|
|
|
|
|
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, 06:10:56 PM)
All the fighting pushes us away,
How do you look at this situation. It is true. I just want an opinion.
I was sitting outside of Ryerson and this AF walks out, gets picked up by her AM boyfriend in a shiny new Mercedes Benz. A few minutes later, this AM and Hispanic girl (maybe she was Arab) walk out. Later I see them drive out in his (lets say less than new) Honda Accord. They were holding one another so I think it's safe to say they're a couple.
Anyway...
Is the AM in the Benz because he puts his girlfriend on a pedestal or because he feels he needs one to keep his girl?
Either way, it upsets me because the former shows how ungrateful AF are (because most AM do put AF on a pedestal) and how stupid some AM can be, and the latter shows how the stereotype is alive in some.
Is the AM in the Honda because he can't afford one, or because his girlfriend doesn't care what he's in?
Either way it upsets me too because both show how Non-AF will date AM regardless of what material wealth they can display.
Anyone else is free to comment.
huu76
Wednesday, June 05, 2002 at 03:47:57 (PDT)
OH GET OVER IT..i'm a chinese american woman who is sooo over all this crap..be yourself, love yourself and embrace the fact that everyone, even your sister and brother are different people with differct ideas and opinions and isn't that GREAT or else we'd all be robots..I am married to a black american man..yes, we get looks, but WHO CARES? I don't and why should I? I have a great man, we have a great marriage and that's all that matters..I don't care what anyone thinks because it just doesn't move me..like me or hate me, live or die, MY life still goes on! WE need to appreciate and enjoy the differences and realize there is soo much to learn from everyone you ever meet..get out of your boxes and live life! And by the way, I don't think I'm a sellout, I just happened to fall in love with a wonderful man..if he came in a differnt package then it would've been that package instead..and if you do think I'm a sellout anyway, well, who cares?!
Love me or don't!
Tuesday, June 04, 2002 at 23:14:10 (PDT)
Proud 2 b Azn,
Hey, many of us are proud to have you as a fellow Asian. Keep spreading the truth!
Economist,
I think Doormat Richardson has just finally disappeared last week. He came in to stomp on Asians but his respondents have ended up wiping their feet on his threadbare arguments.
"White American protesters are afraid of globalization not because the poor in developing countries are exploited but because the glass ceiling would be shattered through global competition. It is shattering in the boardrooms of the US steel industry, but George Bush...decided to stand by the incompetent white boys in the steel industry this time around, resulting in higher prices for US consumers. I hope the WTO rules against the US, and soon! This is not in the best interest of America."
Right on. Since when have Americans ever cared about the poor? Definitely not in our country, and certainly not the poor of the world. I find it ironic that the Brits are thinking of proposing $40-50 million in aid to poor countries, but the US is against it. This government only cares about protecting the rich, especially rich whites: that's why they care more about business and domestic economy while doing absolutely NOTHING about global warming even tho' global warming is a much more serious problem which is ultimately going to affect the ENTIRE planet. (Really, when everyone is suffering from drought and floods, it's not really going to matter who is able to buy American goods, is it?) But it's so typically American to only consider the short run: i.e., letting the rich get richer. This is the problem when you let some dumb rich boy and his old-boy network run the nation.
Asian Dominatrix
Tuesday, June 04, 2002 at 19:33:09 (PDT)
Maxdacat,
I'm agreeing with Researcher's statements that:
1. lots of whites manage to complain about affirmative action ("Why is that that a black or hispanic can get into a school with lower grades) AND bitch about too many Asians at UCBerkeley and the Ivies with high scores and grades("Asians are too fixated on grades and scores, which are not everything").
2. "being in the majority does not give one the right to lie." For instance, the old mantra that Asian men are phallically challenged and/or asexual. Or that Asian women can't wait to get laid by a white. Etc.
3. "Portraying AA women as what they are not is a lie." As we've said over and over again, Asian females are ALWAYS made to look secondbest next to white females in the media. And same for Asian males and white males. A lot of us are just plain TIRED of it. We're not looking to be presented as *perfect* folk--co's that's boring in itself too--but just to be fairly represented at least every once in a while.
Look, media has improved dramatically over the past two decades in the ways that it's presented white women: there are white women fighting for justice, white women outkicking and outboxing men, etc. They're bright, sassy, and very physically attractive. If we were to do a sappy pre-1950 presentation of a white woman wimpering and being submissive to a (white) man, hell would most certainly be raised.
Much the same goes for blacks. Even tho' they're still not as positively represented as they could be, things have improved quite a bit. The clever, upper-middle-class, elegant and stylish Cosbies and the Fresh Prince Bel Air families have pretty displaced the old "Mammy" stereotypes.
All we're asking is why can't they do the same for Asian women and men? Why is it that Asian women can't be presented as 3-dimensional characters? Why is it we can't be as equally brave, intelligent, and attractive in the media?
FYI, it's not just the "retards" who are "brainwashed by a conspiratorial white (or worse still jewish) press", but plenty of average people: and don't forget that there are many here who have not finished highschool, let alone college and graduate school.
Media has the potential to affect our impressions of others, especially that which passes off as "factual" news media. I remember that when the 9/11 tragedy struck, the national news focused on the sympathy displayed by European countries, but did not bother to include scenes of Asians sobbing and giving blood: in fact, I only managed to catch this on the Asian news network. But I remember people commenting on other websites and media that Europeans showed so much more feeling than Asians and Africans. Well, people forget that it's because all the news ever wants to focus on is Western nations and WHITES in particular! (Note, BTW, how national news also gave far more attention to white victims and their survivors before moving onto minority ones several days afterwards.)
And as I've said countless times, a lot of the anti-Japanese sentiment was stirred up by the media harping on Japan as evil invaders and journalists saying that "maybe it's time to drop a bomb on Japan again." Who knows, maybe if I were a poor, laid-off white person who never finished HS, never learned to think for myself, and believed everything I saw on TV and trash newspapers, I might feel tempted to beat up an Asian like those attackers of Vincent Chin. This is why media as it is in the West is dangerous to minorities.
Yes, I agree that "the media of the western world are a hundred times freer than those in asia." It's just ironic, isn't it, that the Western media continues to trap itself in the same old prejudices and same old stereotypes refusing to face up to the fact that whites are not the only people living in the West, if not the world.
Asian Dominatrix
Tuesday, June 04, 2002 at 19:18:46 (PDT)
"Just because someone dates outside their culture does not make them a sell-out. My definition of a sell-out is someone who hates their culture and everyone who shares it in order to "fit" in with another group. Being in an IR doesn't mean you have to hate who you are. I've dated WF and I'm damn proud of who I am."
I agree 1000%!! Dating someone outside your race does not mean that you are a sellout or a self hater, though many people on this site seem to think so. It is indeed possible to be "Proud 2B Asian" and date someone that is not asian. Good for you. Finally something positive on this otherwise hate-filled, anti-white, blaming, negative board.
girl
Tuesday, June 04, 2002 at 12:19:32 (PDT)
"the media of the western world are a hundred times freer than those in asia."
Is that not the reason why they say anything and get away with anything. For example, Washington Times on the day when a poll was released showing the Democratic Candidate for governor ahead by 18 points claimed that the Dems have an uphill fight for Illinois governorship. I call that a lie or at best incompetence. Free may be. Most of what the media portrayal of Asian women is nothing short of slander.
Researcher
Tuesday, June 04, 2002 at 09:26:47 (PDT)
NEWEST COMMENTS |
EARLIER COMMENTS
|