Blog Post #4: Cyberspace Y2K
- In Rachel Rubin’s “Cyberspace Y2K,” she talks about how the Asian American community uses magazines, or what was commonly known as “zines” at the time, to spread awareness of the Asian American community as well as debunk Asian stereotypes that other have.
- One of the popular zines at the time was Bamboo Girl, which was created by Sabrina Margarita Alcantara-Tan in 1995. Many zines, were used by many young Asian Americans (especially females), to express themselves outside of what most people thought of them. The content in Bamboo Girl challenges ideas of racism, sexism, and homophobia from the perspective of a feminist Filipino/Asian Pacific Islander, which Tan herself identifies with. The tone of her zine is very casual, humorous, and unfiltered. One thing she did was having a “Stupid Stereotype” page dedicated to debunking Asian stereotypes, such as “Filipinas are sluts” (Bamboo Girl, Issue #2, pg.40). She then goes to explain how that may be true for some, but often times these women did it because unfortunately they were poor and this was a source of income for them.
- One of the main terms that Rubin uses is “zine,” which is basically another word for magazine, but magazine is more commonly seen and used. A magazine is like one giant compilation of zines published by a big company, and a zine is like a smaller work by one person.
- There is one section where Rubin talks about what makes someone Asian American and the color of hair, and how Asians were known to have long black hair. The question of how hairstyle and hair color affected others’ interpretation of the Asian body has crossed my mind before. Nowadays, it is a trend among many Asians to dye their hair blonde or brown or even a silver platinum color. I questioned whether, maybe subconsciously, Asians like this trend because of their perceptions of Caucasians or Westerners, how stereotypically white people are portrayed with blonde or light colored hair.
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