Sunni-Side-Up

Thank you!  Follow-on from this post about Toph.

What I mean by saying Zuko is a disabled character: the social model of disability basically states that disability is any bodily difference that gets problematized and/or treated as abnormal by society.  This definition includes facial differences, AKA any scarring, skin marking, and so on that leads to staring by nondisabled society or other forms of stigma based on the person’s appearance.  Part of the reason for this inclusion is about complicating the disabled-nondisabled dichotomy; facial difference and facial scarring are identities within that framework.  Part of the reason comes from the U.S.’s history of Ugly Laws, which literally made it illegal for people with facial differences to appear in public in some cities as late as 1974.  Part of it is the huge overlap between ableism (giving more privileges to the nondisabled) and lookism (giving more privileges to the normatively beautiful).

Avatar: The Last Airbender has some high-quality anti-ableism in showing Zuko’s story, including how other characters respond to Zuko and how Zuko’s appearance informs but does not define his characterization.

One of the ways this comes out is by turning nondisabled characters’ gaze back on them:

In “The Serpent’s Pass,” Jet says to Zuko “You know, as soon as I saw your scar, I knew exactly who you were…” and then goes on to describe his almost hilariously wrong conclusion that Zuko’s a Freedom Fighter waiting to happen because Zuko’s village was presumably also destroyed by the Fire Nation.  We get to see Zuko’s moment of terror that he actually has been recognized turn into incredulity as he then gets invited to join a guerrilla force opposing everything he (currently) stands for.  Jet looks stupid for jumping to conclusions based on appearances.

In both “Zuko Alone” and “The Cave of Two Lovers,” that same jumping-to-conclusions works in Zuko’s favor, because both Song’s mother and Li’s parents assume that anyone with a burn scar must be a veteran of the fight against the Fire Nation.  Again, the emphasis is on the fact that the people judging Zuko based on his appearance are wrong.

In “The Chase,” Azula becomes the only person we ever see mock Zuko for his appearance, when she covers her own left eye to draw out the “family resemblance” for Aang.  The moment gets a horrified reaction out of Aang — Zuko’s his enemy, but Aang also realizes that this is a nasty thing to do — and helps to establish Azula as not just a villain, but a sadistic one.

In “The Beach,” Zuko blows up at Ty Lee for commenting that stress can cause breakouts.  His response is unnecessarily mean-spirited, but it also draws attention to the relative level of privilege (the biggest skin problem she has to worry about is acne) that informed her careless comment.

In “Crossroads of Destiny,” Zuko assumes that, when Katara calls him “the face of the enemy,” it’s a way of calling him frightening to look at — and it’s Katara who looks like a jerk for implying it, even accidentally.

The other big way that this comes out is clapping back at the implied treatment of disability as demanding explanation, or the “But why are you like this?” form of ableism:

The show makes it clear that Zuko does not owe anyone — not Song, not Li, not Jet, not his crew, not his friends — an explanation for why he looks the way he does.  None of the Gaang ever ask Zuko what happened, and the few characters who do (Li, Song, Lieutenant Jee) don’t end up looking good when they do so.

“The Cave of Two Lovers” clearly underlines the show’s theme of “my body, my business” in the scene where Song tries to touch Zuko’s face.  The tone (including literal musical tones) signals that Song is being inappropriate and invasive.  It’s understandable that she wants to make a connection, but it’s also emphatically not okay to touch body parts of strangers one has not received permission to touch.

To be clear, taking people’s ostrich-horses is also not okay, Zuko, but Baby’s First Grand Theft Auto helps drive home just how thoroughly Song has let her curiosity and rudeness sour a budding connection.  It also shows that, while she’s right that she and Zuko have some things in common, she has privileges he lacks because she doesn’t have to disclose her scars if she doesn’t feel like it.  Plus, that moment contrasts to Katara and Mai both touching Zuko’s cheek — Katara just after they’ve shared a moment of vulnerability, Mai just before they start smooching — because they’re both doing so in a way that’s respectful to Zuko himself.

When he wakes up from a dream of turning into Aang, the first thing Zuko does is touch his left eye to make sure he’s still himself.  It’s part of his identity, and the only time we see adolescent Zuko without it (earlier in the dream sequence) it’s a way of showing that Zuko isn’t truly himself.

Zuko grapples with the fact that he’s always going to bear evidence of having survived abuse, and a big part of his character journey is concluding that he’s free to make whatever meaning he chooses of that scar, regardless of what Ozai might’ve intended.

There are other elements of Zuko’s story the Avatar writers do well.  He bears a superficial resemblance to the thousands of villains (especially in SF) who become villainous because they incur facial scarring, but of course his story is infinitely more humanized and nuanced than “skin bleached in a vat of acid, might as well go rob banks now.”  His appearance incurs very different reactions depending on his current wealth and political power, emphasizing the intersections of disability and imperialism.  He discusses the possibility of a cure with Katara, but also goes on to live a long and fulfilling life without one.

Maybe there’s no clearer evidence that Zuko counts as disabled in the sense of “society treats your body as a problem that needs to be solved” than the way that adaptations of AtLA treat the scar.  They tend to minimize, hide, or otherwise avoid it.

[Image description: Sepia-toned image of the Gaang from a Legend of Korra promotional that appeared on the Nickelodeon website.  Zuko has his head turned and his hair swept forward in such a way that none of the left side of his face is visible.]

[Image description: Screenshot of Zuko from the 2010 adaptation The Last Airbender.  Dev Patel has a very subtle amount of makeup meant to convey minimal scarring around his left eye.]

Like I said: facial difference counts as a disability because society treats it like one.  In the social model, that’s what counts rather than, for instance, how much peripheral vision Zuko does or doesn’t have.

Like, I have a cousin with ptosis. It’s a minor condition that causes his eyes not to open fully, but doesn’t affect his vision — he doesn’t need glasses. However. He carries a card in his wallet that explains the condition, to show to cops at traffic stops. He’s had many elective surgeries, the first one before he turned 10, to make his appearance more normative. He got sent to multiple offices by multiple teachers convinced he was on drugs. He gets rude questions about his appearance. He’s disabled according to the social model of disability, because society thinks his appearance is “wrong” and reacts accordingly.

Blindness.

Paralysis.

Amputated limbs.

Deafness.

People in general see a person in a wheelchair and assume they can’t walk because they have a broken spine rather than because they have chronic fatigue and thus use a wheelchair to avoid exhausting themselves unnecessarily. The assumption is that the disability must have a medical basis.

That is the MEDICAL MODEL OF DISABILITY. As @thejakeformerlyknownasprince says above. This model assesses you on your physical capability compared to a normative, homogenous human standard.

Anyone who has hypermobility is disabled in this model. Anyone who has paralysis in their body is disabled in this model. Anyone with an injury that causes impairment of their senses is disabled in this model. And so on.

But, as @thejakeformerlyknownasprince is explaining, when looking at Zuko in ATLA, the lens to assess his character is the SOCIAL MODEL OF DISABILITY.

Zuko may have impaired vision. He may struggle with proprioception and depth perception. He may experience migraines and light sensitivity. He could experience a myriad of things in relation to the scarring around and of his eye.

However.

From ONLY a social model perspective, whether Zuko experiences any impairments from his scarring is not relevant. What is relevant is how he’s perceived and treated by others around him. By society.

Does he get looked at and pitied for his scar? That’s ableism.

Do people avoid interacting with him or ask inappropriate questions about his scar, expecting him to do the emotional and social labour of explaining it to them? That’s ableism.

Is Zuko treated different to how he would have been were he not scarred? That’s ableism.

Ableism is where people are treated or perceived different to non-disabled, able-bodied individuals.

But, on top of this, we also have disablism. Which is also something Zuko experiences within ATLA, both the narrative and how later adaptions present him.

Disablism can be defined as discriminatory, oppressive, abusive behaviour arising from the belief that disabled people are inferior to others. [Source: CoE]

Azula’s treatment of her brother definitely falls within the category of disablism. Though it owes more to her dislike of Zuko and her view of his personality, it cannot be ignored that much of who Zuko is as a person is shaped by his scar and the trauma of when he received it. Therefore, Azula’s attitude toward Zuko is disabling.

Disability within the social model is about the difference, both socially and personally, between disabled and non-disabled.

It’s about discrimination against or to disabled people for something they cannot control or change but are punished for regardless.

In our society, disabled people are paid less because the social narrative is that they are less able to perform to the normative standard and thus should be paid less as they are inherently less useful. That, my friends, is ableism and disablism wrapped together.

Zuko is fortunate to be who he is within the ATLA narrative because, were he a commoner, it is not unrealistic to imagine he would have been exploited for his disability by those who would use him and give him less in return because they are able to exploit the social narrative around disability. Those with disfigurements, with missing limbs, with cognitive issues etc are at risk of exploitation because society inherently sees them as lesser and that means they are desperate for whatever they need to survive and become victims of both exploitation and society.

Consider this:

Within the social model of disability, Zuko with his scar would have few marriage prospects, likely be shunned or insulted for his disfigurement, and could struggle for employment due to perceptions of bad luck, curses, or insulting the gods as being the cause of his injury (and the desire to avoid a similar fate). All of these things could easily have happened to Zuko were he not who he is within the narrative. As it is, he is a noble, with an uncle that loves and supports him, and has the chance to be supported and given the things he needs to succeed in life.

But Zuko, for all that he is fortunate to have what he does, is still a victim of society and its perception and treatment of disability. Hence why assumptions are made about him, expectations that he wants revenge for his disfigurement, disregarding his personal space and bodily autonomy because of curiosity, mocking and belittling for something he did not ask for, etc. These are all forms of ableism because they are rooted in his disability as the reason for others to act as they do. They are justified by their own social perception and thinking and excuse their behaviour because they’re the ones doing it. As a result, Zuko is discriminated against, or treated differently because of his disability.

Not because he has an injury that may affect his vision or his actual body or mind, but because of how others perceive his injury and the assumptions they make about it as a result.

It was almost like being in a dream of some sort. But obviously she was wide awake…Right?

BOO

shoutout helsa discord (@magentacravat) and shoutout to the fact that i hate coloring

the worst person you know is still actively obsessed with helsa (i forgot to post this on tumblr lol)

ref:

Forgiveness