Stereotypes in the News
Melissa Hung - November 22, 2006
On to the women.... Orange County Weekly writer Vickie Chang has a followup story to her story "Yellow Fever" about Asian festish that we linked to last week. Basically, she responds to the critics of the story. And who are they? I'll let Vickie answer that:
The thing is, anytime you talk race and gender, people freak out. In fact, all the angry responses came from men (surprise!) accusing me of sexism.
Ah, telling it like it is.
Speaking of Asian fetish, Gwen Stefani is back with her Harajuku Girls. I thought she had moved on to something else, but apparently she still loves her some Asian entourage. They can be seen dancing around (and in one scene as puppets) in her video for Wind It Up. Oh, and they're in blonde wigs too.
On the local Bay Area front, SF police chief Heather Fong took a stroll in Chinatown with the mayor to boost her image. People have been criticizing the chief for being reserved, cautious and methodical.
Mayor Newson says this wouldn't be an issue if she wasn't an Asian American woman.
I'd have to agree with that. She's got a double whammy of stereotypes against her. Interestingly, one of the criticis is supervisor Fiona Ma.
And let's end on a happy note, shall we? It's Thanksgiving after all. Lowell High School football coach Danny Chan gets props in the SF Chronicle today in a story about busting stereotypes, trying to change the perception of Asians in sports, and of football in the Asian American community.
