Week 8 - Adriana Goracci ASA01

This week’s reading narrates the personal development of two admirable Asian American women: Leslie Do & Shannon Deloso.

Both these individuals had to fight against multiple adversities such as gender stereotypes imposed by their personal cultures, personal conflicts between what they believe was right and what they were expected to do, social pressure as they were representing something bigger than themselves and of course, the system.

Through a continuous presence of Alice in Wonderland’s references, the author better explains the faults in the field of academia and the emotions she had to experience through her numerous protests. At the beginning, it was quite confusing why she was using such references as I couldn’t connect the fairytale to the protests in favor of Ethnic Studies rights.

It was when the author compared the queen of hearts to the system, and the need face and make a change to the current academic system. The rabbit’s hole is the gate through which one becomes a student activist. There is a difference between Student activist and active-student, as explained in the article, both the authors Leslie and Shannon started as active students and progressively developed and grew into student activists. The difference between the two is that an active-student is unaware of the institutionalized student activism.

In conclusion, although both the authors had to face incredible struggles and adversities and most probably felt overwhelmed at times, they kept fighting and the strength of the student joining, taking part in  the protests and intensifying the voice, gave strength to these women who dedicated their lives to a cause that was close to their hearts.

Question: Why are women in the Asian culture expected to stay quiet, be kind and support what the men have to say? Where did this unbalance of roles originated?

References

• Do, Leslie, and Shannon Deloso. Precariously Positioned: Asian American Women Students Negotiating Power in Academic Wonderland.

• Staff, Asian Correspondent. “Activists, Women and Ethnic Minorities Lack Protection in Thailand – UN.” Asian Correspondent, 29 Mar. 2017, asiancorrespondent.com/2017/03/activists-women-and-ethnic-minorities-lack-protection-in-thailand-says-un/.