5/16 Said & Shah

In Shah's article, 2nd generation Laotian women struggle between maintaining their ethnic and cultural identity, while wanting to integrate more American values into their personal life. Also, many Laotian women practice everyday forms of cultural resistance as they try to gain autonomy over their body and life. Since many 1st generation Laotian immigrants deal with trauma from the past and are marganilized in America, one way to maintain cultural practices is through the family, especially through controlling women by policing their bodies, socializing them into becoming agreeable housewives, and overall forcing tradition on them. Being a Khmer women, we share many cultural values with the Laotian community and I can attest to many of the claims being made in the article. Many of my relatives mention their struggles back in the refugee camp and compare it to my educational experiences, which often invalidates my own personal struggles. Also, being the only daughter of two other siblings, I have noticed that my family has always stressed the importance of learning how to cook, clean, and keeping tradition, whereas the same ideals were never taught to my brothers. Last, making eye contact with your elders is a sign of talking back because I once made eye contact and got lectured about it. Despite all that is being forced upon me, I still feel the need to maintain cultural ties.
In Said's video, he mentions that Orientalism sees the Middes East through a set of lenses that distorts the image of its culture and produces the idea that Asia is backwards, underdeveloped, and in need of saving. Orientalism is passed on through different spaces such as film, art, and media. The Middle East is showcased as an exotic place with hypersexualized females, while also a demonization of  the Islamic religion.