Week 3 Blog 

Nadya Saptono A01

This week's reading on Fight the Tower, is about being socially engineered. The unspoken rules of our patriarchal society that everyone is just expected to follow. If one chose to ignore it and speak up instead, they will face heavy penalties. I was not aware of the realities of being an Asian American women in academia, it seems like there is still a long path ahead for us to continue fighting. 

Another problem is the model minority myth. To more easily understand the things that we do not, stereotypes are created to classify other people. Usually stereotypes are only true for a small percentage of the group. But with this model minority myth it has grown to be very prevalent. Especially, with Hollywood incorporating this myth into most coming of age high school movies, where the Asians are always portrayed as the quiet straight A student. These movies undoubtedly have significant influence over most teenagers and they are led to believe these myths. Some that do not feel that they fit in this criteria may feel out of place. Later on in life when they find out that these are not it can shatter them. 

Question: Seeing that the model minority mindset is so widespread, how can we put an end to it?

Reference:

Murillo, A. Getty Images/iStockphoto. https://news.efinancialcareers.com/au-en/270523/goldman-sachs-interns-asia-2017.

Valverde, K.-L. C., & Dariotis, W. M. (2019). Fight the tower: Asian American women scholars resistance and renewal in the academy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.