Fluent Essays

You should take your time to review the course materials and provide well-developed responses, void of plagiarism (copying and pasting, even your own work) and reach a total of 4-5 pages double spaced or approximately 1000-1250 words. 1) cosmetic surgery- apply DuBois 4 points of authenticity (for us, by us, near us, about us) to the topic.  What is the history/creation of this topic? How do they apply or discuss these points?  How/why is this topic important for Asian Americans as a point of cultural production? (5 points)  2) beauty pageants -shows intersectional identities at work.  What is the history/creation of this topic? Explain how they are represented, in conflict or working together in the creation of the popular culture phenomenon.  (5 points) 3) import cars-explain how it is an act of hybridity. What is the history/creation of this topic? Explain the cultures being blended and how Asian Americans have utilized this to their advantage in creating this popular culture phenomenon.  (5 points)The practice of citizenship  When we think about citizenship, its usually the manner in which a person is given legal rights within a country.  Citizenship in the U.S. can be granted through birth, or through  naturalization.  by which an immigrant is granted U.S. citizenship after they fulfill the requirements established by Congress in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).  Race as a determinate was established as early as  1790 with the Naturalization Act.  That set aside citizenship for free white persons.  This targeted the populations that were nonwhite in the U.S. at that time (African American slaves and freed persons and Native Americans) and carried over to every immigrant who eventually made their way to the U.S.  Equating whiteness to citizenry would translate to all facets of society, even in the world of beauty pageants.   We will see the practice of citizenship in terms of demonstrating acts of belonging, perceived authenticity, and the cultural citizenship performed through beauty pageants. The way we would apply cultural citizenship is through the performance of rules, norms and acts within the beauty pageant realms (inception of the pageants, qualifications, evolution, and conflicts).  The culture within mainstream beauty pageants would then be adapted and altered by Asian Americans.  Through this weeks lecture we will look at an American popular culture phenomenon that was developed to build commerce and evolved to a longstanding national tradition.  Through exclusion, Asian Americans will adapt parts of the American pageants and develop their own, perpetuating the rules of exclusion-by race.  Roots: Miss America   In the summer of 1921, on the boardwalk of Atlantic City, an American icon was born.  This quote is the first line from the History page of the Miss America website.  The American icon (Miss America) embodied nation, gender, and race, and the contest attracted tourists and locals alike to spend their time and money in the Atlantic City Boardwalk.  This ploy worked well.  The idea of having beautiful women as lures for tourists to pour their money into this new attraction was simple and effective.  The symbol that she represented for the nation was much more than just a pretty face, she was the embodiment of America.  The Miss America winner, Margaret Gorman (as photographed above) was said to be the ideal American woman, representing the type of womanhood America needs; strong, red-blooded, able to shoulder the responsibilities of home-making and motherhood (Samuel Gompers, AFL president).  Not surprising for the time, gendered roles were celebrated along with the physical beauty of a woman.  Gendered roles and expectations of what a fine American woman would be were cemented through this contest.  The heteronormative (the idea that heterosexuality is the only normal expression of sexuality) gendered roles were standard for the time and were not going to be challenged (at least not until woBeauty as a standard  Last week we looked at the idea of masculinity and the performance of it through import car racing. We examined images of masculinity and Asian American men, making comparisons to what expectations may be and how there might be a disconnect between the two.  This week we will look into the standards of beauty for women (again through the heteronormative lens) and the extreme measures women take to achieve them.  We will also discuss the cultural normalization of cosmetic surgeries through the surge of popularity and accessibility.  We will cover the cosmetic surgery industry in the US, American/Western beauty standards and the impact that it has made on Asia and Asian America.  There will be discussion of the differences in surgeries sought out by women (both American and Asian American), the motivations and the shift in cultural acceptance of cosmetic surgeries.  Below is a Ted Talk video by model Cameron Russell that will help introduce subtopics we will be covering this week.  While viewing the video take note on what she says about:  · The crafting of beauty by media · The impact on young women · The privileges she carries by her appearance · The correlation between image and perceived success and failures When we are discussing standards of beauty note that we are initially focusing on Western standards as the measure of beauty.  Standards of beauty have changed overtime in the United States and world wide.  Societies give value to these standards shaping the way beauty is qualified.  Interestingly enough the shifts in these standards can sometimes be drastic with one decade appreciating a womans full figured body and the next celebrating a more thin and pre-pubescent body type.  The science of people (Links to an external site.) broke down the video created by Buzzfeed below that shows the different body types through history.  View the video and read the article to see how the standards shifted but also how women would adapt to achieve these standards of beauty.  If you note in the article, in todays time plastic surgery is increasingly sought out as remedies to womens bodies in hopes of achieving the Post Modern standard of beauty.  We will discuss the correlation with medias impact on beauty and the increase in access to different types of plastic surgeries both in the United States and Asia.   The young stay young As we have seen in prior weeks media has a great deal of power in shaping images of self and beauty.  What people see in the movies, television, magazines and the internet can lead women to seek out various measures to achieve these standards.  Even though its well known that make up and post production (Photoshop and filters) enhances the image, these images still make grave impacts on societal norms of beauty.  While the computer uses tricks to cinch waists, enhance breasts and softening/brighten skin, women begin to look into means outside of beauty products to achieve those same results.Be a Man! This week we will be continuing our discussion of binary gender popular culture phenomena.  The topic we will be covering is the import car culture.  The history of Asian American men engaging in this act mirrors the young American men of the 1950s and 1960s.  What defines car ownership, muscle and a community built around the import car culture are all centered around the notions of masculinity.  We will cover what it means to exude masculinity, hypermasculinity, the roots of car culture in America, and the reclamation of manhood by Asian Americans.   As we saw in the pageant lecture, the culture of Asian American beauty pageants mimicked the American beauty pageants.  Celebrating femininity and beauty were the hallmarks of the pageants, helping to build economy in their communities.  The Asian American popular culture trend of import cars will also mirror American car culture with the rise in economy, the thrill of freedom (and speed) and the representation of masculinity.  In this weeks discussion we will be utilizing the terms heteronormativity, hegemony, culture and subcultures to frame and understand the development transformation of the feminine to masculine Asian American man.  The chart below breaks down heternormativity and the binary (only two) ways that social identities present themselves.  As a part of a heteronormative (relating to behavior consistent with traditional male or female gender roles) society, Asian American men were framed as feminine from an early stage to ensure their lack of sexual threat towards white women in society.  As previously discussed in our media and film lecture, the Chinese laundry man was seen as effeminate, operating businesses regarded as womens work.  The images of Chinese men back in the late 1800s (an example of an ad below) were like many anti-immigrant images of the time.  Featuring menacing faces with exaggerated features and a single braid (the queue or braid was a social and political tie back to Chinas Qing dynasty) that to the American public signified femininity.    Nearly a hundred years later Asian American men still made no gains in mainstream media as sexually attractive.  In the 1980s American film and society scripted yet another asexual image of Asian Americans.  Whether it be the 1980s Model Minority Whiz Kids in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) or the Asian foreign exchange student (Links to an external site.) as comic relief, Asian men were making no headway in the departments of wooing women into their lives. Their white counterparts were the epitome of beauty and masculinity but their whiteness did not define masculinity.  Other men of color (African American and Chicano/Latinos) were viewed as masculine and even hypermasculine, exuding magnified male stereotypical behavior, such as an emphasis on physical strength, aggression, and sexuality.  What does it mean then when Asian Americans look to adapt parts of masculine traits from other cuThe use of Spoken Word as a form of self-expression and representation is a follow up response to the lack of or misrepresentation discussed last week.  A big proponent of self-representation in every manner was W.E.B. DuBois.  William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). DuBois offers a theoretical framework we can use to understand the ways Asian Americans are viewed by others and by themselves, especially within the influences of mass media.  In the book Asian America Through the Lens, History, Representations and Identity, the author Xing leans on one of DuBois theories when examining the experiences of Asians in American film.  DuBois encouraged African Americans to develop something called the Authentic Black Theater, in response to the images of Black America by non-African Americans.  His life spanned post slavery and pre-civil rights movement and was influenced by what he was witnessing within his community.  He charged the community to think about what was being delivered, who was creating the content and who the content was being created for.  It was also impossible for African Americans to have access to theaters (local community theaters, seating segregation, etc.), so DuBois also wanted it to be accessible, local to the community members.  This authentic Black theater would be described in four points: for us, by us, near us, and about us.  Four points that we can use as a lens when examining the Asian American experience in popular culture.  (Think about any of the successful films in recent times and if it fits the four points).   Double Consciousness / Dual Identity What DuBois was saying was not new for anyone at the time, nor is it a new concept today.  What WAS new and what made him well known was his double consciousness theory.  Below is an excerpt from his book The Souls of Black Folk as well as a spoken word performance to better illustrate what it might mean to live in these two spaces.  This idea of a dual identity is shared by many communities of color, and parallels can be made within identity formation, especially as children of immigrants.  With these two theories, we can better understand the use and draw for Asian Americans to the spoken word movement.   Chapter One of The Souls Of Black Folk: “Of Spiritual Striving” It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness,–an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,–this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merg