In “One Step Towards Equality…”, Chau critiques movies like Crazy Rich Asians and TV shows like Fresh Off the Boat for reinforcing Asian stereotypes, but Constance Wu (or Jessica Huang), the “tiger mom” on Fresh Off the Boat states that people should celebrate how historic it is that there are movies and TV shows with all-Asian casts. Do you feel like sometimes arguments over identity and representation can be too much or overblown? In other words, are the arguments contextualized well enough and does being highly critical sometimes detract from the progress that has been made in regard to representation of different ethnic groups/races in American media? Your response should be at least four sentences long.
14 thoughts on “Blog Post #8: The Representation Argument”
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I believe that sometimes arguments over identity and representation can be too much or overblown. This can be seen in a movie that came out recently, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. This movie had a predominantly Asian cast and was being boycotted because of Awkwafina’s use of a blaccent and in the movie it didn’t seem like she was using the same accent seen previously. This caused a lot of outrage and was a problem before the movie was released as people thought it was wrong of her to use a blaccent as a way of gaining notoriety and then completely changing.
Wow! I just Googled “Blaccent”. I hadn’t heard this term before. I think this adds a whole new dimension to the argument in the reading. Regardless, I think your assessment that some of these arguments can get overblown is a fair one.
In my opinion, the identity discussions can be exaggerated. I think it is good that ethnic groups are valued and taken into account to be represented in the American media. If in the United States they had a movie where the entire cast was totally Hispanic, I would feel completely proud, I wouldn’t criticize the movie because I don’t understand why the rest of the world has to see the perspective that I want. For me it is enough to know what the Hispanic community really is like.
Thank you for sharing, Daniela. You make an interesting point about how you can feel a certain way, but not have the urge to make the rest of the world feel the same way.
In my opinion being highly critical sometimes detract from the progress that has been made in regard to representation of different ethnic groups/races in American media. As an example Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, a movie that is existing not for a long time. A character of the movie Awkwafina use an accent that is “characteristic of African-Americans” and got “canceled” since the people were furious with her action and believed she was wrong for doing it.
Crazy Asians only proves how Americans saw more diversity between Chones people who value family values and Americans who only care about themselves. Media divides people severely and stereotypes them.
Thank you for sharing, Lidiia. Elijah mentioned this above. Both your and his mentioning this is the first I have heard about it. I have to say that I am quite shocked. Regarding your comment below, I agree that media has the potential to divide people based on these issues. It seems that sometimes (not all the time) these issues can be exaggerated for the sake of selling drama in the media.
Stereotypes are sometimes exaggerated in the media. However, I believe that by being so critical, some of the progress accomplished in the last few decades is being undermined. Entertainment-oriented movies such as “Crazy Rich Asians” aren’t trying to propagate prejudices. They existed solely for the purpose of amusing people.
This is an interesting take, Jia. It hard to say for sure if amusement is the sole purpose of such a movie, but it is surely a large purpose of it.
Yes I do feel like sometimes arguments over representations and identity can be too much and overblown because complaining and having arguments about doesn’t solve the problems and divisions in society, since they just words without actions. Words without actions is nothing in my opinion. Racial injustices and stereotypes don’t get solved if people just argue and complain. Yes the arguments contextualized are enough to prove that the stereotypes, racial injustices, discrimination is still there, they aren’t solved, which is very disappointing and hurts my soul. Being highly critical does sometimes detract from the progress that has been made in regard to representation of different ethnic groups/races in the American media because it just misleading and causes more division among peoples, instead of creating unity among peoples, putting all differences aside.
You make some great points here, Nayza. I particular like what you said about how racial injustices and stereotypes don’t get solved just by people arguing and complaining. Also, I had never thought about this situation like the way you phrased it in the last sentence. In short, I agree that more division likely won’t heal these real issues.
I do believe that arguments over identity and representation can be overblown by the media. I can see why people like Chau criticize the reinforcement of stereotypes because it reflects the definición of “The danger of a single story” by Chimamanda Ngozi. If you get use watching and hearing the same thing over and over, you will end up unconsciously believing in it. Yet, as Daniela stated, I will also feel proud seeing a show with full Hispanic cast. Yes, the show context will have Hispanic stereotypes that could be over exaggerated; however, that is the point on the making of the show to attract people get them to related and laugh. What should be important is to not generalized!
Chelsie, I want to compliment your last sentence for two reasons. The first reason is that your point was well-taken. Sometimes films with casts of all one ethnicity do include some stereotypes, but maybe this isn’t the end of the world. The second reason is that your sentence structure was beautiful! Nice work!
I agree that arguments over identity and representation can be too much or overblown sometimes because arguing is often meaningless. It will cause more problems between races. Being highly critical sometimes will detract from the progress that has been made in regard to representation of different ethnic groups/races in American media because it will build a wall between every races, nobody wants to communicate with other races, thus, the connection between races will get cut off and falling apart.