• 1simpletailer@startrek.website
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    1 year ago

    I mean the Na’vi are an infantilized hodgepodge of several shallow stereotypes of indigenous people precision designed to be sexy so the lowest common denominator sympathizes with them. The commenter may be referring to that.

      • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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        1 year ago
        • The manner in which they talk
        • the lack of technology greater than bows and arrows
        • all plants and animals are treated as sacred
        • outsiders are not welcome
        • clothing that only covers up the naughty bits

        The Na’vi are basically native American stereotypes in every conceivable way, except blue and have tails.

        • IdealShrew@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Is that not all true even for some tribes today? I don’t mean native American, but for example look at the people on Sentinel Island or similar - I think this is what they were going for with the NaVi

            • IdealShrew@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              this is what humans were like for thousands of years, how is it racist to make characters based on that?

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                I can’t think of a culture that treated all plants and animals as sacred and apologized to them for killing them for food like in Avatar. That’s a bullshit stereotype. Some indigenous American groups used to drive herds of buffalo off cliffs, harvest the meat they could carry and then leave the rest to rot. And that’s just one of plenty of examples.

                • havokdj@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Indian here, can confirm this is true.

                  Nobility is on an individual scale, trying to say a whole race is “noble” and “certain traits”, even positive ones, is racism. Racism is specifically trying to define someone based solely on " observable traits" from their race.

                  I’d like to think I’m a pretty stand up guy, but I know some fellow Indians who are real pieces of shit, that’s just how society works.

              • dustyData@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                You have fallen for the myth of the noble savage. A racists mischaracterization of non-western human groups born from the very heart of slavery and colonialism that is used as a justification for dehumanizing others as wild or natural state humans, distinct and separate from civilized domesticated humans. It invites a tacit sanctioning of treating “primitives” or “savage” people as different and non-human, “not like us”. It’s the basis of several centuries of abuse, oppression, appropriation and destruction.

          • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            There must have been some primitive tribes that were nihilistic nothing is scared, did slash and burn farming, and animal torture.

          • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            If you can confirm that James Cameron used Sentinel Island people as the direct design influence for the Na’Vi, you might have some kind of a point. But he didn’t. He made them sexy babies with big eyes so he could override your Disney brain and sell some toys.