#They seem to largely refute the arguments that avatar is colonialist/misogynistic/racist(noble savage argument) but for unexpected reasons
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I spend so much time reading medical journals that reading social/anthropological journals feels like playing a gameboy
#Creepy chatter#I'm on my like? sixth or seventh? study#And somehow I've moved from psychosocial compulsive smoking to anthropological studies on avatar and its social effects#the academic opinion of avatar is surprisingly different than expected#They seem to largely refute the arguments that avatar is colonialist/misogynistic/racist(noble savage argument) but for unexpected reasons#Academia views the avatar franchise in a more abstract manner--focusing more on the environmental messages than social#Whereas (arguably more online) public opinion views it as a denigrating depiction of indigenous peoples. It's a pretty large disconnect#Ofc the same public/academic disconnect was routinely pointed out in the smoking studies as well#No one seems to be looking for the lay opinion regarding the avatar citicisms though#They're just starting to do it for tobacco research and it's shaking a lot of fundamental academic opinions to their cores#Reading NIH social studies on smoking repeatedly saying reduced nicotine products do not reduce smoking and nicotine isn't the danger#(combustible smoke inhalation is) and then looking over gov PSAs and civil resources on smoking and they ALL state nicotine#as the MAIN reason to avoid smoking (bc it 'causes addiction'). Study after study found it to be a social soothing behavior and more of a#addiction to the ritualistic repeated nature of smoking. Smokers/former smokers mostly reported similar opinions that its not the nicotine#But these were all RECENT studies since vaping hit the mainstream. Prior studies w severe disconnect to the layman never considered#the contribution of the social/psycho/physical factors beyond the effects of nicotine in the brain.#Fuckin WILD I bet the academic opinion of Avatar would have more nuance if they included the relevant layman parties#There was a very interesting study on avatars reception in hawaii that found that indigenous participants overwhelming found the movie#to be be far less far fetched than white participants. In particular they found the majority of white male participants#found the movie to be 'like a dream' or 'far off fantasy' with no real narrative to be made about reality (positive or negative)#But most other studies only referenced the opinions of other anthropologists and they resoundingly believe the film to be#an environment call to arms that shouldn't be seen as representative of any unique conflict in reality beyond#consumerism vs sustainability. It's pretty tone deaf tbh!
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