#cuntttt

katara giving aang advice/expressing her opinion: mothering, performing emotional labor, etc

aang giving katara advice/expressing his opinion: being forceful, dismissive, etc

notice both examples imply the invocation of authority or the exertion of one’s will on the other aka the same thing, but only one is given the parental adjective over the other. hmm, misogyny perhaps?

in katara’s case, the implication is that katara is being maternal and tender but assertive. an authoritative figure acting out of natural (yuck!) obligation that aang seemingly NEEDS. despite being an experienced world traveler that has spent most of his childhood without a female authoritative figure

on the other hand, the implication is that aang is an unwanted and unnatural object in katara’s way. his opinion is interpreted as a stifling order and devoid of any good intentions for katara at all.

regardless of who the narrative decides is right in either case, if at all, or that the words they use towards each other can be paralleled to previous instances of the other saying the same thing, OR the fact that they both go do what they want ANYWAY after receiving said advice…

the main takeaway is that friends/peers do not give each other advice ever and anything resembling that is a sign of overstepping which is really just so awful and bleak because if the only people in your life that can call you out or disagree with you are either your parents (who raise you for the first 18 years of your life) or authority figures imposed on you by society on occasion, then the concept of these people having friendships that go beyond surface level or worse, romantic partners, is disturbing.