{"id":63,"date":"2014-02-06T21:54:03","date_gmt":"2014-02-07T04:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cristakoo\/?page_id=63"},"modified":"2014-02-06T22:02:08","modified_gmt":"2014-02-07T05:02:08","slug":"avatar-or-pocahontas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cristakoo\/avatar-or-pocahontas\/","title":{"rendered":"Avatar or Pocahontas?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I’ve said before, my favourite movie is Avatar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So it was quite disappointing to hear the critiques. Some saw Avatar as basically Pocahontas in space<\/a>. Others saw it as the typical “white guilt fantasy”<\/a> movie.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The main reason why I love this movie is HOW they made it!<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s interesting to see all sides to a story. What I saw was the beautiful scenery, the intense level of detail used to make the pictures on screen seem\u00a0real,<\/em> and the amazing 3-D I experienced while in the theatre (four times!). I loved seeing the pores<\/em> of the Na’vi people – it gave me quite a thrill to see so much detail in a movie. It surprised me even more when I learned the movie was made with performance capture. It was revolutionary to me – in terms of cinematic technology and production.<\/p>\n

I believe this is a great example of how stories affect people differently. Nobody has the same experience. And, I believe, nobody is completely incapable of understanding different experiences of the same story. I think that is where most people struggle with.<\/p>\n

Recently, one of my friends on Facebook posted a status where he asked whether men should become involved in feminist issues. He understood men did not and could not understand women completely and thought, “isn’t it best if men avoid entering discussions on feminism? Or, if they do, shouldn’t they avoid taking any stances on the issues that arise therein?”<\/p>\n

It was then another mutual friend of ours asked, “By that logic, should I also not participate in any issues surrounding racism against African-Americans because I am Chinese and have no idea what it is like to be in their position?”<\/p>\n

It is an interesting idea. Should people speak on issues they cannot 100% relate to? Can they? In my opinion, I believe there should be a time and place to allow these voices to be heard – the voices of those who know, who have experienced, and who have lived through these issues and situations. Their voices should be heard first and foremost and above all else.<\/p>\n

This is not then an issue of value. If we were to argue for equality, a louder voice would defeat the purpose, would it not? But I would argue it holds true to equality because, as tough as it is to realize, our world is not yet in a state of equality. Some voices are not heard as often or as loud as others. So when given a chance, those oppressed and lost voices should be found.<\/p>\n

Of course, when those voices are lost, you should call for them and with them. Help their voices be heard.<\/p>\n

So Avatar is still my favourite movie, but I also acknowledge its problems and the issues that come along with it. Each of these different perspectives are important in their own respective ways. I would believe this is what J. Edward Chamberlin is trying to hint at when he asks for everyone to seek “common ground”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I’ve said before, my favourite movie is Avatar. So it was quite disappointing to hear the critiques. Some saw Avatar as basically Pocahontas in space. Others saw it as the typical “white guilt fantasy” movie. It’s interesting to see … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22515,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-63","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cristakoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cristakoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cristakoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cristakoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22515"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cristakoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cristakoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cristakoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/63\/revisions\/69"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cristakoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}