Author Archives: Xena Yer Lee

1. In Margaret Cho’s, “I’m the One That I Want” article, she discusses about the ways in which she was asked to star in a sit-com based on her life and how she was raised by an Asian household. As well as how she was scouted to do this show. Not only does it discuss this fact, it also shows that the ultimate main idea that is that you shouldn’t have to feel like you need to change yourself for anyone.

2. An example that can prove my point stated above is on page 104, she describes how the producers of the shows approached her and how they ultimately convinced her to do the show. She shared that they gave her many compliments and they shared a really strong desire and hope for her to be the star of the show. Of course, these type of actions would make anyone feel great about themselves and their confidence level would have shot up. These are movie/TV producers/writers flattering you and asking you to take part of the show and be the main character. Anyone at this point would give in and agree to it. These were just empty words that were being said in order to cast someone who had low self-esteem and was seeking for love. However, it turned out later that the exact same people who flattered her and asked her to be the star of a show that’s about her own life, asked her to lose weight and said her face was a problem. It’s crazy to see and realize how selfish some people may be. They were just there complimenting her and now they’re here telling her that something is wrong with her. I don’t think I can understand how she had to lose weight to be in a show that was about “herself”. If it really was about herself and her life, she didn’t need to lose weight in the first place. This really speaks out to me because it shows the standards one has to be to be attractive in the eye.

3. A term Margaret Cho introduces in this article that I felt was important to know and understand was “multiculturalism” on page 129. This word was use in the context that someone close to Margaret Cho commented that the sit-com All-American Girl was doing actually a lot more harm than good. The word means the support for the presence of several distinct cultural ethnic groups within a society. It’s important to receive love and equality as well as to give love and equality no matter the race or gender. We are all one.

4. This article reminded me of Eddie Huang, who wrote an autobiography called, “Fresh Off the Boat” that was turned into a TV Show. He explained that this show was not about his life nor was it about Asian Americans.

1. In the reading article called “Apu’s Brown Voice”, author Shilpa Dave analyzes the stereotypical problem about Apu, who is an Indian descent character in the famous TV show, The Simpsons. The main argument in this article is about the reasons as to why the character, Apu and the actor who does the voicing for this character is considered a stereotypical problem that many people who aren’t involved can’t see.

2.  An example that can support my argument stated above is on page 323 where Shilpa Dave states that because of the fame that Apu received in the show, many Indians are portrayed and stereotyped due to him. In other words, Apu is the visual representation that most Americans have of Indians and it’s in fact not the truth. Because of the character Apu, many Indians were faced with racial comments. The accent that was created for Apu was meant for comical reasons, but many saw it as a racial problem that gave people the right to label and stereotype Indians.

3. Shilpa Dave describes the term “Brown voice” as “the act of speaking in accented English associated with Indian nationals and immigrants and is a combination of linguistic and phonetic markers that include stress points on particular words, cultural references, and words out of order.” (Page 143)

4. The author’s ideas is quite similar to an event that happened in 2016 at The Oscars Awards. In 2016, Chris Rock, who was also a host at the awards managed to make three common distinct stereotypes about Asians/ Asian Americans. As Chris Rock was taking a moment to introduce PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm that tallies the votes, he made racial comments such as, “a model minority student who is a math genius”, “the foreign child laborer” and “the silent obedient immigrant” to three Asian children. Many people found this issue upsetting even though Chris Rock is loved by many. However, there is a limit to things one can and cannot say. Regarding this situation, many people were obviously upset to hear this and felt that he was targeting these three little children.