This semester I had the pleasure of opening for an event hosted by Columbia College’s ASO and Big Mouth called Native Tongues where a spoken word poetry group, which goes by the name of Yellow Rage, was the featured act. The two women (Michelle Myers and Catzie Villayphonh) come from Philadelphia and have appeared on HBO’s Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam Season 1. The two women tackle a lot of subjects in their poetry on race, sexism, and other political issues. But one specific topic that connected with me the most and I felt I could speak on was being an Asian American woman.
In a poem called I’m a Woman Not a Flava, the girls use sarcasm and humor to display there frustrations with how society and the media view an Asian American women. They cover things like how we are looked as these erotic mysterious “dragon ladies”. A line Michelle said was talking about how “imitation is the best form of flattery…” she then goes on to saying something on the lines of cultural appropriation being used as something sexual, and how the use of orientalizing pornography and other forms merchandise frustrates her. The idea of sex sells, turns into the idea of an Asian women sells.
Catzie also discusses the use of females taking chopsticks and twisting them in their hair because it’s so trendy. The continue on with this topic on how America has used aspects of the Asian women to sell as a fashion statement forgetting that is other people’s culture.
My feelings going off what this group had to say are very similar. I feel that in the media, Asian American women are portrayed as these sex kittens. If they aren’t in a movie playing some kind of fighter, they are shown as these prostitutes to some higher man. The word geisha does not mean sex, but in movies and television it is used to display a sexual women rather than a culture.
I found also that this poem hits so close to me, because this is something I will never forget for the rest of my life… when I was walking down College Ave. at Rutgers University toward my car, these two white men where standing outside smoking a cigarette and asked me if I was lost. They then continued on with inviting me to the party they were at and pointed out that I was Asian and went on to saying that they’ve never had that flavor before. I then flipped out on him and told him that this wasn’t Baskin Robins.
It’s just annoying to me how Asians in general are portrayed in the media as things like if you are a male, a nerd or some kung-fu master and a women is portrayed as this sexy dragon lady. I was at an Asian American conference this semester where I went to an artists panel discussing Asian American artists and their role in the media. It’s sad how there hasn’t really been any Asian American in the music industry that hasn’t made it in the United States. When someone had asked the two artists that were there answering questions, one of them (Manny Garcia) had answered on the lines as when it does happen it will most likely be an Asian American women because of the whole “sex sells” influence.
I can’t wait for the day that we Asian American women are looked at in society as something they are. Smart, talented, and cultured not just one thing… all of this doesn’t just go with us but I’m sure applies to other women in a different race.
