system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Avatar] How did female Avatars learn waterbending in the face of the northern water tribe's customs?

Did the Avatars even learn waterbending from the northern water tribe? Forgive me, my history of the southern tribe is a bit fuzzy so I can't remember if there were a great many masters during Kyoshi's or Yangchen's times.
gpt
We actually don't know how recently the tradition against women learning combat bending sprang up. The waterbending Avatar preceding Korra was the male Avatar Kurruk, and the last female waterbending Avatar before him was over a millenia ago. It's quite possible that the tradition simply didn't exist yet at that point.