Hi, I've looked more into the sexuality articles I mentioned in class today and think they'd be great for the next class:
1) Looking for My Penis - Richard Fung. Examines emasculation of gay Asian American males in pornography
2) The Joy Fuck Club: Prolegomenon to an Asian American Porno Practice, Darrell Y. Hamamoto. Hypersexualization/eroticization of Asian American women in porn.
3) Creating, Curating, and Consuming Queer Asian American Cinema, Ji Han and Marie Morohoshi. An interview w/ the director of the annual San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF).
FYI,
These 3 readings are all fairly short reads, about the same lengths as most of the chapters in our reader.
Also, here are the descriptions of the 2 books that look promising:
1) One Way or Another:
Contemporary Asian American artists––with a strong sense of being American and an acute critical consciousness of world matters––grapple with issues of identity in a way that sets them apart from their predecessors. Whereas many Asian American artists of a previous generation directly referred to an Asian sense of self in their works, it can be argued that younger Asian American artists only sometimes make reference to it or omit it entirely.
This creatively designed book focuses on recent works by seventeen Asian American artists born in the late 1960s and 1970s––including Patty Chang, Kaz Oshiro, and Jean Shin––to explore this pivotal generation of artists, the prevalent themes in their art, and the different ways they configure identity in their work. One Way or Another features examples of painting, sculpture, and video and installation art––many previously unpublished––and includes essays that discuss the shifting meaning of Asian America over the last decade and address the issues of mixed heritage and the emergence of an evolving Asian American identity in an increasingly globalized society.
2) Fresh Talk/Daring Gazes:
Fresh Talk/Daring Gazes chronicles the blossoming of Asian American art and anticipates the growing democratization of American art and culture. Pairing work by twenty-four contemporary Asian American visual artists with responses provocatively drawn from cultural critics, other artists, activists, and intellectuals, this book explores themes of geographical movement, the sexuality of Asian bodies, colonization, miscegenation, hybrid forms of immigrant cultures, the loss of home, war, history, and memory.
Elaine H. Kim's historical introduction charts the trajectory of Asian American art from the nineteenth century to the present, offering a comprehensive account of artists, major artworks, and major events. Commentaries by writers, artists, and cultural activists examine the work of visual artists such as Pacita Abad, Albert Chong, Y. David Chung, Allan deSouza, Michael Joo, Hung Liu, Yong Soon Min, Manuel Ocampo, PipoNguyen-Duy, Roger Shimomura, Carlos Villa, and Martin Wong. Prominent artists and critics such as Homi K. Bhabha, Luis Camnitzer, Enrique Chagoya, Gina Dent, Ellen Gallagher, Arturo Lindsay, Kobena Mercer, Griselda Pollock, Jolene Rickard, Faith Ringgold, Ella Shohat, Lowery Stokes Sims, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie offer thought-provoking reflections on each artist. Sharon Mizota's extended captions further elucidate the paintings, graphics, photography, installations, and mixed-media constructions under discussion.
As a set of dialogues, simultaneously visual and textual, Fresh Talk/Daring Gazes encourages the cross-cultural conversation that is shaping the emerging art of Asian Americans and of the United States in general. Alternately personal, intellectual, aesthetic, and political, these essays and the art they consider provide unique perspectives on both the past and the future of American art.
From the Inside Flap
"Godzookie Lives! Kim, Machida, and Mizota have opened up a whole new series of conversations on identity within a varied and distinguished group of artists and writers. And we get to eavesdrop. The artists are Asian American, the respondents are from all over the map, and the results are in turn scholarly, political, intimate, and provocative. This dialogic form, across cultures, across generations, brings a breath of fresh air to cultural studies."--Lucy R. Lippard, author of Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America
"This wonderfully rich collection is three big projects stuffed into one: critical essays that help us theorize and historicize the Asian American art of the past and present; a generous sampling of contemporary artworks, accompanied by provocative and informative captions; and a series of responses to the efforts of individual artists by a wide range of intellectuals and activists. Altogether, we discover Asian American art at the crossroads of history, theory, criticism, and practice. Scholarly and sassy, personal and critical, this book stakes out an emerging and exciting field."--Anthony W. Lee, author of Picturing Chinatown: Art and Orientalism in San Francisco
"This brilliantly original collection of essays and images overflows with experimental energy and ideas. Structured to foreground difference and to reflect theoretical, historical, and poetic perspectives, Fresh Talk/Daring Gazes radically redraws the cultural profile of Asian America."--Mark Johnson, co-curator of With New Eyes: Toward an Asian American Art History in the West
"Fresh Talk/Daring Gazes chronicles the coming of age of a distinct category in the American art scene. This paradigm-setting book collects together major voices in Asian American art and art criticism, literally acting as a visual and textual declaration that Asian American art has finally arrived."--Shu-mei Shih, author of The Lure of the Modern
28 February 2008
25 February 2008
related to last week's topic
HAHA - I found this on slashfood.com:
No fruit in that snack? I could have told you that.
Posted Feb 25th 2008 2:00PM by Shayna Glick
Filed under: Snacks, British Isles, Business, Fruit, Food Quest
I was just reading about a survey done by a U.K. group called the Food Commission. The group looked at several products that were fruit flavored (they actually concentrated on strawberry flavored foods) to see what the actual fruit content was. Well, it wasn't so great. Only about 40% of the products had any fruit in them at all, and those that did only had minimal amounts.
The Food Commission is upset. They say that the products which have no fruit but are flavored and have that fruit pictured all over the packaging are misleading consumers, at the very least. But in this day and age, with all the studies that have been done and all the information available, can anyone really claim to not know what they're eating? Maybe companies can be misleading on packaging, but they can't outright lie on the label information (though they do find tricky ways around some information).
I just assume that big corporations are lying to me. I assume that anything in a box or other packaging has very little nutrition, especially real fruit. If a food says it's fruit flavored and has that picture on the front, you still need to read the ingredient label to know what you're really eating. I feel like people should take charge of their own consumption. Read the label. Then if you still eat it, at least you know what you're getting.
No fruit in that snack? I could have told you that.
Posted Feb 25th 2008 2:00PM by Shayna Glick
Filed under: Snacks, British Isles, Business, Fruit, Food Quest
I was just reading about a survey done by a U.K. group called the Food Commission. The group looked at several products that were fruit flavored (they actually concentrated on strawberry flavored foods) to see what the actual fruit content was. Well, it wasn't so great. Only about 40% of the products had any fruit in them at all, and those that did only had minimal amounts.
The Food Commission is upset. They say that the products which have no fruit but are flavored and have that fruit pictured all over the packaging are misleading consumers, at the very least. But in this day and age, with all the studies that have been done and all the information available, can anyone really claim to not know what they're eating? Maybe companies can be misleading on packaging, but they can't outright lie on the label information (though they do find tricky ways around some information).
I just assume that big corporations are lying to me. I assume that anything in a box or other packaging has very little nutrition, especially real fruit. If a food says it's fruit flavored and has that picture on the front, you still need to read the ingredient label to know what you're really eating. I feel like people should take charge of their own consumption. Read the label. Then if you still eat it, at least you know what you're getting.
schedule change?
I know I'll probably ask yall about this in class tomorrow, but would anybody else want to make a :slight: modification to the class schedule - meet twice the R before spring break, and then skip class the T after spring break?
My dad is having surgery the week AFTER spring break (bad timing, I know), and I won't be in class that week bc I need to go home and make sure everything turns out OK. I know that absences are strongly discouraged, since there's so few of us in the class, so I thought maybe if we had back-to-back classes the week before break, we could skip the T class after? Or is there any other make up time that would work well? I'd still be missing that R class, but hopefully 1 absence won't be that bad. I'll def. be an avid blogger that week though in order to (sort of) compensate for my absences.
-Justin
My dad is having surgery the week AFTER spring break (bad timing, I know), and I won't be in class that week bc I need to go home and make sure everything turns out OK. I know that absences are strongly discouraged, since there's so few of us in the class, so I thought maybe if we had back-to-back classes the week before break, we could skip the T class after? Or is there any other make up time that would work well? I'd still be missing that R class, but hopefully 1 absence won't be that bad. I'll def. be an avid blogger that week though in order to (sort of) compensate for my absences.
-Justin
21 February 2008
Healthier Lunches
Check out these websites about the Natural Ovens Healthy Lunch Program that popped up in Appleton, Wisconsin. It cost $20,000 more but I guess offsetting the cost would be less kids in jail.
http://www.naturalovens.com/lib/content/default/schools/3b20f9fc17401af81394cf3947a89590/Schools.pdf
or
http://www.feingold.org/PF/wisconsin1.html
http://www.naturalovens.com/lib/content/default/schools/3b20f9fc17401af81394cf3947a89590/Schools.pdf
or
http://www.feingold.org/PF/wisconsin1.html
New ASAM 197?!?
This is what Shiyuan sent us all. What do you think? Anything you'd like to change, add, omit?
ASAM 197: Asian American Activism through the Arts
Course Description:
The course is designed to provide students with the greatest opportunity to enrich themselves in Asian American studies through the course material and leadership inside the classroom. The overall success of this course rests solely on the commitment of each individual student.
Our pedagogical model is based on the experiences of learning through teaching. As such, students’ course grades will reflect feedback from their classmates and the faculty collaborator.
Through creative expression, artists work to confront, challenge, and disrupt commonly accepted forms of cultural, racial, ethnic, gender, class, sexual, and national identities. On both individual and the community level, artwork has the great potential to engage its audience in a conversation about important and often ignored social issues. Rather than thinking about art as a benign pastime, we urge you to treat the creation and consumption of artwork as a political act that can be wholly transformative on many levels.
This course is designed to encourage students towards a sustained analysis of artistic expression born from the Asian American project with a focus on the sociohistorical context in which it was produced and consumed. To do so, this course will examine the role of art in identity formation on the individual, social, and ideological levels. That is, this course will ask: In what ways has art been able to advance different social and political agendas? What types of power can art harness? And how have issues of gender and sexuality been confronted in art?
The texts for this course will include performance art, such as dance and spoken word; visual arts, such as films and documentaries; photographs; paintings; murals; and different forms of mixed media.
Lastly, we hope that this course will encourage students to support local Asian American art events with their participation and attendance as well as their boundless creativity.
ASAM 197: Asian American Activism through the Arts
Course Description:
The course is designed to provide students with the greatest opportunity to enrich themselves in Asian American studies through the course material and leadership inside the classroom. The overall success of this course rests solely on the commitment of each individual student.
Our pedagogical model is based on the experiences of learning through teaching. As such, students’ course grades will reflect feedback from their classmates and the faculty collaborator.
Through creative expression, artists work to confront, challenge, and disrupt commonly accepted forms of cultural, racial, ethnic, gender, class, sexual, and national identities. On both individual and the community level, artwork has the great potential to engage its audience in a conversation about important and often ignored social issues. Rather than thinking about art as a benign pastime, we urge you to treat the creation and consumption of artwork as a political act that can be wholly transformative on many levels.
This course is designed to encourage students towards a sustained analysis of artistic expression born from the Asian American project with a focus on the sociohistorical context in which it was produced and consumed. To do so, this course will examine the role of art in identity formation on the individual, social, and ideological levels. That is, this course will ask: In what ways has art been able to advance different social and political agendas? What types of power can art harness? And how have issues of gender and sexuality been confronted in art?
The texts for this course will include performance art, such as dance and spoken word; visual arts, such as films and documentaries; photographs; paintings; murals; and different forms of mixed media.
Lastly, we hope that this course will encourage students to support local Asian American art events with their participation and attendance as well as their boundless creativity.
huh?
i'm a little confused, bc i thought we were gonna do the job ad after class today, but then everybody just sort of disseminated? well, i mean, i guess since we can set our own deadlines, it's not that big of a deal. so ian and sarah, should we stay next tuesday after class to work on it or what?
also, i know i was supposed to facilitate today, and i actually had some interesting things to talk about in our discussion. but i think i already said this to all of you, but i just felt like this week's readings couldn't produce much intense reaction. so, i'm fine w/ just omitting today's classtime and going on w/ the syllabus if everybody else is feeling the same thing. i mean, i'm not trying to cop out of being the facilitator, but i just felt like there wasn't that much we could have talked about on tuesday or today. also, i'll have another week of facilitation in like 5 weeks anyways, so i'll just try to be an extra good facilitator then! also, i brought macaroons on tuesday and monkey bars today so that should count for something haha.
anyways, just wanted to see if yall were on the same page. also, what did we thing about the talk today? i liked it, but i wish i had known more about the actresses she was referring to prior to going to the talk, bc some parts were a little hard to follow if you weren't already familiar w/ the subject matter!
also, i know i was supposed to facilitate today, and i actually had some interesting things to talk about in our discussion. but i think i already said this to all of you, but i just felt like this week's readings couldn't produce much intense reaction. so, i'm fine w/ just omitting today's classtime and going on w/ the syllabus if everybody else is feeling the same thing. i mean, i'm not trying to cop out of being the facilitator, but i just felt like there wasn't that much we could have talked about on tuesday or today. also, i'll have another week of facilitation in like 5 weeks anyways, so i'll just try to be an extra good facilitator then! also, i brought macaroons on tuesday and monkey bars today so that should count for something haha.
anyways, just wanted to see if yall were on the same page. also, what did we thing about the talk today? i liked it, but i wish i had known more about the actresses she was referring to prior to going to the talk, bc some parts were a little hard to follow if you weren't already familiar w/ the subject matter!
20 February 2008
CSU Community Work
For those of you who didn't get Jessica's email:
Check out the link. It's pretty cool!
Using food as a tool to organize communities of color around issues of
access, self-reliance, nutrition, and the political economy of food
production, CSU works with youth of color in South L.A. schools to
grow organic vegetables that are then super-affordable to the
community.
CSU's magic is incredible-- they have created abundant gardens out of pavement
(both literally and metaphorically).
> > >
> > > If you want to see some of the community work that has impressed me so,
> > > check out CSU on their website... they just posted a few new videos
> > > explicate their programs:
> > > http://csuinc.org/multimedia/
> > > They also have a great produce-program where you can pick up a bag of
> > > organic veggies for $8 every week right near USC
Check out the link. It's pretty cool!
Using food as a tool to organize communities of color around issues of
access, self-reliance, nutrition, and the political economy of food
production, CSU works with youth of color in South L.A. schools to
grow organic vegetables that are then super-affordable to the
community.
CSU's magic is incredible-- they have created abundant gardens out of pavement
(both literally and metaphorically).
> > >
> > > If you want to see some of the community work that has impressed me so,
> > > check out CSU on their website... they just posted a few new videos
> > > explicate their programs:
> > > http://csuinc.org/multimedia/
> > > They also have a great produce-program where you can pick up a bag of
> > > organic veggies for $8 every week right near USC
professor job ad
Here's the professor job ad that we made for THIS course:
INTERCOLLEGIATE DEPARTMENT OF ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES
CLAREMONT COLLEGES
CLAREMONT, CA 91711
VISITING ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES
SPRING 2008
The Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies (IDAAS) at the Claremont Colleges invites applications for a part-time visiting assistant professor for Spring 2008 to teach a pedagogically innovative course in Asian American Studies. The basis of the course is for students to learn through teaching each other, to provide a space to claim their education, and to raise awareness of class power dynamics and different pedagogies. The course will accomplish this by using food as a focus to look at its intersection with race, class, and gender, and its role in community and identity formation.
The instructor will be expected to be highly supportive of student leadership in determining both the pedagogy and content of the course, be available for advising, and act as a resource for course material, class facilitation, and final projects. A successful candidate will possess strong interpersonal skills, the ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds, experience teaching and advising students, and an interest in the politics of food.
Applicants should be ABD or have a Ph.D. in ethnic studies, Asian American Studies, history, psychology, sociology, anthropology or other disciplines or interdisciplinary studies appropriate to this subject. Teaching experience preferred. Applications will be reviewed as soon as complete and accepted until the courses are filled. Please submit a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, a brief statement of teaching philosophy, and contact information for three references to: Professor Thomas Kim, Scripps College, 1030 Columbia Avenue, Box 4063, Claremont, CA 91711. Interested applicants are highly encouraged to contact Professor Kim at tkim@scrippscollege.edu.
IDAAS offers a rich academic program to all students at The Claremont Colleges (Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Pomona and Scripps). Interdisciplinary in both research and teaching initiatives, IDAAS promotes collaborative projects with other departments at the Colleges, and with scholars at other institutions. The Claremont Colleges are composed of seven institutions of higher learning located 35 miles east of Los Angeles. In a continuing effort to enrich its academic environment and provide equal educational and employment opportunities, IDAAS and the Claremont Colleges actively encourage applications from women and members of historically underrepresented groups.
INTERCOLLEGIATE DEPARTMENT OF ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES
CLAREMONT COLLEGES
CLAREMONT, CA 91711
VISITING ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES
SPRING 2008
The Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies (IDAAS) at the Claremont Colleges invites applications for a part-time visiting assistant professor for Spring 2008 to teach a pedagogically innovative course in Asian American Studies. The basis of the course is for students to learn through teaching each other, to provide a space to claim their education, and to raise awareness of class power dynamics and different pedagogies. The course will accomplish this by using food as a focus to look at its intersection with race, class, and gender, and its role in community and identity formation.
The instructor will be expected to be highly supportive of student leadership in determining both the pedagogy and content of the course, be available for advising, and act as a resource for course material, class facilitation, and final projects. A successful candidate will possess strong interpersonal skills, the ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds, experience teaching and advising students, and an interest in the politics of food.
Applicants should be ABD or have a Ph.D. in ethnic studies, Asian American Studies, history, psychology, sociology, anthropology or other disciplines or interdisciplinary studies appropriate to this subject. Teaching experience preferred. Applications will be reviewed as soon as complete and accepted until the courses are filled. Please submit a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, a brief statement of teaching philosophy, and contact information for three references to: Professor Thomas Kim, Scripps College, 1030 Columbia Avenue, Box 4063, Claremont, CA 91711. Interested applicants are highly encouraged to contact Professor Kim at tkim@scrippscollege.edu.
IDAAS offers a rich academic program to all students at The Claremont Colleges (Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Pomona and Scripps). Interdisciplinary in both research and teaching initiatives, IDAAS promotes collaborative projects with other departments at the Colleges, and with scholars at other institutions. The Claremont Colleges are composed of seven institutions of higher learning located 35 miles east of Los Angeles. In a continuing effort to enrich its academic environment and provide equal educational and employment opportunities, IDAAS and the Claremont Colleges actively encourage applications from women and members of historically underrepresented groups.
18 February 2008
miscellaneous
Are we going out to eat tomorrow??
also we should all decide what we want to grow and get the seeds. the garden is still pending but we can still start the seeds in the green house to make sure we get our foods before summer! shall we place an order on thursday??
okay see you all tomorrow!!
14 February 2008
high interest savings account
oneunited bank - 5.15% APY
wamu - 4.25% APY IF you open a checkings account with them.
I hear that oneunited has really terrible customer service. so there's a trade off with the high interest...
so sick
Hey class,
Sorry for this strange attempt to contact you all, but I am not sure how else to get in touch. I have been sick all night with either the stomach flu (caught from my nephew) or food poisoning (caught from a "nice" dinner last night) so i don't think I will be able to make it to class. I had to also cancel my morning class (eeks!) and hope you guys can find a space to meet without me. I thought I had Sarah's number but I don't... and I gave the list of e-mails to Shi yuan. Hopefully someone checks the blog before class. thanks.
Sorry for this strange attempt to contact you all, but I am not sure how else to get in touch. I have been sick all night with either the stomach flu (caught from my nephew) or food poisoning (caught from a "nice" dinner last night) so i don't think I will be able to make it to class. I had to also cancel my morning class (eeks!) and hope you guys can find a space to meet without me. I thought I had Sarah's number but I don't... and I gave the list of e-mails to Shi yuan. Hopefully someone checks the blog before class. thanks.
13 February 2008
garden news...
so i talked to facilities today and they said it might be really hard cause it's a "high visual area." i'm talking to another person right now, but it seems like there is all kinds of red tape in our way... we shall see what happens, but for sure there are other spaces and we shall get a garden!
also here's a mike polan interview on democracy now. i haven't read it all of it but seems pretty interesting
see you all tomorrow!
12 February 2008
Food Not Lawns
I think this lecture and these workshops are pretty pertinent to what we have been discussing and the whole garden idea. any thoughts? The first-half of the lecture is during class of that week - any desire to go in lieu of regular class?
SIGN UP NOW FOR WORKSHOPS
Please email pitzergarden@yahoo.com for a space.
Food Not Lawns: Eco-Revelatory Action for Fun and Profit
Thursday, February 21 4:30-6:30 p.m., Avery Auditorium
In this colorful, dynamic and interactive slideshow, Heather Flores will demonstrate a wide variety of projects and share over a decade of hands-on experience in ecological gardening, permaculture design, and community organizing.
Strongly recommended for those planning to attend the following workshops.
Grassroots Gardening
Friday, February 22 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Pitzer Organic Garden and Broad Performance Space
We will learn how classic permaculture principles can turn an ordinary, high-maintenance annual garden into a perennial food forest. This workshop will emphasize hands-on interaction with the existing gardens and connected community, and specific foci will flex, according to the needs and interests of the students.
Design for Community
Saturday, February 23 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Pitzer Organic Garden
We will master the logistics of organizing events, cultivating functional working groups, and creating and directing the flow of surplus plants, seeds and other resources. This will emphasize whole system design and project planning
Saturday night - ending dinner sponsored by the Shakedown CafE9.
SIGN UP NOW FOR WORKSHOPS
Please email pitzergarden@yahoo.com for a space.
Food Not Lawns: Eco-Revelatory Action for Fun and Profit
Thursday, February 21 4:30-6:30 p.m., Avery Auditorium
In this colorful, dynamic and interactive slideshow, Heather Flores will demonstrate a wide variety of projects and share over a decade of hands-on experience in ecological gardening, permaculture design, and community organizing.
Strongly recommended for those planning to attend the following workshops.
Grassroots Gardening
Friday, February 22 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Pitzer Organic Garden and Broad Performance Space
We will learn how classic permaculture principles can turn an ordinary, high-maintenance annual garden into a perennial food forest. This workshop will emphasize hands-on interaction with the existing gardens and connected community, and specific foci will flex, according to the needs and interests of the students.
Design for Community
Saturday, February 23 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Pitzer Organic Garden
We will master the logistics of organizing events, cultivating functional working groups, and creating and directing the flow of surplus plants, seeds and other resources. This will emphasize whole system design and project planning
Saturday night - ending dinner sponsored by the Shakedown CafE9.
09 February 2008
garden idea
How is that moving along? Has anybody heard back from anybody in charge about feasibility?
cool. Happy Sunday everyone!
05 February 2008
Good eats for tuesday 2/12
Okay, so I think some people were discussing having our eating-outing next Tuesday, after class. Can everyone make it? If so, I will bring my ungodly suburban to Claremont. Please respond back. Do we know where we are going? Do we need reservations - if so, does anyone want to volunteer making them?
ASAM 197 future topics
Hi peeps,
So I thought I would start a thread that we can comment on about possible topics for the future asam 197 course. Two ideas brought up in class were the politics of Asian American sexuality & Asian American arts and activism. Any others?
If others can post their sample syllabi that would be great. If you all would like to see my syllabus (still slightly in the works) on arts and activism, please let me know.
thanks!
So I thought I would start a thread that we can comment on about possible topics for the future asam 197 course. Two ideas brought up in class were the politics of Asian American sexuality & Asian American arts and activism. Any others?
If others can post their sample syllabi that would be great. If you all would like to see my syllabus (still slightly in the works) on arts and activism, please let me know.
thanks!
when wings got balls...
I know we touched on how certain foods have "genders" last week in class, but especially after the Super Bowl this weekend, it's been a topic that I can't quit thinking about (PS - are we allowed to use prepositions at the end of our sentences in this class?).
When was the last time a TV ad showed a pack of ravenous girls/women scarfing down a platter of buffalo wings, and have you EVER seen a chocolate commercial in which a man, seemingly on the brink of orgasm, is secretly indulging in a chocolate bar? Sure, women eat baby back ribs and men eat cream pie-flavored yogurt, but is it possible for a man to eat frozen cookie dough without feeling slightly emasculated?
The media tells us that men eat "real" foods, while women sustain themselves on a diet of sugar-free jello, lean cuisine frozen dinners, and individually wrapped Ghiradelli chocolates (eaten so slowly and sensually you'd think they were performing some sort of ancient ritual). Just the thought of 4 male coworkers daydreaming over which 300-calorie meal they'll eat for lunch is comical. Sure, there are exceptions, but for the most part, the media makes men feel good about eating, and women feel embarrassed, ashamed, or even sinful. Products that we know aren't the healthiest are approached with religious tones: "You've been good all day, now it's time to be bad, "The eighth deadly sin," etc.
I'm still waiting for the TV commercial when men on Wall Street meet for afternoon tea and cupcakes, and when girls' nights out feature polish sausages instead of Double Stuffed Oreos. Studies show that men and women DO eat different foods, but not to the extent portrayed on our billboards. Typically, women's diets DO consist of a higher percentage of "snack food," and men's diets DO consist of a higher percentage of "meal food," but I feel as though a roadside billboard featuring a man springing into the air with a small container of cheesecake pudding would turn more heads and cause more wrecks than a naked marathon (OK, maybe not a naked marathon, but some other moderately unexpected visual stimulus).
Psychological studies show that the discrepancy between men and women's comfort foods is due in part to their gender roles. For older generations, women were usually the primary food providers of their families. In my grandparents' youth, especially in the rural farmlands of the South, men had labor-intensive jobs and worked from sun-up 'til sun-down; women, on the other hand, were assigned the task of creating whatever hearty, sustaining meals they could given their financial means. To a man, nothing was more comforting than coming home to a massive plate of beef stew, chicken n dumplings, homemade biscuits, and various other 'stick-to-your-ribs' kinds of foods. To a woman, these foods were a visual reminder of a long day in the kitchen - thus, candy bars and other prepackaged sweets became the ultimate comfort, as they required absolutely no effort on the woman's behalf.
Have the psyches of our elders been passed down to the current generation? Surely we learn what's appropriate food at least somewhat from our families. Obviously, we no longer live in a society where men are bailing hay all day while women are peeling potatoes in the kitchen. Do men still NEED 'stick-to-your-ribs' food if working involves trading e-mails all day instead of trading livestock? So, why is it that even when a man and woman have the exact same position in today's society, their 'acceptable' foods are so drastically different? The reality is that guys eat girl food, and guys eat girl food - so why do buffalo wings still have balls??
When was the last time a TV ad showed a pack of ravenous girls/women scarfing down a platter of buffalo wings, and have you EVER seen a chocolate commercial in which a man, seemingly on the brink of orgasm, is secretly indulging in a chocolate bar? Sure, women eat baby back ribs and men eat cream pie-flavored yogurt, but is it possible for a man to eat frozen cookie dough without feeling slightly emasculated?
The media tells us that men eat "real" foods, while women sustain themselves on a diet of sugar-free jello, lean cuisine frozen dinners, and individually wrapped Ghiradelli chocolates (eaten so slowly and sensually you'd think they were performing some sort of ancient ritual). Just the thought of 4 male coworkers daydreaming over which 300-calorie meal they'll eat for lunch is comical. Sure, there are exceptions, but for the most part, the media makes men feel good about eating, and women feel embarrassed, ashamed, or even sinful. Products that we know aren't the healthiest are approached with religious tones: "You've been good all day, now it's time to be bad, "The eighth deadly sin," etc.
I'm still waiting for the TV commercial when men on Wall Street meet for afternoon tea and cupcakes, and when girls' nights out feature polish sausages instead of Double Stuffed Oreos. Studies show that men and women DO eat different foods, but not to the extent portrayed on our billboards. Typically, women's diets DO consist of a higher percentage of "snack food," and men's diets DO consist of a higher percentage of "meal food," but I feel as though a roadside billboard featuring a man springing into the air with a small container of cheesecake pudding would turn more heads and cause more wrecks than a naked marathon (OK, maybe not a naked marathon, but some other moderately unexpected visual stimulus).
Psychological studies show that the discrepancy between men and women's comfort foods is due in part to their gender roles. For older generations, women were usually the primary food providers of their families. In my grandparents' youth, especially in the rural farmlands of the South, men had labor-intensive jobs and worked from sun-up 'til sun-down; women, on the other hand, were assigned the task of creating whatever hearty, sustaining meals they could given their financial means. To a man, nothing was more comforting than coming home to a massive plate of beef stew, chicken n dumplings, homemade biscuits, and various other 'stick-to-your-ribs' kinds of foods. To a woman, these foods were a visual reminder of a long day in the kitchen - thus, candy bars and other prepackaged sweets became the ultimate comfort, as they required absolutely no effort on the woman's behalf.
Have the psyches of our elders been passed down to the current generation? Surely we learn what's appropriate food at least somewhat from our families. Obviously, we no longer live in a society where men are bailing hay all day while women are peeling potatoes in the kitchen. Do men still NEED 'stick-to-your-ribs' food if working involves trading e-mails all day instead of trading livestock? So, why is it that even when a man and woman have the exact same position in today's society, their 'acceptable' foods are so drastically different? The reality is that guys eat girl food, and guys eat girl food - so why do buffalo wings still have balls??
04 February 2008
fav fam foo
ok, ok, sorry i took so long and i'm such a failure at life. here's mine. i just wanted to warn you all before hand that i'm increasingly become fed up with academic discourse and writing in certain ways so i think i'm going to try to be more experimental in this course so if my writings are weird, i apologize, but i can't take it any more yo!! oh yeah, it's kind of long too... and the freaking blog wouldn't accept it at first wassup with that.
btw, there's a huge Caterpillar bulldozer with the long neck that digs up earth thingie outside my window digging up the lawn they just put in like a couple weeks ago. wtf.
If harmony is described as the divine balance of opposites that are consummated in a graceful dance that cannot make one help but think that there is something as perfection, pork chops and apple sauce used to be that dance for me. Okay, not really but it’s still a funny image to think about with the pork chop dragging its feet or ass(?) across the dance floor while the apple sauce droops over the hunk of meat with bits and pieces getting flung around. In my idealized view this was one of my favorite meals as a child. Mashed potatoes, sticky rice, steamed vegetables, sautéed peppered mushrooms and pork and applesauce. In retrospect and with my boogie analytic skills, I’ve come to see how this meal contained many problematic elements.
Whenever I could, I would help out as much in the house. Usually I would come back from playing sports at school pass out on the floor for a while and then get the shopping list hop on my bike and ride to the “super market”, although that word does not do justice to what was called the suu-paa, which is an abbreviation and japanesization of super market, as it was much more markety than super markets here. Perhaps on a market-super market continuum it would place slightly center left like a good ‘ol democrat, I’m looking at you Obama and Clinton. Anyways, I had to bicycle through the alley like streets with bicycles jam parked on the side like neatly aligned dominos, leaving me no less than about 2 feet worth of street to avoid running over shopping moms who occupy the full width of the street as they talk and acknowledge that I am coming but absolutely refuse to let me pass. Once I get passed that trial, I see the hustle and bustle of the main street of the shopping arcade and start hearing the shouting of youthful employees trying to get people to buy the fruits and other products that they have to sell before they close. Strawberries, strawberries! Two packs for 200 yen! I park my bike and look at the apples as the fruit section annexes a small portion of street, as if trying to make you trip on the fruit and take responsibility by buying it. I keep forgetting what kind of apples are the best for applesauce, from fuji to ourinn to mutsu. I can’t ask the employees because applesauce isn’t really eaten here. After making usually the wrong decision and buying the other ingredients, I get back and I start helping with cooking the rice and peeling and cutting the vegetables and fruits. After that my mom, or Rieko as we are required to say, finishes the rest. Even if the meal was prepared, often times we would wait for my dad to come back, even if that meant waiting an hour or two. Once he gets back we would start eating. Once finished I would wash the dishes.
What is interesting about this dish is that it is surprisingly indicative of not only our food habits but also various power positions within the family. Rieko is Japanese and my dad is Irish-American. Although he does eat Japanese food, Rieko often alternates between western and Japanese food, mostly for him. Additionally, although I helped a little, she usually worked all day and often came back and started preparing for dinner, while my dad would often come back just in time for eating, very excited about eating. Finally, he would always rejoice over emphatically when dinner was something western or things that was more familiar to his palate, such as steak, pasta, beef stew or pork shops. This brought up an interesting dynamic that I did not really consider. It is true that my dad probably liked such foods more than Japanese foods, as he was living in Japan and foods that you were brought up on when growing up often holds a symbolic value of home and familiarity. When I am in the US I intensely crave Japanese foods, although I like all kinds of foods, and the meal itself provides a lot more value than merely its taste. Nevertheless, by excessively enjoying the meal and never showing such appreciation for Japanese foods that Rieko worked hard in preparing, he was quietly denying Japanese culture, or at least showing noticeable preference for western culture. His preference for western culture was not marked by praising one kind of foods and disrespecting of other kinds of foods, but the silence was enough to affect Rieko, whose culture is steeped in interpreting little signals where nonverbal cues reveal as much as verbal affirmations. Why do I bring this up? To me it seems that in many ways he was disrespecting the host by favoring some types of foods despite all the hard work and love she put into cooking while additionally working as much as he did, although he did make more money possibly due to being a male and having a advanced degree at the time, which Rieko taking care of us allowed for. Finally, his participation in the ritual only as financier and consumer was also indicative of his status in the family. The family tasks were definitely gendered although he did help with laundry and dishes occasionally. I say gendered as I began taking on tasks Rieko usually complete and I was merely an assistant to her rather than being designated that I should do certain chores, and thus I was merely an extension of Rieko, working in her sphere of tasks and not my father’s.
Growing up bicultural and eating both western and Japanese foods I had never really discriminated between the two culture’s foods, or for that matter other things such as Thai, Chinese and Mexican foods. I appreciated all kinds of foods, or at least I think I did, and this was perhaps because how my family, mainly Rieko, raised me. Although I am sure he meant no harm, my father’s reaction was in many ways indicative of the latent sense of cultural superiority that westerners have in Japan. Many come to Japan perhaps attracted by its exoticness, make money by teaching English, hang out in their clique of foreigners and then trash Japanese culture. No doubt, this surely happens in various immigrant communities, but none are accorded as much freedom to remain aloof and not assimilate, while not facing the backlash of nativism.
I am not sure how this particular dish has affected Rieko. To a certain effect I may be imposing my own values upon her. Nevertheless, her feeling that she was not culturally and humanly validated has been an on-going theme. As a Japanese female living with an Irish-American male, she felt that she was not given agency and the right to live the way she wanted to in her own country. Even when cooking, which was her sphere of influence where she supposedly had total control to pick what she was going to cook and how, she was faced with double consciousness, seeing herself through the eyes of the dominant gaze of the family, which coincidentally was the white male.
Obviously my father wasn’t constantly saying negative things about Japanese foods or culture, and thus this could all be mere speculation. But in many ways whatever his true feelings be, his actions did portray disrespect to someone who sacrificed so much only to please him. This dish, although is undeniably wholesome and delicious, brought up various issues that arise in international marriages, especially one of a western male and a Japanese female; issues of transnational racism, sexism, symbolic power within the household was most salient. Although when I look at the point of view of my father, it certainly doesn’t seem like there are any problems, but when looking at the psychological and material effects it had on Rieko I begin to see how this meal was problematic in many ways. Although at the time all I saw was the beautiful dance of the dish itself, I did not realize how it was a messy dance that left various emotions all over the place.
Recipe:
Rice, Pork Chops, Potatoes, Carrots, Peas, Broccoli, Apples (still don’t know which kind is best), Shimeji mushrooms, Milk, Salt and Pepper, Cinnamon, and Flour.
Cook rice.
Steam carrots, peas and broccoli.
Peel and cut apples into little pieces and put into pot with cinnamon and some water and simmer.
Boil water and put potatoes in. after 30 minutes, wash in cold water, peel the skin, put into bowl and mash. Add milk, salt and pepper and butter if it pleases you.
Cut fat off the pork chops if it’s fatty and bread it with flour. Heat frying pan up, put some olive oil in and sauté? (don’t know exact word)
Cook mushrooms with salt and pepper
Bon appetite!
my fave (pseudo) family food
I know this is going to sound strange, but I think it plays in well with our discussion about the politics of food and the ways in which it crosses national and cultural boundaries. Growing up, one of my favorite family dishes was kah-reh (I wish I knew how to post in Korean font, like Sparkle). This is better known as curry to the rest of you. I am full Korean American and I know that curry is traditionally an Indian dish, but I grew up thinking that it was a Korean dish until I learned that kah-reh was curry. To add to the cultural fusion, the brand of kah-reh that my family buys from the Korean supermarket is actually a Japanese brand, S&B Golden Curry. It is a yellow curry and I can only handle the Mild but add kick to it with some kim-chi. :)
The kah-reh comes in a cardboard box and is basically a solidified bar of curry (it looks like a curry chocolate bar) that is slowly added to water (one square at a time) and other essential ingredients. For my family, these ingredients include carrots, chunks of beef and dices of potato. Once these are all cooked together, the kah-reh is poured over a bowlful of hot white rice and enjoyed.
I LOVE the smell of cooking kah-reh and I can eat two to three bowl fulls of the stuff. No matter how full I am, I always get seconds and thirds. This is my serious comfort food. Quick and easy to make but so satisfying and fulfilling. I am a little OCD about eating it because I have a system. I have to have the right proportion of rice to meat to potato to kim-chi in every spoonful. I don't particularly like boiled carrots, so I eat all of those off of my dish first. then, I methodically fish out a piece of beef and potato with my spoon of rice, lay a kim-chi slice on top and enjoy all the flavors together in my mouth. This stands out in my memory because as a kid, I hated eating different foods at once. The thought of them mixing together in my mouth simply grossed me out. This is odd for Koreans because the whole point is to eat your rice with all of these different side dishes, but I would eat everything one by one - the only exception being kah-reh. Come to think of it, this may be why my mom cooked kah-reh so often. I don't know why I had this compulsion, or how it relates to the politics of food, but I thought I would mention it. I no longer have this strange fixation on separating my food... but it does creep up on me from time to time.
There is another odd way in which kah-reh reminds me of my childhood. I would read stories about stone soup or see commercials for beef stew (which was a completely foreign and "white" food to me) and kah-reh was my "Korean version" of such foods. That is why I was so shocked when I later found out that it was an Indian cuisine and the writing on the box was in Japanese.
In any case, I still enjoy it and consider it to be one of my childhood and family foods. Is that strange?
The kah-reh comes in a cardboard box and is basically a solidified bar of curry (it looks like a curry chocolate bar) that is slowly added to water (one square at a time) and other essential ingredients. For my family, these ingredients include carrots, chunks of beef and dices of potato. Once these are all cooked together, the kah-reh is poured over a bowlful of hot white rice and enjoyed.
I LOVE the smell of cooking kah-reh and I can eat two to three bowl fulls of the stuff. No matter how full I am, I always get seconds and thirds. This is my serious comfort food. Quick and easy to make but so satisfying and fulfilling. I am a little OCD about eating it because I have a system. I have to have the right proportion of rice to meat to potato to kim-chi in every spoonful. I don't particularly like boiled carrots, so I eat all of those off of my dish first. then, I methodically fish out a piece of beef and potato with my spoon of rice, lay a kim-chi slice on top and enjoy all the flavors together in my mouth. This stands out in my memory because as a kid, I hated eating different foods at once. The thought of them mixing together in my mouth simply grossed me out. This is odd for Koreans because the whole point is to eat your rice with all of these different side dishes, but I would eat everything one by one - the only exception being kah-reh. Come to think of it, this may be why my mom cooked kah-reh so often. I don't know why I had this compulsion, or how it relates to the politics of food, but I thought I would mention it. I no longer have this strange fixation on separating my food... but it does creep up on me from time to time.
There is another odd way in which kah-reh reminds me of my childhood. I would read stories about stone soup or see commercials for beef stew (which was a completely foreign and "white" food to me) and kah-reh was my "Korean version" of such foods. That is why I was so shocked when I later found out that it was an Indian cuisine and the writing on the box was in Japanese.
In any case, I still enjoy it and consider it to be one of my childhood and family foods. Is that strange?
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