|
|
|
|
|
GOLDSEA |
ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Are AA Women the Real Victims of Prejudice?
sian women get a free ride at the expense of Asian men. That's the received wisdom here in the U.S. This belief appears premised on the suspicion that American society sees Asian women as sexy exotics in need of rescuing from the cold clutches of Asian men who don't know how to smile except evilly.
The real victim?
|
Credit Hollywood for its tireless casting of Asian women as sexual accessories to white heroes while suppressing the very existence of Asian men except as unsavory paper tigers. Credit too the TV networks that uncover bevies of talking Asian women but rarely their male counterparts.
In fairness this media fantasy of the Asian race was partly inspired by recent history. Devastated and impoverished Asian nations sent tens of thousands of war brides and orphans, followed by several million desperate immigrants willing to hock their identities while toiling to build new lives.
Male-dominated societies toast new women as exotic sexual prospects while suppressing new men as an exploitable lower class or even enemy aliens. The women get all the breaks and the men get all the lumps. Even worse, the women have their heads turned and adopt a scornful attitude toward their own men. So goes the complaint of some AA men.
The women have a different take. Sexual predators bearing insulting stereotypes must be fended off while coping with women who see them as unfair competitors. Add to that the pain of being scorned as sellouts by AA men for no more reason than their apparent welcome by American society. Worst of all, complain AA women, is being begrudged the right to take simple pleasure in their own identities. How much easier just to face straightforward racial prejudice!
Do Asian women really have an easier time in America? Or do they suffer from the double-whammy of insulting stereotypes from non-Asians and unfair persecution from Asian men?
This interactive article is closed to new input.
Discussions posted during the past year remain available for browsing.
CONTACT US
|
ADVERTISING INFO
© 1996-2013 Asian Media Group Inc
No part of the contents of this site may be reproduced without prior written permission.
|
|
|
|
WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:11:00 PM)
PBC: you mentioned that we bash both Asian female and male actors who play roles denigrating Asians. But what I see is Asian females take up 90% of the blame in websites, chat rooms, class rooms, academia.
This is not to say that we need to bash more actors. Instead, we need to focus our energy on the source of the problem. Also I find that AF and AM dont' always agree on what is and is not a denigrating role for Asians, such as some roles Liu and Hu have played.
As a side note: many Asian imports have been catering to AM-WF couples. Those films are made by Asian men themselves who have full control over the film content. Yet, even in those films, sometimes Asian women are bashed to make the WF look better. I've even seen American independent films by AM where the AF are made to look stupid.
And while we don't see many positive roles for AM in western media, AM are portrayed extremely positive in Asian films. They are almost always the hero(while AF are portaryed as dumber, weaker, meaner, cowardly...all to make the AM look better). And more of those films will be coming to the U.S. in the future.
I'm not saying this to denigrate the plight of injustices AM face here.
I know AM have it hard here, and I dearly hate it. I see how it affects my fiance (who is an AM).
My point, however, is that I see soooooo many AM get angry whenever they see AF portaryed as "smart & sexy" in Hollywood. First of all, it's not even that pervasive. Yet, some AM even go as far as calling it as a "stereotype," trying to destroy it like a virus. They go around telling everyone the opposite: that AF are not smart, not sexy...that AF are short & ugly. Others criticize the sexy image of AF as portrarying us as prostitutes. And some of the AM who do it do it because they feel they aren't getting similar "acceptance" in the media. And though that is relatively true and something we need to fight for, it is very destructive to destroy the progress of AF's image along the way.
Remember white men are the ones who control the media, not AF.
You mentioned that some AF, including your sister, criticizes you for dating a WF. I'm sincerely sorry to hear that, but I find that to be far less common than AM criticzing AF. Criticizing AF has become so widespread and vocal that it is just outright desctructive for the entire Asian community. There are soooo *many* of us right here fully supporting AM. Yet, some AM keep focusing on the minority who sells out. And it drains the rest of us here who constantly hear all the bashing and blaming. Also, I've known AM who preach to AF to date within her own race but then later to find that he, himself, went for a WF. I've even known three AM professors who complain in class and in essays about AF dating non-Asians when they, themselves, had white wives.
You mentioned that there are many AF-WM anchors. I don't know where you live, but there are far less now than there was a decade ago. But that's b/c it grew out of politics that I don't have time to go into. Also, there *is* a good number of AM news anchors in the media. But I agree there should be more.
Yes we must stand together as one and stop fighting with each other. We need to protect each other and look out for each other's interests, i.e., the interests of *both* genders.
PBS
Monday, May 27, 2002 at 03:26:09 (PDT)
I have to agree with wf about how conceited many (but not all) AF appear to be.
They have good reason to be. Either they have their trophy white boyfriend (whether he's a catch or was thrown back varies) or they have their asian boyfriends with the new Benz hauling their asses around town.
Maybe the real prizes just don't like to make themselves stand out.
P.S. This forum looks like it went from AF have it bad to Jews have it worse.
huu76
Monday, May 27, 2002 at 02:26:37 (PDT)
AC Dropout:
An Accountant is a "Bean Counter." My Wife is a CPA/Bean counter. An Actuary is a Financial Applied Mathematician responsible for calculations involving pricing investments/annuities/insurance for group populations based upon mortality rates, services rendered and various other risk factors.
As far as Applied math, my degrees were in Statistics, Economics and Econometrics--A TON of applied math all-right, but at a level that the masses don't usually deal with, and I am sure they are thanking God for it.
One thing though--the Engineering and Medical people in the schools I was at (UT-Austin, Baylor and Rice) were notorious for "sloppy" math. Then again, they were just operating in realms where they had a much larger "epsilon neighborhood" to work with, so it's all good.
Researcher:
I understood your point about how the show runs counter to the norm. However, there are some who say that the Korean American girl is "breaking a stereotype" by NOT being a Math whiz. I guess the debate here is in a rather BAD show on the WB (I watched it once for about 10 minutes but then remembered there was a football game on and changed the channel!) is it better for Asian Americans to be portrayed accuarately regarding Math skills based upon what's typical or is it better to bust the stereotype here.
No matter how you look at it, I would much rather see Asian American Women and Men playing a broader range of roles, some accurate--some stereotype busting, that have more depth and more of a presence than has been shown previously.
Hank Lewis
Sunday, May 26, 2002 at 15:29:20 (PDT)
Applauds Researcher:
Thank you.
Hey Rickster:
Learn to Read. It is an Asian Female from Georgia. I do not know your obsession with jews. They are plainly white.
"The media executives are the ones who tell the public that racism happens in films and television "because it caters to the white majority." They say that all the time to justify the bad things they do."
They need the money. Without money they go broke. If people in this country (including Asians such as my mother and sister who also rant and rave about lack of people of color in TV and movies) line up to watch stupid movies which stereotypes minorities, the market is sending a clear signal to the folks marketing the movie. If on the other hand the movie portrays reality, ie., Asian women as engineers and doctors, people do not line up to see the movies, what is the marketing manager to deduce?
"If you keep repeating their excuses, you are only protecting them. You are only helping them by spreading and reinforcing their ideas."
It is a vicious cycle.
"It is understandable that you took "Catering the Majority's" post very personally since you are Jewish. But personal biases and anger aside, what he wrote was a very insightful argument."
Jews are white, and so are many Middle Easterners such as Hala Gorani and Rudi Bhaktiar of CNN. If they marry other whites whether they are of western or Middle Eastern persuasion, their children would be white. So, I get sick and tired of people telling me that Jews are different. Hitler would have happily gone after the Asians in Germany if they were one of the most successful groups in the world as they are today, and other white ethnic groups would have stood by and watched it (including Jews and others. After all, the Lebanese immigrants to Louisiana stood by and watched as blacks were lynched in that state during the early part of the twentieth century).
"If you keep drowning out his arguments with faulty information, you are only protecting your own agenda (and the media executives) at other people's expense. In essence you become part of the problem."
I think you need reading glasses. It is from an Asian Female in Georgia, not a Jewish or a full blooded white female.
Researcher
Sunday, May 26, 2002 at 15:07:41 (PDT)
NEWEST COMMENTS |
EARLIER COMMENTS
|