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Sunday, July 15, 2012

Say my name, say my name

Reading this post in PERIL, linked to on a previous post by shinenigan, got me thinking more about something that happened to me yesterday.

A friend (and colleague) and I were talking about the many situations in which schools will allow a student to informally change their name, without having to go through some process of filling out forms and getting approved by the school bureaucracy (or even more burdensome, having to go to court to get an order of name change).

This was in the context of making the case that if schools allowed students to easily change their names, they should not be singling out transgender or gender non-conforming students for especially burdensome name-change requirements when they requested to be called by their preferred name.

As some background, my colleague is White. We were talking with another attorney who was Chinese (like me). My colleague and I were quickly listing the contexts in which non-transgender students might ask for, and routinely get, an informal name change: in the case of a divorce, a student might change their last name to the custodial parent's; a student might prefer to use their middle name; a student might prefer to use an abbreviation of their full name (e.g., John instead of Jonathan, Nick instead of Nicholas). Then my colleague added that a student with a non-Anglo name might choose to take on an Anglo name.

This brought me up short. I was a little stunned, to be honest. I don't think that my colleague was intending to bring up the entire background of "othering," of Asian people feeling never quite at home in a country (indeed, because of colonization, a world) full of Anglo names. I wanted to say: let's be clear - informally taking on an Anglo name is not a preference, it is almost necessarily a (somewhat bitter) compromise. The deal is: I'll take on a less "foreign" sounding name, and you accept me as fully a member of this school community. Unfortunately, of course, since racism persists (yes! even among schoolchildren!), the deal is never made good on.

Anyway, that's sort of what was running through my head, but I didn't say anything at the time. Partly because I didn't feel that strongly about it right then (or am I numb to the pain of racism?), and partly because I didn't want to get into a whole discussion about it at the time (it was lunch!). Today, I decided to send an email to my friend about it. Here's what I wrote:

I just wanted to drop you a note about one of the examples you used when we were talking informally . . . about situations in which students get a school to acknowledge and respect a preferred name. You gave as one example that some students with non-Anglo names would adopt a name that's easier for people to say. I totally agree that this is a not uncommon practice, and that you are right that many teachers probably are almost even relieved to make the switch to the more Anglo name, but I wanted to let you know that it brought up the whole history of racism and xenophobia in this country for me.I didn't feel THAT strongly about it at the time (or I would have told you right away, of course!), but it did make me somewhat uneasy, and when I was thinking about this later, I thought I'd let you know. Part of me feels like, even though it's actually a great example of a common reason for students to use a preferred name over the name given at birth, that it risks bringing up that whole history for someone in the room. We were talking about it informally in a small circle of friends, so that was obviously less risky!However, I think that if we use this example in public (and I kind of want to at some point), we should acknowledge that part of what's going on there is a kind of compromise with a racist society, and that this is something people of color do all the time to have some safety or to not constantly be overtly "othered". I'm sure there's some less "heavy" way to acknowledge that, of course, and would love to get your ideas.I thought that you did a great job acknowledging a related issue with gender identity and medical intervention (that some trans people decide not to change their bodies in a particular socially-prescribed way, acknowledging that it's society that has a problem with their bodies, not them, and that all people deserve respect for their gender identity whatever medical intervention they have or have not had).

Friday, July 13, 2012

Some examples of Asian Third Wavery

This is an expansion, likely part of a series, of my previous post on "Third Wave Asian Poco Asian Politik"

Just wanted to share just a few examples of what I've been reading/exposing myself to in considering a 'third wave' sort of expression.





The excellent Asian-Australian blog Peril 



(in reference, mockingly, to way that of waves of Chinese and Japanese gold rush migration to Australia and the USA were seen as 'Yellow Peril')...


And a sample of some emblematically 'third wave'-type articles, by Eurasian Sensation:


And, just for a bit of historicism on the specificities of difference between Asians in Australia and Asians in the USA (where Asian-Americans start to become hegemonic, at least for me, in representations of diasporic Asian folks in the English-speaking world... to the extent that we ever get a chance at hegemony):




Here is an excellent article by queer Shanghainese-Melburnian Lia Incognita, also on the same blog:
with this gorgeous quote, "For me, it’s the hairstyle of Yellow Peril. It’s what Chinese people looked like when white Australians were still shit scared of us, before all that model minority crap which is intended to divide people of colour from each other."

Lia Incognita also has an incredible poem, "Typography"... you can listen to it on the link, or you can read it, at the bottom of their tumblr:

(a rendering of Lia Incognita by Aron Hemingway for the Melbourne Poetry Map.)





The Asian American blog, Angry Asian Man

is another excellent example of this 'straddling' of multiple loyalties; partially 2nd-wavey in formation (in its interest in representations of Asian Americans in mainstream white-dominated media), as well as with lots of 3rd-wavey zeal (sometimes ironic (re-)appropriations of Asiatic motifs in self-representation)








The excellent book, by gay Japanese American law professor Kenji Yoshino, called "Covering"




from his website review:
"Everyone covers. To cover is to downplay a disfavored trait so as to blend into the mainstream. Because all of us possess stigmatized attributes, we all encounter pressure to cover in our daily lives. Given its pervasiveness, we may experience this pressure to be a simple fact of social life.

Against that conventional understanding, Kenji Yoshino argues that the demand to cover can pose a hidden threat to our civil rights. Though we have come to some consensus against penalizing people for differences based on race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, and disability, we still routinely deny equal treatment to people who refuse to downplay differences along these lines. Racial minorities are pressed to “act white” by changing their names, languages, or cultural practices. Women are told to “play like men” at work. Gays are asked not to engage in public displays of same-sex affection. The devout are instructed to minimize expressions of faith, and individuals with disabilities are urged to conceal the paraphernalia that permit them to function. In a wide-ranging analysis, Yoshino demonstrates that American civil rights law has generally ignored the threat posed by these covering demands. With passion and rigor, he shows that the work of civil rights will not be complete until it attends to the harms of coerced conformity."






More to come.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Third Wave Poco Asian Politik

from AngryAsianMan


A reflection on Waves.
I first learned of the metaphor of 'waves' of activist leanings from feminism. While arguably Eurocentric in its articulation, I still find it a helpful metaphor when considering some of the emergent sense of identity in being Asian in Australia.



Briefly, and from wikipedia:
1st Wave feminism
focuses on de jure inequalities (or sex/gender-based inequality enshrined in law)... The first of the most important struggles was/is of that to vote (to participate as full citizens in a nation).

"Women deserve the right to vote"

2nd Wave feminism
sees a slow shift to de facto inequalities (or sex/gender-based inequality enshrined in non-state-based institutional practices, as well as in socio-cultural norms). One of the major cultural issues I see at play here is, in particular, the importance of advocating for increased participation of women in historically demarcated 'male' or 'masculine' spheres of influence (e.g. 'public' spheres, managerial/government positions, etc.)

"Equal pay for Equal work!"
"Rights, not Roses!"
"The Personal is Political!"


3rd Wave feminism
sees yet another shifting disposition, into politicising the intersectionality of gender as one of and among many factors that constitute the lived material reality of women's lives. Thus a focus on pluralism, multiculturalism, inclusivity of sexual diverse, transnational discourse, migrant women's issues (as opposed, strictly, to woman-as-citizen) etc.
Here also: the 'reclamation' (or simple 'claiming') and radical valuation of positions historically constructed/demeaned as female/feminine: e.g. Slut-walks, 'lipstick feminism,' etc.

"The Master's tools will never dismantle the Master's house" (Audre Lorde)
"Stop slut shaming!"




Once again, I recognise that this is a very broad and sweeping brushstroke. I certainly do not mean to diminish the diversity and specificity of the actual histories and herstories of feminism(s) as it/they have unfolded til the present and hereafter.

My interest here is not in feminism per se,
but about the way that feminism, as a movement (or series of movements) has been historicised into 'waves'.
(i.e. my interest is not in history, but in historiography)


Can this metaphor of waves be helpful in considering the unfolding of postcolonial/diasporic Asian-ness (within Euro-/Anglo- American/Australian-dominant spaces)?



Here is a beginning stab at what this might mean:

1st Wave Poco Asian Politik
We see first the waves of migrants from Asian countries into European/White-dominated national settings, fighting around de jure inequalities... Most simply: To be regarded as naturalised citizens. Sometimes, historically, at least in the USA, as far as I know, this has taken on the fight by some ethnic migrants (particularly those of Indian and Japanese descent, as far as I am aware) to be regarded as "White" by the state (and thus be conferred citizenship).

"Let me be a citizen!"


2nd Wave Poco Asian Politik
We see new naturalised Asian citizens struggling around de facto inequalities, particularly pertaining to profession and cultural membership. These include being seen as individuals in highly individualistic cultures, politics of representation in historically white-dominant spaces. For some Asian men (certainly for myself), this can sometimes take on a body-politik of fashioning myself as passably 'masculine,' given Eurocentric body-/and behavioural norms.

"I speak English!"
"Asian men can be muscular / hot / athletic!"



3rd Wave Poco Asian Politik
Here, the issue of intersectionality... And also about the 'reclamation' (or simple 'claiming') and radical valuation of positions historically constructed as Asian/"Asiatic," particularly by those who experience the entitlements and privileges of citizenship.

"RESPECT: Take your shoes off when you come into my home"


Let's see how this one unfolds...

Acknowledging, for now, some of my limitations in this post:
Where women have been constructed as Euro-/White-/American women
and examples of Poco Asian Politik have been male...
No explicitly queer examples ------>        >:(

Wanting to expand and rectify in future posts.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Techno Narrative for Tuesday

As late afternoon light dwindles to make way for early evening dark,
grey skies; smoky, dusty dusk
I sit here with incandescent glow of my Apple iMac swindling me of my attention...

A re-join of Facebook as I end my fast... one of many, periodically
pendulum swinging between engagement with my virtual community commons
and solitude with my Amazon Kindle, without any further thoughts of
publishing my commentary in hopes of being Liked by those whose names I might forget
without the internet as my memory bank.

I google Google's commitment to Legalise Love worldwide, the behemoth's support of decriminalisation of homosexuality;
And I consider how much Singapore has changed since I grew up there...
Population almost doubled, new Mandarin-speaking Chinese migrants making the island republic their home
and labour laws still punishing the incumbent homosexual from ever allowing publicity of his or her
wish to be taken seriously...

Perhaps the internet changes this, perhaps this has already changed, significantly...
We hear of the collective intelligence, a global consciousness feeding into Wikis and Leaks of classified, prohibited Intelligence;
rendering translucent what may once have been inaccessibly opaque,
from governments and banks and corporatised bullies.

In the meantime, Time magazine says I am the Person of the Year, but I feel like a Fraud;
I flatten my buttocks imagining social change
and the seas still acidify from rising CO2 levels; I turn on my heater because it is a punishing Melbourne winter...
Coral reefs die
and Ice caps melt
and I pendulum swing from hope to despair and then back again
Still allowing myself the time to safely consider shifting meanings of Work and Love and Play and Justice

I think about money; I think about Chinese workers from elsewhere settling elsewhere picking up Else's language and speaking it fluently within half a generation
I am a descendant of Chinese migrants; several generations, several seas away.
I am melancholy about the meaning of a rising China (in deadlock)

I read Fridae.asia religiously because I bond my sexuality with my racialised global identity and allow this to speak through me in English, and I receive news of Others' journeys in turn, from such Enlightened forums arising out of primordial cyber-chaos.

Kate Bush sings out of Logitech speakers her 50 Words for Snow, and I am shivering under fleece, waiting for Friends to play on Channel 90 on the telly; my favourite show from the 90s...
Some vestige of a time I was ever-forgiving of the heteronormative, white liberal New York-centric medium that promised me American cool in exchange for my embeddedness in Southeast Asia...

Now I am rootless, yet nutrified by Global media as hydroponically grown Diasporic bean.
Who shall I become? I dissolve into these words and imagine myself thus gone,
even though I have yet, thus, to come.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Different Happinesses


Our standards of happiness shift as we age...

I remember, when I was younger, associating the term 'happiness' with excitement and adventure, while, as I've got older (and indeed, as my peer network has gotten older in turn), I am more likely to associate the term 'happiness' with peacefulness, contentment, and serenity...





So I may see a picture of this child, and project traits in them that are typically associated with older people: Maturity, wisdom... "old for their age"


Or:





I might see a picture of these older people and project traits in them, at least for this circumstance, that are typically associated with younger people: Feisty, playful, excitable... "young for their age"

Contingency and Essentiality

My reflections on this piece: 
"The Poetics of Subalternity"
by Michelle Cahill



"The essential argument of [Gayatri Chakravorty] Spivak['s piece, "Can the Subaltern Speak"] is that when the gendered subaltern performs an act of resistance without the infrastructure that would make us recognise resistance, her act goes unnoticed, it is not registered as a sovereign speech act. Or in other words, it is not that she cannot act or speak, it is that there is nobody listening. Subalternity provides us with a powerful metaphor then. It enables us to more fully acknowledge that it is the sovereign speech act, the endorsement, the registration of identity within speech that ultimately confers agency or subjectship."


Both ‘Contingency’ and ‘Essentiality’ are themselves contingent concepts.

To privilege contingency is to also forget its also metaphorical, amorphous nature... the term itself points to no-Thing in particular, and yet... After all... contingency is also the ‘nature’ of all phenomena. In other words, we could just as easily say that “the essence of all things is their inessence, their contingency”… Which is not, therefore, to suggest that there is NO essence, but rather that there is not one discrete thing that we will find anywhere..

For the subject who has political agency, it is powerful and important to stress Contingency, or relationality… We have seen all too often the pathologies of essentialism here, or self-reification, particularly for people with power. The emphasis on relationality here brings forth a potential for transformation of the self and its antecedent social structures, which can ripple out in the service of all of us.

However, this is only and especially relevant for the subject who not only HAS political agency, but who also is conscious of the agency she has.

For the person who is experiencing a vaulted sense of his own victimhood… The emphasis on relationality may not only be painful to hear (i.e. “You have no inherent self, your sense of your own victimhood is related to others keeping power, etc. etc.”), but it is also potentially cruel.

This is not to dispense with relational language entirely… It is simply that, it needs to be more strategically deployed: The victim in relation to those who can lend their support, rather than as determined exclusively and by definition in its relationality with the oppressor/perpetrator.


As Cahill writes, "Strategic essentialism can be a useful way for minority groups to utilise their common ground to achieve political goals."


Here, to add language which stresses an independence of selfhood (such as a sense of bounded self which can rely on other ‘selves’ for support) may be as helpful as relational language. 

“I am my own person!” 
“I am strong!” 
“I can do this!” 
“I believe in myself!”

In this integration of Contingency and Essentiality, my self-identity (in both the individual and collective self-sense) needs to be made coherent, on its own terms, while resisting both the monolith of a rigid, inflexible Guardedness, as well as another extreme of a forever deeply oppositional relationship to the Privileged Other.

Here: Self-Esteem...