Search
On-Site Program Calendar
Browse By Day
Browse By Time
Browse By Person
Browse By Room
Browse By Unit
Browse By Session Type
Search Tips
Change Preferences / Time Zone
Sign In
Bluesky
Threads
X (Twitter)
YouTube
Objective
As part of a long history of American domestic and foreign policies, Asian women have been seen as prostitutes, lotus flowers, and dragon ladies (Pyke & Johnson, 2003). From the submissive, tragic lotus flower who sacrifices herself in service of whiteness to the cunning, devious manipulations of the dragon lady (Espiritu, 1997; Shah, 1997), Asian women have been given limited roles in the American imagination.
With that said, there has been growing representation of Asian American (AsAm) girls/women in media—not only in film and television, but also in literature. In fact, there has been a virtual explosion in publishing of AsAm YA literature (Cooperative Children’s Book Center, 2020). This study examines what this representation looks like in contemporary realistic YA: How do these representations reflect the realities of the daily lives of average AsAm girls? How do they reflect or deflect AsAm stereotypes? And what messages might contemporary AsAm girls be receiving about what it means to be an AsAm girl or woman?
Framework
Like others in this session, I draw upon AsianCrit (Museus & Iftikar, 2013), specifically the tenets of (anti)essentialism and intersectionality. I also draw upon AsAm and women of color feminism (Fujiwara & Roshanravan, 2018; Moraga & Anzáldua, 2015; Sg, 1989; Shah, 1997). While women of color have long been familiar with how their race and gender (amongst other aspects of their identity like class and citizenship) multiply marginalize them, Kimberlé Crenshaw (1990) named and further theorized this phenomenon as intersectionality. Intersectionality explores the idea that individuals’ identities fall along multiple axes of subordination or marginalization, and the singular prioritization of one of these identities obscures understanding and progress. One of the tenets of AsianCrit, it is also one of the key understandings of women of color politics and AsAm feminist understandings. The use of AsianCrit and AsAm feminism together allows for a deeper understanding of how race, ethnicity, and gender play out in the lives of AsAm girls.
Methods
The study took place over a semester at a suburban high school. Students who identified as AsAm and female were invited to join a biweekly book club that focused on reading books featuring AsAm female protagonists. Group activities and discussions were co-created and co-facilitated by the researcher and a cooperating classroom teacher. The researcher also conducted interviews with participants and recorded field notes. All audio data was transcribed. All data was analyzed using AsianCrit and AsAm feminism as a lens for coding; the researcher coded specifically keeping the tenets of (anti)essentialism and intersectionality in mind.
Results & Significance
While data analysis is ongoing, students resonated with the literature around mother-daughter relationships, cultural expectations of girls, and how the model minority stereotype (Poon et al., 2016) impacts them. This study presents the promise of using literature as a vehicle for discussing issues can help “encourage (AsAm children) resistance to damaging representations and categorizations by providing positive images or models in their place” (115, Derman-Sparks as cited in Thananopavarn, 2014).