toph is an icon for disabled people. she’s one of so few blind characters who is a hero and whose disability is not her weakness or fatal flaw. while it does make her life harder, as any disability does, it also gives her strength. she is the greatest earthbender of her generation. she invented a whole new subsection of bending. the people behind the live action production had a chance to make history just by doing the bare minimum: casting a blind actress to play a blind character. they couldn’t even do that.
not only that, but they’re making her “slightly more feminine” to “humanize” her. as if there weren’t so many young girls out there who looked up to toph because she was weird and didn’t fit the mold. in “tales of ba sing se” she tells katara, “i don’t care what i look like. i’m not looking for anyone’s approval. i know who i am.” to have a female character who doesn’t conform to beauty standards is so important especially right now with the prevalent beauty influencer culture.
while the original cartoon’s representation of women wasn’t perfect, it was diverse. katara and ty lee were both feminine. they liked to dress up and look pretty. toph is not feminine. she grew up forced to dress in formal clothes and style herself a certain way and decided to liberate herself from that. all three of these women are incredibly strong and incredibly talented at what they do, and none of that is impacted by their appearance or gender presentation.
every day, my hatred for the netflix version of avatar grows.
