Perspective 1: Authors like Joyce who donāt value making or keeping POC representation
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William Joyce made or approved changes to Toothianaās character, including removing her cultural context, likely because he didnāt see the importance of her heritage while making the film. Moreover, taking away her background is a form of cultural erasure, as detaching her from race fits within Western culture. When film adaptations fall short of the source material, many authors may claim they had no hand in the film. For Rise of the Guardians, it could be easy to explain away Toothianaās Eurocentricity by claiming Joyce had not made the character changes. However, in his interview with MediaMikes, he explained that he āalso worked as the executive producer, so [he] collaborated on all aspects of the film[, including d]esign, story, and castingā (Joyce). His emphasis on āall aspects of the filmā shows that he made a lot of the choices, especially the ones that were changed for Toothiana of ā[d]esignā and āstory.ā Of course, his use of ācollaborateā shows that he was not the only one making decisions, but he still had the final say. Authors may also claim that it may be very challenging to cut down a book series to fit an adaptation, but this only explains the erasure of Toothianaās background, and not the changes to her design. Making her easier to animate does not make the run time shorter, and there are ways to make her animator-friendly without desecrating her cultural heritage. Because her lore had also been cut, her physical differences were completely erased, leaving the last aspect of her heritage. This distance from her South Asian race reflects a greater distance from race as a whole, which is strengthened by her separation from humanity in the films. Authors may also claim that it is very challenging to condense a book series for an adaptation, but this only explains the erasure of her background, not the changes to her design. Her physical design differences are deeper than just a change in animation, as cutting her lore completely erases the last aspect of her heritage. Furthermore, removing āthe charactersā contexts reveal a lot about how the cultural imperatives of whiteness as it is wedded with neutrality provide a mechanism for readers to ignore elements that do not reflect and affirm their lived experiencesā (Nasara 240). So, removing her cultural history aligns with and teaches white readers that cultures that are not their own are irrelevant. The word āimperativesā means ādutiesā, which implies that continuing whiteness is seen as a duty for white authors. Additionally, using āweddedā shows that whiteness is combined with neutrality to the point where they become synonymous.
I added these images because they were the depictions I had in my head when hearing the word āweddedā used to connect those two. The first image is one that came up when searching for a wedding picture with no cultural or racial characteristics attached. This shows me that weddings between a white couple are the typical example in America when talking about weddings. Additionally, having a white dress as a āneutralā or pure colour is a Western custom. This practice is why I added the second picture of an Indian wedding to show that not all cultures use white dresses or follow the West, which is why Western couples should not be the forefront example. I argue that when race seems to be invisible, it simply means that it has been replaced by Anglo-American values so normalised that they have been looked past. And, by taking away Toothianaās ācontext,ā she has been labelled as white by default, highlighting that whiteness becomes a baseline to a problematic extent. So, by taking away the fact that Toothiana was born and raised by South Asian parents in a village in the Himalayas, her culture has been erased. This cultural erasure is due to William Joyce's choices, even if he was not the sole decision-maker.










