CULTURAL POLITICS AND EN-GENDERING IDENTITIES Making Home
American Son What does it mean in the novel to be an American Son? Paradox benevolent assimilation versus domestic processes of racialization Symbolism of absentee father We are here because you were there Intersectionality of racialization National belonging racialization gendering sexualization US whiteness properly heteronormative & masculine Philippine browness savage, primitive, emasculated
EN-GENDERING IDENTITIES American Son - Performance of Chicano hypermasculinity as survival strategy Not dismantling racist/patriarchal system but attempting to beat it In the ao dai beauty pageants, how is Vietnamese femininity performed? And for what purpose?
Woman & Nation Womans body as synecdoche of national body Synecdoche – when a part comes to symbolize a whole Possession of womans body & possession of land Examples: Miss Lien & Ika Interlocking systems of colonial/militarized domination and patriarchal domination Woman as bearer of national culture & reproducer of nation Protection of women parallels protection of land – anticolonial yet patriarchal nationalisms Burden of women as symbol of national & cultural purity
Cultural Politics & Imaging National Identities What is cultural politics? culture (n) – the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterize an institution, organization or group How are those shared attitudes, values, goals and practices created? How do people come to identify as belonging to a common culture? Primarily through symbolism, narrative, ritual and creative productions you come to imagine yourself in community with others that all share the same culture
ao dai pageants & politics ao dai as counter-symbol of Communist uniform and symbol of alternate Vietnamese nationalism ao dai pageant: as celebration of Vietnamese feminine beauty in opposition to white beauty standard as tool for shaping 2 nd generation ethnic identity Ao dai pageant contradictions hybridized beauty?
Fil Am Cultural Politics & Palengke Pageants What is palengke-style politics? How do beauty pageants in the Filipino American community compare/contrast with the ao dai pageants? What type of Filipino American identity is created through palengke politics and its beauty pageants?