Section 2
Week 10
Both in the readings and in the lecture we saw some Angry Little Asian Girl cartoons. Just one of the brilliant bits of comedy the internet has produced in the last decade of pop culture. By brilliant, I mean clever. I make that distinction because someone may think I'm getting a kick out of stereotypes being exploited for comedy. It is a sensitive topic that I feel can strike a nerve in certain people for a variety of reasons. For Angry Little Asian Girl in particular, it only reinforces ideas that appear in several media sources. 95% of Movies and TV shows with Asian women type cast them with the same 3 personalities: either shy, flirty/naive, or abrasiveness/demanding/harsh/annoying (some combination of those four, you know what I'm talking about). I can think of many examples. The overbearing mother from Fresh Off The Boat. The over-competitive overachiever Evelyn Kwong from Ned's Declassified School Survivor Guide. Heather from Total Drama Island, whose character is cutthroat, mean, and malicious. However this does not necessarily mean this cartoon strip is a bad thing.
Stereotypes exist for everyone and they exist everywhere. All the big YouTube comedians such as Shane Dawson, Smosh, Jenna Marbles, and Nigahiga use stereotypes to some extent. All comedians in general really (Fluffy, Chris Rock, George Lopez, John Pinette). It's a part of memes, it's a part of TV, that's just how it is. But one approach in dealing with them is to embrace them, because each of them do have some positives. Like in last week's readings, turns out having a strict Asian Mom was more beneficial than harmful. In embracing them you can also find opportunities to prove them wrong. Leave your adversaries laughing but as long as you do you and you will have the last laugh. Because occasionally we prove our stereotypes to be true but we are more than meets the eye. How you choose to adapt to the perceptions and eventually surprise people is up to you.
How do you deal with stereotypes in your life?
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