CAPCON, or the conference for all streams of the Co-ordinated Arts Program at the University of British Columbia, was something of an event that was both a festive party because the students were almost done with their first year at university and almost a transition to adulthood. Although we, as students, have had science fairs and other presentations, this conference seemed like something that people would go to when they were older and actually steady in their careers. The speakers were in groups called panels, something that I had only seen in movies about working in business or politics. In addition to that, everyone was dressed up and the people who shared had special name tags that labeled them as presenters. I felt almost as if I were part of an exclusive club.
I was very excited that I got see so much of people’s work, I was constantly hopping rooms back and forth so I occasionally missed parts of speeches. One that struck me in particular was done by a couple of Law and Society stream people. I only saw Caroline’s whole speech, but I also saw the previous girl’s end of her conversation about how Avatar: The Last Airbender reflected some of society’s issues today. It was interesting to me because the first girl was talking about how although Toph, a main character in the series, was born blind, she was still strong and able to take care of herself. However, the way the presenter depicted her, she was strong and fought hard against the stereotype and discrimination especially because the limitations weren’t fair considering her ability. In addition to that, Caroline talked about how Avatar depicted all different types of races in a fair way, something that most shows still do not. She argued that because of this, people were able to identify with characters in shows that are still not represented as much.
I found this really interesting because, in a way, this show was actually a voice for all minorities, something that my class has been stressing that is far too often ignored. However, while this one show does represent many minorities, this one show is not a representative for a shift of all shows. Many shows still mostly depict white people more than anyone else. Those shows still show who the dominant group is and it still does not reflect all of today’s modern society. However, Avatar is the epitome of showing the change of what is going on. More shows have at least some minorities, maybe Avatar is just a more extreme form or tries to exaggerate the representation so more people can see the change. Just the fact that Avatar was conceived shows that society is becoming more accepting and progressive.
While this particular panel was interesting, there were also so many others that piqued my interest. I was happy to find that many people were also interested in my group’s project on Jack Shadbolt, and not just listening because it was for a class project. It is really encouraging how so many people are even excited about learning what other people are learning and gain more perspectives. I certainly have just by participating in the CAP program and getting to meet such wonderful people.
