I agree with you on many of your points, and you raise an interesting problem with Avatar: however, there is something to be said for socially created power constructs. As frustrating as it is, audiences are trained to identify with the white male protagonist, so the trope of the white male protagonist learning about something he was previously extremely ignorant of (and therefore by association, the audience) and experiencing empathy for them acts as a kindergarden vehicle for the audiences; before directly identifying with them. Yeah, we should be over this by now, I agree, but I'm not surprised that the character used to establish empathy with the audience and then through which the audience encounters the new idea then develops into the actualizing character (rather than switching to one of the members of the new idea, be that culture/nation/philosophy/whatever) since all that work narratively on the other character would have gone to waste, so the actualizing character (our white male intro connection character) has to be the most active character narratively, which usually means him being the best at everything. That format is problematic.
However, it does work on the level of grabbing the empathy/projection of the straight white cis ablebodied male more effectively because of that training, and therefore can introduce people to concepts that are foreign to them. I think this format for dealing with the Other is extremely elementary, but on one level it is useful as a tool. No easily-marketable alternatives that would have the same swoop of the demographic are coming to mind at the moment, though I am very tired of movies starring white dudes.
I disagree with your stance on Dollhouse; in individual episodes, it seemed more thematically about the main character (Echo) finding strength/memories/actualization in herself and then having that attempted to be removed by The Man (with less success every time). In the most recent episodes, she is carrying all of her personalities ever all at once, all with different skill sets, experiences, and thought processes, which with time would have given the writers the Superhero with All Powers problem. I'm not arguing that the show is not problematic, but while the "men who save women" is a theme for some (one) of the characters, I disagree that it is the show's main focus.
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However, it does work on the level of grabbing the empathy/projection of the straight white cis ablebodied male more effectively because of that training, and therefore can introduce people to concepts that are foreign to them. I think this format for dealing with the Other is extremely elementary, but on one level it is useful as a tool. No easily-marketable alternatives that would have the same swoop of the demographic are coming to mind at the moment, though I am very tired of movies starring white dudes.
I disagree with your stance on Dollhouse; in individual episodes, it seemed more thematically about the main character (Echo) finding strength/memories/actualization in herself and then having that attempted to be removed by The Man (with less success every time). In the most recent episodes, she is carrying all of her personalities ever all at once, all with different skill sets, experiences, and thought processes, which with time would have given the writers the Superhero with All Powers problem. I'm not arguing that the show is not problematic, but while the "men who save women" is a theme for some (one) of the characters, I disagree that it is the show's main focus.