Week 9 - Uyen Ngo

I have found it to be that this article very much pertains to my group's project. There's no doubt that fashions is used as a way of identity and expression and in arts and cinema, it perhaps, is the biggest tool when it comes to showing a character's. As the article has stated, through our research, we found that "the predominant“gaze” in Western art and advertising has historically been the male gaze" (54). However, I was shocked that it went as far as to categorize women portrayals and were utilized to certain products when it comes to advertising. I was even more shock to find that there was categorization based on racial or cultural factors. It turns out that "Western models are more often featured in advertisements for body-related products—even in Asian magazines, whereas Asian models are used more often in advertisements for facial beauty" (59). 

This in some ways upsets me. Growing up, I was often told that I was lucky that I didn't have a body of a 12 year old that my "people" usually do. The irony is that this came from my predominantly Asian community and my own Vietnamese family. This objectification did not arise from an outside source necessarily but ironic, it seems to have risen from within. And I think it has quite a damaging effect. I grew up hearing my own family talk about how they wished they had a white woman's body and how their lack of curves made them less appealing or sexual. It is easy to blame Western culture and orientalism and how the West has depicted Asian women as reserved and submissive, but in some ways it is also our own fault for playing into their narrative. It takes two to tango and in my opinion, we have played into the dance.

Works Cited
Frith, Cheng, and Shaw. “Race and Beauty: A Comparison of Asian and Western Models in Women’s Magazine Advertisements.”