I also started thinking about Asian Americans in television after reading Lynn Lu’s “Critical Visions: The Representation and Resistance of Asian Women.” Lu states that the representation of Asian women in contemporary television plays a major role in the way in which they are seen in society. Thus, Lu claims that as Asian women “struggle for visibility and recognition of [their] diversity, [they] not only face blatantly offensive depictions of [themselves] but continually come up against the power of racist, heterosexist, classist, and imperialist ideologies… [and create] new versions of old stereotypes” (18). If Lu is right, it seems that Asian women cannot escape the stereotypes given to Asians because of how they are represented on television.
As I read this article, I tried to think of prominent Asian American women figures in the shows that I watch, but I couldn’t think of many. When I realized this, I was surprised because I could think of shows that have prominent African American characters, Hispanic characters, or white characters. Although this could be because of the shows that I watch, it seems that Asian American women really are marginalized. One character I could think of is Cristina Yang in Grey’s Anatomy, played by Sandra Oh. Her role as a surgeon in the show depicts stereotypes of Asians being an over-achiever, intelligent, self-disciplined, and independent. In my opinion, Yang is a “new version of [an] old stereotype” of Asians being smart, nerdy, and good at math. Thus, if these Asian American women are the only ones being represented, I feel that it would be hard for any Asian American woman that doesn’t explicitly fit this stereotype to fit into American culture.
I agree with Lu in that “the realm of cultural production holds the potential to provide mass education, political analysis, and popular entertainment as alternatives to the same old stereotypes” (25). I think it would be extremely beneficial if media producers and directors didn’t use classic stereotypes and casted minority ethnicities in roles that they usually wouldn’t. If so, I believe the minority groups in America would also be able to assimilate into the culture more and the stereotypes may start to fade away.
It's definitely hard to break away from the stereotypes casted over Asian American society due to the popularity of media of any sort. This includes movies, TV shows, and even youtube has clips by people with racial comments. The girl from UCLA is one example, like we have discussed in class.
ReplyDeleteMedia is where people freely express their opinions and creativity and that's fine; the problem is that so many people watch it. The media is where people go to for information and stories, so the more people watch the stereotypical stories of Asian Americans, the more the community gets made fun of. Not only that, it won't take long for it to become a label for a community. Media is such an effective way to move a vast group of people but I think it's simply not used efficiently or correctly.