I found an interesting video that perhaps all Asian Americans could personally relate. I think that it’s important that we raise the issues on beauty, conformity and standards. The truth is that too many of us Asian Americans struggle with the double-standard. We are a culture that is so ingrained in our roots, yet we live in a Western world with a completely different definition of beauty. I thought that the video was an interesting investigation into the definition of the problem, but there weren’t any solid solutions. Perhaps it is eluding that the solution is unknown. As cities become more multicultural, how do we define and accept our physical selves without having society dictate our definition of beauty. Is there a democracy in beauty?
Asian American Beauty - Female Body Image (Part 1 of 2)
Asian American Beauty - Female Body Image (Part 2 of 2)
So there’s still no snow… and I’m officially on my second day of vacation :D YIPPY! My dinner party’s tonight - people should be showing up shortly. This morning on CBC there’s a story about a child who got into a car accident while still in her mother’s womb, and ended up having severe brain damage. The child now needs 24 hour private care, which the parents cannot afford. The parents had to sue on behalf of the child against the mother so that the insurance company would compensate, and on top of all of that they needed a law to pass in the province of Alberta to make all that happen. Here’s the full story:http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2006/12/22/ed-rewega-settlement.html. My question is WHY do we have to go through SO MUCH agony just for ‘big brother’ to give this little girl the care that she deserves? I’m sure the parents have been making their insurance premiums dilligently, and sure enough they have, as quoted by the child’s lawyer, Rosanna Saccomani, “We have insurance to provide for some method of compensation when catastrophic injuries such as this occur. That’s the purpose of insurance, that’s why we all buy insurance [and] that’s why insurance is mandatory,”.
Here’s something else that I wrote… but forgot to add here… I read a short story the other day called “My Body Is My Business” by Naheed Mustafa. I’ve been wanting to write about it for sometime now, perhaps now is a good time to do that… In her story she uses the Muslim women’s ha jib to describe her definition of freedom. For many of us, perhaps wearing the hajib or the thought of wearing it would cause most of us to think that those women do not have freedom, or that they’re deprived of popular culture things that most of us enjoy such as cosmetics and jewelery. I mean, why wear it if nobody will see it anyway? What we don’t know is that a lot of women chose to wear the hijab, and most of them who wear them don’t feel deprived. Naheed Mustafa chose to wear the hijab, and she did that not only for religious purposes, but for the physicality and protection of the hijab. As society transcends into a ridiculous consumption mechanism which praises beauty or the lack of it; the notion of freedom is blurred. Are women who expose themselves physically to the judgment and opinionated society experiencing freedom, or are they simply lost in the definition of freedom? People have choices in what we choose to consume, but most of us do try to conform by trying to meet the standards that the media imposes on us. Here’s what I find fascinating… because by wearing the hijab, Naheed Mustafa finds refuge in her journey to seek freedom. Because everything is hidden… suddenly nobody cares. So in essence - because you can’t see, you don’t care. It’s a pity, really, but if I were to perform an experiment by covering myself in public; not only would people look at me differently, but they would also immediately look away. Simply because there is nothing interesting to see - I would immediately become unimporant. Shows how shallow we’ve all become doesn’t it? Our bodies are supposed to be our own business, but since we’re conditioned to believe in freedom of speech and democracy - it suddenly becomes everyone else’s business. I now understand how freedom is found by concealing myself… I could see how unimportant, and how much freedom I could possibly possess by not allowing others to see me… how my privacy becomes respected. For me, freedom would be not wearing mascara, and not giving a damn about it instead of wearing it just to be judged upon.
Anyway, I’m not trying to play devil’s advocate or preech certain beliefs. Just a little sumthin’ sumthin’ to keep everyone entertained ;) It’s now 3:01am… - looks like I won’t be falling asleep anytime soon. Ah heck. maybe I’ll go make some food.
Apart from that my friend Nadine was nice enough to show me this awesome speech by Joss Whedon the creator of women protagonist characters such as Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly. He’s a firm believer and preacher of gender equality, and his reasons for creating these characters. I’m sure that you’ll find his reason (singular) quite obvious, and he made it too obvious that unfortunately after so many changes in everything that surrounds us… the core notions and beliefs that defines and differentiates the two genders have ceased to change with time and it’s only through creating these characters and feeding them through mass media that perhaps change will gradually begin. So I suppose we haven’t really gotten that far, but it’s nice to see someone else who gives a damn.
Enjoy :)
What I’m trying to talk about here is the morphed mirror. The notion that very media cookie-cutter idea of the “perfect woman” is not achievable. Even perfect women have insecurities, they don’t always feel adequate or that they belong. It’s almost everyday that we see someone we feel is perfect based on our ideas of perfection, but instead of walking with confidence - their body language signifies insecurity and lack of “something”. In my paintings I want to depict that insecurity that I capture that specific moment in time. I don’t think that I want to go the being a total activist route, but instead I want to be able to just gently surface that idea that even perfect women have insecurities, and that if we continue to allow the media to bombard us with these images we will no longer be able to feel happy with ourselves. There is no way or point to compare ourselves with the women in the media who dictate their lives into sculpting their bodies to make a living. We have things to do, and we have a life. I can’t really entirely blame the media itself, but it’s almost hard not to do that considering mass media is the only source of medium that glamorizes and rewards perfection. This idea seems too old, but at the same time it’s only too new for us to forget.
How Angela looked in those photographs. I have a tendency to take hundreds of action shots. In those I don’t even look at them until I get them transferred onto my laptop. What you see is surprising - these beautiful women who clearly seem to feel from their facial gestures, their body language that they don’t feel like they live up to the standards of our society.
I want us to relive those moments so that it reminds us that all these studies to do with how seriously inadequate women, for example if it’s a weight issue; that even when you do get to that desired weight- it doesn’t free yourself from comparing to others. Pretty girls feel bad too.
The exhibit was far better than I anticipated. Despite the crappy weather I’m glad that I made it down to Harbourfront to see the work of Pootoogook. What makes her work stand out from others is the variety of content that it contains compared to well; in this case a lot of static boring art that I’ve been seeing in various Second Cups (yes, it was getting very depressing). Her use of contemporary pop culture items to juxtapose images of natives dressed in traditional winter garments is a fascinating mixture. The perspective is then placed on how we perceive natives and their way of life, how they are fed popular culture through means of current media, but despite that still live in conditions that we all know could be improved from its current state. It saddens me to think that the “originals” to this land live in these conditions.
Content such as abuse (both substance and physical) and way of life are portrayed in such an indeterminate state that I cannot help but be thankful that these issues are addressed. Perhaps this is a silent outcry to the public that we really need to bring a more concrete way of life to the natives. Mass media feeds them what they feed to the rest of the developed fast paced world, but what they necessary is probably something a little different. The content simply does not compliment or enhance their way of life as their way of life is by far different than ours.
