Panethnicity is ultimately is a cultural group that is made up of people from several different and distinct ethnic and national backgrounds. This can be both good for Asian Americans as it is a way to identify with one another and unite as a powerful unite but I also see it as being very problematic and not the greatest way to go up against discrimination. Instead of seeing Asians with unique cultural backround it puts all ethnicities together. It is also problematic because of the stigma that remains today of Asian subgroups being outsiders, immigrants, and during economic struggles, people to point blame towards for lack of jobs. With panethnicity trying to cover all of these ethnicities it also puts those stigmas on everyone. This goes along with the occidental gaze or seeing a group through Western views of the world often incorrectly.
There are many stereotypes of Asians include the strict, rigidity Asian parents have on their children and they are usually really smart. Even if Asians were born in the US they are seen always as foreigners who struggle with the English language. Women are either seen as weak and only follow in men's footsteps or they are overly sexualized. Media plays a huge role when re-iterating stereotypes of Asian Americans and another aspect of this is that there are minimal roles for Asians to play in movies in the first place. This allows people to stereotype even more. An example of Asian stereotypes in the media is the movie 21 and Over. In this film the Asian is seen as a straight A student trying to get into med school and holds back from going out with his friends initially. He does but is blacked out and unresponsive for a majority of the film showing that Asians rarely have a large role in the film. It also never mentions what ethnicity he is and mostly Americanizes the character. There are several moments throughout the film that highlight Asian stereotypes but this clip is of his strict father making sure he gets to his interview on time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwyjBL53Mc4
Meghan: Excellent blog post and good film example. We could say a lot about this film that I agree is problematic. There is one interesting scene in the film I may bring up in class.
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