Culture, Race, and Gender

I really was glad that the Gender and Culture group chose a piece on Asian-American women (Gender-Role Perceptions: An Intergenerational Study on Asian-American Woman by Chi-Kwan Ho) as part of their reading for discussion; it seems that Asian women are always a group that gets looked over or ignored, in favor of white women especially but also other women of color. They always seem to get lumped in with white women, somehow, or are in a class of their own but not in the group of “women of color.”

The article noted some of the main stereotypes of Asian women, including “fragile China dolls” or “exotic sex pots.” I do definitely see these stereotypes in western culture, and Asians do deal with these in portrayals of Asians in modern film, movies, and books. I think it would be interesting to read the rest of the piece, and to hear the stories of the women that Ho interviewed.
On a similar note, when we discussed this article in class, we were talking about the stereotypes it mentions and someone in the class, though I forget who, brought up the characters of Tina and Mike on the show Glee, as an example of characters who defy stereotypes. Someone else in the class expressed the opinion that, by going completely against the stereotypes, Tina’s character was just as bad as one who is portrayed as stereotypically Asian. The class then came to a sort of general consensus that character portrayals of women of color need to find a “middle ground.” I’m not sure what to make of this argument; are we saying that women of color must somehow address their race or they’re not legitimate? Or that maybe they are “trying too hard”? Maybe I’m misinterpreting the argument. But if I’m correct, it seems like a weak argument. We as a culture never demand that a white woman address her race or racial stereotypes, or risk “going against her race.” I think that the characters of Tina and Mike are defying stereotypes in a way; yes, in the show they are sort of the “Token Asian” characters. But they have personalities, and aren’t stereotypical in any other way.

At any rate, I think it is good that we are beginning to see how race, gender, and class all intertwine, and how it is possible to stop oppression on those levels. The article mentioned was an excellent one that really touched upon some of the common misconceptions about women of color in our culture, and it discussed a relatively ignored group of women. I think the group who did Gender and Culture did a great job of highlighting those ignored groups.