Lil’ Gregory Approves of this Ship

The Gregory Nod; even more coveted than the Tonraq Nod

My son Gregory (not his real name :-p) is eight years old. He is a nerd, just like his mom. I sing him lullabies taken from Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire. I’m quite sure he prays to The Warrior, like, earnestly. Our idea of a good time is going to the museum to look at rocks. We play chess in airports.

Another nerdy thing we love to do together is watch ATLA and LoK. He really identifies with Aang’s sense of humour and he loves the mythology of bending and the avatar cycle. His favourite characters from Legend of Korra are Meelo, for reasons that are obvious to anyone who know any eight-year-old boy, and Wu. He likes to prat fall randomly, usually in public, and say “Wu down! Wu down!”

Yesterday, we were hanging out while I was making dinner and he did his “Wu down!” routine. I had just read lokgifsandmusings’s super insightful write up on Wuko, so I commented, “You know, some people think Wu and Mako should date.”

Gregory thought about it for a second and then he said, “Well, maybe. I think Wu likes Mako, but Mako thinks he’s annoying.”

So then we started talking about shipping. (You know you’re a nerd when…) And these are the ATLA/LoK ships my eight-year old sails on:

Korrasmai

Sukka

Wuko

Kataang

Bopal

He has his mother’s taste for canon ships too, I guess.

Gregory said all sorts of adorable and insightful things: “You can tell that Bolin and Opal are in love because they fight but they make up”, but do you know what he never said: “But Korra and Asami are both girls!”

Your Homophobia just confuses Gregory. He thinks you’re weird.

And why would he say that? Gregory knows queer people exists. He sees them in real life all the time. The two nice ladies with the dog who live down the street are in love, just like his parents are. He knows this, he doesn’t think it’s particularly remarkable. For a kid like Gregory, seeing Korra and Asami walking off into the spirit portal hand-in-hand was completely unambiguous, and completely identical to Aang and Katara’s kiss that ended Avatar: The Last Airbender.

It’s the same thing, guys!

So representation isn’t just important for kids who are questioning their sexuality, or who crave validation of their identity, it’s important for all kids. When kids start seeing homosexual relationships as just something that some people have, rather than as a weird fetish or as a punch line, we’ll start to see a really change in the discourse.

Or maybe there won’t be a discourse at all because, like, what’s the big deal, they’re in love?