defy the model minority. perpetual foreigner. kung-fu
fighting. china doll. lotus blossom. dragon lady. we
speak english. we are not submissive. quiet. exotic. sex
objects. fuck the asian fetish. we will not love you long
time. asian is not oriental. we are not terrorists. we
don't have sars. asian is not white. don't assume we're
always straight. we are outspoken. progressive.
proactive. independent in thought and action. our
beauty is the union of our voices. not slanty eyes. we
are women of color. we fight for asian american
studies. we love yuri kochiyama. the big bad chinese
mama.we are yellow and we are brown. we are a
political construct. remember vincent chin. remember
granada. mazanar. minidoka. by the way, our men have
penises. big ones too. | </td>
|
If you don't know what any of those are, look them up. Credit for the above goes to the Wellesley Asian Alliance, which printed pink t-shirts with the text on the back.
I love it. I love it to pieces because it says so much about stereotypes of Asian women, stereotypes that -- surprise, surprise! -- the media perpetuates. That we
self-perpetuate. It can be scary to have to talk in front of people. It can be terrifying to talk about racism or race, knowing that people are going to get defensive and insist they're not racist instead of
listening to what you have to say. It makes sense to
filter for other people of color if you want to just talk without having to fight. Having to fight can be tiring. Unfeminine. Culturally
bad. Stereotype-shattering.
But this is one stereotype that I am
heavily invested in shattering.
When was the last time you saw an image of an
angry South Asian woman? I was looking for pictures for an RP I was in, and I couldn't find any.
Rai's last role in
Provoked was about a woman that set her husband on fire for repeatedly raping/beating her, but she even did that with tears rolling down her cheeks. I have no idea why angry South Asian women are so threatening that they can't even be shown on screen but they do not get to be angry. They pout, they cry, they are dramatically beaten and angsty, but there's no anger. No rage. Even when they get revenge, they do it woefully.
It's okay for South Asian women to be victims, but not for them to stand up for themselves. I used to think it was a cultural problem, but I don't think it's just that. I've seen real women, real South Asian women, be passive-aggressive or just passive, but I've also seen them angry. But never in public. Never on TV. That would give them a bad reputation and it would go against the stereotype of Asian women being more docile than Western women.
After all, until relatively recently, people were still talking about widows throwing themselves onto their husbands' funeral pyres. Arranged marriages were common. Asian women didn't cheat on their husbands, right? They were happy to be housewives and treat their husbands with the proper level of respect.
That's why they're easy to fetishize. They're smaller, differently cultured and used to come from colonies. Asian women have exotic Karma Sutra-style ideas, but they also like to cook. Their culture is inferior to Western culture. They don't nag or push for marriage or make you buy them tampons. They will love you long time.
And right now, a lot of them probably think you're idiots for having bought into the media hype.
Asian women are
women. Women are people. Asian women are
people. And the stereotypes are going down.
The first one to die will be the idea that Asian women don't get angry, because we're here, we're angry, and we're not going to shut up.
