Psychological consequences resulting from acculturation on Asian American Women

Throughout the course of the semester, we had discussions on the problems Asian American Immigrants face when they immigrate to the United States from Asia, but never really about how these problems affect them psychologically or emotionally. This is something I have found rather interesting as we work on our group projects. My group decided to bring up the issue of Asians and Asian American Women and eating disorders. This somehow led to me reading about mental diseases Asian American Immigrants experience from acculturation issues after a discussion with a psychology professor.

On a larger level, it is easy to identify that one problem these immigrants may face are language barriers which we talked about with regard to the videos and readings on Cambodian/ Vietnamese Immigrants trying to retain their welfare. We also had quite a few readings with regard to the desire that many immigrants have to remain within their communities to preserve cultures from their homelands.

What we did not really talk about are mental disorders among Asian American Women. A collaborative research report on the Age of First Onset Major Depression in Chinese Americans mentioned that one of their most consistent findings in depression research is that women are more likely to become depressed, and this happens to do with acculturation issues. This is because as immigrants acculturate, culturally protective factors may be lost which leads to increased risk for depression.

In some discussion somewhere, we must have talked about how Asian/ Asian American parents try to keep their children in rather sheltered environments and seem to be over protective. But after reading this paper, it seemed to be that the reason for the actions of the older generation could be associated to the relationship between acculturation and depression which may be salient for those who migrate when they were older. This could have resulted from the stress of relocation, the loss of one’s support network and the need to adapt to a new environment. To deal with this, the older generations capitalize on family support and hence find it hard to give up their traditional ideals. It seems to be that this would have been an interesting topic to look further into as, at least for me, it really brought together some of the things we talked about in class and I guess made me sympathize with the fact that not only did these Asian American women that we have been talking about all semester have to deal with the stresses of moving to a new country, they were likely to suffer from depression and other psychological problems.

Asian American Community at Scripps College

I wasn't sure if I should post about this here, but I decided to just because I think its a really relevant issue at Scripps, and not just for Asian American women but all minority groups on campus.

Last semester, Scripps students started a blog called whosespaceisthisanyway.blogspot.com, which was a student effort to start a conversation about the lack of diversity and community at Scripps College. In my freshman year, I don't think I would have agreed with the posts and comments that have been made, but at a junior now, I definitely feel that there are many issues that need to be addressed at Scripps.

I came to Scripps expecting to learn more about myself. I joined various organizations and clubs, and met new people. As a first year, I also expected to find a really welcoming Asian American community to enhance and nurture my Scripps experience, and although I feel that I have grown, those communities have really disappointed me. I won't name them specifically, but I feel that some organizations, which developed to facilitate and support the development of Asian American identities and communities instead alienate and exclude the people they were supposed to help. I understand that there a rules and limits on resources which put a lot of pressure on the leaders to pick and choose people to be members of the group, but I think a lot of the time their biases and personal issues get in the way of their judgement, despite their insistence that it doesn't happen. I've been part of these groups for a long time and they talk a lot about acceptance and safe space - but when it comes down to it, they don't really live up to their claims. In fact, I think their exclusivity serves to breakdown the Asian American communities they want to build. I attribute this to the fact that the organization doesn't have a staff member responsible for supervising and advising the group. Although I respect the students who work hard to run these organizations, I think that the way they run and organize the group is exclusive and sketchy sometimes, for lack of a better word.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this....I guess I just wanted to express my disappointment in the Asian American community at Scripps and in Scripps for not better supporting these organizations so that people aren't excluded and prevented from participating. Because I feel that the point of these communities is for Asian American women to find support - despite the resources available, and I think ANYONE who wants to participate should be able to. But sadly, this isn't the case.

Asian American Women and Sex Education

One of the side effects of having a Facebook account in college is that I am routinely sent invitations to take surveys for various classes. Today I received one for an Asian American Psychology class focusing on how much education I've received from my parents regarding sex. Upon taking the survey and thinking about the topic some more, I've come to a conclusion: "not much."

The survey focused on whether people agreed or disagreed with statements such as these:
- "I don’t know if this goes for anyone else, but I don’t think Asian parents talk about sex at all."
- "After I got to a certain age, my mom liked to talk about it very briefly, just to give us “the talk” in short bursts I think. I don’t know. When I went home this past break, she asked me if I were a virgin and things, and I was just like, 'Mom, don’t worry about it'".
- "All my friends’ parents that are White—they’re so cool and relaxed and like, talking about sex and condoms and stuff"

I started thinking about it and I can't speak for anyone else because I'm sure different parents have different parenting styles, but from what I have heard and experienced, fairly conservative Asian immigrant parents don't like to have "the talk" with their children. They instead rely on public education and biology classes, choosing to skip the awkwardness of sex education. Thinking about the project topic my group is covering for our presentation, eating disorders in Asians and Asian American women, and how I have learned that many Asian American women do not feel comfortable speaking with their parents about their problems, I am wondering if Asian immigrant parents culturally do not feel comfortable discussing personal issues with their children at all and vice versa. I also wonder if things will change when more generations of Asians raised in America grow up and have their own children. Sex education is certainly a touchy topic in many different cultures, but perhaps the generation gap between Asian immigrant parents and their children makes it more of an issue.

Asians in the Library Song

I also reflected further on the YouTube videos shown in class, specifically the response video to the UCLA student’s racist rant. I approve of his use of humor and music, but the content of the song was sexist and did not address the root of her racist comments, it simply made fun of her racism and her gender. This does not provide the viewer with an effective way to combat racism, other than to demean and laugh at the person making racist comments, which is usually ineffective. I believe his methods would have been more beneficial to UCLA students, and other viewers, if he had given a historical context of the racist beliefs heard in her video and demonstrated ways in which UCLA’s Asian American students are effected today, as well as how to fight them. This type of video could inform and empower many people, instead of demeaning the single person responsible for this specific act of racism through hyper-sexualization. While I do commend him for his creative action, this could have been much more effective in combating racism if he had presented more information instead of relying solely on humor that relied heavily on another form of oppression. This could have also demonstrated a positive way in which activists can use YouTube’s easily accessibility and popularity among university students.

Sticky Subject.

As an initial disclaimer, I know nothing about politics. I KNOW i dont understand everything involved and that is why I usually avoid talking about it in the hopes of avoiding making a fool out of myself or pointless confrontation. AS another disclaimer if I say anything to offend anyone i'm sorry, but I'm just going to write what comes to mind. Reading Vivan Dames "Chamorro Women, Self-Determination, and the Politics of Abortion in Guam" left me very confused regarding my opinion. I've always been a bit uncomfortable with the fact that the government has control over so much of our lives, even down to our very bodies. For a woman, I think the body means so much more than just the physical definition. A woman's body is a source of life, and I suppose what the Chamorro women were trying to do was protect the life that comes from a woman, but I still feel that a woman should be able to choose when and what life comes from their body. The ramifications of a ban on abortion are terrifying. Imagin a world in which abortion is completely illegal... If a woman is abducted and raped, and becomes pregnant with her rapist's child, she must, BY LAW, bear that child. Child birth is a physically and emotionally demanding event, but adding the psychological hardship of bearing a child that belongs to someone who has abused a woman and violated her body would be like punishment. I'm sure i'm not the only person in this class who knows someone who has been raped, and if you do know a victim, you know the effect that event had on them... and if you try to imagine what would have happened if they had been FORCED to bear the child of their attacker... Well I cringe at the thought. Now this is all very dark and gloomy, but what left my confused from the reading is that I could kind of understand the Chamorro women's perspective. Which left me with an internal dilemma on my opinion.

Another interesting thing that occurred to me was that I had never heard of this before. I have heard of Roe v Wade, I've heard about other movements/fights/attempted appeals/and whatnot against and for abortion laws but never have the groups or races of the groups involved been specified... let alone the gender. I think its interesting that its truly an assumption that all women who identify as feminists would be against abortion, when clearly there are diverse opinions and the Chamorros are a great example of that.

Youtube

After watching the several Youtube videos and having a discussion on them, I left class still unsure of how I felt. I agree with the multiple students who found Youtube to be a good source for Asian Americans to showcase their work. It is definitely a place for them to jumpstart their careers, as most would probably not have the opportunity to present their work to film and music producers. To those who choose to do so, I absolutely commend them for being brave enough to put everything out there for the public to see--there are some rude people out there who are not shy about sharing their opinions. However, I have finally come to my own conclusion that it is the subject material that still makes me question whether these Youtube videos are a good thing. Though I am not an expert when it comes to Youtube, I've watched my fair share of videos. Some have caused me to fall on the floor laughing, while others just weren't so good. I have developed a lot of respect for the artists who post things that everyone can relate to. On the other hand, when watching videos like the ones we saw in class, I don't know whether laughing is always appropriate. Many of these videos portray Asian American women using everyday stereotypes. Being an Asian American women myself, I actually get slightly offended and feel uncomfortable when watching videos that put us in a negative light. True it will get many views and laughs, but while doing that, it is making it okay for non Asian American viewers to do so. As Prof. Suh said, perhaps there intentions are just to make people laugh, but I think there are better ways to do so, rather than just reinforcing stereotypes.

South Asian Women and Domestic Violence Shelters

In Monisha Das Gupta’s Unruly Immigrants, she spends quite a bit of time in Chapter 4 separating the goals of Manavi, Sakhi, and SAWA from those of traditional domestic violence groups, women’s groups, LGBT groups, and Asian American groups. Women’s groups and LGBT groups tend to exclude people of color, while Asian American groups tend not to deal with South Asian issues. While all of these South Asian women’s organizations had more or less the same stated goals as all of the other types of groups, none of the other groups has the ability to serve the needs of working-class South Asian immigrant women experiencing domestic violence. Manavi, Sakhi, and SAWA were each founded to deal with specific shortcomings of other organizations in working with domestic violence survivors.

Traditional domestic violence organizations tend to provide services temporarily to affected women, but cannot or will not serve those whose immigration status is uncertain or dependant on that of the abusive partner. Likewise some will not serve the needs of women who are experiencing violence at the hands of a female partner. Many organizations are not equipped to deal with the issues specific to South Asians, even in simple matters such as clothing and food, as the story of the young woman who did not eat or change her clothes for three days due to a misunderstanding on the part of the shelter made very clear. Manavi, Sakhi, and SAWA each try to help South Asian women who have experienced domestic violence, in different ways. All have redefined domestic violence to include other forms of family- or work-related violence. Manavi tried to create an alternative to the solutions proposed by traditional domestic violence shelters, which do not work for undocumented immigrants or those who are not fluent in English. Sakhi tries to change the individual empowerment focus of those groups. SAWA tries to educate those groups about South Asian women’s issues so that they can better help these women.

I found it interesting that domestic violence shelters, which one would think to be largely beyond criticism since they simply provide a service and help people get past traumatizing situations, have so many criticisms against them. In fact, there are enough critiques that Manavi, Sakhi, and SAWA each used different tactics to attempt to change how that service is provided with regard to specific shortcomings.