I've been on an Avatar: The Last Airbender kick lately. Not to be confused with the 'When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like Avatar?' Avatar. Also not to be confused with the arugably white-washed film adaptation of the cartoon Avatar. So today I'm going to talk about marginalizing and universal discourses in the Book 2 episode "Blind Bandit."
In the episode, hero Aang needs to find someone to teach him how to manipulate the earth to do whatever he wants (earthbending). He needs to find someone who “waits and listens,” but he only finds a swindling earthbending teacher and a gang of hyper-masculine parodies of WWE wrestlers. During Earth Rumble 6, they’re all defeated by a 12-year-old girl. She’s a master earthbender and blind; she will be Aang’s teacher. Unfortunately, she's locked up by her over-protective parents.
Marginalizing discourses reinforce a few things: rigidity in roles (gender, sexuality, etc.), the norm as the focus, creating and reinforcing strict categories of exclusion and placing non-normative people to the, well, margins (Brown, Transgeneration). While her parents’ treatment of her seems to marginalize Toph both as a young woman and as a character with a disAbility, viewer expectations are subverted by her fighting skills and brash, fearless attitude.
The episode thus presents us with a more universal discourse, where gender roles are fluid and flexible. Representation of diversity in Avatar becomes center and demonstrates that the norm is only maintained due to systematic structures of power (Toph’s parents are the richest people in the Earth Kingdom). Whereas marginalization is discrete, maintaining a strict 'either/or' portrayal of roles, universal discourses present a continuum that give voice to typically marginalized groups (Brown, Transgeneration). Generally feminist-friendly Avatar in many cases operates in this capacity.
The series famously features a fantasy world inspired by several Asian and indigenous cultures. Aang was raised by Tibetan-like monks while Katara and Sokka come from an Inuit-like Water Tribe. Both Katara and Sokka, two of our heroes, have darker skin. Although still fairly homogeneous, Avatar portrays characters of varying shades, which provides needed representation for youth of color, particularly salient for Asian American children. While Judith Mayne applies her ideas of representation to gender, her idea that dichotomous and limited portrayals of women were often reinforced in the past (Mayne 162) is relevant to race as well (think Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's or Mr. Miyagi in Karate Kid). By taking a more universal portrayal of race, people of color are not pushed to the margins in Avatar -- instead inhabiting a range of roles and personalities.
Mayne points out that the madonna and the whore (Mayne 162) are typical examples of marginalized discourse. The madonna is unrealistic perfection and the whore is unrealistic evil. In Avatar, Toph's parents treat her as the madonna. She is hoisted onto a pedestal, dressed in a white flowing gown, and kept caged inside mansion grounds. Why? Well, she's a blind girl. But Toph is secretly the world's greatest earth-bender. Though blind, she senses the earth's vibrations through her feet, which allows her to see everything around her and earth-bend accordingly. A moment to digress: are you thinking "super-crip" right now? That’s fair, but I yield to Larry N. Sapp's response when asked about characters like Toph.
From here.Although Toph is presented as 'overcoming' her blindness in some aspects, what the story does do is present Toph first as a young woman with passions and interests of her own. She explains, "The obedient, helpless blind girl you think I am just isn't me. I love fighting, I love being an earth-bender and I'm really, really good at it." The dichotomy of the madonna and the whore is shattered in universal texts. Mayne tells us that "representation can function both to reinforce oppressive standards of feminine behavior and to imagine possibilities not typically available to women (163)." She demonstrates that heroic roles in typically male spaces (wrestling arenas, martial arts) are available to women and to people with disAbilities. This presentation of Toph as a capable fighter more interested in playing in the dirt than with tea sets allows viewers to consider the possibilities of what young women and those with disAbilities can do.
Katara and Sokka also have moments in this episode of subverting marginalizing discourses. In the opening scene, it's Sokka who is debating over whether or not to spend money on a new bag. (He'll later comment that the wrestling belt they acquire matches the bag perfectly.) After Katara freezes some bullies to a wall, she returns to the gang with key information. Upon her friends' confusion, she says with a smile, "Oh, a girl has her ways," subverting the idea that women need to use sexuality to get their way. Both of these characters encourage us to read gender roles "as fluid and open to interpretation (Brown, Transgeneration). Female characters in Avatar are capable fighters and masters in their fields. Instead of remaining obedient, Toph runs away to save the world. Even background characters are not left exclusively male in situations where a marginalizing discourse might be expected: at the elite earthbending academy, we see young boys AND girls learning how to use bending.
In "Blind Bandit," Mayne's madonna/whore dichotomy is subverted in favor of a more universal representation of gender. Marginalization, then, is also challenged by a world of people of color, men in touch with their emotions, women fighters, and very capable people who manage their disAbilities as part of normal life. The complexity of these roles speaks to universalism and presents youth with fluid ideas of gender, race, and ability. Plus, Toph's earth-bending just looks cool.
Worked Cited:
Brown, Adriane. “Transgeneration.” Power Point. 2010.
Mayne, Judith. “Women, Representation, and Culture.” In Reading Women’s Lives. Pearson Custom Publishing.
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