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Announcements. Papers back at end of class Please read notes! Candlelight Vigil – Fri 6pm 4855 Seminole Drive Last classes: Th 12/5: Homebound , Ch 8 T 12/10: Homebound, Ch 9 Final Exam: Tues 12/17, 10:30 to 12:30am in this classroom. Final Exam.
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Announcements • Papers back at end of class • Please read notes! • Candlelight Vigil – Fri 6pm • 4855 Seminole Drive • Last classes: • Th 12/5: Homebound, Ch 8 • T 12/10: Homebound, Ch 9 • Final Exam: Tues 12/17, 10:30 to 12:30am in this classroom
Final Exam • closed note, closed book, cumulative exam • must swap clean blue books • Part 1 – Identification of terms (40 points total possible) • given 6 possible terms, must choose 5 to identify • review lecture slides and terms not tested on in midterm • Part 2 – Essay (60 points total possible) • given 2 possible essays, must choose 1 to write • review The Gangster We Are All Looking For and Homebound • Do not merely summarize. Must discuss the relationships between the two texts.
The Good Filipina Race, Gender, Sexuality & The Politics of Home
Changing Gender Roles & Family Structures • pre-1965 vs post-1965 San Diego Filipino American community • Filipino naval masculinities • racialized to perform feminized labor • transnational assertion of masculinity • use of skills to maintain family • Filipina professional feminity • earning power = independence & authority • persistence of double burden & familial pressure “These life accounts tell us that the pursuit of the American dream, even when ‘successful,’ entails physical and psychic costs, the majority of which are borne by the wives and children of these families” (156)
Race, Gender, Sexuality • just as race is a social formation so is gender; the two are entwined but not equivalent • gendered expectations are also sexualized expectations • race, gender, and sexuality are thus deeply related to each other • to be racialized is to be gendered is to be sexualized • Ex: Old Spice Guy
DOMINANCE FEMININE MASCULINE SUBMISSIVENESS
Feminized Asia • passive femininity of Asian women = metaphor and sign of passiveness of Asia to western colonialism • Ex: Katy Perry’s AMA Performance • Ex: Miss Saigon • Ex: Puccini’s Madame Butterfly • material consequences of western dominance in Asia: • military sex industry • sex tourism • mail-order bride phenomena • exportation of Filipinas as care givers • “In this context, all Filipinas were racialized as sexual commodities, usable and expendable” (165)
Racialized Sexuality & (Im)morality • “Sexuality, then, as a core aspect of social identity, is fundamental to the structuring of gender inequality. Sexuality is also a salient mark of otherness and has figured prominently in racist and colonialist ideologies” (164) • But is the Filipina really naturally more sexually available or is that a symptom of Americanization? • “Within the context of the dominant culture’s pervasive hypersexualization of Filipina women, the construction of the ‘ideal’ Filipina – as family oriented and chaste – can be read as an effort to reclaim the morality of the community” (167)
Policing Pinay Sexuality • “female morality – defined as women’s dedication to their families and sexual restraint – is one of the few sites where economically and politically dominated groups can construct the dominant group as the other and themselves as superior” (160) • Filipinos as having the “right” family values – emphasis on familial duty, responsibility, religiosity and morality • “The elevation of female chastity (particularly that of young women) has the effect of reinforcing masculinist and patriarchal power in the name of a greater ideal of national and ethnic self respect” (158). Consequences of control: • double standards for sons/daughters • compulsory heterosexuality • limited independence • gendered, sexualized, & cultural shaming
Pure Pinays • sexual purity becomes equivalent to cultural purity • If a Filipina is disobedient and promiscuous, she has become too “American” • “as immigrant parents, they have the authority to determine if their daughters are ‘authentic’ members of their racial-ethnic community… the parental accusation of ‘you are not Filipina enough’ essentially strips the second generation of all meaningful identity, rendering them doubly homeless” (175) • 1995 CDC Survey of SD High Schools: Filipinas have the highest rates of suicidal ideation (45.6%) and actual suicide attempts (23%) (177)
Questions • How is cultural identity “a matter of ‘becoming’” (179)? • How do second-generation Filipina/o Americans both resist & embrace assimilation into America? • How is the home-making of second-generation FilAms different from the home-making of their first generation parents?