Amanda Lau

GNDR 5960-003
Highlighting the Asian American Women Who Inspire My Definition of Female Empowerment
When having a conversation about modern day views on a hot topic such as feminism,
simple questions can often yield complicated answers, discussions can quickly become heated
debates, and consequently, the conversation withers into an unconstructive and inefficient
platform where the take home message for both parties is a blindsided point of disconnection.
Nevertheless, these remain important conversations to have, that a significant portion of todays
households, classrooms, and courthouses are not talking about enough. From my own
experiences, I have learned that sometimes starting them can be the hardest part, in part because
of the fragile nature of these talks to become explosive, hostile, condescending and attacking.
Specifically with feminism, conversations tend to spotlight black and white issues, at times
leaving other ethnic womens issues to struggle on the backburner. As an Asian American
woman, I would like to redirect the negative attention of a stigmatic topic such as feminism in a
more positive light, highlighting Asian American female empowerment and defining in my own
terms what it means to be an Asian American woman in America. The work of modern day
progressive feminists, social justice advocates, and hardworking female leaders in our Asian
American communities who shine as both mentors and role models to todays aspiring youth
informs my personal narrative of my own empowerment.
When I asked myself what Asian/Asian American female empowerment looked like in
the real world, I initially grew curious about what other people thought of it, especially my other
female colleagues. It was difficult for me to configure my own thoughts because as a group,

Asian American women continue to have underrepresented voices in the feminist movement
since its induction in the 60s. As feminist sociologist Esther Ngan-Ling Chow puts it in her 2000
article The Feminist Movement: Where Are All the Asian American Women?, she writes
[Asian American womens] relative lack of political activism stems from cultural,
psychological, and social oppressions which historically discourage them from organizing. This
resulted in their apparent political invisibility and powerlessness (Chow pg. 412). Although
Asian American women still endure marginalization and exclusivity in society, there has been an
undeniable outbreak of prominent female figures in modern society. Could it be the reputable
women CEOs running fortune 500 companies in the business industry? Names like Perenna Kei,
at 24 years old she is the worlds youngest billionaire with a net worth of US$1.3billion, or Yang
Huiyan, the richest woman in China and Asia with a net worth of US$8.75billion (Forbes.com).
Also theres the famed celebrities, athletes, and musicians seen in mainstream media, headlining
the entertainment industry; big names like Lucy Liu, Michelle Kwan, Christina Yamaguchi,
Maggie Q, Awkwafina, to list a few. Let us not forget the politicians, professors, and doctors,
whose thoughts could fill volumes, whose words could fill revolutionary minds with the
inspiration to instill change. Women like Karen Kwan, first Chinese American to run for Utah
House, whose campaign team I proudly serve on. Tricia Sugiyama, Japanese adviser to the Asian
American Student Association whose never-ending support pushes me to pursue my ambitions.
Dr. Evelyn V. Gopez, the Filipina Associate Dean of the U of U School of Medicine who
mentored me on the realities and expectations of medical school. Dr. Nguyet Bich Le, MD, a
Vietnamese family practitioner, who fought through the language barrier yet still taught me to
care about the patient, not the pension.

These women are so different from one another in many aspects, and yet I feel that the
one thing they all share in common is their willingness to go beyond the stereotypes against
Asian/Asian American women. In their own respective ways, they utilize their individual agency
to navigate their surroundings while being aware of their double disadvantaged positions as
members of a racial minority and as females, to learn about the structural sources of their
deprivation and social inequalities, and to acknowledge the need to resolve their unique
problems (Chow pg. 413). Take Dr. Nguyet Bich Le, MD for example; she took me out to lunch
one day after work and began to tell me her story in a quiet booth at a Wendys. She grew up in
Vietnam alongside a dozen siblings, most of them being older brothers, in poverty-stricken living
conditions. Her mother, a Buddhist monk who made no money who was also a single mother,
grew ill and could not provide the support her children desperately needed. Their family
immigrated to America, where life was a little better, but they were still barely getting by. Dr. Le
recalled having to sleep on the matted floor with her dozen siblings in a cramped single room
home, waking up early every morning to cook breakfast for her brothers and do everyones
laundry. Often they would only eat plain chao, or rice porridge, because that was all they had. As
a teenager, she recognized that she was a minority among so many white faces, struggling to
speak the language and to understand her teachers in the classroom. Despite these obstacles, Dr.
Le still wanted to do something to help her family, so she went out and got her first job as a
busser/server at the same exact Wendys we were sitting in. As she took a nostalgic bite from her
burger, she playfully pointed behind her and said, I used to clean those bathrooms, the boys one
too, it was so gross! I felt humbled sitting across from her, for me life had been so much easier.
As a young scholar, she studied harder than anyone else I know, and made it into her dream
school, University of California Irvine, with scholarships and honors. She continued on to

medical school to achieve her dream job as a family doctor. Today, she has over five thousand
lucky patients under her care, many of whom are people of color and unable to pay their medical
bills but Dr. Le does not mind it; she empathizes with their financial problems contrary to many
medical professionals who take up the position for the salary. I had the privilege of being an
intern for her when I was in high school; at work, I called her my boss and she called me her
daughter, now I call her one of my biggest role models. She was the one who influenced me to
seek a career in medicine, and although today I have switched paths to communications, Dr. Le
inspires me to work hard to make my dreams into a reality. Now every time I order Wendys, I
cannot help but think of her.
I believe that female empowerment is a trait that can be found within all women, because
with the title of woman, brings with it the overly normalized societal expectations that woman
continue to face. Labels I have indirectly experienced told against women by men include calling
women the lesser sex, or referring to them as their bitches, hoes, sluts, whores,
property, gold diggers, even rudimentary labels like their sandwich maker, overly
emotional, cows, cougars, prudes, the list goes on. Some stereotypes exemplify the
impression that all women are less capable than men at activities like driving, sports, manual
labor, managing finances, working in high paying jobs to name a few. These notions preclude
that women are inferior to men in many aspects, and are better suited at doing menial tasks like
sitting behind a desk, cooking meals in front of a hot stove, staying home to take care of chores
and children, etc. Not to demean women who do regularly perform these tasks but it is a
falsehood to mark that as the limit of their abilities. This way of thinking restricts women into
believing they are inferior, incapable, and dependent on men. Centuries of being rendered
helpless while racism, crime, drugs, poverty, depression, and violence robbed us of our men has

left us misguidedly over-protective, hopelessly male-identified, and all too often self-sacrificing
(Morgan pg. 416), and this sustained oppression hurts women into believing that their inferiority
is fact. The media tends to reinforce these stereotypes; as quoted from the hit 50s TV show,
Leave It to Beaver, Ward Cleaver tells his young son Walley, A woman's place is in the home so
she might as well be in the kitchen.
For Asian/Asian American women, their struggle encapsulates the dual stereotypes that
come with being a woman and an Asian. In western media, Asian/Asian American women are
commonly portrayed as mysterious, hypersexualized, subservient, foreign, and/or as prostitutes.
On the flip side, the characterization of these women can also be indicative of the derogatory
label dragon lady, or as defined by the New York Times as the wicked witch of the East, a
reptilian dragon lady who had arranged the poisoning, strangling, beheading, or forced suicide of
anyone who had ever challenged her autocratic rule (Shah). For Asian mothers, they are likely
called tiger moms for being stereotypically strict on their children. Other terms used to
describe Asian/Asian American women include Orientals, china dolls, exotic, ABG or
Asian Baby Girls, even just fetishes for their pale skin, silky black hair, petite frame, delicate
mannerisms, and wifey status. Stereotypes generally focus on East Asian as opposed to South
East and South Asian ethnicities. Aside from the numerous labels that are bestowed adversely
against Asian/Asian American women, arguments would say that among all the ethnicities,
Asian/Asian American women have it the easiest. Studies and statistics show that Asian/Asian
American women are paid the most out of all the other female groups, including white women,
with the smallest gender pay gap of 87% of mens salaries as compared to the 77% that white
women receive (Hill). Moreover, Asian/Asian American women are the most replied to group by
men on dating apps concerning heterosexual interactions (BuzzfeedYellow). What these numbers

do not talk about is the model minority myth that drives the ambitions of Asian/Asian American
women to pursue higher education and well-paying jobs, and the repercussions of that myth that
actually harm the psychological health of these women into feelings of subordination and
damaged self-esteem. They do not talk about how Asian women are fantasized by men with socalled yellow fever, and the destructive effects of being loved by a man not for your
personality but by the societal portrayal of their people as submissive and weak. Personally, I
do not feel it is validated to say that Asian/Asian American women have it the easiest because
with the complications of intersectionality between race and gender, I would say we just have it
different.
Coming from a Chinese heritage whose traditional culture is rich in patriarchal beliefs, I
know that women are not as appreciated as men are. It is to the point where I have to ask if I
were to be born in China rather than America as female, would I be destined for a wasted life
trapped down a well to be drowned and forgotten? If American society further embraced
femininity, and if more people recognized and celebrated female figures in their communities,
would that result in a domino effect of fewer women facing social oppression? I believe the
matter of deconstructing a question like this is substantial to tackle and address to our nations
youth, largely to young audiences, because I think it can dissolve the negative connotations
society pins against feminism and combat sexism and gender discrimination. As articulated in a
conversation between Joan Morgan and Mark Anthony Neal, Feminism is very often looked at
as women's work. It's the work of a society that intends to evolve into a better place. It's work
that men and women have to do together, and sometimes it feels like very isolating work
(Chang pg. 234) and this is a concept that I agree with strongly because for the ideologies of
feminism to be applied in a practical sense, all people regardless of their gender and race should

consciously participate. I think it is especially significant for individuals in college to be mindful

of their privileges and agencies in an academic setting, knowing that they are societys future
leaders and creators of media content. Of course all this is easier said than done, and it can also
be easy for men to simply pity women for falling prey to oppression, but I wanted a feminism
that would allow me to explore who we are as women--not victims (Morgan pg. 416).
Exploring the realm of hip hop feminism and Black feminist thought, I feel that as women, we
need a voice like our music--one that samples and layers many voices, injects its sensibilities into
the old and flips it into something new, provocative, and powerful (Morgan pg. 418). As the
world continues to change and beget tradition for innovation, so does our feminism.
I realize it is as much of an important question for me to better deconstruct my own
individual perceptions of female empowerment before I can delve into a productive conversation
with someone else about theirs; the very idea in and of itself sparks an inherently opinionated
dialogue. To me as an Asian American woman in academia navigating through a predominantly
white institution, female empowerment looks like the ordinary women of color who do not know
how extraordinary they are. Every single day, they lead their lives going beyond the stereotypes
against women, whose actions so often go unnoticed every day, yet never stop doing what they
do despite the fact. I teach myself to become a better person by aspiring to become an
empowering female figure myself, by learning from the actions of inspirational women around
me, from the words of the late feminists and hip-hop feminists before me, from the thoughts that
come within me informed by the world that surrounds me. Ways in which I feel I can empower
others is through the power of music, where I recently recorded and produced a track in
collaboration with a classmate titled Outcast Your Light, in which I expressed my past and
present day feelings on being an Asian American women. Next academic year I will be working

as a Campus Life Mentor for Women in Motion under the Office of Orientation & Leadership
Development, where I can proudly serve as a mentor to incoming female freshman and
encourage them to pursue student leadership positions, scholarships, etc.
What could the image of an empowering female look like? It could have been the woman
who brewed your coffee this morning at the drive-thru window. On top of being the coffee shops
full-time manager leading a team of male associates, she could simultaneously lead a double life
as a humble homemaker, bearing the look of a single mother who gets up extra early to make
breakfast and lunch for her kids. Her routine follows an inflexible pattern; drive the kids to
school, drive to work at the coffee shop, pick the kids up from childcare, fix everyone dinner and
somehow manage to squeeze in free time for herself. What others may call burdens and
restrictions she sees as the joys that expand her life as a mother and an independent woman. It is
likely that if she were a man, she would be paid more and be treated with more respect, despite
being acutely aware of this she takes pride in herself and her work. Regardless of whether or not
she is a single mother, it is undeniable that her children would someday grow up realizing how
strong of a woman she is if they took note of everything she had done for them. Not everyone
she comes across will know her for the multifaceted dimensions of her responsibilities, the dark
thoughts that cloud her mind during quiet nights, on top of the struggles that come along with
just being a woman. The example illustrated above just so happens to depict the life of a
Vietnamese American woman named Tien who I befriended in my SoCal hometown, who I have
always looked back on with great respect as an empowering female figure who gave her
everything every day expecting nothing in return. She passed a couple years ago from a fierce
battle against liver cancer, but her memory and legacy lives on in her two children, both of whom
are college bound and would surely make her proud.

The main issue that I am trying to address is whenever someone chooses to reinforce
stereotypes against Asian American women, even with comedic humor/satire void of malignant
intentions, this creates the oppositional divide between the sexes. This fabricates the inescapable
slut/virgin dichotomy that unfairly categorizes women as well as stipulates unrealistic
expectations of beauty at a young age, such as the desire of Asian women to be thin, wellmannered, studious and good cooks to appease their family. Take for instance the recent events
that occurred on The Colbert Report, where Stephen Colbert included a satirical yet offensive
remark, stating I am willing to show the Asian community I care by introducing the ChingChong, Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever. 23 year old activist
Suet Park retaliated with the hashtag #CancelColbert, which stirred much online commotion and
got conversations all over the Internet blogosphere to boil over. Some may argue that her actions
were conclusive to reform and lazy activism from her computer. It is undeniable that what she
managed to accomplish in such a short amount of time as an individual Asian American women
against a white, powerful, TV personality like Colbert was courageous and unprecedented of the
typecasts against Asian/Asian American women as being quiet and obedient. Suey was unafraid
to fight back though the odds were so unevenly matched against her, and swift to move beyond
the stereotype, and for that she has my respect and support. I hope the future of Asian American
female empowerment continues to progress in the media, arts, and music (especially in hip-hop),
with more positive Asian American women representation inspiring the minds of todays youth
to continue their legaSHE and critically think about their own gender journeys, in the ways that I
have experienced it for myself.
Stereotypes lead to prejudice lead to discrimination, and ultimately undermine the work
of feminists in their fight for the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. Taking into

account the darker regions of our humanity, there are men who inadvertently oppose the cause
for equality between the sexes, who view women, even young girls in third world countries, as
purely sexual objects that exist only for mens pleasure, and not as victims of sexual exploitation,
rape culture, domestic violence, molestation, human trafficking, etc. It is interesting to note the
dynamic prominence and prevalence of unhealthy male-female relationships where the female is
treated poorly and the male faces minimal repercussions is significant to me because I was able
to witness the after effects of this between my own parents. In a quote by Dr. Gwendolyn D.
Pough in her article entitled Love is My Feminism But Wheres My Hip-Hip? Shaping a Black
Feminist Identity, she writes Given the history of oppression women have suffered at the hands
of patriarchs who no doubt claimed to love them, it is not hard to imagine why love would be
thought of as suspect (Pough pg. 85). It makes you wonder about the legitimacy of love
between a man and a woman in spite of transparent layers of historical context that portray men
as the oppressors and women as the oppressed. I feel that in the context of Asian American
women who have felt oppressed by their male partners, knowing that the cultures of certain
Asian ethnicities tend to be highly male-centric, it is empowering for me to witness a women
who has been pushed down to get back on her feet and grow stronger from the experience. It is
equally as empowering for me to see partners who grow together, who are both aware of feminist
thinking and serve as social advocates to our communities.
Being raised by the care of my mother, who is legally married but emotionally/physically
separated from my father, I look back solemnly and think of all the ways in which my father
emotionally/physically oppressed her; they had a tumultuous, mentally abusive relationship,
which completely lacked trust, communication, and interestingly enough, a mutual
understanding of gender equality. I view my mother today as one of the single most influential

women in my life due to the success and happiness she has found as an independent woman,
upon putting her two kids in college, after the unfathomable pains she had dealt with in the past.
Much of what I do today as an undergraduate is to, more than anything else, make my mother
proud. I feel that hip-hop feminism has helped me to appreciate my mothers strength and to
view it as fuel for my own personal growth by reminding me to cherish and nurture the women
in my life. Women like StaceyAnn Chinn, who taught me to value my culture, my womanhood,
and the struggles of the mothers before me. Beyonc showed me that I can self-identity and
express myself creatively through the language of music as a way to empower others. Assata
Shakurs life story made me reminiscent of my younger years and to be grateful for the freedom I
have as an American. Lastly, my many grandmothers, my Nana, my jiu jius and my a yis
(aunties), and my mother, because we all go through the strife as Asian women in America
together.

Works Cited
Chang, J., A Brand-New Feminism: A Conversation between Joan Morgan and Mark Anthony
Neal from Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop.
Chow, E. "The Feminist Movement: Where Are All the Asian American Women?." Making
Sense of Women's Lives: An Introduction to Women's Studies (2000): 412.
Hill, C. The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap (2014). The American Association of
University Women.
Morgan, J., Hip-Hop Feminist from Thats The Joint! The Hip-Hop Studies Reader.
Pough, G., Love My Feminism But Wheres My Hip-Hop? Shaping a Black Feminist Identity
from Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Todays Feminism.
Shah, S., Slaying the Dragon Lady: Toward an Asian American Feminism from Dragon Ladies:
Asian American Feminists Breathe Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjSh_esW9W4. BuzzfeedYellow. "Do You Have A Racial
Preference?" Youtube. 9 April 2014. Web. 2 May 2014.