I know Lin is chief but she seems to be the only woman officer, not counting the flashback when Toph was Chief and Lin arrested Su. Did they ever show any other female cops in RC? Even as background?
I know Lin is chief but she seems to be the only woman officer, not counting the flashback when Toph was Chief and Lin arrested Su. Did they ever show any other female cops in RC? Even as background?
There would be the issue of inclusion or lack thereof being a reality, gender norms and such. Which, to be fair, along similar lines OP does raise a point at least in so far as it is greatly disproportionate representation between genders in the metal police, as well as many other martial organizations in Avatar.
The "why" could be a much larger, systemic concept within their society as a whole (eg "boys should be strong and girls should be pretty") which leads to professions catering towards these instilled values. Or very likely, it's a carry-over from our world and sensibilities from the authors whether intentionally or not.
The "why" could be a much larger, systemic concept within their society as a whole (eg "boys should be strong and girls should be pretty") which leads to professions catering towards these instilled values. Or very likely, it's a carry-over from our world and sensibilities from the authors whether intentionally or not.
I think it was most likely a subconscious thing on the part of the authors and artists. Men disproportionately make up occupations such as law enforcement and the military in the real world, so it's possible that subconscious associations made their way into the portrayal of the Metalbending Police Force. I'm not inclined to believe that sexism is a deep seeded issue in Republic City or the world of Legend of Korra at large since no sexist comments are ever made about women or their capabilities. Korra does make the unfair assumption that Asami is a prissy girl in Book 1, and Asami does confirm that some people do assume her to be a weak daddy's girl, so perhaps that does suggest some negative perception of traditonally feminine characteristics in the world of Legend of Korra, but not necessarily an argument that the societies in Legend of Korra believe women are weak.
Normally I'd steer clear when a thread veers into this type of serious debate {no offense but I've seen it happen}, I gotta add this: I've heard on occasion, recently in fact, that women must remounce their faminity to be taken seriously in male dominated feilds.I've also heard that some people find it endearing when a women is able to do their job while retaining their femininity. At least, that's what I heard one fan say about Agent Carter in her miniseries. But what does that actually mean? That a woman who doesn't act like a feminine stereotype is bad? That Lin are Korra are forced to be the way they are in order to be taken seriously?
I don't know if that's necessarily the case in LOK. Korra has never been traditionally feminine in her whole life, and it's never implied that Lin was ever traditonally girly either. Korra's assumptions that Asami are prissy could be chocked to her lack of exposure to traditionally feminine women, as well as her jealousy that Asami was dating Mako at the time. Assumptions that others made that Asami was a helpless daddy's girl could be because she rarely made use of her fighting skills and was close to her father, not necessarily because she's feminine. It's important to note that Asami is never portrayed as weak nor are her capabilities ever questioned by anyone in the show because she's feminine.
I think this has more to do with the art than the plot. Making the cops look basically the same is cheaper & easier. And since so many of the core characters are female, such corner-cutting is more easily forgiven.
There is some corner-cutting going on in many scenes (officers, white lotus, etc.) in order to save money in action scenes but then there's other instances of detail going into character models like civilians that just makes me think the concept artists, line animators, designers, or who ever else just didn't think about adding in a female here or there. Just a case of some missing details?
I think that's most likely what it was.
The citizens are fairly detailed, but I notice they also have a tendency of being reused.