5/18 Kelly Loves Tony Part 2


In the second part of the film Kelly Loves Tony, Kelly undergoes more hardships as a young Asian American student, mother, finance, and daughter-in-law. As talked about in Shah, women are bearers and conveyors of culture (111). This idea can be seen in this film as Kelly struggles to explain to Tony that she is not just a woman who takes care of Andrew and contributes to endless household chores from cooking to doing “10 loads of laundry.” Tony could not understand why this was an issue for Kelly. He believed that Kelly should naturally do these tasks as acts of showing her loyalty and care to his family and that these acts were “what Mien culture is [was] about.” When in reality, Kelly was exhausted from acting upon her intersectional identities and not receiving adequate help. Unlike popular portrayals of Asian American women being seen as weak and submissive, Kelly knows she has the agency to not follow the Mien ideas of what a Mien woman should be. But, she also knows she must perform to an extent for the sake of her son, Andrew. Personally, this film was difficult to watch as I know young Asian women who have similar situations as Kelly and honestly, their situations have become my biggest fears.

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