you don’t know me you don’t know me you don’t know me you don’t know me you don’t know me you don’t know me you don’t know me you don’t know me you don’t know me you don’t know me
GOALS & INTENTIONS GOALS & INTENTIONS GOALS & INTENTIONS To apply concepts of feminist media theory to the study of how Asian women are used as fetishized mediums in America. To consider more critically past the mainstream images of fetishized East Asian bodies and East Asian culture. To have Pan-Asian representation with different identities and experiences of Asian women. To not speak for, but provide a space to recognize these different experiences. To think about how the images of Asian women work against or with Asian women, and how we feel about it. To
reclaim
our
own
emotions.
GOALS & INTENTIONS GOALS & INTENTIONS GOALS & INTENTIONS
OUR FEELINGS MATTER
A common trope in the representation of primarily East Asian women, is the idea that they are robotic. This eliminates their sense of agency and voice, and most importantly their own emotions. While emotions have been historically considered as points of feminized weakness, I challenge that the expression of emotion is an act of power or resistance against those who try to silence such lived experiences.
erased
While East Asian women are framed as dreamy robotic doll-like sexual beings, global capitalism has made it so that non-East Asian women are often forced into functioning like actual robots, relying on physical labor in sweatshop factories or sex work as means to survive. We must acknowledge the role colonialism and imperialism has played in shaping these norms of darker skinned and poor women suffering more violence and labor than their East Asian peers. We must also acknowledge the role that parts of East Asia has directly played in this history, such as imperialist Japan’s usage of comfort women, and how that resonates with Japan’s continued dominance in today’s sex tourism in Thailand. We must unlearn these images of what a fetishized Asian female body is, created by the Western gaze, in order to fight fully against all forms of repressive representation.
d
the interview
when do you feel the most angry? when do you feel the most sad? when do you feel happiest?
angriest when... It’s half anger at my white peers and half anger at myself, when a close friend or someone I care about says something that is racist and I don’t call them out on it because I don’t want to embarrass them in a public space. I’m angry that my white friend would say something like that and I’m also angry that i dont have the fast thinking ability, courage, or whatever to call them out on it in that point in time.
saddest when... Having grown up an Asian American with very Asian immigrant parents, I fought with them so much in an attempt to reconcile my American way of life with the way they raised me and their expectations for me. The phrase I’d always say was “Well, i’m not Korean, I’m American” and i think it’s really sad that I was pigeonholed into thinking that way, and to weaponizing that against my parents who had nothing but the best interest in mind for me.
happiest when... It’s so nice to have AAPI women that i’m close with and can empathize with and can share my experiences with. I think empathy and our life experiences is such a recharging factor. I’ve actively begun to reach out to AAPI friends and classmates, especially if they’re women and it creates such a nice space to be ourselves and talk about experiences that we share that have different iterations, but at the core are very similar.
Q: WHAT FORMS OF MEDIA DO YOU FEEL MOST FETISHIZED IN? A: I hate when publications that are designated as a very hip and on the forefront of white alternative culture, goes in and “discovers” the cultural habits of non-Western societies. I think the most recent example of me being angry at a piece of Western media fetishizing Asian culture was Vice’s mini YouTube documentary about the plastic surgery industry in South Korea. It made me angry because, plastic surgery has a different connotation in Korea than it does in America and I think that what publications like Vice do is assign Western values on Eastern phenomenons, such as good or bad, when they’re neither nor. They forget that cultures besides American or white ones are rooted in conditions that are at the base as factual as the ones that make up such white cultures. Q: WHEN DO YOU FEEL MOST FETISHIZED? A: Being in a Japanese class right now, and also in my Korean Civilization class last semester, I noticed that a lot of the white older male academics around me who were either extremely interested in the major EALAC (East Asian Languages and Culture) or were actually in the department, had East Asian girlfriends or wives. I just think it’s so gross that you could fuck the thing you’re studying, and kind of incorporate that into your studying life.
pronouns: she/hers identites: East Asian, Bisexual, a Girl
angriest when...
saddest when...
There are all these issues that are happening that are consistently getting worse but remaining unaddressed by the public or politicians in office. I get angry when I realize even I haven’t been aware of so many issues. Such as the low income rates that play in so many AAPI communities, unreported instances of domestic violence and just how high those numbers are. It makes me angry that nothings being done to address those things.
When I think things are getting better for the Asian community in terms of representation in Western media and also politics in general, but then something will come along and remind me that things haven’t really changed at all. White people will still be white people and will feel threatened in their position of privilege when any racial minority tries to earn their place at the table or get white people to make room for them in mainstream discourse.
happiest when... Recently I’ve read a lot more Asian authors and it makes me happy when i read their work. One of my first career aspirations was to be a writer. Growing up i didnt see much Asian people making it big in that world. But now i see so many Asian writers who’ve earned their place in the Western canon of literature. And it makes me happy to see that and read their work and be able to relate to the experiences that they write about or come up in their novels.
Q: WHEN DO YOU FEEL MOST FETISHIZED? A: Whenever i talk to white boys. Most of my uncomfortable experiences have been shaped around the way I look or my ethnic identity. I was in an Uber once. He starts off being like “Oh, where are you from?.. Oh that’s so cool, I love Thai culture.” then he’s like “The beaches are very nice and the girls are very pretty, but most of them are men, hahaha.” So he was trying to make a jab at trans people, as well as Thai people, and poking fun at stereotypes that people already associate with that part of the world. He just made me feel uncomfortable and kept going on asking obnoxious and ignorant questions. Q: WHEN DO YOU FEEL MOST MISREPRESENTED? A: I feel misrepresented by both Thai and American mainstream media. In Thailand, the only beauty standard people are held to are the East Asian. That was always a source of low self esteem and anxiety, because I saw all these girls that I couldn’t have as realistic role models. But when I look to American culture, I think when I was growing up I’d latch onto any Asian character in any show or movie I watched because I just wanted someone to look like me. Even when the characters wouldn’t be substantial or a complete misrepresentation, growing up I didn’t realize that and latched onto any representation there was.
pronouns: she/hers identites: Female, Thai, Asian, a millennial
angriest when...
When people expect you to explain all these things when really some effort can be taken on themselves to learn. Asian men who essentially act like white men, acting like “I’m oppressed” but then doing these very imperialist things towards other people of color, or Asian women. Internalizing the whole whiteness stuff? I don’t like that. I don’t like people who are privileged and don’t do anything to give back to their community. White tears. I’m done. I think that makes me the most angry.
saddest when...
When all these awful things keep occurring in the world, and I feel powerless that I can’t do anything in the moment, just because where I am in my life right now I don’t have a lot of power to make change. I get sad when I’m rejected by people in my own communities, just because I don’t look like I belong in those communities. Cloudy days suck. I don’t like it when I can’t see friends who I love in long periods of time. I don’t like being by myself for too long. When I’m not doing enough of self-care.
happiest when...
When I’m not in school. When I get to read books or research, learn about things I care about. I’m the type that I can’t push myself to do work and learn about things I don’t care about. When I have free time to learn about things I care about, it’s actually enjoyable. When I see dogs and sunny days. When you can just destress with friends, and have long conversations knowing you can just go to sleep and wake up to a fresh day. When I’m home.
Q: HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE WESTERN CONSUMPTION OF ASIAN EXOTIFICATION? A: What pisses me off is that this kind of cultural journalism will focus on East Asian cultural things like maid cafes or plastic surgery, but then everytime you try and talk about a country that’s non East Asian, like for the Phillipines it’ll be like “President Duterte is killing all these people!” We’re caught up with consuming so many images of death of black and brown people, and that’s normal, but when it comes to East Asian people, the image consumption is not of death but more of a very exotic fetishized image. Q: ANY PARTICULAR POP CULTURAL PHENOMENONS YOU HATE? A: I don’t like how it’s become popular to go to a Japanese festival wearing the traditional clothes and just… being extra! If I were monoracial Japanese, maybe I wouldn’t care. But it rubs me the wrong way when I see white people wearing those clothes, but when I wear those clothes people will think it’s more problematic. People get so surprised when they see me in Japanese dress and they’re like “Why are you wearing that?” and I’ll just be like “Well… I’m half” like what else am I supposed to say? Q: WHEN DO YOU FEEL MOST MISREPRESENTED? A: As someone who presents as Asian or Pacific Islander, in school there’s no representations of those communities in general. The rare occasions that there are, I don’t get a thoughtful, in-depth study of those communities. So even I can’t understand my own history, which makes me feel very misrepresented.
pronouns: she/hers identites: Student, woman, person of color, multiracial, racially ambiguous, a friend
angriest when...
When I see stuff like whitewashing and when I talk to people and they don’t believe it. I recently had to drop a couple of friends, because they weren’t on the same page as me. And it’s difficult because I don’t want to just drop people because they don’t believe in the same political things as me. But also it just means to much to me… And when I tell them like “Hey this makes me feel really shit, I hate this,” and they’re like “maybe that’s just your experience.”
saddest when...
I went to a really white high school, and I always thought I couldn’t fit in. i felt so torn because i wanted to got out and do the same things others did. but the friend group I found myself in, I guess it’s a part of immigrant culture, their parents didn’t let them do anything. I felt really limited. I always thought they saw me as this scraggly Asian. So I just floated around in high school sort of aimlessly, and it was really sad.
happiest when...
I’m happiest when I have friends! Friends that are similar to me or understand my experiences. This is probably one of the happiest chapters of my life. I have friends I identify with who don’t think of me just as that Asian girl in the corner that’s quiet. And I have a boyfriend, who’s white, but he’s aware of his privilege. So I’m really happy about all that.
Q: WHEN DO YOU FEEL MOST MISREPRESENTED? A: When I see Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell. When Journey to the West is all white people. When Death Note’s Light Yagami becomes Light Turner. I can go on. That is literally the most annoying thing for me. In terms of my Asian identity, that lack of representation or that whitewashing - clear, clear whitewashing, is what pisses me off the most about my Asianness right now. There’s privilege in that I don’t have to worry about Asian people getting killed by cops. Black and brown people have to deal with more violent and immediate things, but this is so annoying to me. Hollywood is trying to spite us. They’re not even making money off of it, it’s not a good business deal. They don’t have A-list celebrities signing on to this. They’re just whitewashing for no fucking reason. Q: DO YOU EVER FEEL LIKE YOU’RE FULFILLING A STEREOTYPE? A: I feel like I fulfill the stereotype in dating a white guy. Sometimes I want to be partially dependent on him, or want to have him take care of me, or be immature and like a child at times. But that’s just what i want to do. I find myself checking myself to make sure I don’t do that on the day-to-day. I try to not smile to much or cover my mouth when I laugh. Not laugh too high, just speak a little lower than I’m used to. Be more serious because I want people to take me seriously. I find myself doing that, not because i have to, but because i feel like others will think differently of me.
pronouns: she/hers identites: Asian, cis woman, first year college student
angriest when...
In discussions about mental illness. Maybe it comes from the stereotype of Asian people as robotic, or a refusal to acknowledge the fully actualized human beingness of Asian people. But what results is this idea in the West that mental illness is for white people. I honestly think this affect Black Americans more than Asian Americans. White people have all these venues to receive help, but people of color aren’t allowed the same access to material and ability to represent it. Our bodies get prescribed as sort of stagnant images that don’t deteriote.
saddest when...
It’s the same. My anger comes from a place of deep sadness. I have the strongest, most visceral reaction to silencing of mental illness, or narratives of mental illness. First and foremost it makes me sad. And because it makes me sad, it makes me angry that no one’s doing anything about it. Like, a man in a bar asking you why Japanese women age so well, that’s irritating and fetishistic, but it’s a momentary encounter. Whereas the silencing of mental illness within communities of color in the US, you’re hurting people and ruining lives by asserting this.
happiest when... When I get surprised to discover instances of representation, when it’s something that hasn’t been talked about. I sort of like the idea of going into things without expectations, because that’s how I’d like people to approach me. I like when I watch a series and I’m like “Wow, there’s a lot of Asian people in this cast” and it’s not something being shoved down my throat like “Look at all this representation!” When I observe something and even if it’s negative, it’s something I get to experience for myself and determine for myself.
Q: WHAT IMAGES DO YOU THINK OF, FOR WOMEN WITH YOUR SAME IDENTITIES? A: A lot of imagery around East Asian and Japanese women in particular paints us as robots. Some of that is self done, but through the Western gaze it becomes this image of East Asian women as being robotic, who doesn’t represent herself or her history. She’s sort of this blank canvas in which you can insribe other things. I would say that popular image of East Asian women is really overdetermined, but at the same time it’s one that doesn’t get to be self-determined. Q: THROUGH WHAT FORMS OF MEDIA DO YOU FEEL MOST FETISHIZED? A: I think in particular the way that the West has latched onto and distorted the image of the “kawaii” aesthetic is really bizarre to me. Because kawaii in Japan I would describe as a real aesthetic movement. It’s something that gets used a lot by Western people and culture to advertise products to other Westerners. It becomes this odd way of reproducing images of Japan that don’t have to do anything with Japan. But nevertheless have significant ramifications for people who actually identify as Japanese. Q: WHEN DO YOU FEEL MOST MISREPRESENTED? A: A lot of the time, the silence of Asian women is perceived as always passive. But I think silence can be an act of resistance, resilience, an act of open rebellion and dissent. But when Asian women are silent it’s always assumed that we’ve been silenced by some exterior force. It’s always by this figure of the West, or the East Asian man, and all these narratives just get inscribed onto us. So I resent the fact that people don’t appreciate the nuance of our silence and the way it exists for other people.
pronouns: she/hers identites: Hafu (specifically half Japanese, half white), mixed race, woman, queer
angriest when...
When a minority becomes a victim of institutional oppression, and your community won’t do anything about it. South Asian complacency in Black Lives Matter makes me angry. What makes me angry is that I have to live in fear that I don’t know if my family is safe at home. Black people getting shot because of their skin color. And when people don’t understand. People who don’t listen make me angry. It’s not difficult to just sit there and listen and learn.
saddest when...
What makes me sad is that, racism and misogyny have become so normalized that it becomes people’s impulse to just justify their identities. People who are not white have almost in any situation been forced to rehearse lines to justify how they feel. I remember as a kid when I would tell people I was Muslim, I would immediately say, “But I’m not that kind of Muslim.” That’s what makes me sad, that as a kid I had to develop this social awareness that a white girl next to me would never ever develop.
happiest when... I’m happiest when I see my family happy, especially my parents.
Q: WHAT IMAGES DO YOU THINK OF, FOR WOMEN WITH YOUR SAME IDENTITIES? A: South Asian women are perceived as oppressed, or poor - in agency or in wealth. There’s this notion that South Asian women are suppressed under boundaries set by family structures, Brown women in general. I think the West is comfortable with the idea that Eastern women in general are more oppressed than Western women, it’s just a more self-gratifying approach. Q: WHAT DO YOU THINK OTHERS GETS OUT OF CONSUMING THIS MEDIA? A: I think Muslim women have been tokenized in recent years as this image of activism. Especially that poster that came out before the election, the three pictures of resistance, like “This is what America looks like”. Muslim and brown women have become images of activism and have been tokenized to show diversity, but that’s where it remains. There’s no discussion of the institutional racism that exists. Nuances are brushed over with these images and lauded. There needs to be deeper discussion on its implications. What that image means for Muslim women around the nation, nobody asks that. Q: WHEN DO YOU FEEL MOST MISREPRESENTED? A: As a Muslim woman, there’s lots of misrepresentation in daily conversations when others try to speak for us. People don’t point me out as Muslim because I don’t have the headscarf, I look “normal”. I’ve been called a “Muslim Slut” before. I don’t wear a head covering so that automatically makes me “impure”. Also in a group of white people. Tokenization is a form of misrepresentation. Don’t ask me for every single answer to your questions, because I can’t speak for 1.6 billion Muslims around the world.
pronouns: she/hers identites: Woman, South Asian, Muslim, first generation student, member of South Asian Feminisms Alliance
Last notes Last notes Last notes Last notes The first film that we covered in Feminist Media Theory was Señorita Extraviada (d. by Lourdes Portillo), a documentary covering the feminicide that came to light in Ciudad Juárez in the early 90s. What most disturbed me then, was seeing the tens and hundreds of images of these murdered, kidnapped, or brutalized women play across the screen in quick succession, without being able to hear any of their voices or individual stories. It felt as if, they were all effectively silenced from the ways they were represented even past their death. I wanted to base my final project in the inability women of color often have in representing themselves, or negotiating the narratives that are forced onto them. As an Asian-American woman, I wanted to connect it to my own identity. But I knew specifically as an East Asian woman, the kinds of misrepresentation I personally face is radically different from those of my black and brown peers who are not afforded my same privileges. Having previously studied the ways East Asian women are represented in Western media, I was already familiarized with the fetishizing tropes of “China Doll”, “Geisha Girl” or “Madame Butterfly”. But for this project I hoped to also look past those mainstream images, images that can erase the different ways - and often more violent ways - that South and Southeast women are marginalized through their objectification and sexualization. I want to thank Jane, Waen, Alani, Yijun, Mal, and Safia for letting me interview them, sharing stories with me, and allowing everyone a glimpse at what makes them feel the most. Isabelle Lee May 3, 2017
SOURCES SOURCES SOURCES SOURCES Wendy Hui Kyong Chun “Race and/as Technology or How to Do Things to Race” http://www.millennialinflux.com/yes-sweatshopsstill-make-your-clothes-yes-you-should-stillcare/ https://popularresistance.org/holding-companiesthat-use-sweatshop-labor-accountable/ https://www.buzzfeed.com/thetangster/shit-anasian-american-feminist-will-tell-you-on-to9r1?utm_term=.ok1gGYawJ#.fkv7QywZa http://angry-hijabi.blogspot.com/2017/03/supporthijabis-not-nike.html Excluding interview portraits, all images were taken off Google.