As an Asian American woman, I not
only have been subjected to stereotypes, but I have caught myself projecting
stereotypes onto myself. Stereotypes aren’t necessarily a bad thing; in fact, I
think they are just innately instilled within the human psyche. However, stereotypes become a problem once it
becomes institutionalized. It gives people an idea of who I am based on how
history has portrayed me; and because of my race, I’m expected from other people
to follow this stereotype. I’ve grown tired of being told that because I am
Asian, I don’t have to worry about racism as much as other minorities do. But
there is a significant amount of emasculation and orientalism I’ve seen that
don’t make it any better for people for someone of my culture.
Every time my father would come
back from his business trips at America, he would buy Archie digests by the dozen. I envied their Western, perfect
American lifestyle and I often found myself desiring to be as white as the
characters in the comics were. It wasn’t until I was older that it hit me;
there was literally no representation in Archie.
But the world isn’t just white people; it’s extremely diverse, and the lack of
representation in comics is extremely important to a minority such as myself.
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang wasn’t just a good comic,
it was extremely relatable. And I think it’s important to be able to relate to
characters in whatever medium – comics, games, movies, and books. It’s
unfortunate that in this day and age, there is still a lack of representation
for minorities.
I don’t agree with Eisner’s idea
of representation. We have a responsibility to change these institutionalized
ideas of people of different identities. I think what happens most often is
that people just want to make excuses for following stereotypes, when all you’d
have to do is break off the norm and rise above the conventions.
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