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EN326: Arts of Gender, The Superiority of the White man, Dehumanizing…

- - - - The original Asian-American hyphenated label represents an unequal power relationship between the two Identities and Implies that the hyphenated Americans are somehow less than the "Americans" according to Palumbo-Liu.
    - - Sexualization of Asians
        
        Haka Is portrayed as being sexually aggressive towards Edith going as far as to make her repay him in sexual favors as well as assault her
        
        According to Foucault In The Implantation of the Perverse, "perversion" is a modern invention in which a perverts sexual "aberration" is a defining fact about his or her personality. Haka's personality In the second half of the movie Is driven by his motives towards Edith, in this sense the character would be considered a "pervert". Haka's perversion would be abhorred by society according to Foucault. By making the Asian character Into a a "pervert", the movie further emphasizes not only the sexualization of Asians, but also as showing Asians as immoral.
        
        In London's story, China Is constantly referred to as "she" In order to talk about "her" reproductive capabilities and population growth. "The real danger lay within the fecundity of her loins".
        
        Sui Sin Far Is sexualized by a Lieutenant In the army when he says to her "you look like such a nice body" and he continues to make sexual advances towards her. Calling Sin Far just a "nice body" shows that she Is seen as simply a means for sexual pleasure for the Lieutenant
        
        "It's one of our favorite fantasies, isn't it? The submissive Oriental woman and the cruel white man?"
        
        Gallimard truly embodied this fantasy when he basically forces Song to utter that she "is his butterfly" despite her pleading she does not want to. Gallimard seeks to have power over this Oriental woman and once he obtains the power, he becomes sexually aroused. This Is juxtaposed to the scene when Gallimard Is watching a "pimp girl In a sexy negligee" acting very provocative. This woman performs a sexual dance for Gallimard and Is In control of her own sexuality, this lack of power Gallimard does not have over her results In him not being sexually aroused. Gallimard is not sexually attracted to the person but rather the power he holds over them.
        
        Gallimard only refers to Song as butterfly which continues to show the power and control he has over her
        
        "All he wants is for her to submit. Once a woman submits. a man is always ready to become 'generous.' "
        
        Sexualization, Dehumanization and Orientalism
        During his testimony, Song states that Western men are “confused” with Asian people and cultures and have a “rape mentality” with regard to Asia.
        Song goes on to say that a man will excuse sexual assault/rape by arguing that the woman secretly wanted it “Her mouth says no, but her eyes say yes.”
        Song relates this to same logic Western countries have for violence against Asian nations through stereotypes that suggest Asian people want to be dominated.
        Western men see Western countries as masculine but see Asian countries as feminine.The white / Western men apply the same beliefs they have about sexual encounters with women to justify their colonization and exploitation of the East
        
        Butler’s argument that there is no “you” that takes on a gender norm but rather the “forcible citation of a norm” that creates the “you”
        
        Fox Girl and Prostitution
        
        From a young age, Hyun Jin and Sookie are taught about sex and treated by Duk Hee as like her "girlfriends from the club" (prostitutes). Duk Hee teaches the two young girls that everything changes when you bleed (start your period) and taught about condoms and make up (making them older than they are).
        
        "Somehow In real life we have to become like Fox girl"
        
        Women In America Town (prostitutes) have to use their femininity, like Fox girl does, In order to regain their power from men
        
        "You need to learn their secrets. The more you know about them, the more power you will have." - Duk Hee talking about If you marry an American Man
        
        “Your mother is a fox, she can take care of herself. She’s smart and she’s beautiful. She’ll be home soon.”
        
        The Gendered Radicalization of Asian Women
        
        "How does temptation lead to murder? It can happen because of the gendered racialization of Asian women as villainous temptresses, a paradoxical “controlling image” (Collins 1990) that renders them sexually desirable yet a threat to the social order and thereby expendable"
        
        Racist cute argues that Asian women are Infantilized by the West through their childish femininity. The gendered Racialization goes further to say that White men both desire the femininity and sexuality of Asian women but also threatened by It. This can be due to the conflicting views that White men have of Asian women; both as childlike but also as a sexual conquest
        
        "Asian Massage Parlors' are stereotypically viewed as being for sex. The typical "happy ending" narrative Is seen throughout pop culture (the Wendy Wu video we watched In class), and further emphasizes "the fetishization of Asian women’s bodies and their gendered racialization as hypersexual Asian women".
        
        Similar to how In Fox girl, the only way for Sookie to live Is to prostitute herself
        
        In Carnal Orient the men were all clearly entranced and perhaps aroused by the woman during the song and dance. When they went to “devour” her it turned out she was not in fact Asian nor a women (looked like a man in makeup) and they pulled away in surprise/disgust
        
        What white men (Similar to Hyun Jin's r*pe In fox girl), think that they can do to Asian women
      - Similar to The Cheat, Daughter of the Dragon also highlights the notion of keeping the East and the West separate as well as a word of warning for If the two do Intertwine.
    - - In Sui Sin Far's Leaves From the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian, there Is a clear separation between the White Europeans and those who are Chinese. In the first paragraph this separation Is clear when Sui Sin Far writes, in reference to her white nurse, 'tells another of her kind that my mother is Chinese". This shows that the two races are viewed as completely distinct Into different "kinds".
        
        More quotes from Sui Sin Far
        
        "The day on which I first learned I was something different and apart from other children". This Is how Sui Sin Far characterizes her experience as being labeled an "other" for being Chinese. And again at a young age she experienced racism / exclusion for being Chinese when she overhears a woman say " I wouldn't speak to Sui if I were you. Her mamma is Chinese." It Is very clear that White people thought themselves to be separate and superior to Asians and thus to distance themselves from Asians.
        
        "Yet now I see the difference between her and other children". In reference to a young Sin Far being described by an elderly White man as different due to her apperance.
      - "The fabrics of their minds were woven from totally different stuffs. They were mental aliens". This Is how London describes the Chinese as compared to the West.
      - "Your real self is alien to them. What Interest would they have In the books you read-- the thoughts you think?" - Mark Carson
        Mark Is stating that Pan Is White as she Is too Intelligent to be Chinese.
    - - “Rene Gallimard — also known as Madame Butterfly.” He plunges the hara-kiri knife into his body and commits suicide
        
        During his testimony, Song says to the judge that Westerners will never have an equal political relationships with Asia as long as they refuse to acknowledge the impact of their racism and sexism.
        
        Gallimard was actually Butterfly, the one being manipulated and not Song. Gallimard Is brought to the point of committing suicide once the fantasy he had of having Song as his butterfly (being the dominating white man over an Asian women).
- - - - Racial Triangle Dynamic between white europeans and African Americans existed long before Immigration of asians to America
        introduction of asians disrupted the dynamic and led to racial triangulation between the three
        
        The white American protecting African Americans from the east
    - - Using of women (asian or not) as an object / tool
        
        The "synthetic" person. Ornamentalism Is both Inescapable and oppressive for the Asian woman
- - - - The chant that the children say In Fox Girl that being American Is better than being Korean highlights the fact that the Asian/American Identity that Palumbo Liu talked about does not exist for the Korean/Americans. Similar to how Mark wants Pan to pick her Whiteness as her Identity, these children are declairing that American Is better than Korean
        
        Our father's are American and our Mother's are Korean --> Dominance of White Father over Asian Mother even though the Father's are absent
- - - - "The West thinks of itself
        as masculine-big guns, big industry, big money-so the East is feminine-weak, delicate, poor.'"
- - - - Sookie as a child was considered ugly by fellow Koreans. However, as more American GI came to Americantown and thus American / White features become attractive and desirable, then Sookie was considered to be beautiful
- - - - Shimizu argues that allowing a society that places a huge emphasis on morality and sexual deviance (similar to Foucault's Ideas about perversion), the society fails to see how this embrace of sexuality actually shapes culture
      - "If the Asian/American woman cannot be imaged outside of sex, her self-formation must occur in terms of redefining sex.
        
        It Is Important not to just flat out reject hypersexuality towards Asian/Americans as It Is just as harmful as accepting It fully. Instead, Shimizu argues that critical analysis and though on how sexuality and race has shaped the meaning of "reality, history, fantasy, and Ideology" for Asian/Americans
        
        "we may put these powerful Images Into the service of articulating how Asian/American women, as subjects and objects, are enabled as well as limited by sexual and scopic regimes"
  - - - Pinkerton Cio-Cio-San as his wife. Cio-Cio-San Is dehumanized to a material good only worth about 60 cents In order to be Pinkerton's wife. Pinkerton states later on that he plans to leave her when he returns to the US. He views this woman as some trivial possession that he can easily discard
    - - The girls were used by the US State Department as a way to drum up positive publicity. "helping victims of misfortune Is a very worthwhile endeavor"