'Avatar' as a gender-challenged stereotype???

I'm still laughing at a wonderful post on the blog Jaded Haven concerning the movie 'Avatar'. Would you believe that some people see it as an affront to gays and lesbians because it's 'gender-normative' (whatever that means)?

A delicious quote from one of the affronted:

“The message is not to respect and honor difference, but to respect that which conforms to the socially constructed norms and ideologies of the imperial power – in this case Science and Gender Normativity. So again, the Na’vi’s gender and sexuality norms look just like ours because those codes are fallaciously constructed as fundamental to Life itself. The Na’vi people are different from humans in certain ways, but they do conform to the imperial culture in two important ways: they “biologically” embody earth’s socially constructed gender norms, and as a corollary, their religious ideology fits with our scientific one. If the Na’vi’s gender norms were anything but what they are, their race would surely be relegated to the sub-human domain of Hutts and Orcs.”

Oh, my . . . and here was I thinking that Avatar was fiction, not fact!

Go read the rest at Jaded Haven. Warning: may not be work- or family-safe. Also, if you haven't already read it, check out Lawdog's take on Avatar. It's giggle-worthy.

Peter