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After chatting with my friend MT, a fellow hardcore Asian American feminist, it was apparent that these kinds of stories about Asian women (much like the depiction of Asian women in non-news media) get sensationalized only when the story helps enforce the role or and reaffirm the archetype of the Asian as a racial exception and the Asian woman as an uncomplicated victim. Sound like APIA feminist studies 101? I wish there were such a thing.
So, it makes sense that Annie Le's case fits the bill for mainstream news media (sidenote: has anyone else noticed how weirdly obsessed the NYT is with East Asia?). I never knew Annie Le and I know she was a multi-faceted woman with a rich personal story that can never be captured in a blog post or the news; so, let's run with identity politics since that's why this blog exists. Le was an Ivy League student, educated, heterosexual, was not differently abled, attractive, on a successful career track in science and engaged to a White man--an identity that occupies the top rung of privilege in the U.S. It's really not that weird that her murder is being publicized. Her story is a lesson to the American underclass that "if they can do it why can't you?" and does nothing to upset the power balance that exists.
On the other hand, like spamfriedrice noted, violent crimes and crimes of sexual violence against women of color, including Asian Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders, are disproportionate, and horrifically unnoticed and under-reported. There is also rampant domestic violence in our community. Why are these glaring problems underreported and unnoticed? One major reason is silence from the community members, community leaders, hospital workers, racist, sexist and/or incompetent law enforcement officers, domestic violence and rape crisis service workers, the media, etc. etc. The list goes on. And not to mention how perpetrators of violence (both interpersonal and institutional) rely on the silence of the community to get off the hook if they're ever on it at all.
APIA women are also disproportionately represented among the 40,000 plus slaves who are trafficked and coerced in some way into doing sex work the U.S., and probably also disproportionatly represent women who chose sexwork as a way to survive in our capitalist economy. APIA women are also represented in hefty numbers among domestic and other service-oriented industry workers--daily victims and survivors of low wages, poor working conditions, labor abuses, etc.
Why am I telling you all this? Because it's a shame that we need a gruesome murder to take place (and NY Times coverage for that matter) in order to have this dialogue, drop knowledge and politick about the extreme violence against Asian women. Maybe someday we can talk about this, homophobia, transphobia, ableism and classism in our communities too. Perhaps Le's great gift can be the beginning of a sustained conversation in our community.
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| User | Points |
|---|---|
| curtis | 1928 |
| ebeh | 1161 |
| Madhuri | 1145 |
| erinjerri | 1074 |
| spamfriedrice | 551 |
| oliveoil | 457 |
| Calvin Prashad | 358 |
| JennyG | 281 |
| jenn | 219 |
| chriswong | 155 |
Talk about hijacking a story for your own agenda? Geezus!
"I never knew Annie Le and I know she was a multi-faceted woman with a rich personal story". Really? How do you know this... from the news that you say knows nothing or just from your imagination?
Where's the tons of Asian American women being killed at Yale that are not being covered? Was Annie Le a trafficked sex slave? WTF does "40,000 plus slaves who are trafficked " have to do with this woman's death?
The writer has some valid points about some serious issues but using this woman's death as the step stool to a soapbox is self serving, disrepectful, and... well... so right wing.
Elevating the stories of thousands of trafficked women is self-serving or about a writer's "own agenda"--it's about how Le's story shouldn't be the step stool for this conversation (note conversation, not soapbox). Why are you reacting so negatively to what sounds like an invitation to continue conversation that the community is having in response to Le's murder? As for the tons of Asian American women that are being killed at Yale, can you share something more about that?
shame on queenpie for no sympathy for Annie Le's family or fiance
how do you assume from this post that queenspie has no sympathy for annie le's family? what this case brings up, and queenspie highlights here, is that there is a lot of violence against women in u.s. society especially against women of color that gets ignored a lot in the public.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,482025,00.html
i would like to know why queenpie or spam fried rice did not post anything when the above story happened?
Queenpie's just as guilty as "the media"; here we have a poor Chinese woman from a poor family who goes to Virginia Tech and gets beheaded; in this case, it was by an Asian man; is queenpie saying that the only time Asian women are murdered and deserve publicity is when it's done by a white man?
an article in the Christian Science Monitor this morning discusses how other murders don't get such media attention
Spam Fried Rice and Queenpie can no longer say that White Womens' murders get all the media attention
Clearly, daring to speak up about these issues, as the above post admirably does, opens the writer up to attack. Better to encourage dialogue, I think, than to try to punish it.
I'm always skeptical when the national press shines a hot light on young female murder victims because there's always a subplot: our culture's habit of fantasizing about the battered bodies of young women. I can't help but think of a movie that just got favorable reviews from the NYTimes, "Jennifer's Body," in which the victimized white girl gets bloody revenge.
Thanks for sharing those articles Anonymous Coward. It would seem, however, that you seriously misunderstood some key points in the post. It seems like you're responding to a different post entirely--I have no idea what you're talking about, e.g. nowhere in the post are the murders of white women discussed.
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