ASA A03
Blog #10
I agree with everything in the article by Boyung Lee, regarding sexuality in Asian American communities. I think sexuality, already given that speaking about it is taboo, raises homophobia in a heterosexual community. The norm is to not talk about sex or relationships in general and that leads to fear of isolation and rejection from individuals who wish to come out. Media also perpetrates Asian American sexuality poorly. In films such as Charlie's Angels, where Lucy Liu's sexuality allows her to weaponize it against men, or Zhang Ziyi in Memoirs of a Geisha, where she plays a docile, obedient woman, projects ill interpretations of women. The standard assumption in Asian culture is that women are raised and given domestic responsibilities, such as getting married, having children, being a housewife. The thought of homosexuality is deviating away from the normal lifestyle most parents expect. There is a sense of shame and embarrassment associated with being gay. I remember reading an article on queer Vietnamese Americans and there was a phrase that was often repeated: ô-môi. Not recognizing that word, I called my mother and asked her what it meant. Her immediate reaction was alarm, something along the lines of "What? Where did you hear that word? Did someone call you that?" Ô-môi is a slang term which basically means lesbian in Vietnamese. Especially with the older, more traditional generations, sex is not relevant unless referring to procreation post marriage. Perhaps Asian American opinion on sexuality will change as time passes.
Questions I have include: Is sexuality a taboo subject in only Asian American cultures, or is it also not talked about in others? How did sexuality come to be such a private matter in society?
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