The Portrayal of Asian Women in America

Over the past decades, the lives of Asian women in the U.S. have been shaped by gender-

based discriminations. The Portrayal of Asian women in the U.S. has been that of a marginalized

group. For example, in post-industrial America, the culture manifested women as homemakers,

where their responsibility did not go beyond their home. In everyday activities, the image of Asian

women was that of a helpless group that had no basis of doing something commendable. For

instance, the images of Asian women were used in advertisements that degraded their status.

Furthermore, Asian women in the U.S. have faced gender and race discrimination. I will discuss

the experiences of Asian women in the U.S.

The women of color have experienced a notable inequity in the U.S. ion terms of

advertisements. The image of Asian women has been entirely used in adverts as compared to their

counterparts" (Kim 78). For example, as seen in an advert made by Charles Schwab that featured

in the Newsweek and business week, a woman is represented as an enemy of the United States’

economy. In the advert, an Asian woman is seen appearing to be jealous of the white man's

economic success and happiness. Also, Asian women, as Charles adverts presents, are represented

as money mongers and a possible threat to the wellbeing of the American economy. These show

the kind of perception that white people had towards Asian women.

On intersexuality and sexual discourse, an Asian woman was represented “as man-eaters,"

which is translated to mean that they were not lesbians. Instead, they had a high affiliation with

white men. Therefore, “the morals of the Asian women entirely differed with that of the white

women a factor that has been an obstacle to their possible assimilation to the American society”
(Kim, 80). White Men, on the other hand, are given the priority of mingling with either a white

woman or an Asian woman. Therefore, a white man had the chance to satisfy his sexual desires

with any woman for his pleasure, which mostly applied to women of color.

In the U.S., women were situated in different political, social, and economic worlds. "The

lives of the women had been a common phenomenon in the lives of Asian women. Regardless of

the degree of violence that women of color faced, the number of those who reported such cases

were minimal. Mostly, the numbers of women who reported constant abuse in such protection

were primarily unemployed or generally poor.

Historically, many women of color lied under poverty status. These statuses were shaped

or had origin in class and gender oppression. Besides, the Asian women lying in the category if

the women of color enjoyed lesser jobs or total unemployment in the United States is a factor that

made them less privileged as compared to their counterparts (Crenshaw 98). In these cases, gender

violence such as rape cases has been prominent in the lives of Asian women living in the U.S. The

categorization of people in the United States that placed Asian women in the category of women

of color significantly shaped their experience. Employment access, housing, and economic factors

at large affirm the fact that class defines the experiences of women of color. In the United States,

the Asian woman was generally associated with poverty and faced all forms of violence as gender,

and race discrimination placed them in a marginalized state in society. Margaret Cho in where’s

my pride "gained fame after composing a television sitcom that all featured Asian American cast"

(Lee, 120). Her work, "I am the one that I want," recounts the catastrophic experience of the Asian

women. Also, lee displays American culture as a sequence of secreted practices. According to this

article, we understand that Asians were not common in televisions.

 Due to racism in the United States, the Asians were seen as people of low ability and

attractiveness, and that is why they made fewer appearances on television. Even when by chance

an Asian appeared on television, the image created was never positive. Mostly, an Asian could be

seen doing duties like unloading a truck. However, the whites were much interested in engaging

in sexual affairs with Asian women. The white’s interest in Asian women comes as a surprise as

they did not have confidence in themselves that they could meet the standards of being admired

by the whites (Lee, 125). Therefore, when the white’s men showed interests in Asian women, the

situation was received with a lot of happiness, not knowing that all was made to misuse them.

Therefore, the lives of the Asian women again were messed up by white men in a society that

favored the whites.

In summary, Asian women have encountered a catastrophic experience in the hands of

white men. Asian women in the U.S. have all through faced discriminations in all activities. The

society portrayed the women of color as lesser people who could not engage in a sound activity

and always worked to oppress them. Sexually and intersexually has been a critical area where the

Asian women suffered and were misused as the white men viewed them as sexual objects. Women

of color aren't valued as much as white women and are regarded as inferior to white men. The only

way to help change this view on women of color is to emphasize equality in different and the same

genders. There hasn't been a significant change, even with the feminist movement. However, there

still is progress happening. No matter how long it takes women should work towards the power of

women and fight for each other, even though it’s not changing as fast as we want it too, it still

helps for the future and making it known for the next generations.
Continuation………..

The Portrayal of Asian women in America

Introduction

According to the 2010 population census conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, three are

approximately 17 million people of Asia- American Origin. The incorporation of these people

fully into American society has not been fruitful. The Asian people have continued to face racial,

sexual, among other forms of stereotyping in the United States. Although they have spent many

years in the country since their early great-grandparents settlement in the United States, their life

condition has not been improving. American society has continuously continued to paint the Asian

picture baldy in society. Asian men are in many times stripped of their masculinity. Asian women

have been mistreated as they regarded as either a dragon lady or a china doll.

Asian women have been the one gender that has continued to suffer from the pain of

gender, race, and unlawful discrimination in the states. Asian have been experiencing the improper

image of their lives in the media forms such as advertisements. Tensions have been of late been

seen in the United States entertainment and media industry due to this negative portrayal of Asian

Americans. Asian American s, as one of the minority groups, have stood up to struggle for their

opportunity and recognition as equal to their fellow counterparts. It is due to these challenges

faced by Asians that this research paper seeks to research and analyses some of the challenges

faced by Asian women and their portrayal in American society.

 Literature Review

Various research studies have been done about the portrayal of Asians in the United States.

However, the current literature on Asian- American portrayal in the states is still limited. Many

articles were written in the 20th century about the model minority concepts as well as Asian

American stereotypes. Despite these efforts, few of them have filed to address the portrayal of

specifically Asian women in American society. Most of them have concentrated more on the

representational of Asians in the entertainment industry ranging from film production as well as

mass media. Others have also researched on subsequent impacts of Asian media inclusion based

on identity development.

The model minority is the high socioeconomic status and upward mobility that was related

to the Asian minority lifestyle. One of the researchers Wong and his fellows researched some of

the implications of stereotypes that the entertainment industry and media continuously perpetuate.

Their paper further discussed the social as well as the psychological impacts of these model

minorities’ academic achievements discriminations. They also went ahead to came up with several

hypotheses on how perceptions are related to the model minority. Their results supported the

model minority myth. They hence concluded that perceived differences are not built on facts.

Asian Americans were climaxed to academically intelligent than their fellows, although there was

no enough evidence.

Iwamoto and Liu did another study in 2010. They concentrated on gender, immigration

status, as well as the different ethnic groups. After analysis of the data collected, they found out
that there were no differences between racial identity and psychological wellbeing. In 1992,

Oysterman researched stereotype perception among college students. He found out that stereotype

was based on the commendable performance of the Asians. Hence Asians in the United States

were experiencing stereotypes due to their excellent academic performance. Whitewashing is

another area that is centered on my research purpose. Asian American portrayal was said and seen

to be a form of whitewashing on Asians by the self-proclaimed Local Americans. Whitewashing

was one of the ways used by Americans to portray Asian characters in the media in the form of

white actors. In the film industry, it was highly experienced, and it was destroying the confidence

of the Asians. In a study conducted to analyses the portrayal of Asians in the film industry, the

data collection and analysis shows that the Asians were underrepresented in the film industry. The

Asians profoundly experienced the rate of whitewashing and its impacts.

Based on the various research studies, many scholars and researchers have concentrated

on numerous areas of Asian American stereotypes. However, most of them have failed to

specifically research and discuss in detail the portrayal of Asian women in American society. It is

due to this reason that this research paper seeks to fill this gap by exploring and showing why

Asian American women are facing severe conditions in American society.

 Research Questions.

RQ1. When discussing Asian portrayal in American society, how women are portrayed explicitly

in American culture.

RQ2. What kind of Asian American discrimination that Asian women face in American society.

RQ3. Do Asian American women have fair or equal representation in different aspects of society?

Research Methodology.

The research deployed the use of interviews to collect data. As a researcher, I interviewed

Asian Americans face to face. I asked them about the portrayal and perspective of society,

especially the American one on Asian women representation in society. The main advantage of

using these methods to collect data is that it enables the researcher to quickly establish rapport and

also the respondent to easily trust the researcher. As one way of appreciating the respondent for

their participation in the interviews, each of them was given a $ 2 ball pen.

Discussion of the Research Findings

This research was aimed at showing the portrayal of Asian American women in American

society today. Based on our data collection and its analysis, we found out that Asian American

women continue to face the challenges they have been facing. Although the current rate of gender,
ethnic, and sexual harassment is not as high as it was in the past years, there still much to be done.

From our research, the portrayal of the Asian women in the United States is still that of a

marginalized section of American society. A large part of American society still regards Asian

American women as homemakers. These can be evidence-based on the high rate of the house helps

being employed in Americans' homes. Asian American women are still further regarded as the

gender that is not capable of doing anything constructive and which can have an impact on society.

From our interviews that we conducted, we found that many Asian women have faced

gender as well as racial discrimination at one point of their life. Some even suggested that the

situation is still worse. Furthermore, the image of Asian women has been poorly portrayed in

American society. For instance, some of them are even being misused in the media industry by

being portrayed as a challenge to the progress of the American economy. Sexual harassment is still

in action. Asian women have complained of sexual harassments. Although rape incidents have

reduced, majority of white’s men are misusing Asian women for their own sexual desires’

satisfaction. For those who have been misuse claimed that they found it difficult to report sexual

harassment cases since they do not still believe that there is someone out there who uphold justice

on their grievances. Besides, to these, Asian American women have portrayed as Asian women in

the category of women of color. Till today, Asian American women are still associated with

poverty alongside facing all forms of human violence. Likewise, the respondent claims that racism

has been one of the critical factors that have made Americans to view them as people with low

ability and attractiveness. The American society especially, American men are the ones enjoying

the catastrophic experiences that Asian women are subjected.

Conclusion
 In summary, the Asian American female gender still requires our intervention generally as

a society. These section of the people are still facing catastrophic moments in their life that have

made their life difficult in a country which is home to them. The minority aspect placed on them

needs to be removed entirely. Due to this minority aspect engraved in their counterparts' minds

has subjected them to all forms of violence and stereotypes. Although we have not done much, we

still need to continue with these fights. I, therefore, recommend for my fellow researchers to

research on some of the ways we as a society in conjunction with the government can do to help

address the issue and establish equality of all people in the society of the United States of America.
References