Stereotype is a mental shorthand that aids in the delivery of ideas and images more vividly and quickly (Ross and Paul 15). It may also refer to the perception that people have over other people or other groups of people. Stereotype is very important in a society as it gives guidance on motivational and cognitive processes in a society, and in most cases, it is viewed as the best tools to simplify the demands of the perceiver or the best technique to respond to the environmental factors such as social roles. Gender and racial stereotype is very common, and in most cases, males are more respected, and more dominant than female. On the same note, black women are less respected as compared to the white women. In this discussion, I will focus on how racially marked female bodies are stereotypically represented in popular culture by examining how Asian women are portrayed in various films, and how society perceive what they see in such films about women.
In the media, Asian women are regarded as sexualized and exotic, and in the films, they are passive characters who only participate to satisfy sexual desires of white men, or engage in crime with men of their kinds. Besides, silent Asian women in the films are referred to as submissive and eager for sex, while those who are not silent are referred to as canning, sexual provocateurs and deceitful. The representation of Asian women in films is miniscule, but the stereotype is vividly displayed and it cannot be ignored as it shows the bitter truth of underrepresentation of Asian women in the media (Holtzman and Leon 154).
Asian women are regarded as sexual machines (Ling 280), not because they are good in it but because their sexuality is disrespected and also, they are underrepresented in films making them the only people to do what white men want. Asian female are not positioned in a similar manner to those of white women or men in general. In most cases, they are forced to work as housewives, brutally beaten (Disgupta 56), while their male counterparts and white women work as lawyers and detectives. The sexual act is displayed if an Asian woman is involved, while it is hidden in the case of a white woman.
When it comes to privileges, Asian women have little or no privileges at all, and cannot make any decision regarding their lives or their part they play in a film, because according to the white women and men, they cannot make informed decisions. That explains why they play the roles as prostitutes and housewives while white women play as lawyers and other important roles in the society. This story does not resonate with what I have always thought of. I have always thought that Asian women play roles as sexual machines in many movies because they want to, but I have realized that their role in the films is as a result of stereotype. The trend may continue as is, but to make it practical, they should also play important roles in the society such as lawyers and detectives, so as to provide equality and to stop the racial stereotype that has been communized.
In conclusion, it is clear that Asian women are portrayed as bad guys in the films especially by the white women, not because they are bad but because the society wants them to look bad in the eyes of other people. They have created stereotype that is difficult to erase in the eyes of white men and women and therefore, Asian female bodies are just used as tools to please men and satisfy them sexually.
Works Cited
Dasgupta, Shamita Das. Women’s Realities. Domestic violence at the margins: Readings on race, class, gender, and culture (2005): 56.
Holtzman, Linda, and Leon Sharpe. Media Messages: What Film, Television, and Popular Music Teach us about Race, Class, Gender, and Sexual Orientation. Routledge, 2014.
Ling, L. H. M. Sex Machine: Global Hypermasculinity and Images of the Asian Woman in Modernity. positions 7.2 (1999): 277-306.
Ross, Susan Dente, and Paul Martin Lester. Images that Injure: Pictorial Stereotypes in the Media. ABC-CLIO, 2011.
