Category: Society

I thought part 1 of what female characters do we want was good. Part 2 is even more eye-opening.

They want to see minority women on screen, in a modern life setting with their own struggles and dreams. They want stories talking about minorities who look like Han people and minorities who do not (because the experience would be vastly different). There are over 100 million minorities in China yet their life have hardly made onto the screen. If the story has included some minorities, it usually is about some minority woman who is exotic and beautiful in an ancient China setting. Needless to say, not an accurate depiction which then becomes stereotype Han people hold against minorities.

Then they discussed that they want to see badass women superheroes who can get blood and bruises on their face, and maybe for once not a supermodel. Women become villans not because they did not get their ideal relationships but just because they are evil.

I have honestly never thought about how minority women are portrait and why there only superheroes with perfect makeup and hair. That was a big eye-opening moment for me.

They then talked about how the side chick is portrait. Why cannot the wife and the side chick become friends?

How are women presented in any video segments? First, the face, then the body and legs, then back to the face. What about appreciating women’s beauty from a woman’s perspective.

I highly recommend this episode to anywhere who are even remotely interested in women characters on screen!

1. Working on mitigating your own bias, seeing people for who they are, listening to them, not coming in with ideas of how things are.
2. Be selfless. Amplify the voices of people who are oppressed. Resist the urge to make it about you.
3. Not leaning on people who are oppressed for your education. Your education is dependent on you. Do not expect them to automatically teach you what to do. Instead care for them emotionally and ask for permission before asking them to educate you.
4. Stand with the oppressed and speak up even if you are not sure and think you might say the wrong thing. We all start somewhere. Resist the urge to judge other’s wokeness.
5. Be open to unlikely allies, and be open to become unlikely allies.
6. Move from noun, ally, to verb, what you are actually doing. Check your own privileges and see how you can apply them to benefit others even if it does not benefit you.
7. At work, amplify the voices that are less heard. So and so just said something great and I want to make sure we all catch that instead of staying quiet or taking other people’s credit.

Aren’t we all intrigued by THE interview aired last Sunday? I have fallen down a rabbit hole of learning more about the British Royal Family.

This episode focuses primarily on the fall out leading up to the divorce between Princess Diana and Prince Charles. Separation, re-decoration, affairs, rumors, media war. Apparently Princess Diana helped someone to write her biography and giving her first solo interview were the definitive points leading to the divorce. Her famous interview gained her a lot of support among the public. Yet the upper class did not understand why she would reveal so much of her personal life to the point that her own mom would take her call for a few days. I have watched her interview and it is hard not to feel connected with her. Here is a woman talking about her emotional pain, her mental health issues, her struggles in a self aware yet not ashamed way. One quote stood out from this podcast ‘The public sees her first as a person, yet the Royal family sees her first as her role”,

I was very surprised to find out that Princess Diana actually had a very good relationship with the media for a long time up until her affair went public. Then the media was hunting down on her and tried to get her angry photos. They even went to the cruel length of saying provocative things to her just to get an reaction photo. She was being filmed in her private gym by someone who went to her gym and sold the photos to the Tabloid. This level of intrusiveness still shocked me, especially this happened back mid 90s.

There sure is a lot of parallels can be drawn between the interviews. Is it too much to ask that people can remain some level of their humanness beyond their royal roles and duties in the 21st century?

Let me confess that I have been addicted to Reggaeton or Latin Urban for about 2 years now. I know absolutely nothing about the history of it until last week.

I know it must be related to Reggae given the name. Now I know the beat comes from Spanish Reggae, Dancehall Reggae, Dominican Dembow. Reggae was brought to Panama from Jamaica by the Jamaicans working on the canal. Then Reggaeton was shaped in New York with the final touch of Hip Pop influence. Lots of Latino immigrants settled in the same area, South Bronx, where Hip Hop was born. The mixture of sounds traveled back to Puerto Rico, arguably the center of Reggaeton.

I love how a little bit of curiosity can lead me to such fascinating history. Reggaeton was born in the clubs and I fell in love with Reggaeton and many other Latin dance music in the clubs. It has the raw magic to move your body through the beats. I love the fact it is a diaspora product representing the creativity and potential when different cultures and communities interact with each other organically. It is so much more than the Despacito. I was also shocked to find out that some of the well recognized pop songs have hidden Reggaeton beats.

Happy International Women’s Day!

This is a Chinese podcast episode talking about what female characters do all 6 female hosts want more of on screen. It surprised me that I never thought about the entertainment from the creator angle.

They talked about wanting to see more general teenage stories from middle school to high school, more real life working women who eat delivery and work over time, more elderly women who have relationships and show their real aging process, female friendships who support each other (also may include self projection and jealousy), female friendships with men (not just romantic love), women who do not have to stay pretty all the time and just are good at what they are doing.

I absolutely loved their discussions on female friendships and how it is a modern society product. Growing up I have been blessed with amazing female friends who we support each other through everything, from first period, to first boyfriend, to first job. I love when the hosts talked about what women are set out to be are more uncertain. I cannot become who I am today without my friends though all the confusion in teenage years and all the challenges in adult life.

Full Transcript https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/6csEmhDmlipQCiDo6louGQ

In 1968, a white journalist, Grace Halsell, turnt herself black and lived like a black women for half a year. She documented her experience in a book called ‘Soul Sister’. How far could this kind of ‘walking in other people’s shoes’ empathy go?

We have limited capacity for feeling other people’s pain. We tend to still identify with individuals in the other group who are more similar to us instead of the collective. This kind of identification only reinforce exclusion. This so reminds of Michelle Obama talking about some of her friends still only have one black friend, her.

Even when she tried to understand other black people, she was looking for ‘authentic black’ experience, that meant she included more stories of suffering and hardship, not the ones with joy. She didn’t understand how black people interacted with each other or with the Civil Rights movement. She did not discuss anything about oppression of the institution and structures.

So is empathy enough? The answer is probably not. Empathy is great when it inspire actions and actual solidarity. I think empathy also could provoke us to look at the underlying intuition and seek change. I feel bad for you is probably not enough in a world we are so interconnected.

Partial Transcript https://www.npr.org/2020/03/06/812864654/the-limits-of-empathy