Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an animated children's show, that strangely enough a college student like myself enjoyed as well, that aired on Nickelodeon some time ago. Recently a live-action version of the cartoon series was released that did the animated series no justice and will not be discussed here as it neither serves to demonstrate the show's depiction of disability, nor provides an adequate depiction of the series' plot. "Avatar," as it will be abbreviated from here to forth also has absolutely nothing to do with James Cameron's epic " Avatar"-- just putting that out there for some clarification.
The story of Avatar is based in a mythical land, that bears some sort of asian/oriental influence, where the people have the ability to "bend" or manipulate one of the nature elements: wind, water, fire, and earth. The "Avatar," as the series is named after, is the one person who has mastered the bending of all four nature elements and is supposed to bring peace and balance to the world; and, he is the only one who can fulfill this duty. However, the Avatar has vanished and not been seen for 100 years. During these 100 years, the fire nation consisting of fire benders and their ruler the Fire Lord have begun their assault on the nations and have begun to conquer them. Herein is where the story begins; a young boy by the name of Aang appears ( he's the one in orange with an arrow on his head in the picture above). He has been frozen in a glacier for the last 100 years (because of some strange accident) and he happens to be the next avatar and is the last airbender left in the world. And so the journey begins with Aang and his several friends (Sokka, Katara, Toph, plus a few) to help him master all 4 elements as well as save the people from the fire nation and bring peace and balance to the world. Alright. Readers, you may think i am now crazy to have bothered investigating into this strange mythical world, or that the story is ridiculous and "who would watch this stuff?" But, it has indeed proven to me a surprising level of depth for a children's show as well as a point of view that takes into light the subject of disability with an interesting grain of salt, one that disproves many stereotypes that some other cartoons have demonstrated. The first example of disabilities in the series lies in the character of Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. This i left out in the earlier plot summary, but Prince Zuko is chasing Aang because of complicated order his father (the Fire Lord) gave to him, which shall be included in the following analysis.
Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation:
Prince Zuko bears a burn scar on a large portion of the left side of his face. Zuko's scar resulted from an incident when he spoke out of turn at a Fire Nation war meeting upon hearing one of the general's plan to sacrifice an entire division composed of young recruits in battle and by doing so was forced by his father to participate in a duel. At first, he thought he would duel against the general he disrespected but it turned out to be his father, Fire Lord Ozai. Not wanting to fight him he surrendered immediately. His father called him a coward for doing so and burned his face thus giving him that scar. As a punishment, he was then banished and sent to capture the Avatar, only then would be able to return home.
Here is a picture of what the burn would probably look like in real life, instead of just the darkened red circles on Zuko's face:
Throughout the series, Zuko's character continues to cast fear and and unease upon the people he meets, not only because of his intense and understandably bitter demeanor, but also i believe because of the physical scar on his face. The issue is never addressed throughout the series except for the one time it was explained, and none of the characters ever discuss it amongst themselves.
Prince Zuko later turns good throughout the series and chops off his hair to symbolize the changing of sides. And though this may be reading too far into the simple action of cutting one's hair, i believe that there was some sort of subconscious desire to hide or cover the scar on his face. Here is a picture of him after the haircut:
As you can see, it does obscure with some subtlety the blemish on his face although it is still relatively visible. There are several sides that i believe can be argued about Zuko's character and his physical deformity.
I do applaud the show for taking a relatively accepting tone to Zuko's mark. The character never comment about the deformity nor make any crude remarks centering around it ( If they do make any mean statements, they mostly revolve about Zuko's personality as being annoyed and angry most of the time). This comes across to the children audiences as acceptance as they neither notice nor make a big deal about his difference. This is good.
However, i do see how this "ignorance" can be interpreted as just that: ignorance or a will to deny that Zuko is even different at all. Everyone that Zuko encounters in the show say nothing, absolutely NOTHING about his scar. Even random strangers on the street whom he talks to don't give him any looks, or behave in any strange way ( not that they should, mind you), but what is the point of giving him a scar if he has no difficulty overcoming it or the opportunity to prove to people that he is more than that. Ok, that may have come off a little offensive, and i apologize it it was. But i do believe that there is a little bit of an unrealistic portrayal of how some people really do react to unattractive scars, especially if they are on someone's face. So then i suppose i could ask, Does Zuko's scar even count as a disability? Besides perhaps slightly impairing the vision in his left eye.
Of course the evil character has to look not as good as the others. Jack Nelson, in his article " Broken Images: Portrayals of Those with Disabilities in American Media," states "The image of a threatening, evil character who also has a prominent disability plays on subtle and deeply held fears and stereotypical prejudices" (Nelson, 6). Nickelodeon has fallen into this stereotype in this way; it has made one of the primary "evil" characters look somewhat unappealing and strange- especially so with Zuko's foreign hairstyle in the beginning of the series that visibly highlights his scar.
So, my conclusion about the character of Prince Zuko is that, for the most part he does seem to be accepted for who he is in spite of his physical blemish, which i do believe and hope was the message that the creators and producers of the show were trying to get across. Although, I also still believe that there is some support in the subconscious of humans for the theory that most evil characters in cartoons need to possess some form of a deformity. And that is something that needs to be disproved as it is very untrue and so i will clarify here: Prince Zuko who has a physical deformity that can be categorized as a disability IS ONE OF THE GOOD GUYS. And now to move on to another character who has a disability, but starts out as one of the good guys.
The " Supercrip" Toph Bei Fong
Toph Bei Fong is a 12-year-old girl who is an earthbending master. She was born blind, but has never let that disability stop her from achieving anything she wants.
When she enters the series, it is shown that her parents are overprotective and constantly believe that she is weak and vulnerable to everything around her. In order to prevent her from harming herself (or anyone else, for that matter), they kept her at the beginning level of earthbending and had guards to keep a close watch on her at all times. They also hid her existence, keeping knowledge about life away from the public for fear of ridicule. Despite these hindrances and prejudices, because Toph has a " special ability to see," not only has she mastered earthbending through sense of feel, but she can also bend metal- something that no one has been able to do. There is much to say about this character:
Toph, at first, is portrayed as a stereotyped disabled child- protected from the world, cannot do anything by herself: much like how Nelson explains it in his article "Disabled people are usually depicted as childlike or as incompetent, needing total care, as nonproductive in our society." As Toph is both a child and depicted as needing total care, she fits perfectly into the stereotype of the disabled person as pitiable and pathetic. However, the creators of Avatar quickly show their viewers how this stereotype is completely incorrect.
Toph is strong-willed and stubborn. She is eager to prove herself to her parents and to Aang and his friends when she first meets them. Because of her upbringing, Toph has developed an unhuman-like ability to be able to "see" with her feet-- she feels the vibration of the earth in order to judge distance to things, people, and moving objects,etc. She also has an unhuman ability to hear as exemplified in an episode when she was able to hear a person's heart beating faster due to their nerves. Thus, these advancements in "seeing," allowed her to be a master at earthbending and gave her the ability to be completely dependent upon herself. She is a perfect example of a "Supercrip" According to Rachel M. in "Stop Harping on What We Can't Do and Start Thinking About Who We Are," Supercrip provides a way for non-disabled folks to be “inspired” by persons with disabilities without actually questioning—or making changes to—how persons with disabilities are treated in society.... Supercrip cannot just be human; she or he must be superhuman and surpass not only her/his disability, but the realms of “normal” human achievement. Supercrip allows some non-disabled folks to feel better about themselves; this is quite evident when it comes to statements like, “What an inspiration!” Nelson also discusses the Supercrip in his article and argues that " A lot of ordinary disabled people are made to feel like failures if they haven't done something extraordinary." Thus, Avatar has succumbed to one of the stereotypes of portraying disabled people by depicting Toph as a supercrip. However, i believe the message swings towards the more inspiring spectrum for children as that they are taught that even if they have a disability such as blindness, " You can accomplish anything, despite what people may say." And i'm sticking to that.
Toph's behavior is constantly defensive, assumably so because of her blindness. She makes several quips in the show at the beginning of " Oh sure, pity the poor blind girl." This may give off a similar defensive vibe as Prince Zuko exerts as depicted above. Both disabled characters are grumpy and sarcastic, much less carefree and happy as the other characters. Once again, this seems to be some sort of subconscious character trait associated with people with disabilities- they are grumpy and don't seem to be entirely happy with their lives... at first. Toph does end up softening towards the ends as she finds fulfillment in who she is and what she has accomplished, as well as her newfound friends who like her for who she is.
There is so much more i could say about this character, but i must come to a close. Despite and in spite on these qualities, Toph comes off as lovable and funny. Aang and the gang never patronize her for her blindness and accept her for who she is. Conclusion: Although Avatar: Airbender does possess some of the stereotypes associated with disabilities, the dominating message that it delivers to children as well as its vast not-children audience is that disabilities are to be accepted and treated with normalcy.