September 13, 2016 - 19:41
Race and the media…wow. There’s a lot of material there. There’s so much that I can say about the media and utter crap that Hollywood churns out. When I think of race and the media, I think of a text I recently sent to one of my Asian friends, asking “Do you ever wonder which white actress would play you in a movie about your life[?]” I was joking, but I know and other Asian-American people know that Hollywood has a hard time casting Asians for Asian roles. I'm just thinking of Emma Stone, Scarlett Johansson, Matt Damon, the entire Avatar: the Last Airbender movie—although let’s be honest don’t you think it’s interesting that the only brown actor in that movie was cast to play the bad guy? Hmm… I think about Katharine Hepburn, a woman who Bryn Mawr College loves to proudly claim as an alumna, in yellowface.
I think about the way Asian women are fetishized and the fact that when you type “Asian women” into google, the first results you get are dating sites. About the old yellow peril tropes that demonize Asian immigrants, representing a combination of threat and encroachment on American jobs. And how it’s impossible for me to browse facebook pages about dogs without stumbling across a racist comment about Asian people eating them (God do I hate this). I think about the stunningly anti-Asian interview Megan Lochte, Ryan’s sister, gave after the Beijing Summer Olympics. I'm even thinking about that "Impossibru!" meme that mocks Asian-accented English.
The media reminds me that my facial structure sucks and there are contouring products that make it possible for me to paint on a nose bridge, to paint on a double eyelid. As I sit here right now I feel my throat tightening up and my jaw getting stiffer because all of a sudden I have a lot of emotions…I have a lot of sadness as I remember how much I hated my face and the body I lived in for not having the same angles as my white friends. I did research into nose job procedures when I was in elementary school. My sister overplucked and ruined her eyebrows because they weren’t as neatly arched as her white friends’ brows. My family visited China and we were bombarded with advertisements about skin lightening treatments and eyelid tape and cosmetics that make it very clear that when it comes to beauty, white women will always have the upper hand. I think all women of color can relate.
I think about the ugly stereotypes that present Asian women as submissive, obedient, hardworking, docile, needy, infantile, and apolitical. These attributes have been ascribed to me countless times. It hurts. And it doesn't just hurt me...I think there are ways that the portrayal of Asians in the media have hurt other racialized groups, too. I haven't made every single point I thought of, but I think we'll have the chance to discuss those in class later.