Dragon Ladies & Sex Kittens

This is our Final Project for Bao's Race, Representation & The Myth of Colorblindness class.

In putting together the visual aspect of our final project, we decided to create something that was not only visually striking but auditorally as well. The choice of the Asian-American spoken word duo Yellow Rage seemed highly appropriate as the audio piece. We decided that the video component of our project would be used to set the stage and lay the groundwork for the themes and analysis found in our research paper.

The images for our video were carefully chosen in order to reflect not only the words of the spoken word piece, but also the content of our written component. To create something that was impactful and relatable we decided to use images mostly mainstream media. Thus, celebrities such as Lucy Liu, Tila Tequila, Madonna and Rose McGowan were used in the video. The use of celebrities reflected our desires to make the video easy to consume but also easy to see the prevalence of the Asian women stereotypes and how thoroughly engrained these stereotypes are in modern-day American society. No one questions when a celebrity puts on a kimono, red lipstick and white make-up. People consider interest and appreciation rather than culture confiscation and appropriation, Take pop-singer Gwen Stefani for example. Stefani is well known for her quartet of Japanese harijuku girls that follow her around silent and obedient. She claims there is nothing wrong with this because she has a fascination with the Japanese cultures. She appreciates it and wants to learn more about it. It is a genuine interest, therefore shouldn't be chided as racist or racially insensitive. However, pairing images of Stefani and her harijuku girls with Yellow Rage's spoken word piece, we hope to display how outrageous and outlandish Stefani's behavior really is. Another celebrity that was included in our video multiple times was Lucy Liu. Being one of the very few mainstream Asian female celebrities in Hollywood today, she is very important in regards to the perpetuation of the Asian female stereotypes. Lucy Liu has been criticized by many Asian-American groups as succumbing to the societal pressure of conforming to such stereotypes. The images we have chosen to include in the video reflect such conformity. The very first image we see of Lucy Liu is her as a sexual tiger. The next images we see of her portray her as sexual dominatrix, a deadly martial artists, and once again as a sexual being kissing another woman. Her role as O-Ren Ishii in the film Kill Bill and as Ling Woo on TV's Ally McBeal are the epitome of the Dragon Lady stereotype. In both roles she is cold, calculating, power-hungry and at the same time she is portrayed with an unusually high sexual appetite. Along with Stefani and Liu, other popular images were used in order to emphasize the impact of these stereotypes on popular culture. Our wide gamut of images ranging from video games to pornographic videos to music videos reflects how widespread and accepted the Asian female stereotypes are. Other images were used to reflect the appropriation of Asian culture in other forms rather than media. These appropriate habits have helped perpetuate the stereotypes created by historical, political policies.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Lucy
• Lui
• Sex
• Kitten
• Asian
• Strereotypes
• Bao
• Culture
• Commodifcation
• Race
• Representation
• Myth
• of
• Colorblindness
• Racism
• Sexism
• Orientalism
• Beauty
• Ideals
• Asians
• in
• the
• Media

[WOODPUSHER3810]

You know I get the feeling that these women are unhappy.

[LowWave]

How ironic! Well done. To tell the story of asian women using the most rude, loud and boorish western musical style is very effective. Unless you were serious - then this is most unintendedly humorous.

[vidastarradio]

@12345blondie IT's a poem. I remember seeing this women perform this poem on Def Poetry Jam on HBO a few years ago. It's not rap. But I agree with you. I thought this was very valid.

[jeffgraham91]

@LowWave Hmm, do you think Allen Ginsberg is offensive too? This is a lot more like slam poetry than rap (if thats the type of music to which you were referring), so I'd be careful to make that accusation.

[12345blondie]

I don't understand how this video got so many dislikes.

maybe the rapping wasn't the best way, but the points are ALL very valid.

just shut up and listen to what they're saying

[syndrah90]

hahaha! YOU GO GIRLS!

[hugsmebabe]

Good job girls!!! 

[leiberfrasmilch]

how stupid can women be to think that their sexuality is worth more than integrity.Very stupid, because many engage in a form of prostitution whether its virtual , physical ,commercial.The sale of birth control pills and procured abortions statistically voids the argument of the video. Women make choices to be exploited .It doesn't make them less human than those that complain about stereotypes or are angry that they exist.There is always a basis of why it exists.Sadly no respect for the wicked.

[einblitz93]

A trap is a trap!

[1banryukyu]

Nice

Thanks for this clip

[MrWugwei]

White men can't jump.

Chinkies shouldn't rap.

[piratesthatpwn]

WTF is this shit?