Asian Women Stereotypes

Asian-American Women in Media

Asian American women in the media are far and few between and when they are seen they are portrayed as a "Model Minority". They all have professional jobs, are hard workers and are problem solvers. What lacks in many sitcoms and in the media is a family element, many young asian women and inspiring professionals with 3 degrees in education and a hard-headed view on life this is very stereotypical to how society views Asian-Americans in general. 

Sandra Oh - She is a doctor on the television show Grey's Anatomy. She is hard working, graduated first from her class from Stanford. She is the most competitive woman in the residency program and stops for nothing to be on top. Stereotype much?

Asian Annie - This character appeared on an episode of the series Community who is suppose to mirror the already established white character Annie. Asian Annie is a hard driven perfectionist who challenges everyone at everything, and succeeds. 

I asked the people around me about how they felt when they see their culture represented in this way:

Di, 25

Background: Vietnamese 

Occupation: Student

"I mean, I grew up in a household here I had to get good greats and be successful. My parents expect me to get a PhD... and I will. On some level I think it will benefit me that they push me so hard because I will be make money in the long run but the pressure can be really frustrating."

Vivian, 28

Background: Chinese

Occupation: Dental Assistant

"I am not a stereotypical asian. I did ok in school. I get a trade degree and in my family I might as well dropped out of high school. Its tough, I fell like my parents are ashamed of me. So when I see these types of stereotypes in TV I don't get offended by it because it is true. Most asian kids go crazy trying the please their parents. Its a stereotype for a reason."

Asian-Americans in Advertisements

Marketing asian women in advertisement takes on a different type of stereotype on, the asian women seen in american advertisements take on the exotic, mysterious and sometimes dangerous persona. 

Asian women are usual portrayed in ads to have a strong tie with their culture. weather or not the ad itself is for an asian based product or company, the women used in these pictures often sexualized using their "exotic" backgrounds. 

Latina Stereotypes

Latina Women in the media <--- Link to Article

Bell Hooks speaks about Hip Hop and rap music and concentrates on the effect of this stereotypical black culture and it effects of women. Media creates stereotypes of all types of women, one example is the Latina women and the roles she can't get out of in popular culture.

I showed a few women the website and asked them how they felt about the stereotypes their culture falls into, most were amused some were offended. 

Gaby, 24

Born: Honduras

Raised: Queens, NY.

"I dont know. I think that its important for all women to be sexy and proud of being beautiful but I feel like there is a lot of pressure for Latina women to fall into this seductive role. Growing up if you didn't have tits and ass then you were going to die alone.... okay that is kind of extreme but thats how we felt.

Christina, 22

Born: Puerto Rico 

Raised: Ridgewood, NJ

"You almost never see Latina women in shows being quiet or ugly or alone. We all have something funny to say witha  white boyfriend and a short dress on. Ok its funny I give it that but I'm not into acting like that and people call me "white", acting like your culture doesn't make you where your from, there are loud and quite people from all different backgrounds. Stereotypes are there for a resin, a lot of Latina women act like Gloria but its a small percentage that take the spotlight."

In my short essay I spoke about Modern Family and Gloria. 

Gloria is the second wife to Jack, Claire and Mitchell's father. She is decades younger than him, is very concerned with how she looks and  doesn't contribute to the family financially. Gloria doesn’t only represent women in a non-modern light, she also represents latino women in a light that stereotypes the culture. Like Claire, Gloria doesn’t have an income to contribute to her family, she relies on Jack for living. according to the US labor bureau 70.7 percent of women with children who are six to seventeen years of age are employed, neither Gloria or Claire have jobs in this series. Being a women and not having a job isn’t the worse lifestyle a television show could represent but when the theme is held throughout the show it becomes something to look into.

Gloria is represented as a character through her colombian culture. “Gloria's character embodies perceptions many Americans have regarding Latin American women, such as being "'passive', 'dependent on men'... 'hot-tempered',... and 'sexy'". This stereotype that Gloria embodies doesn't do anything to challenge the norm of what her character could be. In a way it is just safe on the series’s part to make the audience feel content with Jay remarrying. the fact that there is a age difference and that she is much more commercially more attractive than him turns back time and allows for the assumption that women need to concentrate on their looks in order to be accepted or become married to a successful man. Claire and Gloria are suppose to be opposites and represent the clash between two different cultured women but when broken down they both lead stereotypes on the surface but broken down they represent women of a time the series is trying to progress.

The Reason Behind Explotation

There is a reason behind Hunt's accusation of Hip-Hop being degrading in his documentary. While being degrading to women and sexuality isn't an idea that should be accepted, it is something that is recognized as a money maker.

In order to make sure Hunts interviewing was objective towards this issue of the “manhood” image and homosexuality, Hurt interviewed three cross dresser “hip-hop heads” in the BET’s Spring Bling to talk about homophobia in rap, the three men who were interviews accepted the homophobic lyrics in the music and said that enjoy the “aggressive lyrics”, this shows two points of views on this issue, both of which prove Hurts original point that there is ignorance in the hip-hop. This documentary style of doing back to back interviews with two different subjects on the same issues allows for the audience to sense an authenticity, In the Bill Nichols readings, it touches on how a participatory documentary style helps bring out the truth in a story; “The relationship between the filmmaker and the person being filmed becomes more direct, personal, and complex. The viewer senses that the image is not just a lexical representation of some part of the historical world […] but an actual encounter between filmmaker and subject” (Nichols, 157) i.e, Hurt’s informative interviewing.

            Throughout the film Hurt supports the reasoning why hip-hop is as degrading as it has become today due to historical references and business statistics within his narrative. Hurt edits in clips from past music videos, text on screen giving statistics and stereotypes that have been cycled throughout hip-hop even with examples from present day. Hurt briefly brings up the business aspect of hip-hop in his film. It is no mystery that hip-hop is owned by men in suits and that they target the audiences who spend the most on this culture, those who enjoy the lyrics that discriminate against gender issues and homosexuality. 

Sex For No Reason

Wait... What....?

 Women being used as a sexual object to sell clothes or beauty products is seen more often the women being sexual objects for no reason. Here are two examples of how women in advertisement are used sexually for no real reason. Both images give the asumption that these women are about to give a blow job... if not to a man then an object that just resembles a penis, is that worse or better?

Bell hooks speaks about the importance of critical thinking. It doesn't matter what materials you have access to or how well off you grew up being, if you cant think about what you are being exposed to you can get yourself out of a certain mindset that can be harmful to what you think of yourself or a current situation. 

 

I spoke to a few people of different background and ages to ask them what they thought about these ads:

Maria, 22 yr old hair stylist: 

"I think its funny when I first look at it but then I see why a woman might get pissed about it. There are other ways to sell stuff, sex is a tool that works on everyone but then again its so over used now a days that people are imune to it."

Theresa 61 yr old clerk: 

"This is disgusting. How can they get away from this? I'd like to meet these ad makers and see how many of them hold healthy relationships with women..."

Jason 26 yr old cashier: "[laughing] Oh okay yeah... it snot classy but hey if you make me laugh ill 'member you better."

Hip-Hop Objectification

Music videos, not just hip-hop/rap but other genres such as rock and alternative music are guilty in the objectification of women in their videos. Above is a video that shows clips of various music videos that objectify women. 

In chapter 8 Bell Hooks talks about hip-hop and acknowledges that there are so many different types of rap music and that it covers many different topics and issues in the culture, but the music that gets to the mainstream's eye is the music that is the most controversial when it comes to portraying women in  a poor light. 

This type of rap music is advertised and openly consumes by the young white male from suburbia. With this shows the capitalism of the music and how sex sells to those who are not surrounded by this kind of "thug" enviorment if you will. Kids who grew up in a non urban setting feel they can take away from this music something they wouldnt get in their surrounding envorments:

I look the liberty to interveiw young kids from both an urban and a suburban setting and asken them what they thought about this kind of music.

Jason, 26. 

Hometown: Riverside, CA. 

Suburban

"I think its just fun I mean I listened to all this stuff in high school but I mean like I never smacked my bitch up or nothing haha.... I don't play my life by these videos at all I'm not stupid."

Maria, 22. 

Hometown: Queens, NY

Urban

"Yeah guys ont he corner were dressing like the guys in Wu Tang videos and rapping on the trains and stuff and old guys would try and talk to me like that but I never responded to it or thought anything of it. They think its their culture even though just because we live in New York doesn't mean thats our culture. Even when I lived in the projects in Brooklyn I didn't think that this was what life was like for young black men, they just wanted to be thugs like the videos. It's all a show."

  

Joe

34

Hometown: Jamaica, Queens.

"We all wanted to be like those guys, Rap in the 80's was the shit, finally we had something to look at that gave us an idea that someone out there could come from the shit we come from and make something out of it. Those guys were the shit in everyones eyes."

Me: "Did you become a rapper?"

Joe: "Hahaha well no but it was still cool to look at i mean they got the girls and the money and the cars and all they had to do was rap about their life, it seemed too easy."

It seems that people focus on the bad rap and we forget about those who made it on lyrics that raise something other then bushels of money. 

Bell hooks says in closing on this matter: 

“Within neo-colonial white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, the black male body continues to be perceived as an embodiment of bestial, violent, penis-as-weapon hypermasculine assertion. Psychohistories of white racism have always called attention to the tension between the construction of black male body as danger and the underlying eroticization that always then imagines that body as a location for transgressive pleasure. It has taken contemporary commodification of blackness to teach the world that this perceived threat, whether real or symbolic, can be diffused by a process of fetishization that renders the black masculine ‘menace’ feminine through a process of patriarchal objectification.”