Cho Chen

I was watching the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix a few weeks ago when I spotted a lotus blossom. Harry's love interest in the movie is Ms. Cho Chen, a girl of Asian decent. The way she is portrayed in the film is synonymous with the Lotus Blossom stereotype. At first, she is only featured in glimpses stolen by Harry. She is seen as delicate and inaccessible. She is exotic because she is the only prominent Asian girl the viewer sees. Later on in the progress of the film, Harry and Cho finally get a moment alone together. She cries during their kiss and basically crumbles under Harry's attempts to make her feel better. Turns out Cho sells Harry and his friends out to the authorities and blows the plot out of the water. Then Harry discards her and refuses to talk to her for the rest of the movie. Cho goes from being a potential love interest and good girl to being a traitor. The Lotus Blossom theme doesn't line all the way up with this but it's similar. Cho doesn't tragically die from a disease in the end but in the world of high school she has committed social suicide. Maybe Cho will see better days in the next Potter movie but for now she's another tragic stereotype.

The Playhouse Dilemma

I was watching t.v. the other day and this commercial came on advertising a life size dream house for little girls. The commercial was going great. I thought, "That's cute, the little girl has her own place to go to do whatever she wants". Then I started noticing the things that she was doing in her playhouse. She was washing clothes with her cute little washer and dryer, she was baking muffins in her kitchen and serving her stuffed animals. Then I started thinking why is this little girl's dream house only contain a kitchen and a utility room? All of her activities involved doing house work. At the end of the commercial, there was also another version of the house geared toward living a royal life. It was the princess version of the former and I kind of liked it better because it didn't condition little girls to want to grow up to be housewives. I thought if I had a daughter she would definitely be getting a princess dream house. She'll probably be doing enough house work once she's an adult. I wouldn't want her waste her childhood cooking and cleaning too. I never see commercials for boy's toys that involve house work and I'm not too sure that girls need to be encouraged to think house work is fun either.

Cindy, Sarah and Michelle

Since Sarah Pailn came onto the political scene I've noticed something about the way potential first ladies Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama have been portrayed in entertainment news. I'm not sure how potential first ladies have been handled in the past by the press, but I get the feeling this time around that there is a celebrity watch on which one will have the best fashion sense once in the white house. I was watching an episode of Entertainment Tonight and I saw how Cindy, Sarah and Michelle were being marketed to women. I know that Entertainment Tonight's focus is on celebrity and not political policy but it was kind of interesting to watch. The piece was primarily over what the potential first ladies have worn throughout the campaign. Then there was another piece about Palin visiting a shooting range. The presidential candidates themselves were featured breifly but they didn't hold enough fashion flair to keep any serious air-time. Michelle and Cindy were portrayed as bodies mostly while Palin's ability to shoot a gun may have hinted at something sexual. When Cindy McCain was taped with her spouse, she was seated alongside him pictured from the waist up. The women were portrayed as serious at times but primarily all the pieces lacked substance. This is unfortunate to me that celebrity culture has seeped into politics in this way. It may be a great way to get people who aren't into politics to pay attention but when they tune into election coverage will they be looking at what Michelle Obama is wearing or listening towhat McCain's position is on the economy.

Girl Groups!

Okay, for once I have found a topic of interest that has to do with race and gender! Now let me start by clarifying that this blog will be a little biased. I am a hard core fan of P. Diddy's latest manufactured girl group Danity Kane. What I love about them, besides the fact that they make awesome music (bias alert!) is that there are three white members and two black members. Now I know this fact is not really a strange phenomenon but I love how it's not a big deal. That sounds weird I know but it's true. Diddy is pretty open minded when it comes to picking his group members for MTV's Making the Band series but that is another blog altogether. I'm not amazed at the whole girl group phenomenon, especially sucessful black female groups because that's old news... we're talking The Supremes all the way down to Destiny's Child. Usually these groups that are sucessful are always given their praises but there's always the underlying, "Oh, not only are they great but they happen to be black too." I'm a little tired of that especially since its 2008. That's why I like Danity Kane and the Making the Band series for putting talented black young musicians in with everybody else without making a huge deal about it. I think its a step in the right direction.

Update: Since this post Danity Kane has disbanded