Message from discussion Singapore Airline Girls

Path: gmd.de!xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!soda.berkeley.edu!yin
From: y...@soda.berkeley.edu (Michael Yin)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american
Subject: Re: Singapore Airline Girls
Date: 9 Mar 1994 04:09:55 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Undergrad Assoc., UCBerkeley
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Message-ID: <2lji6j$bt6@agate.berkeley.edu>
References: <2l7n66$gln@osprey.ftn.us-ny.citicorp.com> <2le2se$ibu@panix.com> <2lfl8s$hp4@osprey.ftn.us-ny.citicorp.com> <2li9ca$lgk@agate.berkeley.edu>
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Keywords: AA female

In article <2li9ca$...@agate.berkeley.edu>,
Daniel Hung-Yi Yang <dani...@violet.berkeley.edu> wrote:
>In article <2lfl8s$...@osprey.ftn.us-ny.citicorp.com>,
>GCMS generic-lcp <g...@fig.citib.com> wrote:
>>While I appreciated the Asian and non-Asian American male feedback, I
>>really wanted to hear what women thought about the Singapore Air commercial
>>and my posting.  My significant other happens to be an extremely strong
>>Asian-American woman trying to make it in corporate America.  She paid a
>>good deal of money to see Miss Saigan and was deeply disturbed by the

>>portrayal of the Vietnamese lead character.  The fallout from such media
>>images is that she has to deal with people that watch this "entertainment"
>>which forms their opinions about Asian women.
>
>
>Do people really form opinions of certain gender types or females based
>upon their experiences in the theatre or entertainment? This effect might
>be true if people are not exposed to females or Asians, but Asian -
>American females are commonplace in society.
>
>
>Let me put it this way. If you saw an african american woman on a
>commercial for Zimbabwe Airlines acting or even saying that she's
>submissive, would you believe that all black women are submissive? I
>certainly would not.
>
>
>I haven't seen Miss Saigon yet, so I'll defer my opinion of whether your
>SO is hypersensitive to a later date.
>
>
>Daniel Yang

>
>

        Hmmm.  I was having this converastion with a co-worker today, about
restaurants, and I was telling him how, for the most part, he shouldn't be
eating on Grant Avenue (the "main" drag in SF Chinatown) 'cos it's for the
tourists, and the food sucks because of it.  I was asking him if he realized
that Chinatown is the only ghetto where people visit it like it's Disneyland,
and I told him about the tours that they used to run to Chinatown in the 40's
and 50's, where nice, non-Asian folks could go see an "authentic" opium den,
staffed by regular Chinatown folks who smoked tobacco while pretending to
smoke dope.

        Point is that people expect to encounter what they're taught to
encounter by the media.  Unless you're, say an African baby, born to Chinese
parents, a majority of your opinion will come from the media.  Hate to think
so little of people's capacity for self-teaching, but for the most part,
people will tend to take the easy way out.  My disclaimer here is that netters
are an unrepresentative lot, so don't getcher chonies in a knot, 'kay? College
and post-grad education is a wonderful thing, but even so, there are some
nutcases here and there.


        *You* might not believe in media stereotyping, but sadly, there are
many that do... Can't tell you how many times I've been asked "So do you know
Kung Fu?" to which, after age 14, I had to reply, "Sorry.  Only Shotokan."