For those of you who are unfamiliar with Margaret Cho, she's a Korean American stand-up comedian. She's one of the most visible Asian Americans in the public eye, so I thought I would share some of her work with you all. The first two short clips are examples of the ways in which Cho discusses Asian American issues - like the underrepresentation of Asian Americans in the media. Thus, it seems as if she is acting almost as an advocate in bringing light to important issues relating to race. However, she often portrays her mother with squinty eyes and a heavy accent. This stereotypical portrayal seems to be more of the Type A media in that it reinforces the idea that Asians are "perpetual foreigners" and will never be able to assimilate due to their appearance and the way they talk.
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Clip of mom impersonation:
I thought her comment (first clip) about not having Asian American role models to look up to growing up was very interesting. This was also discussed extensively in the Miss Representation film, with a similar sentiment expressed by Connie Chung (journalist). Do you think having a lack of role models is really harmful to minority groups in their aspirations? For example, how much is the fact that there's never been a female president affecting young women's desire to try to become the first? For some people, it actually may even be extra incentive.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting point! I think though, that role models are extremely important not just for the individual, but for (in particular) Asian families as well. Parents usually want their kids to be successful, and tend to look to what they see out in the world as a measure of success. So, if there are few minorities in the media as role models, then parents are usually not as supportive of their children pursuing "unconventional" paths because it doesn't appear to be lucrative. If there aren't many minorities in the public eye, it might not even occur to some people that they could pursue that path.
ReplyDeleteFirst, there is evidence showing that having few representations of your group does psychologically narrow the number of "possible selves" adolescents have for themselves. It is simply harder to think of oneself as a doctor, lawyer, actor, etc. if it seems like it's not meant for people of your group.
ReplyDeleteSecond, one thing that the "mom" video brings up is the marginalized identity of being LGBT. I have a suspicion that Margaret Cho was trying to tell a story to relay to her audience her support for the LGBT community, but she couldn't do it herself, she's a comedian after all. A good way to get it into her routine was to tell it from the point of her mother, a foreign, conservative, older woman. It's saying, if she's accepting...then you can be accepting too. But it may come at the cost of relying on a bit of stereotype to get the message across.