5/18 - Mobile cultures & Kelley loves Tony

5/18 - In Moblie Cultures by Sandip Roy, the author discusses the significances and power of using the internet as tool for South Asian queer people. As stated in the article, the internet is a more accessible space for queer people to connect, learn, and be themselves. I think it’s interesting how within queer history, the club scenes are usually used to provide safe spaces for people, but there are limitations to that. Whether there are not a lot of queer friendly clubs or people are not allowed to go out, the internet fills that gap and provides that sense of community and identity exploration. I appreciated how the article discusses the intersectionality for the South Asian community because within queer communities, the population are often white gays. So this brings in the questions what groups are being represented, what privileges are to those that are visible, and how can we work towards being safe spaces for marginalize community that are beyond the internet?  


In Kelley Loves Tony, the documentary capsulate the Southeast Asian narrative of a first generation college student teen mom that marries her high school boyfriend, Tony. Tony is in the process of being deported and during this time, Kelley tries to go to school and take care of her son. The film provides meaningful sight to how these Southeast Asian couple who are Mien and Laotian, which are often underrepresented groups within this narrative, live their lives. Additionally, it refutes stereotypes of immigrants and teen moms. For example, Kelley attends college and try to achieve higher education while Tony’s priority is to take care of his family rather than school. The complex layers of these narratives shows the realistic struggle for this community.   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Laotian Daughter and Monkey Dancer

In the article “The Political of Race: Political Identity and the Struggle for Social Rights” by Bindi V. Shah, it mentions the struggles that the Laotian community faced in Contra Costa County.   Laotian community were one of the least represented community in the county due to the lack of representation via politics.   They experience racism through the structural “neighborhood race effect” of “underfunded and resource-deprived schools, environmental pollution and low-wage jobs.”   (53)   When it comes to the perception of model minority, it heavily affects the Laotian community negatively because they are not on the same playing field as other Asians who are economically success and assimilated.   So when the fire arose in the Contra Costa Valley, the Laotian elders were not aware that the fire happened until hours later.   The reason was because they could not understand the messages that were being said when they were informed.   So many elders e...
Read more

5/30- Fiske

In "Shopping For Pleasure", one point was raised "In shopping malls and department stores women's pleasure and desires are catered to, but only in so far as they serve the greater interest of the market". I somewhat disagree with this. While it may be true that the notion of shopping and the market is mostly managed by the predominantly male. The fact that women have a place to exercise a small resistances is important. It is also worth noting that it might be true that it is mostly managed by males, women are exercising the power to vote with their wallet. Also, it creates a space where women can be employ because of the fact that they belong to the group of the target audience, therefore, they have better knowledge of the market. So I argue that shopping malls might not be the place created by women, but it is a stepping stone for women to achieve equal right.
Read more

5/23 Kelly Loves Tony Part 2 Video Response

5/23 Angel Truong Kelly Loves Tony Part 2 Video Response             The documentary Kelly Loves Tony highlights the difference between second-generations Asian Americans who are either assimilated or not assimilated. Kelly wants a life where she is not restricted by traditional gender roles. However, Tony is not assimilated as Kelly since he values family more than Kelly’s well-being. This is depicted from his rant with his boss where Tony does not understand why Kelly is always upset with his family. He believes she should care for their baby and his family conveying that he wants her to be a domestic wife and daughter-in-law. Their conflict also ties to the model minority myth where Asian Americans are not as assimilated or obedient as the myth depicts them because Tony has a criminal record and both Kelly and Tony are struggling to live with his family who are very dependent on each other. This is displayed from the fact th...
Read more