For my semester project, I will be focusing on Asian American women in the media. Although we are at the most modern time and place; where I believe there should be no concept of "minority", it is very visible when we take a look at the faces we see in the media. Much of the faces are repetitive and I would like to bring forth the severity of this issue through a personal experience of being an immigrant/Asian American woman in America. I would like to share my inner thoughts and struggles and hopefully shed some light on these problems for the mass media to understand about being “one”. I would like to tell this story through a short film focusing on what the lack of representation of Asian American women in the media can result into for young Asian American girls, such as believing that they are non-existent or relevant to the media eye.
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| Any exposure is good exposure? A controversial Asian- American star, Lucy Liu. |
We’ve made (some) progress from the time I arrived to America to today, however the success stories are still, I believe, outweighed by the failed ones. Sadly, there are only a hand-countable amount of Asian American women who are deemed notable and only so many Asian American women stars that can be named. This is likely due to who holds the most power in the media, and it’s time for this to change.
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| Asian American Greek Life Awareness for Asian American Women not being a "fetish" |
Representation of oneself in the media is extremely important, it gives us a sense of self-acceptance, whether we realize it or not. The constant exposure of thin, white women deem less of women who don’t identify in this category. We can see this is true by young girls who start to diet at a young age, and women of color who try to lighten their skin. Representation matters. It’s time to start taking responsibility of what kind of message we send through what we produce in the media.
Gwen Stefani promoting her Harajuku line using Japanese women
as a "concept" or "theme."
as a "concept" or "theme."
I think this is a great idea! As an Asian American, I can totally get on board with this; there aren't many Asian American women in mainstream American media (which might be why I tend to identify myself as white although I'm 50/50...?).
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of Asian American women in media, I immediately think of Lisa Ling. I think she is one of the most successful examples of women in media and I also think a lot of people don't know her name or her great accomplishments. Definitely suggest looking into her! I'm really curious as to how this film will specifically look at this issue, but I'm also very excited to see your end product!
Perhaps you can also talk about the type of roles Asian American women are getting (or being forced to play) in movies and television. Are there shows/movies that embrace an Asian American woman's heritage while still treating her as a human being? How are their identities being erased? Are they main characters or side characters?
ReplyDeleteIt would be also great to see how many Asian American female roles are being whitewashed. Also, think outside of television and movies. What other forms of media are Asian American women being represented/misrepresented?
Yeah i think it is a really good topic, since there is not much Asian american women in media. so you can do some research of why it is that Asian american women do not have so many roles on the media? and how it can be change? we need more diversity, and i think getting to know more about Asian people will be great!!
ReplyDeleteI am so excited to see the final project of yours. As an Asian, I feel the same way as you do sometimes. I have to adapt and adjust myself to blend into the culture very hard, but still don't quite fit in. Why is that we are so open-minded to other culture but why not embrace and spread our culture to other? I think we are looking for too much acceptant that it's not that necessary, but it for sure help if we see more asian image on media.
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