Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A — Thursday, January 30, 2020

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MIN SOO KIM | COLUMN

Appreciate the love! Sincerely, Asians

I 

love 
watching 
movies 
but never paid too much 
attention to award shows. 
I knew the names of some of the 
biggest film celebrations, like the 
Academy Awards and the Golden 
Globes, but that was the extent 
of my knowledge. I would scroll 
through my Instagram feed and 
maybe see a couple posts about 
which film won Best Picture, but 
that was about it. This all changed 
when “Parasite” came out.
The movie came out this past 
summer while I was in Korea 
and I had the opportunity to 
see it in theaters. The movie is 
directed by Bong Joon-ho, one of 
South Korea’s most famous and 
critically 
acclaimed 
directors, 
and stars Song Kang-ho, a top 
South Korean actor. Because of 
the film’s star power, everyone 
had high expectations for it. I left 
the theater in awe of how good 
it was. This well-made thriller 
about coexistence, centering on 
an impoverished Korean family 
that begins to work for a wealthy 
one, satires our modern-day class 
system. As much as I would love to 
talk about the plot, I will not spoil 
the movie for those who have not 
seen it yet.
Currently, 
“Parasite” 
is 
collecting many of the most 
prestigious 
cinematic 
awards 
worldwide. It won the Palme 
d’Or — the highest prize awarded 
at the Cannes Film Festival — as 
well as some Golden Globes and 
Screen Actors Guild awards. As a 
Korean, I am immensely proud to 
see a Korean film enjoy such an 
unprecedented amount of success. 
But what feels better is the sense of 
acceptance and validation finally 
being awarded to Asians in media.
For her role in 2019’s “The 
Farewell,” 
Awkwafina 
became 
the first Asian American to win 
Best Actress for a Musical or 
Comedy at the Golden Globes. 
Netflix apparently had to win a 
bidding war to secure Ali Wong as 
the hostess for stand-up comedy 

specials after the success of 
“Always Be My Maybe.” “Crazy 
Rich Asians,” the first major 
Hollywood studio film with a 
majority Asian cast in a modern 
setting since “The Joy Luck Club” 
in 1993, also enjoyed commercial 
and critical success. It became the 
highest-grossing romantic comedy 
film in nearly a decade. Disney’s 
live-action “Mulan” and Marvel’s 
first Asian hero film “Shang-Chi” 
will arrive in theaters soon. 
Before these recent successes, 
Asian 
representation 
in 
traditional media took a number 
of unfortunate turns. Only a 
handful of Asian roles existed 
before “Crazy Rich Asians,” and 
some of these roles were blatantly 
racist or heavily stereotypical. 
Mickey Rooney — who is white — 
played the role of a Japanese man 
named Mr. Yunioshi in “Breakfast 
at Tiffany’s.” Randall Park, who 
starred in “Always Be My Maybe” 
alongside Ali Wong, remarked to 
TIME magazine that he played 
doctors maybe a few too many 
times. Asian Americans make up 
about six percent of the entire 
population, yet only one percent 
of all leading roles in Hollywood 
were played by Asian Americans as 
of 2018. One study from professors 
at 
six 
California 
universities 
proved that only one-third of the 
242 scripted shows on broadcast, 
cable and streaming TV had an 
Asian Amerian or Pacific Islander 
character who was a series regular.
Media lives off of stereotypes 
and, to some extent, is responsible 
for 
furthering 
them. 
While 
stereotypes are not the most 
sincere form of judgment, I must 
admit they are based on some 
truth. Asian parents are widely 
recognized to be passionate about 
their children’s education and, 
not to much surprise, want their 
children to become doctors or 
lawyers. However, this does not 
mean that the media should exploit 
such stereotypes and further 
consolidate them.

I still remember one of my 
high school friends showing me 
a clip from “Family Guy” where 
an Asian dad, in his heavy Asian 
accent, scolds his son for not being 
a doctor at the age of 12. This was 
during my first year in America, 
and I instantly knew that was how 
we were portrayed. The stereotype 
and its presentation lingered on and 
was stuck in the back of my head. I 
unconsciously put myself under the 
stereotype and even wanted to live 
up to it. I never liked math or science, 
but felt like I had to ace those classes, 
and felt proud when a non-Asian 
peer of mine approached me to ask 
questions on those subjects.
Limited 
and 
stereotypical 
representation in the media certainly 
played a part in driving me toward 
the 
pre-established 
stereotypes. 
There were no cool Asian characters 
in any shows or movies. There was 
nobody for me to rely on.
Then, once again, “Parasite” 
came out and is now collecting 
numerous meaningful accolades. 
Asian Americans have only recently 
gained some momentum in media 
representation and I hope the film’s 
success can be the breakthrough. I 
hope the film, along with individuals 
like Ali Wong and Awkwafina, can 
bring some spotlight to Asians so 
that we can correctly represent 
ourselves. I do not expect all 
stereotypes to be wiped out, but I 
sincerely hope that these collective 
achievements can provide society 
with 
the 
more 
diverse 
and 
appropriate 
representation 
we 
deserve. I hope we can be better 
assimilated into society as who 
we are: wonderfully talented, 
culturally diverse and capable of 
many different things, just like 
everyone else. We are not just 
good at math or science; we are 
more than just doctors or lawyers. 
We can be award-winning movie 
directors, actors and actresses, 
comedians and even superheroes.

Min Soo Kim can be reached at 

kiminsoo@umich.edu.

RAY AJEMIAN | COLUMN

To use or refuse?
B

ack in September, a 
friend of mine admitted 
he was attracted to me. 
Not emotionally, he assured me, 
just physically. That seemed off 
— he’s usually into women, and 
he knows in no uncertain terms 
that I am not a woman — but I 
wasn’t going to let that ruin a 
four-year friendship. That took 
a few more months to ruin. 
The 
vulgar 
jokes 
didn’t 
bother me so much; those had 
always existed. It was the 
sudden commentary about all 
the sexual things he wanted 
to do with transgender guys, 
things he didn’t talk about 
before I was 18 and living an 
hour away. It was the sudden 
inquiry into the circumstances 
under which I would send 
“someone” nudes. It was the 
lamenting over my lack of 
confidence in my transgender 
body because it was “so hard” 
for him to listen to, as someone 
who appreciated that body in 
such a way. He said more than 
that, of course — nor was he 
the only one — but those words 
don’t belong in a newspaper.
We 
often 
hear 
of 
the 
transphobia 
and 
disgust 
directed toward trans people, 
but the opposite is often true 
as well: We are simultaneously 
fetishized 
by 
the 
same 
transphobia that deems us 
undesirable 
until 
rejection 
and exploitation are our only 
options.
When 
speaking 
of 
transgender 
exploitation, 
sex work comes to mind. 
Transgender 
porn 
(almost 
always of trans women) is 
undeniably popular, in some 
cases being the most popular 
genre for a given porn studio. 
This 
sexualization 
partly 
explains why so many trans 
people end up in sex trafficking, 
trading 
sexual 
favors, 
as 
victims of sexual assault or 
in prostitution. This works in 
tandem with the fact that we’re 
at high risk for homelessness, 
a fact uniformly addressed 
in these particular studies 
about trans sex work. Within 
the trans community, we use 
the term “chaser” to refer to 
someone who fetishizes and 
seeks out trans sex partners 
because of our transness, as it’s 
such a common experience.
The fetishization of trans 
people 
remains 
prevalent 
even 
in 
non-sexual 
media 
because porn was previously 
the only sphere in which the 
existence of trans people was 
acknowledged. The New York 
Times, for instance, reported 
on the death of a trans woman 
in a fire, noting that she was 
“curvaceous” and “was known 
to invite men for visits to her 
apartment” within the first 
line. The article was published 
in 2012 and was never edited 
to remove the unnecessary, 
sexually-charged commentary 
despite public backlash.
Mainstream 
media 
finds 
other ways to exploit us, too. 
Once trans people started to 
make themselves known to 

the public, news outlets leaped 
at the chance to cover the 
controversial matter of our 
existence. 
Caitlyn 
Jenner’s 
transition was one of the 
biggest news stories of 2015, 
to the point that she was given 
an 
eight-part 
documentary 
series, 
garnered 
a 
million 
Twitter followers in a matter 
of hours when she launched 
her profile and was considered 
for TIME’s Person of the 
Year. A transgender person’s 
transition, often a long-awaited 
and life-changing process, was 
broadcast nearly constantly for 
the world to see, knowing that 
many people would give her 
backlash for it. In a sense, her 
fame made this publicization 
inevitable, but to this extent? 
It is hard to call Jenner’s news 
coverage altruistic in nature

Even 
fictional 
media 
co-opts 
trans 
stories 
for 
the sake of drama. In some 
cases — 21 percent of cases 
according to the Gay and 
Lesbian 
Alliance 
Against 
Defamation — we’re made 
to 
be 
the 
villains, 
often 
portrayed as serial killers 
like in Sleepaway Camp and 
Silence of the Lambs. Other 
times, our existence is played 
for 
laughs. 
In 
“Friends,” 
Chandler’s 
“father” 
is 
supposedly 
a 
drag 
queen 
but is portrayed much more 
like a trans woman, and she 
apparently only exists to be 
misgendered and made fun of; 
“Family Guy” takes the same 
concept 
to 
another 
level, 
with other characters being 
downright 
disgusted 
and 
terrified, while demonizing 
the trans women in question 
as if this terror is funny 
rather than dangerously true 
to life.
Then, in most other cases, 
we 
are 
victimized: 
“The 
Crying Game” sees a trans 
woman beaten when a straight 
man takes her clothes off; and 
“Boys Don’t Cry,” one of the 
few mainstream portrayals 
of a transgender man, is 
about the murder of the trans 
protagonist. All these stories 
were written by cisgender 
writers, seizing experiences 
that are foreign to them for 
the sake of comedy or drama 
and condemning trans people 
in the process. If that wasn’t 
already exploitative enough, 
consider that none of these 
parts were played by trans 
people, or even by cis people 
of the correct gender — each 
of these roles is filled by a 
cis actor of the characters 

assigned gender at birth (that 
is to say, men playing trans 
women, and women playing 
trans men).
This sort of backhanded 
acknowledgment 
of 
our 
struggles showcases how we 
interact with all of society. 
Trans people are twice as 
likely as others to serve in 
the military (driven in no 
small part to disproportionate 
homelessness), 
yet 
we’re 
banned from serving at the 
behest 
of 
our 
commander 
in chief. I personally have 
denied recruiters several times 
with equal parts smugness 
and bitterness. The medical 
establishment 
we 
depend 
on to transition forces us 
to jump through hoops to 
get healthcare, such as a 
therapist’s approval letter to 
start hormone replacement or 
get surgery, while said therapy 
and procedures may or may 
not be covered by insurance 
(if we even have insurance). 
I received my approval letter 
for testosterone back in April, 
only to be denied care by every 
trans-serving practitioner in 
my county until other health 
issues 
inevitably 
demanded 
my attention. The legal system 
charges us to petition for name 
changes, update our passports 
and 
similar 
documentation 
and often mandates expensive 
and invasive “reassignment” 
surgeries before we can legally 
be recognized as the correct 
gender; thankfully, Michigan 
has recently eliminated the last 
issue, which otherwise would 
have prevented me and many 
others from legal transition 
indefinitely. Even within the 
LGBTQ+ 
community, 
trans 
people 
have 
historically 
spearheaded activist work only 
to face hate from transphobic 
members of the community.
Unfortunately, allies and even 
trans people themselves don’t 
always realize how exploitative 
these 
establishments 
can 
be, 
thinking 
that 
media 
representation 
and 
sexual 
appeal are inherently a net 
positive. The truth is that 
it’s the same transphobia as 
before rebranded to seem 
less malicious. The choice 
between 
exploitation 
and 
rejection is often life or 
death: For trans sex workers 
who can’t get wage work 
because employers can fire or 
deny them for being trans, for 
trans people who have to shell 
out thousands for surgeries 
they don’t need or want so 
that their driver’s license 
doesn’t out them and for trans 
youth who want to love and be 
loved without experiencing 
domestic violence, there is no 
real choice. As a trans college 
student 
choosing 
between 
sexual harassment from a 
“friend” and a nagging sense 
of unwantedness, I’m one 
of the few who could afford 
rejection over exploitation.

Ray Ajemian can be reached at 

rjemian@umich.edu.

VALENTINA HOUSE | COLUMN

Appropriate cultural appropriation

G

rowing up, I learned in 
school that racism was an 
easy fix: Treat everyone 
equally and judge them by the 
content of their character, not 
the color of their skin. While that 
axiom and mindset come naturally 
to most, it works mainly as a “going 
forward” proposition. What about 
all of the damage done, particularly 
that of slavery? We need to be 
more than fair and open-minded 
going forward. We need to show 
deference to those who have been 
neglected. One solution to this 
difficult problem is to educate 
people about the further damage 
that cultural appropriation may 
cause – even though this still falls 
far short of any real repayment of 
a debt owed.
Dana Schutz’s painting “Open 
Casket,” a depiction of the exposed 
face of Emmett Till, a 14-year-
old Black teenager murdered in 
1955, at his funeral, was widely 
criticized at the time of its debut 
in 2017 – not for its content, but for 
its white creator. Although Schutz 
wasn’t making any money from 
the painting, it was still thought 
to exploit Black suffering “for fun” 
or artistic gain. The argument was 
that she couldn’t possibly relate to 
black mothers and shouldn’t claim 
she can. 
One of the first forms of 
cultural colonialism dates back 
to the 1900s. Blackface was an 
early technique used in minstrel 
shows 
to 
effectively 
weave 
whiteness into every part of 
society. Today, the entertainment 
industry is still making progress 
in becoming more inclusive of 
diverse cultures. New York Times 
article “Hollywood, Separate and 
Unequal” by Manohla Dargis 
and A. O. Scott outlines the 
development of Black roles from 
historically being “servers” of 
more white, dominant roles to 
recently gaining more prominence 
on screen. Movies need more 
Black actors, but directors need to 
be conscious that they’re casting 
them for the right reasons and not 
just for political clout.
Instances 
of 
white 
people 
rapping, kindergarteners wearing 
Native American costumes on 
Thanksgiving and Gordon Ramsay 
cooking Indian food are debated 
in the same breath as blackface 
and the misuse of “negro” music 
during the Harlem Renaissance 
period. But are they the same? Is 

the modern-day any less racist 
than it was 80 years ago?
The term cultural appropriation 
originally referred to a global 
ruling 
class 
dominating 
and 
taking advantage of a globally 
marginalized class. Today, it is a 
highly individualized concept that 
applies to any person who takes 
offense by a white person using 
their culture and its tortured past 
lightly as a costume or style. As a 
Mexican, society gives me the right 
to claim cultural appropriation on 
my friend who wears a sombrero 
on Cinco de Mayo, even though I’ve 
always considered it a lighthearted 
form of celebration. While some 
cultural antics are better left to 
those that created them, there’s a 
difference between a “colonizer in 
disguise” and a “sad try-hard.”
There are important discussions 
to be had about white supremacy 
and race struggles that still exist 
in America today. However, if 
we claim every instance of a pop 
star dressing the wrong way a 
grossly construed form of racism, 
we will be having “reductive 
conversation(s)” about whether 
the newest Zara skirt is offensively 
stealing the style of an Indian lungi 
or not, making little progress along 
the way. While I’m sure there’s 
someone out there who takes deep 
offense to the newest fashion trend, 
these conversations are limited 
and hold us back from focusing on 
the real racism in America — the 
one that offends not just a handful 
of individuals but a whole class of 
people. Excessive claims dilute the 
meaning of class appropriation 
and run the risk of sounding like a 
hammer that thinks everything’s a 
nail.
Millennials have developed a 
“cancel culture” whereby public 
figures quickly come under fire for 
culturally appropriated remarks 
or actions. This concept, however, 
has been used so sweepingly 
that deep divisions have formed 
between cultures, limiting unity 
and progress. Yes, affirmative 
action, other reparative measures 
and just the general goal of respect 
necessitates we recognize and 
appreciate 
different 
identities, 
but there’s also worth in coming 
together as one. Usually, when 
someone copies another person, 
it is a form of flattery. Influencers 
deem it cultural appropriation 
unless it’s done in a very specific, 
fine-toothed way. In the real world, 

that looks like buying Japanese-
inspired pillows from a Japanese 
market itself because buying it 
from Urban Outfitters would be 
inappropriate.
I’d argue everyone appropriates 
culture. Cook a Chinese meal 
lately without cultural consent? 
You appropriated. Use a singing 
technique that’s not from your 
own culture? A Canadian award-
nominee was bullied for that. 
Wear a qipao to prom and you’re 
not Chinese? That was the latest 
social media scandal. Ironically, 
people of color are “nearly as likely 
as whites to face accusations” 
of racial identity theft. Cultural 
exchange is natural and inherent 
to growth. 
There are certainly harmful 
instances of culture being placed 
flagrantly out of context. However, 
when 
done 
right, 
cultural 
exchange 
inspires 
creativity, 
encourages differentiation and 
even bonds people. I’d love to see 
Black and white rappers work 
together to produce the next 
greatest hit, instead of white 
rappers being shunned for not 
having the cultural angle to sound 
good.
Refusing 
to 
include 
other 
groups 
in 
the 
exchange 
of 
ideas 
and 
intellect 
seems 
discriminatory to me. People like 
to make the argument that cultural 
appropriation is about a power 
struggle. It’s fine for colonized 
groups to borrow from each other 
but wrong for white Americans to 
do so because of their history of 
exploitation. However, as David 
Frum at the Atlantic points out, 
cultural staples from these groups 
have also been founded on histories 
of empires that dominated and 
exploited other cultures: “The 
Han Chinese learned to drink tea 
… from peoples to their south.”
James Zwerg fought against 
racism as a Freedom Rider in the 
60s alongside John Lewis. He 
is a white man who expressed 
anger toward white supremacists 
and unapologetically voiced his 
support for Black citizens. Dana 
Schutz is an artist who used 
her talent to speak on the same 
issues. One is honored as a civil 
rights advocate and the other an 
offensive artist, but they might be 
more similar than one might think.

Valentina House can be reached 

at valhouse@umich.edu.

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It’s the same 
transphobia as 
before rebranded 
to seem less 
malicious.

