MEJ: I tend to write about feminism and intersectionality representation in media. I’ve done qualitative analyses of Roseanne, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and, like I mentioned before, Robert Redford. My most recent was a short article for GotchaMovies.com entitled, “House of Cards’ Claire Underwood Is No Feminist Warrior” where I also tied her actions to third-wave feminist theory. In the future, I would love to do a larger qualitative analysis of prime-time television and try to provide some insight on its overall gender representation.
RW: Have you been published in any other magazines besides Film Matters? If so, which ones? Which ones would you like to be published in?
MEJ: I have not and quite honestly, I don’t know where else I’d like to be published!
Author Biography
Rachel Wassil is majoring in Film Studies and minoring in Forensic Science at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her likes include rainy days, feminism, and Wes Anderson films. Her passion lies in writing about film, but she hopes to expand her horizons into production in the future.
