#so its not like I have a problem with ppl emphasizing feminimity in Aang

[woodlaflababab]

Aang and Androgyny

This is gonna be a bit ramblish but I've been thinking about it, A Lot.

I keep seeing people describe Aang as 'feminine' and that's always kinda sat wrong with me but I couldn't really tell why because they usually had a point, but recently I've realized it's because Aang isn't feminine, he's a great representation of androgyny but people see an absense of masculinity (especially in comparison with Sokka, Zuko, and even Toph) and read that as feminine.

He has a few 'feminine' moments, like the flower crown and the jewlery making, and he also has plenty of 'masculine' moments, the first that come to mind being him shutting people up in The Great Divide and him giggling with Sokka over buttresses.

And I've heard people point out that he has many personality traits associated with women, passivity being a big one, along with his empathy and care, but he also has plenty associated with men like confidence and, uh, I don't know what the word for it is, the only word that's coming to mind is tomfoolery, but that vibe. Being a tomfool.

But I think the kicker is, the two (positive) traits I see most often associated with him are his love for fun, and his wisdom. Both of which are genderless traits. When you think of wisedom you either think of an old man or an old woman. The gender of 'wise' is old. And fun loving is also not a trait strongly tied to either gender either, it's one that bring to mind children or the 'young at heart' (and isn't that interesting, that Aang can be most well known for acting both too young and too old)

Even Aang's basic character design has andogyny in it. He's bald, which is something usually associated with older men bc they lose hair. Among the young, both men and women can be bald, it's an unconventional hair choice either way. His outfit for two thirds of the show is one that is canonically genderless, it's simply the outfit given to those who are learning airbending, regardless of gender or age. And even when he gets out of that one, what does he go to? A school uniform. One both boys and girls wear. His final outfit is sorta ??? on the gender scale because like, clearly a woman would need to wear something under that, but also looser more revealing clothing is typically reserved for women (looking at Katara's fire nation outfit). I feel like there's a reason most genderbent art of Aang I've seen retain his outfit just with wraps underneath.

Aang is almost perfectly androgynous in just about everything he does. He's literally the fucking avatar, the symbol of balance, a being that has been both male and female many times.

But, because he's a boy, people see androgyny and think feminine, just like people see girls who lack feminimity as masculine. They're not. Androgynous is a thing a person can be.

I'm not saying like, Aang is genderqueer or anything, his reaction to the Ember Island Players alone shows he's connected to his sense of gender, but I just don't like people calling him feminine, or watching people debate this by pointing out masculine traits. He's neither.

He's just Aang.